“Quite possibly the best history of New York’s much-reprised ‘last avant-garde’ of the 1980s, Edgewise reinvents the inspired amateurism of Mueller’s work, and also creates unforgettable portraits of John Waters’s Baltimore and Provincetown in the 1970s, ‘when the water was still clean.’”
—CHRIS KRAUS, author of I Love Dick and Summer of Hate
ABOUT THE BOOK
Edgewise tells the story of Cookie’s life in the form of an oral history assembled from more than 80 interviews with the people who knew her, including John Waters, Mink Stole, Gary Indiana, Sharon Niesp, Max Mueller, Linda Yablonsky, Richard Hell, Amos Poe and Raymond Foye. The contributors take us from the late-1960s artist communes of Baltimore to 1970s Provincetown and New York, through 1980s Berlin and Positano.
This book marks the first time Cookie's full story has been told in any form—whether print, film or online.
Along with the text, Edgewise includes over 230 illustrations, artwork, unpublished photographs, archival material and images by Philip-Lorca diCorcia, David Armstrong, Robert Mapplethorpe, Peter Hujar and others.
The book is 336 pages, primarily black and white with four full color pages. The cover/backcover is metallic silver, black and white.
Art direction & design concept of the book was realized by Chloé Griffin and Gwenaël Rattke.
Publisher: b_books Verlag in Berlin, Germany
Distributor: ARTBOOK | D.A.P. (Distributed Art Publishers)
Gwenaël Rattke is a French / German graphic artist working primarily in collage and printmaking. He lives in Berlin.
"More than any oral history I've come across, Edgewise actually feels aural. The fondness Cookie Mueller's friends and family share for the subject is infectious, and their discussions offer the best overall portrait of her personality I've seen. Griffin feels less like an editor, and more like the conductor of a brave new symphony."
—BRANDON STOUSY, editor of Up Is Up, But So Is Down: New York's Downtown Literary Scene, 1974-1992