David Wojnarowicz: In The Shadow Of Forward Motion. Black-and-white photocopied leaves comprising 28 leaves of typed text and reproduced images, most pages double-sided, many with text on rectos and images on versos; stapled in top left corner, some folds and other signs of handling, printed on 8½x11 inch copier paper. New York. P.P.O.W., 1989.
Between February 9 and March 4, 1989, P.P.O.W. Gallery hosted Wojnarowicz's exhibit, In the Shadow of Forward Motion. This illustrated essay was produced in only 50 copies to accompany the show, an excellent example of the late 1980s 'zine: edgy, low-fi, and rooted in post-structuralism. French semiotician and author of Mille Plateaux, Felix Guattari contributes the opening essay on the artist, and Wojnarowicz's own images, artwork, photographs and writings fill the remainder of the piece. Working as an HIV-positive artist across genres at the height of the AIDS crisis in New York, Wojnarowicz's work is focused on the social, economic and political oppression woven into the presiding culture's inability to separate the need for medical treatment from homophobia and racism.
