224 pages Edited by Richard Terry & Jonny Trunk Foreword by Jonny Trunk Designed by Louise Mason 21 x 15 cm Language: English Paperback Publisher: Strange Attractor Press 2025
In the feverish nightlife of 1980s and early 1990s London, when the city pulsed with art, music, and queer expression, Leigh Bowery, the legendary performer, designer, and provocateur, gathered with friends and bandmates from Minty in the Soho flat of Richard Torry. Between wild nights out, they turned their energy toward a surreal and spontaneous creative ritual: making “exquisite corpse” drawings: collaborative, chaotic, and wickedly funny portraits born from collective imagination.
This book brings together 120 of these vivid works, recovered from the Richard Torry archive. Strange, humorous, and often grotesque, these sketches capture the spirit of a generation that blurred the lines between art, fashion, and performance. Each page reveals the irreverence, wit, and raw inventiveness that made Bowery and his circle icons of underground London.
Bat Girls and Acid Boys is both an art historical document and a visual love letter to a lost era; a time when creativity was boundless, the nights endless, and self-expression knew no limits.
