Pierre Guyotat: Revolutions & Aberrations

by Stephen Barber

From his first books of the 1960s – such as Tomb for Five Hundred Thousand Soldiers and Eden, Eden, Eden – to his recent books such as Coma (2006), Pierre Guyotat’s seminal work has deeply marked and transformed that of innumerable artists and writers in many countries beyond France itself. With its focus extending from his novels to his work in film, art and performance, this illuminating collection of seven texts – drawn from encounters and conversations with Pierre Guyotat over a period of close to thirty years – explores his driving preoccupations and experimentations, with corporeality and vision, conflict and warfare, sex and the entity of language, activism and revolution, hallucination and aberration.

74 pages, Paperback

First published April 21, 2016

Reviews

[Leonard Klossner · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is incredibly hard to find any secondary literature or any interviews or general information on Guyotat in English, not to mention the difficulty of locating English translations of his two seminal novels. Additionally, once I found out this volume existed, it took some internet sleuthing to find out how to even order the damn thing. At times it can seem that an interest in Guyotat is an interest in some arcane esoterica.

This short volume compiles numerous writings from Stephen Barber on Guyotat and his works from the 1970's and on. An invaluable read for anybody who has become obsessed with the grotesque yet strangely lyrical writing style of Guyotat, or for anybody even remotely interested. Guyotat is a fascinating individual.

Published by Vauxhall & Company who is also responsible for a small reprint of Guyotat's Eden Eden Eden.