Art Metropole

#15193

G.B. Jones

Artist

G.B. Jones

Price

$30.00

Date

2022

Publisher

Kunstverein Toronto

Format

Artists' Books

Genre

Drawing, Queer Art & Artists, Available for Wholesale

Description

G.B. Jones (b. 1965, Bowmanville, Canada) is recognized for many accomplishments: for the success of her post-punk band Fifth Column (1981–2002), the widespread influence of the many queer punk zines she co-authored, including J.D.s, Double Bill and Hide, her coining of the term “queercore,”and her prolific work as a “no-budget” filmmaker, scene photographer and visual artist. Her drawing series, “Tom Girls,” originally published in J.D.s, replaced Tom of Finland’s iconic, “hyper-virile studs” with bold, uncompromising leather dykes, co-opting Finland’s objectified, male-on-male erotica and presenting a world of “nasty female role models.”

In 1994, Feature Inc. + Instituting Contemporary Idea in New York released G.B. Jones. The monograph, edited and designed by Steve Lafreniere compiled Jones’ “Tom Girls” drawings alongside show and film posters, record covers, comics and commissioned writing. As part of a campaign by the Canadian Border Services agency against allegedly pornographic or immoral materials in the 1990s, copies of Jones’ book were seized by the Canada Border Services Agency and barred from entering the country on the charge of depicting “bondage.” Jones was later informed that the seized copies had been burned by Border Control agents.

27 years later, in collaboration with Jones, Kunstverein Toronto has put G.B. Jones back in circulation in Canada. The re-publication of the book will reflects the reach and influence of Jones’ heterogenous practice, both at the time of the original release of G.B. Jones, and today.

G.B. Jones, 1994
Second printing, 2022

Edition: 500
Publication Coordinator: Danielle St-Amour

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