BUTT GUIDE TO THE L.A. ART BOOK FAIR

Text by Danny Calvi

Clockwise: Anal, Rope, Retrospective, Wacky Waco,
 Birth of a Zimbu, Homeboy Beautiful, and Wild Country: The Self Portraits of Leonard Beal.

Cruising around the L.A. Art Book Fair to see who’s tabling what this year, I discover so many gems — many from some of BUTT’s beloved contributors past, present, future.

First up, photographer Paul Mpagi Sepuya is offering up his first zine since 2008 if you can believe that, plus a little something extra to be discovered at the UCLA MFA table. And it looks like Billy Miller has a newish issue of Straight to Hell, plus back issues and original artwork by Jan Wandrag, Thomas Engel Hart, and Bob Mizer among others.

Seth Bogart has crafted his first Wacky Waco zine, and what a splashy 20-page beauty she is: risograph-printed in fluoro pink, red, blue and purple. It’s a generous edition too at one thousand. Visit Seth at table X18.

The Maricón Collective presents Homeboy Beautiful, a facsimile of an original 1978 zine by Chicano artist Joey Terrill, which describes ‘a secret underground network of homo-homeboy parties where vato locoscongregate late at night to drink, get high, and listen to Judy Garland records…’ Come and chill with den mother Rudy Bleu at table X63.

Artist John Parot has two zines at the Jimmy booth. Call Me and Rope draw on images from his top secret wank bank, all artfully arranged, of course. They’re each sixteen pages, and xeroxed on custom fucsia paper stock.

The L.A. Art Book Fair is like a second Christmas for print fanatic Christopher Schulz who will be manning the Pinups table (X77). Pick up his latest publication, Birth of a Zimbu — Zimbu being the spirit offspring born from the orgies in Burroughs’ ‘The Wild Boys’. Back issues of Pinups will be available as well as his popular Seth book and t-shirts.

Frank Rodriguez has self-published Wild Country: The Self Portraits of Leonard Beal about the titular Texan photographer who goes to great lengths to capture his over-active imagination in rustic settings. He’s got just fifty copies for sale at the Everlasting Family Secret table (X74).

Frank shares that spot with Forster Rudolf, the photographer behind The Address Book: Los Angeles in which he retraces the steps of Bob Damron, the guy who published one of the first U.S. gay guides based on his own sex tourism. Forster photographed the 78 original L.A. locations Damron visited back in the day.

Also look out for: Strip Club Book for Leah Jolie from Publication Studio, which includes a story by Kevin Killian; Alberto Carcía del Castillo’s Retrospective at the Shelter Press booth; and Ricardo Velmor from Mexico City has copies of the new issue of his Anal magazine.

Looking to be entertained? Try the courtyard stage on Saturday afternoon for the Johnnie JungleGuts takeover.

The L.A. Art Book Fair ran from 30 January through 1 February 2015 at Geffen Contemporary at MOCA.