AMMANN, Jean-Christophe. Transformer: Aspekte der Travestie.

(Lucern, Switzerland): Kuntsmuseum Luzern, 1975. First edition. Quarto. Superb catalogue book of the iconic exhibition Transformer: Aspekte der Travestie, organised in 1974 by Swiss curator Jean-Christophe Ammann; the exhibition looked into the connection between cross-dressing in popular music and Contemporary Art, approaching the phenomenon as at once creative, and critical of reductive bourgeois visions of masculinity. The ‘outraging’ of traditional masculinity by Little Richard and the stars of Glam Rock and punk was presented in parallel with the work of artists like Jürgen Klauke, Urs Lüthi and Sieverding. Borrowed from the famous Lou Reed album, the English word ‘transformer’ came to be used by these young Swiss and German artists to describe the transcending of binary gender definitions; and more than ever before photography became a mirror enabling play with duality and otherness. Fantastic photo illustrations throughout. Text is in German although essays on the New York Dolls and David Bowie are included in English. A good copy in illustrated wrappers, rubbing at spine, marking to covers a couple of pages pulled but intact.