THE PORNOGRAPHERS
a novel and
PORNOGRAPHIES
short stories by Christopher Grimes
ART: 182 images by Scott Zieher of ZieherSmith Galley, 516 W. 20th, New York, NY
MUSIC: "Pornographs Nos. 1, 2 & 3" by OC Notes & Lisa Dank
From take-off to landing, The Pornographers moves at the speed of sound through post 9-11 angst, yoga, bureaucratic helplessness, marriage, collective public insecurity and family. A group of minor bureaucrats operating under the unfunded directive of “Homeland Security” try to start a commercial pornography site in order to generate revenue for their city. Their research into the porn industry does in fact suggest it as a viable solution to their economic woes. Meanwhile their wives threaten to follow a guru to India in search of their own inner security. Written as a single sentence, The Pornographers humorously lays bare serious and real concerns about 21st Century America.
Limited Edition: Published as both a 148-page single sentence novel and a collection short stories (sold only with the novel), the fine art limited edition consists of the novel coiled inside a plastic zippered cover resembling a breast. The breast is contained in a lock-and-key plexiglass box of toy emergency vehicles floating in scented KY Jelly . The short stories are attached as a traditional book form (with recycled hardback cover) to the bottom of the plexiglass box, thus visible through the KY jelly and plexiglass.
AUTHOR CHRISTOPHER GRIMES is the author of Public Works: Short Fiction and a Novella (FC2, 2005). His award-winning short fiction has appeared in Western Humanities Review, Beloit Fiction Journal, Reed, Cream City Review, First Intensity, Knock, and elsewhere. He teaches literature and ficton writing at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
ABOUT THE ARTIST: Scott Zieher is co-owner of the contemporary art gallery ZieherSmith, established with his wife Andrea in the Chelsea art district of New York City. He won the 2004 Emergency Press book contest for his book-length poem, VIRGA. His second book-length poem, IMPATIENCE was published by Emergency Press in 2009 and in February 2010, powerHouse Books published BAND OF BIKERS, a collection of found photographs from 1972. This year Emergency Press will publish Zieher’s third book-length poem, GENTRY. Recent work has appeared in The Believer, Jubilat, KNOCK and The Iowa Review. Zieher was born in Waukesha, Wisconsin and in 2009 he won the University of Wisconsin at Waukesha Outstanding Alumni Award.