The Hand of MacLise Leaves a Mark


Who else but Angus MacLise could have done the cover illustration for the program of Herko's The Palace of the Dragon Prince?  (Who else but George Herms, with his ties to the black magic of the Semina Circle, could have done the set design?)

I have to give props to Johan Kugelberg and the Boo-Hooray Gallery for blowing my mind when it comes to MacLise.  Previously I only knew him as the Pete Best of the Velvet Underground.  MacLise is so much more.

Recently I came across a picture of MacLise reclining on a single bed with Diane Barker, an American model, at the Beat Hotel.  The photograph was taken by Harold Chapman.  I flashed to an image of an dissolute Brit lounging on a sordid charpai caressing an opium pipe.  I suspect MacLise arrived at 9 Git le Coeur in part after following Kerouac's Road, which would continue onward upon a road of excess eventually leading to Xanadu.

The MacLise illustration adds to a program that already threatens to flash into oblivion.  Mimeo is the ideal medium to capture such ghosts.  More than most mimeo publications this program haunts (and fascinates) me.

JB

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