600 pages Edited by Andreas Koller et Lorenzo Bernet Text(s) by Ishion Hutchinson, Kodwo Eshun, Lee Scratch Perry Designed by Maximage 28 x 21 cm Language: English Hardback Publisher: Éditions Patrick Frey 2026
A 600-page volume bringing together the photographic works and writings of the Jamaican legend Lee “Scratch” Perry, catalogued in the mythical Black Ark studio in Kingston, one of the birthplaces of reggae and dub.
The starting point of the book is a detailed inventory of photographs and writings (compiled in spring 2021) by Lee “Scratch” Perry, drawn from the Black Ark Studios in Kingston, Jamaica, where the artist produced his music and laid the foundations of dub from 1973 onward. It was also there that his musical approach found a visual counterpart in the form of ever-evolving murals and drawings, as well as shifting assemblages of records, instruments, found objects, posters, newspaper and magazine clippings, and books. These visual works form true rhizomatically interwoven layers with the studio building itself, its furnishings, and Perry’s own biography and personality.
The studio premises have since been sold. The photographic documentation of the studio was complemented by efforts to secure and preserve Perry’s cultural artifacts as part of a joint project with the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.
The book Black Ark, whose conception Perry was involved in from its earliest stages, reflects the rhythm and layering effects of collage, both in its content and in the papers used, interweaving different media and chronologies. New photographs of the Black Ark Studios are juxtaposed with images from earlier documentaries and archival photographs.
The idea of “home” serves as both a working hypothesis and a metaphor. It is the point of departure and return for various visual and textual themes: the book notably explores the Black Ark as a “spiritual construction site” within the context of the African diaspora and examines its archaeomusicological dimensions. In addition, notes written by Perry’s biographer provide a backdrop to a kaleidoscopic panorama of Perry’s eclectic and brilliant body of work.
