Facsimile of Andy Warhol's 1967 «Index» Returns as a Pop-Up Book
A new facsimile edition of Andy Warhol's 1967 «Index» brings back the artist's silver-wrapped compendium of Factory interviews, transcripts and photographs, complete with its original pop-up elements.
A facsimile reprint of Andy Warhol's 1967 «Index» gives contemporary readers a chance to encounter one of the Pop artist's more unusual publishing experiments in its original form. The book, first released at the height of Warhol's Factory era, combines interview snippets, partial transcripts of recordings made with members of his circle, and black-and-white photographs of his work and associates. The new edition reproduces the volume as a pop-up book, just as the original was.
«Index» arrived in 1967 wrapped in silver, a colour that dominated the Factory's aesthetic and recurs throughout the book's design. Its contents are deliberately heterogeneous. Readers encounter fragments of conversation, partial transcripts of recordings with Factory regulars, and more than half the book given over to photographs. Some images show Warhol at work in his studio alongside objects that later became central to his art, from Campbell's Soup cans to Baby Ruth bars. Others capture Warhol and a colleague smiling at one another near a toilet, a thresholded photograph of Nico of the Velvet Underground — a band Warhol managed — and stills from «The Nude Restaurant», one of his underground films.
The pop-up elements are among the book's most memorable features. Opening one two-page spread reveals a medieval castle rising across both pages above the phrase «We're attacked constantly.» Farther on, a red can of Hunt's tomato paste juts out from the gutter of adjoining pages that display monochrome images of the same woman, one a negative and the other the original black-and-white photograph. These interventions give the volume the quality of an object to be handled and explored rather than simply read.
The interview material offers a similarly fragmented portrait of the Factory and its inhabitants. In one transcript, Ingrid Superstar describes the interior of Warhol's studio while he records her, reminding her midway: «You have to talk for half an hour.» In another, Warhol discusses his use of double screens in his films, most notably in the 1966 work «Chelsea Girls.» The book also captures the artist's characteristic deadpan wit. Asked by a German reporter what it means to be a Pop artist, Warhol replies: «It keeps me busy.»
The volume reflects the sensibility of an artist who alternately embraced and excoriated consumerism, and it is occasionally revelatory, if only just. For readers interested in Warhol, the Factory, or the crossover between art and publishing in the 1960s, the facsimile offers a chance to revisit — or encounter for the first time — a curious artifact from a defining period in American art.
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