The Wedding of Everything [Inscribed]

Los Angeles: Sherwood Press, 1983. One of 500 total copies. [36]pp. Saddle-stapled pictorial wraps. Incidental edge wear, else about fine. This copy from the library of New York School poet, librettist, and publisher Kenward Elmslie (1929-2022), and inscribed to him by Flanagan on title page: "For Kenward Here's looking at you, and looking toward spring, when next we meet. Bob February 3, 1983."

Scarce second collection of poems by a writer perhaps better known as a performance artist specializing in extreme acts of masochism. With his wife and artistic collaborator Sheree Rose, Flanagan's decidedly uncomfortable performances included various forms of body mutilation, and explored the links between BDSM and chronic illness; he suffered from cystic fibrosis, succumbing to the disorder at age 43. Flanagan starred in several 1990s music videos, including for songs by Nine Inch Nails and Danzig, and was the subject of a book, Bob Flanagan: Supermasochist (San Francisco, Re/Search, 1993) and a documentary, Sick: The Life and Death of Bob Flanagan Supermasochist (1997).