design for fun to be dead: the poems of bob flanagan, a complete anthology of the artist’s poetry edited by sabrina tarasoff and published by kristina kite gallery and pep talk. my formal decisions for this book—use of multiple contrasting typefaces, variation in layout across different sections of content, idiosyncratic overlapping of classical and modernist typesetting—reflect the strange harmony and humor of the artist’s prose. “bob flanagan emerges in this collection as an extraordinary writer, whose work is suspended between tenderness and violence, gravity and glee, and palpitates with the quintessence of the quick” (diarmuid hester).¹

the collection includes:
the kid is the man 1978
the wedding of everything 1983
slave sonnets 1986
fuck journal 1987
a taste of honey (with david trinidad) 1990
the book of medicine (unfinished manuscript)

with contributions by jack skelley, sheree rose, chiara moioli, david trinidad, dodie bellamy, and dennis cooper.

i’ve also drawn a custom publisher’s mark for the book, combining the kristina kite gallery typographic style and pep talk matchstick illustration into a single icon.