208 pages Edited by Anotonio Sergio Bassa Photographs by David Wojnarowicz Foreword by Philip Aarons Text(s) by Anna Vitale, Fiona Anderson, Nicholas Martin, Craig Dworkin, Marguerite Van Cook, Allen Frame Designed by Anna Cattaneo, Paola Ranzini Pallavicini 26 x 23 cm Language: English Hardback Publisher: Skira editore 2025
Arthur Rimbaud in New York brings together one of David Wojnarowicz’s most iconic photographic series, produced between 1978 and 1979, in which a figure wearing a paper mask bearing the face of the French poet Arthur Rimbaud moves through the streets of downtown Manhattan. Both homage and projection, Rimbaud becomes a stand-in for the artist himself, a symbol of outlaw genius, queer desire, and youthful rebellion.
Known for his incendiary poetry and dramatic life, Rimbaud embodied the figure of the runaway, the hustler, the visionary outsider. In Wojnarowicz’s hands, this nineteenth-century myth is reactivated within the social and political landscape of late-1970s New York, a city marked by economic collapse, underground cultures, and the emergence of punk.
Richly illustrated, the book features an introductory essay by Antonio Sergio Bessa situating the series within broader traditions of literature, photography, and performance. Additional texts by Nicholas Martin, Craig Dworkin, Marguerite Van Cook, and Phillip Aarons expand the context, while an interview with photographer Allen Frame offers a firsthand account of Wojnarowicz’s performances in New York, Berlin, and Brooklyn. Together, these perspectives frame Arthur Rimbaud in New York as both a key moment in Wojnarowicz’s practice and a powerful testimony to urban, social, and political transformation.
