John Gossage and the photographic invective
GOSSAGE, John; Blaisdell, Gus. Hey Fuckface. Tucson, Arizona: Nazraeli Press, 2000.
19 original black-and-white gelatin silver prints [one added to the edition of 18 by the artist] mounted on 14 x 11” archival board; hand-written curses in pencil by the artist; custom-made box of natural wood and plexiglass [back panel slides open]. Essay by Gus Blaisdell in separate 12-page booklet insert (10 ½ x 7”). Also includes a one-page interview with John Gossage by Peter Lloyd from 1991 in a separate envelope.
Limited edition of 100 copies, this is #13. Signed and hand-numbered by Gossage on envelope. Inscribed to Richard on the verso of the 19th print: “For Richard / 19th extra print not called for in this edition / John Gossage.”
John Gossage (1946– ) is an American photographer noted for his artist’s books and other publications using his photographs to explore under-recognized elements of the urban environment such as abandoned tracts of land, debris and garbage, and graffiti. Hey Fuckface was conceived in 1984 and produced in 1989. Concerned by the toxicity of several pre-Superfund sites located in Staten Island and Syracuse, New York, Gossage documented the locations by driving to several points of hazardous contamination and photographing the locations as found. The exact places were decided upon by consulting the 103c list of hazardous waste sites that the EPA issued. Over the years following his initial investigation, Gossage added hand-scrolled curses to accompany each individual silver gelatin print and craft paper remnants, creating a unique collage. A truncated selection of these works, collectively known as “Hey Fuckface,” was last exhibited in 1990.
From the interview with the artist by Peter Lloyd: “It wasn't until 1999 when Mr. Gossage had lost interest in following up on the work seen here that I finally got him to tell me about ‘all this shit.’ After the usual arguments about whether I would 'really be interested' and the complaints that it should ‘all be obvious,’ he started to talk about the making of the project he had entitled ‘The Plains of Hell.’ The Plains of Hell is apparently a Cajun fiddle tune that Gossage has never heard but had always liked the title of. The pictures were made in New York State: Staten Island and the area around Syracuse. The exact places for the images were chosen by consulting the 103c list of hazardous waste sites that the EPA issued. That list details specific locations of massive pollution that have not yet made it to the more public Superfund list. Gossage said that at first he would use a map and drive to the precise locations detailed on the list, but as he did more shooting, he found he could tell when a site was coming up by what you might call ‘visual smell.’”