Lehrer’s illuminated novel A Life In Books: The Rise and Fall of Bleu Mobley sits at the center of a multimedia project which includes:
• Performance/Reading Tour
• Bleu Mobley Traveling Exhibition
• Animations, Animated Spots, and Short Films
In his performance/readings, Lehrer presents an overview of Bleu Mobley’s life and work with projections of his book cover designs and other biographical materials including animations and video performances of Mobley book excerpts. A Life In Books presentations are funny, entertaining, and thought provoking. They focus on: the creative process (how life events and the life of one’s times influence an artist’s work, and vice versa); the future of the book; and the lines that separate and blur truth, myth, and fiction. Whenever possible, Warren likes to engage audiences in a Q&A afterwards, and sign books. In some venues, he combines an A Life In Books performance/readings with an overview presentation of his own 30+ year career as writer and artist. Workshops for writers and artists are also possible.
Lehrer began his performance/reading tour of A LIFE IN BOOKS as Keynote Speaker at the 2013 NY Art Book Fair at PS1 MoMA and has since presented it at over 50 venues throughout the U.S. and Canada. Inquire about booking a performance/reading and/or artist talk by Warren Lehrer.
The traveling exhibition presents itself as a retrospective survey of the extraordinary publishing career of Lehrer’s protagonist, the prolific and controversial author/book visionary Bleu Mobley. It includes all 101 “first edition” cover designs accompanied by “original” catalogue descriptions. It also includes Mobley’s earliest books, “composed” in the letterpress shop of his junior high school, as well as “reproductions” of select interior spreads, and Mobley’s book-like objects. There are videos of filmed performances (of Bleu Mobley book excerpts), and animations of pop-up books, and ‘spots’ featuring individual Bleu Mobley titles. There are also artifacts such as letters, notebooks, flyers, articles, and the actual microcassette tapes that became the narrative foundation of A LIFE IN BOOKS. The book serves as an exhibition catalog.
While the book presents a very personal and complex portrait of Bleu Mobley and the wide array of characters who inhabit his life and books, the exhibition “celebrates the creative output of an American master who, in so many ways, and for so long, helped us better understand our own lives, relationships, institutions, and a half-century of American/global events.” The exhibition can also function as a resource for colleges and classes using the book as a text and point of departure for creating their own works of visual literature. The exhibition is designed to travel easily and inexpensively. It is ideal for museums, non-profit galleries, university galleries, art and literary centers, libraries and bookstores with exhibition spaces.
Inquire about booking the exhibit.
Here are photographs from the [April 2016] premiere installation of the A LIFE IN BOOKS exhibition at the O’Kane Gallery at the University of Houston, Downtown. Photos by Warren Lehrer and Mark Cervenka.