Rough Trade Books ‘Art’ Series

posted by Emily Gosling September 23, 2021

It was really only a matter of time before Rough Trade Books launched an ‘Art’ Series, and now that it’s here, it certainly doesn’t disappoint.

Rough Trade Books is, as you’ve probably guessed, the publishing arm of the iconic indie record label. Launched in 2018, it’s billed as a publishing venture “in the mould” of the label that birthed it, continuing its “original spirit and radical direction” as a “new adventure in capitalism.” This is all largely tongue in cheek, of course (though you do, obviously, have to exchange money in return for said books).

In its first three years, the publisher has been prolific, producing more than 50 pamphlets known as Rough Trade Editions; a tarot deck; a stunning visual and cultural companion to John Carpenter’s cult classic They Live, designed as a replica of the original film prop; an ode to everyone’s favourite south London pub, The Windmill; and the book we’d all been waiting for, Enya: A Treatise on Unguilty Pleasures by Chilly Gonzales, to name just a few.

At the helm of the designs for these multifarious countercultural-leaning tomes by artists, writers, poets, musicians, photographers, illustrators and thinkers is Rough Trade Books creative director (among many other things) Craig Oldham – who also produced that They Live book.

As for the ‘Art’ Series, Rough Trade has stuck to its wryly eccentric guns in its selection of four authors: blog and campaigning platform The White Pube and artists Robert Rubbish, Wilfrid Wood and Babak Ganjei.

The White Pube’s book Ideas for a New Art World sees cofounders Gabrielle de la Puente and Zarina Muhammad spell out their, well, ideas for a new art world. “The art world is a bit broken. So many problems, such little time,” de la Puente and Muhammad say. That’s why earlier this year they decided to take their ideas onto a very public forum – billboards. “We wanted to plop these aphorisms out there, as simple, feasible solutions; almost to prove how easy it can be if change is sincerely sought,” they explain.

“The ideas are not radical, and they’re not new. They’re just six Very Good Ideas that we think you should listen to. In this pamphlet, we’ve listed the six ideas and taken the time to explain why we think they are, in fact, Very Good Ideas. There could have been hundreds. Maybe there should have been. But these were the initial ideas for a new art world we went with. We hope they’ll make you think about more Very Good Ideas too.”

Artist Wilfrid Wood, known for his work creating the props for Spitting Image, took a rather more playful approach with his edition, titled BEEF! The Guide. The titular BEEF! is described as “a simple card game for two or more players where you are required to find the other half of a feuding couple. The aim is to collect as many pairs as possible.” Loosely based on the principles of Go Fish! game, the game delights in pop culture spats, forming a brilliantly illustrated, hilarious game that also acts as “a satirical artwork for an epoch of never-ending arguments, spats and tantrums.”

Artist and Le Gun magazine cofounder Robert Rubbish, meanwhile, looked to ancient Egypt for inspiration for his book. The Poetess Of The Pyramids: Notes Towards A Fictional Memoir Synopsis tells of an Egyptian poet exiled in Paris who becomes the best-known female surrealist poet and author of 16 books of poetry. The book details her “inner world” through imaginary notes that delineate her thoughts and experiences – “her days spent smoking cigars on café terraces and drifting across the city of light searching for objects of desire and magic with the lion at her side.”

Last, but by absolutely no means least, Babak Ganjei’s book, Art Is The Thing Nobody Asked You To Do, is billed as a radical new take on the artists’ manifesto. Ever a man to find humour in the bleak and the banal, Ganjei presents a series of “wry and deceptively wise reflections… examining motivation, inspiration and influence” that work to externalise the tumultuous, occasionally pedestrian, frequently anguished internal lives of artists working today. As Rough Trade puts it, “In Art is The Thing Nobody Asked You To Do, Ganjei attempts to make sense of why he does the things he does, and tries to convince himself it’s ok for it to work out.”