David Byrne | Strange Ritual

David Byrne

Strange Ritual

Faber and Faber, 1995

192 pp., 26 x 19.5 x 1.5 cm., hardcover

Edition size unknown

Strange Ritual is the Talking Heads singer’s first stand-alone book (True Stories from nine years prior was ultimately a companion to the film of the same name). Subtitled Pictures and Words, the book is collection of photographs of icons, graffiti, consumer displays, advertising and book covers. The latter have titles that read like the works of Michael Dumontier and Neil Farber: “The Truth About Mars”, “I Dare You”, “How to do All Things”, “The Secret Museum of Mankind”, “Ponder on This”.

The book takes its title from  song from Byrne's third studio album (not counting film and theatre soundtracks), released two years prior. 

The leather-bound volume features a promotional wrap-around, and the Japanese edition was issued with a colourful dust jacket [see below]. 

"Internationally renowned musician, filmmaker, performer, David Byrne is an artist of diverse talents. Strange Ritual is Byrne's extraordinary first work of photography and words. Witty, antic and seductive, this book is a barrage of color photographs that reinvent the icon: playful religious images of high-rise madonnas and squadrons of crucifixes; incantorial representations of worldwide consumerism, from altars of food displays to retail signs out-shining the stained glass of cathedrals; culture-scapes of the omnipresent grid that video has imposed on our perception of reality.

Juxtaposed with the photographs are excerpts from Byrne's travel observations, unpublished song lyrics and poems, including a list of the gods and goddesses of the 90's. Byrne has also compiled found writing in the form of computer-generated poetry, odd book titles, poems and unusual messages found on the street. Traveling in Mexico, he writes, "Anything is up for grabs. Anything is available for everyone to use. Language, clothes, religions, facial features, narratives, gestures, foods, colors."

Strange Ritual offers 240 jam-packed pages of exciting, challenging, ironic, and often hilarious art and words that address the universals in an honest and direct voice. More than a book of photography, it is a bizarre, brilliant vision."

- Publisher's press release