Brion Gysin (1916-86) has been an incredibly influential artist and iconoclast: his development of the "cut-up" technique with William S. Burroughs has inspired generations of writers, artists and musicians. Gysin was also a skilled networker and revered expat: together with his friend Paul Bowles, he more or less constructed the post-beatnik romanticism for life and magic in Morocco, and was also a protagonist in an international gay culture with inspirational reaches in both America and Europe. Not surprisingly, Gysin has become something of a cult figure. One of the artists he inspired is Genesis Breyer P-Orridge, who collaborated with both Gysin and Burroughs in the 1970s, during his work with Throbbing Gristle and COUM Transmissions. The interviews made by P-Orridge have since become part of a New Wave/Industrial mythos. This volume presents them in their entirety alongside three texts on Gysin by P-Orridge, plus an introduction. This book is an exclusive insight into the mind of a man P-Orridge describes as "a kind of Leonardo da Vinci of the last century," and a fantastic complement to existing biographies and monographs.

The first anthology of writings by the brilliant avant-gardist: “A valuable book that makes accessible an artist too long considered a cult-eccentric.” —Publishers Weekly Born in 1916, Brion Gysin was a visual artist, historian, novelist, and experimental poet credited with the discovery of the “cut-up” technique—a collage of texts, not pictures—which his longtime collaborator William S. Burroughs put to more extensive use. He is also considered one of the early innovators of sound poetry, which he defined as “getting poetry back off the page and into performance.” Back in No Time gathers materials from the entire Gysin oeuvre: scholarly historical study, baroque fiction, permutated and cut-up poetry, unsettling memoir, selections from The Process and The Last Museum, and his unproduced screenplay of Burroughs’ novel Naked Lunch. In addition, this reader contains complete texts of several Gysin pieces that are difficult to find, including “Poem of Poems,” “The Pipes of Pan,” and “A Quick Trip to Alamut.”

During his lifetime Brion Gysin (1916-1986) inspired an array of artists, writers, poets and musicians, notably the Beat Generation. Since his death Gysin's own work has only increased in popularity, yet his radical approach to art defies categorization. Dream Machine is the first detailed study of Gysin's œuvre in both art-historical and contemporary contexts. A devotee of invention, Gysin created paintings, drawings, photo-collages, installations, poetry and sound experiments. He produced the cut-up collage novel The Third Mind (1965) with William Burroughs, and with Ian Sommerville developed the Dreamachine (1961), a kinetic sculpture designed to induce visions by playing flickering light on the closed eyes of the viewer. This exciting new book, featuring incisive texts, a photo essay, and appreciations by contemporary artists, captures the remarkable daring of an artistic visionary.

This novel following a “hallucinatory spiritual odyssey in the Sahara by a pot-smoking black scholar . . . will stimulate adventurous souls” (Kirkus Reviews). Ulys O. Hanson, an African-American professor of the History of Slavery, who is in North Africa on a mysterious foundation grant, sets off across the Sahara on a series of wild adventures. He first meets Hamid, a mad Moroccan who turns him on, takes him over, and teaches him to pass as a Moor. Mya, the richest woman in creation, and her seventh husband, the hereditary Bishop of the Farout Islands, also cross his path with their plans to steal the Sahara and make the stoned professor the puppet Emperor of Africa. The Process is a unique literary journey from “an idiosyncratic and restless spiritual wanderer, a jack-of-all trades who made innovative contributions to poetry, prose and the visual arts” (Publishers Weekly).

Interviews and writings with and by W.S. Burroughs, Brion Gysin, and members of Throbbing Gristle. Heavily illustrated and with reference lists from each interviewee: book lists, audio and other recommendations.