AUTHOR REBECCA BINNS will be joined by the artist Gee Vaucher at an event in Southend-on-Sea on 1 December, and in Manchester on 8 December 2022, to launch Binns’ new study of Vaucher’s work.

Southend-on-Sea, 1 December 2022

Focal Point Gallery is excited to announce the launch of the first ever book on the life and work of the ‘innately disobedient’ Essex artist, Gee Vaucher, of Crass fame, to take place on Thursday 1st December, at 6pm. Following her vast retrospective exhibition at Firstsite Gallery in 2017, this event will feature a digital journey through the range of Vaucher’s distinct and powerful artwork, while the author, Rebecca Binns will read from the book, followed by a Q&A session with Vaucher herself, drinks and book signings.

Schedule:

6pm: Intro and book reading by Rebecca Binns

6.20pm: Q&A with Binns and Gee Vaucher

7pm: drinks and book signings

Gee Vaucher Book Launch – Beyond Punk, Feminism and the Avant Garde
1 December 2022, 18:00
Focal Point Gallery
Elmer Avenue, Southend-on-Sea SS1 1NB
Advance tickets (free)

Manchester, 8 December 2022

As one of the people who defined punk’s protest art in the 1970s and 1980s, Gee Vaucher (b. 1945) deserves to be much better-known. She produced confrontational album covers for the legendary anarchist band Crass and later went on to do the same for Northern indie legends the Charlatans, among others. More recently, her work was recognised the day after Donald Trump’s 2016 election victory, when the front page of the Daily Mirror ran her 1989 painting Oh America, which shows the Statue of Liberty, head in hands.

This is the first book to critically assess an extensive range of Vaucher’s work. It examines her unique position connecting avant-garde art movements, counterculture, punk and even contemporary street art. While Vaucher rejects all ‘isms’, her work offers a unique take on the history of feminist art. The book explores how her life has shaped her output, with particular focus on the open-house collective at Dial House in Essex, a centre for radical creativity.

Gee Vaucher Book Launch – Beyond Punk, Feminism and the Avant Garde
8 December 2022, 18:00
The Whitworth, Oxford Road, Manchester M15 6ER
Advance tickets (free)

Rebecca Binns. 2022. Gee Vaucher: Beyond punk, feminism and the avant-garde. Manchester: Manchester University Press. ISBN: 9781526147899. [MUP listing]