Nick Zedd, Flyer, Anthology Film Archives, Mid-1980s. Size: 11 x 8.5 Inches
Over the weekend, news of the death of the underground filmmaker and East Village legend, Nick Zedd, reverberated over the Internet and set off numerous tributes. Upon Alan W. Moore’s suggestion that Gallery 98 get involved, we are offering a small collection of xeroxed flyers and zines that Zedd gave to Moore in exchange for a plane ticket that allowed him to participate in a 2013 panel at the New Museum. The uncompromising filmmaker lived hard, and died in near-poverty in Mexico City from complications of cirrhosis of the liver, hepatitis C, and cancer. Moore has requested that money from the sales of his collection of ephemera — all items signed and many hand-colored — be sent to Zedd’s widow Monica Casanova and their children.
Zedd came to New York in 1976, studied at Pratt Institute and the School of Visual Arts, then settled into the East Village and became a filmmaker in the style of Jack Smith. His first film They Eat Scum (1979) brought various obsessions to the forefront while fully accepting the chaotic results that are inevitably part of under-financed narrative filmmaking. Zedd created dozens of similar films and was part of a like-minded group of filmmakers often grouped under the title Cinema of Transgression, a term coined by Zedd. That it was a movement with a purpose is implied in the first words of Zedd’s Extremist Manifesto: “Ours is the art of bad taste, which blots out and destroys your system of lies and self-delusion.”
In those pre-digital, pre-Internet, do-it-yourself times, Zedd devoted much effort to create the promotional material he needed to market his films. Moore’s collection of Zedd ephemera includes many of the flyers and posters he made to advertise screenings in nightclubs and independent film venues. Also included are the color xerox covers he made for the self-produced VCRs and later DVDs that he sold to local video rental stores and through Moore’s MWF Video Club, as well as, a nine-page catalogue of Zedd’s films with xeroxed articles and posters, and a copy of Zedd’s zine Hatred of Capitalism.
You can read a lively tribute to Nick Zedd in Alan W. Moore’s blog Art Gangs.
They Eat Scum, a Xerox After an Original Nick Zedd Drawing, Hand-Colored and Signed by Zedd, 1979 / 2013
Nick Zedd, They Eat Scum, Hand-Colored Xerox, SIGNED, 1979 / 2013. Size: 17 x 11 Inches
Geek Maggot Bingo with Richard Hell and Brenda Bergman, Xerox Flyer, Hand-Colored & Signed by Zedd, 1983 / 2013
Nick Zedd, Geek Maggot Bingo with Richard Hell and Brenda Bergman, Xerox Flyer, Hand-Colored & SIGNED, 1983 / 2013. Size: 8.5 x 11 Inches.
My Slave Plus They Eat Scum at Limbo, Xerox Flyer, Hand Colored and Signed by Zedd, 1985 / 2013
Films From The Cinema of Transgression at the Pioneer Theater, Xerox Flyer, Signed by Zedd, Early 2000s / 2013
Ecstasy In Entropy with Annie Sprinkle and Taylor Mead at the Robert Beck Memorial Theatre, Xerox Flyer, Signed by Zedd, 2000 / 2013
The Wild World of Lydia Lunch, DVD Cover, Color Xerox, Signed by Zedd, 1983 / 2013
Electra Elf, Episode Two: Maggot on a Hot Tin Roof, DVD Cover, Color Xerox, Signed by Zedd, 2005 / 2013
Penetration Films, Xerox Catalogue For Nick Zedd Films, 9 Pages, 2013
