Genesis P-Orridge | G.P.O. versus G.P-O

Genesis P-Orridge

G.P.O. versus G.P-O

New York City, USA: Primary Information, 2013

104 pp., 7.875 x 10.5", softcover

Edition of 1000

When I was working at Art Metropole we were lucky enough to host impromptu visits by Genesis P-Orridge on a couple of occasions. I remember the first he came by (for Friday Night Cocktails) I was playing a record by This Mortal Coil, which he was very intrigued by, running over to the stereo after recognizing the song playing as a cover of a track by Pearls Before Swine, who he proceeded to tell me all about.   

We had just published the first title in our "Bootleg" series, a reprint of Sonic Youth's Sonic Death 'Zines and we were looking for the right thing to follow it with. G.P.O. versus G.P-O, originally published in 1976 by Ecart Publications in Geneva and long out-of-print, seemed a logical follow-up. 

In the spring of '76, P-Orridge had been charged by the General Post Office of Great Britain with disseminating “indecent and offensive material” through the post. His mail art at the time featured postcards collaged with pornographic imagery, erotic texts, and "confrontational" images of the Queen.

P-Orridge took the trial as an opportunity to turn the case into another performance. The contents of the book reprint the artist’s collection of official investigation documents from the post office, the police, the courts, and correspondence from artists, writers, lawyers, and friends, such as author William S. Burroughs.

I think we produced about a hundred of them and they quickly sold out. 

In 2013, Primary Information released this third iteration of the book, which is now also out-of-print.