Raymond Pettibon - The Pages That Contain Truth Are Blank

Raymond Pettibon – The Pages Which Contain Truth Are Blank

review by Paul Sweitzer

I first encountered Raymond Pettibon’s art through Black Flag record covers and flyers for old LA punk shows, and was always a fan of these drawings. Its only been in the last few years I’ve started encountering a larger body of his work and have been getting pretty excited to learn more about him and the influences behind his drawings.

For anyone who has only seen a portion of his works, it is impressive to see what a range of styles he has and how prolific his work is outside of the context I was familiar with him in.

The work featured in this book shows off the entire range of Pettibon’s work, featuring his drawings of baseball, surfing, and trains in addition to his more classic dark comic-like drawings. Seeing all of these together gave me a bigger appreciation for how influential Pettibon’s vision was on the culture of the late 80s and early 90s music scenes, as many of the drawings embody the cynicism and black humor of Generation X.

One of my favorite parts of this book is that it features two different essays exploring the meanings and influences behind Pettibon’s art. Since this book was first published in Germany, the first essay is written with a big focus on explaining the references to southern Californian culture to an audience that didn’t grow up inundated by this vision. This perspective gives the work a really interesting distance, and it’s fascinating to see how Pettibon’s work is made relevant to a completely separate culture than the one it inundates.

The second essay, by Luca Beatrice offers a somewhat more familiar perspective on Pettibon’s work that focuses on his place related to pop artists. Beatrice links Pettibon with icons Andy Warhol, John Cage, and Kim Gordon as a visionary part of modern American art and culture. 

Featuring 136 plates as well as two essays exploring themes in Pettibon’s work and his place in the art world and American underground icon. The Pages Which Contain Truth Are Blank offers an insightful analysis of Pettibon’s body of work and is great as both an introduction to his art and as a further analysis for people who are already fans.

The last copy of this book is currently available in the Rowan Morrison online artist's bookstore for $26 plus shipping costs. Click here.

You can check out the online review of Raymond Pettibon: the Books 1978-98 here.