DOROTHY IANNONE

Since the early 1960s, Dorothy Iannone (born 1933) has occupied herself with the attempt to represent "ecstatic unity"—"the union of gender, feeling and pleasure," as she describes it—resulting in a body of frequently autobiographical work encompassing painting, drawing, collage, objects and publications. This volume examines the censorship of Iannone's work, using her 1970 artist's book The Story of Bern as a starting point. Iannone's works were removed from an exhibition at Kunsthalle Bern in 1969, after the museum director demanded that the genitals in her paintings be covered. Iannone responded with The Story of Bern, reclaiming her work from the controversies surrounding it by making her perspective public. In a nod to the censorship of Iannone's work, the explicit image on the cover of this book is hidden by a belly band.

Edited by Heike Munder
Texts by Maria Elena Buszek, Dorothy Iannone, Heike Munder.
Bilingual edition (English / German)
Published on the occasion of the eponymous exhibition at Migros Museum for Contemporary Art, Zurich, in 2014.

This book was published on the occasion of the exhibition Dorothy Iannone: Censorship And The Irrepressible Drive Toward Love And Divinity at the Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst, August 30-November 9, 2014. Dorothy Iannone's artist's book Censorship And The Irrepressible Drive Toward Love And Divinity was first published in 1982 by Edition Ars Viva! and Berlin Artists* Program (DAAD), Berlin. In 1998, a pamphlet edition with a new postscipt was published by Boekie Woekie, Amsterdam. A Dutch version was also published by the Museum of Modern Art, Arnhem. In 1999, Boekie Woekie published a third edition with a new postscipt by Dorothy Iannone. The graphic design for the fourth edition is by Studio Marie Lusa, in collaboration with Dorothy Iannone.