. Tomaselli and Moody



Fred Tomaselli and Rick Moody
Phrase Book and Recommended Reading
November 2 - December 2, 2000

"This work likes work; this work likes music; this work likes theft, intertextuality, consciousness and subconsciousness; this work likes tenderness; this work likes menace; this work is labor-intensive, historically-obsessed, contemporary, anti-theoretical, American; this work teeters at the brink of sanity, while demanding to know whether obsessiveness is genuinely a pathology; this work effaces both the artist and writer and replaces them with urgencies and contingencies"
- Rick Moody on Phrase Book

"Phrase Book and Recommended Reading" is a collaboration between the artist Fred Tomaselli and the author Rick Moody. The centerpiece of this collaboration, and of the exhibition, is a limited edition book in which Moody's writing and Tomaselli's art combine to explore extreme states of human consciousness. Accompanying Phrase Book will be a small collection of books, records and publications, selected by Tomaselli and Moody, which include such shared sources for their work as Buckmister Fuller, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Lester Bangs and The Physicians Desk Reference.

The short story by Rick Moody from which this project takes it's name is the tale of Lucy, a young drifter, whose massive overdose of LSD results in her permanent confinement in a psychiatric ward. Working from Moody's hallucinatory texts, Tomaselli has contributed equally intense artwork to shape and illuminate the story, guiding the reader through Lucy's thoughts.

Tomaselli's frontispeice is an etching of ants, perforated to resemble 1960s blotter acid. Accompanying and commenting on Moody's narrative are seven dreamlike images of flowers, landscapes, and other biological phenomena, which parallel the path of Lucy's distressed yet oddly insightful inner movements. Three intricately patterned relief prints illustrate specific passages from the story.

Phrase Book is contained in a wooden slipcase created by Tomaselli. The case is embellished with a laminated photograph of exploding insects. The insects depicted on seventy-five copies of the edition are predominately spiders; on the other seventy-five, butterflies and moths.

Rick Moody is the author of the novels The Ice Storm and Purple America. Fred Tomaselli's work has been exhibited and collected by many public institutions, including the Whitney Museum of American Art. Tomaselli's work is currently included in 'Open Ends' at The Museum of Modern Art. An exhibition of Tomaselli's new work will open at the James Cohan Gallery, New York, December 2000.

Phrase Book is a publication of the Library Fellows of the Whitney Museum of American Art. It was organized by May Castleberry and designed by The Grenfell Press; and the text and offset lithographs by Stamperia Valdonega, Verona, Italy. Sue Medlicott at The Working Dog Press coordinated the production of the book and the box.


Fred Tomaselli
Book List

Shultes , (GUIDE TO) HALLUCINOGENIC PLANTS, (Golden Press), 1976
Nabokov Vladimir, LOLITA, (Vintage), 1955
Smith, Harry, THINK OF THE SELF SPEAKING (SELECTED INTERVIEWS), 1999, (Elbow/ Cityful Press)
Kesey Ken, SOMETIMES A GREAT NOTION, 1977, (Penguin)
Weschler Lawrence, SEEING IS FORGETTING - A LIFE OF CONTEMPORARY ARTIST ROBERT IRWIN, 1982, (University of California Press)
Emry Pastor Sheldon, GOD'S SOLUTION FOR DRUG PEDDLERS
Melville Herman, MOBY DICK, (Avenel), 1920
Davis Stephen, HAMMER OF THE GODS - THE LED ZEPPELIN SAGA, (First Ballentine Books), 1985
Douglas John, UNABOMBER, (Pocket books), 1996
Hofmann Albert, LSD MY PROBLEM CHILD, (tarcher / Perigee), 1983
Moody Rick, PURPLE AMERICA, (Back Bay Books), 1997
MMA/Abrams, INDIAN COURT PAINTING, (The Metropolitan Museum of Art), 1997
Rhie / Thurman, WISDOM AND COMPASSION - THE SACRED ART OF TIBET (Tibet House), 1991
Rabbit Peter, DROP CITY, 1971, Olympia Press
McPhee John, THE CONTROL OF NATURE, 1980, (Noonday)
Ihde Don, CONSEQUENCES OF PHENOMENOLOGY, (SUNY), 1986
Petro Patrice (Ed.), FIGITIVE IMAGES - FROM PHOTOGRAPHY TO VIDEO, (Indiana), 1984
Krauss Rolf H., BEYOND LIGHT AND SHADOW, (Nazraeli Press), 1994
Matthiessen Peter, UNDER THE MOUNTAIN WALL, (Penguin), 1962
Lee Harper, TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, (Lippincott), 1960
McNeil Legs & McCain Gillian, PLEASE KILL ME - THE UNCENSORED ORAL HISTORY OF PUNK, 1996, (Grove Press)
Picabia Francis, WHO KNOWS, (Hanuman Books). 1986
Ruskin John, ETHICS OF THE DUST,
Buckminster Fuller R., NINE CHAINS TO THE MOON, (Southern University Press), 1938
Salinger J.D, THE CATCHER IN THE RYE, (Bantam), 1945
Kaufman Les, Kenneth, THE LAST EXTINCTION,1987, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Huxley Aldous, ISLAND, 1962, (Bantam Books)
Strausbaugh and Blaise, THE DRUG USER, 1991, Blast Books
McNicol Stock Catherine, RURAL RADICALS, 1996, (Penguin)
McKenna Terence, FOOD OF THE GODS, 1992, (Bantam Books)
Evans Richard and Hofmann Albert, PLANTS OF THE GODS, 1992, Healing Arts Press
Medical Economics Company, PHYSICIANS' DESK REFERENCE, 1980 Edition 3
Debord Guy, SOCIETY OF THE SPECTACLE, 1983, (Black and Red)
Burroughs William S.& Ginsberg Allen, THE YAGE LETTERS1963, 1975, (City Lights Books)
Nordhoff Charles, THE COMMUNISTIC SOCIETIES OF THE UNITED STATES, 1966, Dover Books
Pynchon Thomas, GRAVITY'S RAINBOW, 1973, (Penguin)
Bangs Lester, PSYCHOTIC REACTIONS AND CARBURETOR DUNG, Edited by Greil Marcus, 1988, Vintage Books
Burridge Kenelm, MAMBU, 1960, Harper Torchbooks
Shelley, Donald, AUDUBON BIRDS, (Hastings House), 1946
Deming Andrews, Edward, THE GIFT TO BE SIMPLE, (Dover), 1940
Reich, Wilhelm, (pamplet)
Reich Wilhelm, THE ORGONE ENERGY ACCUMULATOR, (The Wilhelm Reich Foundation), 1951
Reich Wilhelm, PLANS FOR CONSTRUCTING THE ORGONE ENERGY ACCUMULATOR, (The Wilhelm Reich Foundation), 1951
Reich Wilhelm, THE CLOUD BUSTER, 1954
The Buckminster Fuller Institute, R. BUCKMINSTER FULLER,
Buckminster Fuller, INVENTIONS: TWELVE AROUND ONE, (Carl Solway Gallery), 1981
Buckminster Fuller, THE PATENTED WORKS OF BUCKMINSTER FULLER, (St Martins Press), 1983
Buckminster Fuller, YOUR PRIVATE SKY, (Lars Muller),
Roses, (pamphlet) 1990,
Shaker Ministry, (pamphlet) 2000, The United Society of Shakers Inc.
LA Institute of Contemporary Art, (magazine) Journal No. 30 September - October 1981
JC & M ETC, (magazine) NIHIL Vol 1 No.1 1978
(magazine) Los Angeles FLIP SIDE #12
(magazine) SLASH, Volume One, Number 1,
(magazine) NO MAGAZINE,
Margolis, Jack and Clorfene, Richard, A CHILD'S GARDEN OF GRASS, (Pocket Books), 1969
Zinsser, Hans, RATS, LICE AND HISTORY, (Pocket Books), 1934
Fonseca, Isabel, BURY ME STANDING, (Vintage), 1995
Taves, Ann, FITS, TRANCES, & VISIONS, (Princeton), 1999
Young, James Harvey, THE MEDICAL MESSIAHS, (Princeton), 1967
Didion, Joan, SLOUCHING TOWARDS BETHLEHEM, (Washington Square Press), 1961
DeLillo, Don, MAO II, (Penguin), 1991
Musto, David F, THE AMERICAN DISEASE, (Oxford), 1973
Thompson, D'Arcy, ON GROWTH AND FORM, (Cambridge), 1961
Mountfort, Guy, A FIELD GUIDE TO THE BIRDS OF BRITAIN AND EUROPE, (Riverside Press), 1954
Thoreau, Henry David, THE MAINE WOODS, WALDEN, CAPE COD, (Gramercy), 1980
FORMING: THE EARLY DAYS OF LA PUNK, (Smart Art Punk), 1999
Banks, Russell, CONTINENTAL DRIFT, (Harper& Row), 1985
Vaughan, William , GERMAN ROMANTIC PAINTING, (Yale), 1980
Braziller, George, MODULE, PROPORTION, SYMMETRY, RHYTHM, 1966
(Catalog), THE CO EVOLUTION QUARTERLY, 1978, No 20
(Catalog), THE CO EVOLUTION QUARTERLY, 1978, No 28
(Catalog), THE CO EVOLUTION QUARTERLY, 1978, No 22
(CD), The Magnetic Fields, HOLIDAY, (Gay and Loud), 1993
(LP), JAMES BROWN LIVE AT THE APOLLO, (King), 1962
(LP), Iggy and the Stooges, RAW POWER, (CBS), 1973
(LP), The Byrds, FIFTH DIMENSION, (Columbia),
(LP), The Buzzcocks, SINGLES GOING STEADY, (IRS), 1979
(LP), The Fall, EARLY FALL 77-79, (Step Forward Music)
(LP), The Dream Syndicate, THE DAYS OF WINE AND ROSES, (Ruby), 1982
(LP), The Jimi Hendrix Experience, AXIS: BOLD AS LOVE, (reprise), 1967
(LP), Joni Mitchell, BLUE, (Siquomb), 1971
(LP), Sex Pistols, NEVER MIND THE BOLLOCKS, (Warner Bros), 1977
(LP), Gram Parsons, GRIEVOUS ANGEL, (Reprise), 1974
(LP), Rolling Stones, BETWEEN THE BUTTONS, (London),
(LP), Television, MARQUEE MOON, (Elektra / Asylum), 1977
(LP), The 13th Floor Elevators, (Warner), 1978
(LP), X, LOS ANGELES, (Slash), 1980
(LP), Bob Dylan, NASHVILLE SKYLINE, (Columbia),
(LP), Dub Syndicate, TUNES FROM THE MISSING CHANNEL, (Southern),
(LP), David Bowie, HUNKY DORY, (RCA), 1971


Rick Moody
Book List

Barthelme, Donald, UNSPEAKABLE PRACTICES, UNNATRURAL ACTS (Quokka, 1964)
Nabokov, Vladinir, NOVELS & MEMOIRS 1941-1951 (the Library of America)
LOW LEVEL RADIOACTIVE WASTE IN NEW YORK STATE - A HANDBOOK FOR CITIZENS, (The League of Women Voters of New York State, 1990)
Genet, Jean, THE THIEF'S JOURNAL, (Bantam, 1949)
Beckett, Samuel, MOLLOY, 1955, MALONE DIES, 1956, THE UNNAMABLE 1958 (Grove)
Schaechter, Judith, Artist Catalogue, 2000
Montaigne, Michel de. translated by Donald M. Frame THE COMPLETE ESSAYS OF MONTAIGNE, (1572-1580) (Stanford University Press) first published 1957
Barthes, Roland, MYTHOLOGIES, (Hill and Wang), 1957
Davis, Lydia, BREAK IT DOWN, (Farrar, Straus, Giroux), 1976
Schulz, Bruno, THE STREET OF CROCODILES, (Penguin), 1934
Williams, William Carlos, PATERSON, (New Directions), 1946
BIRDS OF THE WORLD, edited by John Bull (Simon & Schuster), 1978
Bernhard, Thomas, GARGOYLES, (Phoenix), 1970
Meltzer, Richard, THE AESTHETICS OF ROCK, (Da Capo), 1970
Elkin Stanley, THE MAGIC KINGDOM, (E.P. Dutton ), 1985
Gaddis, William, THE RECOGNITIONS, (Penguin), 1955
Hawthorne, Nathaniel, THE SCARLET LETTER, (Bantam), 1850
DESTROY ALL MONSTERS, (A.D.V Films), 1968 (video)
Ubu, Pere, 1978-1979 (cd)
Sister Lovers, BIG STAR'S 3RD, (PVCC), 1978, (tape)
OTHER SONGS I LIKED IN THE EARLY EIGHTIES, (tape)
Davis, Lydia, BREAK IT DOWN, (High Risk ), 1986
Woolf, Virginia, TO THE LIGHTHOUSE (Harcourt), 1927
THE COMPLETE PAINTINGS - BOSCH, (Taschen), 1994
Montaigne, Michel de, ESSAYS (Penguin Classics), 1580
Jung, C. G, ALCHEMICAL STUDIES (Bollingen/ Princeton), 1967
Marcus, Greil, LIPSTICK TRACES (Harvard), 1989
Bangs Lester, PSYCHOTIC REACTIONS AND CARBURETOR DUNG, Edited by Greil Marcus, 1988, Vintage Books
Hawthorne, Nathaniel, TWICE TOLD TALES, (Everyman), 1911
Delevoy, Robert L, BOSCH, (Crown), 1960
Elkin, Stanley, CRIERS AND KIBITZERS, KIBITZERS AND CRIERS, (Warner), 1959
PIETER BRUEGAL THE ELDER, (Skira), 1998