I Don’t Bootleg (2024)
Book photocopied and printed on recycled paper, 434 pages, approximately 4.5 x 7 inches
Edition of 10 w/ 2 AP’s
Images courtesy of the artist
Made in time to be available during the 2024 NY Art Book Fair (NYABF), an edition of ten ‘bootlegged’ books with two artist proofs were produced. Unlike the shortended 44-page first edition bootleg Shirt made available for the occcasion of the panel discussion at MoMA Ps1 a month before, this second edition is the full 430+ page book, photocopied and designed by Shirt and printed in official collaboration with the original publishers, Zurich, Switzerland-based Source Type. Inverting the original book’s black and white negative print back to positive, Shirt also punched the holes in the front cover by hand using the strip of cardboard made to say ‘Unlicensed’ on the spine, and wrote a poem by hand in blue pen on a page in the book.
Here is the text: I put the holes on the cover of this thing like I’m Gordon Matta-Clark. Pope.L says ‘hole theory’ explains nothing and this is in order to create a platform from which to engage everything. Whether black and brown kids from New York challenging corporate white supremacy or Nöl Collective in Palestine doing what they can to undermine capitalism itself; artists in the Chinese village of Dafen painting Van Gogh’s to Yasiin Bey rapping MF DOOM; from indigenous scribes in scriptoriums thousands of years ago to my baby niece mimicking my brother’s movements just yesterday, we’re talking bootlegging not as something it is but something it does. I don’t bootleg—my life as homage to language and action forming in real time. If we didn’t copy eachother would we even know how to breathe? Diamond Stingily writes of our bodies as piles of fabric, sand dunes rubbing together. —Shirt 2024
Organized and edited by NYC-based graphic designer Ben Schwartz, the investigation of the practice of bootlegging in the creative world features in-depth discussions with 21 creative practitioners, including BLESS, Babak Radboy (Telfar), Printed Matter, Hassan Rahim, SHIRT and Oana Stanescu, among others.
For serious inquiries regarding purchasing a book please email shirtathome@gmail.com
Book photocopied and printed on recycled paper, 434 pages, approximately 4.5 x 7 inches
Edition of 10 w/ 2 AP’s
Images courtesy of the artist
Made in time to be available during the 2024 NY Art Book Fair (NYABF), an edition of ten ‘bootlegged’ books with two artist proofs were produced. Unlike the shortended 44-page first edition bootleg Shirt made available for the occcasion of the panel discussion at MoMA Ps1 a month before, this second edition is the full 430+ page book, photocopied and designed by Shirt and printed in official collaboration with the original publishers, Zurich, Switzerland-based Source Type. Inverting the original book’s black and white negative print back to positive, Shirt also punched the holes in the front cover by hand using the strip of cardboard made to say ‘Unlicensed’ on the spine, and wrote a poem by hand in blue pen on a page in the book.
Here is the text: I put the holes on the cover of this thing like I’m Gordon Matta-Clark. Pope.L says ‘hole theory’ explains nothing and this is in order to create a platform from which to engage everything. Whether black and brown kids from New York challenging corporate white supremacy or Nöl Collective in Palestine doing what they can to undermine capitalism itself; artists in the Chinese village of Dafen painting Van Gogh’s to Yasiin Bey rapping MF DOOM; from indigenous scribes in scriptoriums thousands of years ago to my baby niece mimicking my brother’s movements just yesterday, we’re talking bootlegging not as something it is but something it does. I don’t bootleg—my life as homage to language and action forming in real time. If we didn’t copy eachother would we even know how to breathe? Diamond Stingily writes of our bodies as piles of fabric, sand dunes rubbing together. —Shirt 2024
Organized and edited by NYC-based graphic designer Ben Schwartz, the investigation of the practice of bootlegging in the creative world features in-depth discussions with 21 creative practitioners, including BLESS, Babak Radboy (Telfar), Printed Matter, Hassan Rahim, SHIRT and Oana Stanescu, among others.
For serious inquiries regarding purchasing a book please email shirtathome@gmail.com