Customer Reviews

John Waters: Change Of Life

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I'm a big fan of Waters' ongoing adventures in the highfalutin art world, so of course I went to his great spring 2004 show at the New Museum in NYC, which this book documents. I'm disappointed to say that it really doesn't do the show much justice and, in fact, is more like a promotional souvenir than an art book. Knowing how Waters abhors pretension, this is probably on purpose, but I can't say the book's designers have done his work any favors. The biggest problem is one of scale: an effort to show individual works in their entirety on the page means everything is reproduced way too small and the taken-off-the-TV effect is all but lost. And one work, "Slade 16", is cut off mid-image and continued on the next page, which I thought especially unexcusable--even Warhol wouldn't put up with that. The book's design has little of the the elegance or wit of Waters' earlier "Director's Cut". Everything about that book was intriguing, including how it smelled; the paper was so heavily varnished that it took on an amusing "Odorama" quality of its own. And the reproductions were impeccable. "Change of Life" is packed with "bonus" material, including one startling image: a b&w pic of a villianous Cyril Richard in full makeup as Captain Hook that, as far as I'm concerned, sums up Waters' entire oeuvre (crime IS beauty--check out that pre-Divine eye makeup!). But the book really is kind of a shambles. The exhibit in part was sponsored by Fine Line Features and, whenever I look for the book at Borders, it's in the Film stacks, not Art or Photography, which I guess tells the whole story. Whatever the case, Waters is the real deal and I now enjoy his photography even more than his movies. Interesting side note: in "Director's Cut", Waters' pledged that he would never let the world see "Eat Your Makeup", one of his earliest movies. The exhibit and this book heavily feature it. I wonder what changed. Change of life?

I agree 100% with the previous reviewer's statement that this book is "more like a promotional souvenir than an art book"... but I really can't say something bad about the work the people who put this together did, as I think this is an outstanding effort to show what John Waters is all about, not only as an artist but as the public character he has created for himself. As a fan of the man's work, all forms of it (film, writing and art -I know film and writing ARE art, but you know what I mean), this was a dream come true: getting to see actual images of everything I've been reading about for years -his toy hook, Lady Zorro, books and magazines from his collection and other stuff.
This is probably not the best book devoted to an individual artist, but one of the best tributes I've seen devoted to a cult figure. And once you think about it, Waters' art can only be fully appreciated placing it within the cultural landscape the book provides. Bottom line is, this a beautiful book about a really neat guy. If you like him, don't think twice: you'll love this book. If you only care about him as an artist, get this AND Director's Cut.