How to Get Rid of Pimples

FIRST EDITION. Mueller’s scarce first book, featuring pseudonymized photos of her friends in “before and after” portraits — with the “before” pictures featuring dots drawn on to the subjects, jokingly mimicking pimples — accompanied by strange, miracle-cure home remedies for acne. “These images of a 1980s New York creative class, drawn-on and dot-less, alongside Mueller’s surreal takes on wellness, suggest a dearth of cures for the maladies ailing this milieu: AIDS, for one. In the five years following How to Get Rid of Pimples’s publication, Mueller, her husband, Vittorio Scarpati, and contributing photographer Peter Hujar would all die from complications related to the virus” (Natasha Stagg). A writer, actress, and micro-celebrity of the downtown New York scene, Mueller led a freewheeling life of intensity, refusal, and large doses. Her life and work intersected with John Waters, Nan Goldin, Peter Hujar, Gary Indiana, David Wojnarowicz, among numerous others known and countless forgotten. She died due to AIDS-related illness at only 40 years old. A nice copy of this rare work by the indelible Dreamlander, writer, and downtown figure, and a relic of 1980s New York. PROVENANCE: From the personal collection of Ira Silverberg. Co-founder and publisher of High Risk, Publicity Director of Grove Press in the ‘80s and later Editor-in-Chief, esteemed literary agent, educator, editorial and publicity consultant, and more, Ira Silverberg has been a leading and beloved figure in New York’s literary world since the 1980s. Throughout his career, Silverberg edited, published, or represented the likes of Kathy Acker, William S. Burroughs, Dennis Cooper, June Jordan, David Wojnarowicz, Cookie Mueller, John Giorno, Lynne Tillman, Herve Guibert, and Sapphire, among numerous others.…