Gee Vaucher: Beyond Punk, Feminism and the Avant-Garde

(Hardback)

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As one of the people who defined punks protest art in the 1970s and 1980s, Gee Vaucher (b. 1945) deserves to be much better-known. She produced confrontational album covers for the legendary anarchist band Crass and later went on to do the same for Northern indie legends the Charlatans, among others. More recently, her work was recognised the day after Donald Trump's 2016 election victory, when the front page of the Daily Mirror ran her 1989 painting Oh America, which shows the Statue of Liberty, head in hands.

This is the first book to critically assess an extensive range of Vauchers work. It examines her unique position connecting avant-garde art movements, counterculture, punk and even contemporary street art. While Vaucher rejects all isms, her work offers a unique take on the history of feminist art. The book explores how her life has shaped her output, with particular focus on the open-house collective at Dial House in Essex, a centre for radical creativity.

Reviews

'Binnss book is meticulously researched and well written, covering an area of punk history that deserves a full spotlight all of its own. Equal parts informing, accessible and compelling, this is the story of a woman whose talent and beliefs have made a huge contribution to conveying punks revolutionary message.'
Molly Tie, Punktuation!

A compelling documentation of an important figure in the postwar British counterculture: the stubbornly unpositionable Gee Vaucher. Binns traces the life and work of this uncompromising artist not only in the short high years of Crass and the anarcho-punk movement dominated by Vauchers aesthetic but also the decades before and after when she defined, refined and extended her powerful practice. Read this book for a brilliant and engaged creative life.
George McKay, Professor in Media Studies, University of East Anglia

This is a long overdue contribution to an important history. Binns shines new light on Gee Vaucher's significance, showing how her method of photorealism-presented-as-montage can help us make sense of the skewed reality around us.
Lucy Robinson, Professor in Collaborative History, University of Sussex

Gee Vauchers artwork was crucial to Crass: thought-provoking and confrontational always.
Adrian Sherwood, music producer

'Gees indescribable artwork has been an inspiration for multiple generations of artists and art appreciators. Gee is proof that Art changes people's lives and for the better!'
Winston Smith, artist and illustrator (www.winstonsmith.com)

Binnss book is an expert feminist reading of the life and work of political graphic artist Gee Vaucher that adeptly writes this unsung heroine into a history of punk design. A must-read for these fractured times.
Teal Triggs, Professor of Graphic Design, Royal College of Art

'An essential book, giving due attention to one of the most influential artists of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Gee Vaucher's artwork has been much copied but never bettered. Her influence is here captured expertly by Rebecca Binns's well-researched critical analysis.'
Matt Worley, Professor of Modern History, University of Reading

Finally! What those in the know have been waiting for: a comprehensive, revealing and long overdue analysis of the creative importance of Gee Vaucher. Set against the backdrop of recent socio-economic, political and cultural events, via (but not limited to) punk, this book confirms Vaucher as the trailblazing innovator that she is, and charts her artistic influence to-date. Rebecca Binns thoughtfully surveys over fifty years of Vauchers collage, photo-montage, painting, drawing, sculpture, film and installation, rightfully positioning her as a key player within art history, while refusing to restrict this uncategorisable artist to any particular movement. If you are familiar with Vauchers work, you have been vindicated. And if you are not, prepare to be amazed.
Marie-France Kittler, co-curator Gee Vaucher: Introspective (Firstsite, 2016)

Author Bio

Rebecca Binns is a writer and lecturer on art, design and cultural history