Soft Need, #23 [issue 4, technically], 2020

[Selected, Burroughs-focused portions shown, although Burroughs appears in many spots in this item.]

[Deluxe Editions were also published with additional content. A post on a variant of the Deluxe Edition may be found HERE]

An exceptional item in terms of size, contents, and depth from Udo Breger and Luzius Martin; this should be on every Burroughs collector's shelf.

Burroughs direct contributions include a number of direct quotes, a reproduction of a letter and typescript sent to Brion Gysin (pp. 60-69), "Songbook" (p. 154) a text for the Brion Gysin Songbook, a reproduction of Burroughs' marginalia in Edmund White's Genet (pp. ),  his "Nova Police Besieged McEwan Hall" (p. 56), and reproductions of his art.

This issue includes multiple photographs of Burroughs (from Alberto Durazzi,  Job Blumb, Brion Gysin, Ian Sommerville, Udo Breger, Allen Ginsberg, Marcia Resnick, Victor Bockris, Luzius Martin, Charles Gatewood, Klaus Mettig, John Geiger). 

This issue has additionally multiple essays on Ian Sommerville, friend and lover of Burroughs, including Matthew Levi Stevens' "Ian Sommerville, the Authentic 'Subliminal Kid'", pp. 15-16, 19, Miles' "Thoughts about Ian", pp. 19-21, 24, and Udo Breger's "Ian S.", pp. 248-251.

Ian Macfayden's "Report on Fear", pp. 41-42, contains multiple statements on Burroughs. 

Allen Ginsberg's contribution "Burroughs and the Cut-Up Method" is on pages 47-49. '

Gary Snyder's previously unpublished 1962 review of Burroughs' The Ticket That Exploded, entitled "A Virus Runs Through It" is on pages 49-50. 

Jon Blumb contributes a memoir of Burroughs entitled "Hell, Man, I'm Not Gonna Shoot 'Em Way Out There!" on pages 52-54. 

James Grauerholz' statement for the 2012-2013 Exhibition of Burroughs' art at October Gallery -- entitled "The Great Globe Is Paint in Air" -- is on pages 55-56. 

Yuri Zupanic recounts archiving William's art at the Estate at page 57. 

Rob Johnson contributes "Burroughs on the Border", on Burroughs' time in South Texas, pages 70-73. 

Oliver Harris contributes "DANGER Sign: Burroughs against the Academy" on pages 80-83.  

John Geiger recounts moments with Burroughs in "Click, Click, Click to Countdown", pages 98-99. 

An essay by Phil Baker entitled "'Scrapbooks and Time Travel': Burroughs and the Art of Association" is on pages 98-101. 

Phil Haddock's fictional script "The Last Words of William Burroughs" is at pages 110-112. 

Some comics with Burroughs as a character are on page 114. 

Victor Bockris recounts photographs taken at dinner with Burroughs and Warhol in "Unanswerable Beauty", pp. 144-145. 

Ian Macfayden discusses a communication to Burroughs as "Dr. Benway" from David Snell in "TVA and the Corm Exchange: A Note", p. 188.  

Gerald Nicosia's poem "The Ghost of Bill Burroughs" is on page 192.

Lars Movin's essay "A Visit to Freeland: Burroughs in Denmark, 1957" is at pages 194-195.

Jim Pennington shares Burroughs' marginalia in his copt of Edmund White's Genet at pages 213-217.

Published in Basel, Switzerland by Expanded Media Editions in 2020.

Bibliographic Information: 

• Raven 20200000SNEE.0.23

Contents [as best as I can capture]: 

• Harold Chapman: photographs
• Udo Breger and Luzius Martin: editorial
• Udo Breger:
• scrapbook collages
• Soft Need advertising from 1973
• photographs
• "Theo Mouxigouli – A Dream-Beyond" (essay)
• "Ian S." (essay)
• Carl Zuckmayer: from A Part of Myself
• Revilo: comic
• Alberto Durazzi: photographs
• Matthew Levi Stevens: "Ian Sommerville, the Authentic 'Subliminal Kid'" (essay)
• Ian Sommerville: 
• postcard to Brion Gysin
• letters to Thomas Neurath
• photographs
• postcard to Udo Breger
• Barry Miles: "Thoughts about Ian" (essay)
• Gregory Corso: collage
• John Michell: letter to Thomas Neurath
• Jean-Jacques Lebel: "Gît-le Cœur" (essay)
• Jean Willi: "For Brion" (art)
• Walter Hartmann: "Train" (art)
• Jürgen Ploog: "Brion Gysin: Nomad of Magic Garden" (essay)
• Brion Gysin: 
• "Djema al Fnaa" (art)
• "Jardin La Ciotat" (art)
• "AMERIKA IS KEINE JUNGES LAND" (art)
• photographs
• Jürgen Claus: from "Retrospective Reflections, 2011" (quote)
• Aldo Bonato: painting
• Jürgen Claus, Peter Weibel, and Nora Claus: "The Masquerade Ball Is Growing" (interview)
• Andy Hope: drawings
• Axel Heil: 
• "LOST" (art)
• "really LOST" (art)
• Ian Macfayden: 
• "Report on Fear" (notes)
• "TVA and the Corn Exchange: A Note" (essay)
• Phil Wood: "Here, There And Back Again" (painting)
• Jeremy Reed: "The Crime Academy" (poetry)
• John Armleder: "For Brion" (art)
• Allen Ginsberg: 
• "Burroughs and the Cut-Up Method" (essay)
• photographs
• Gary Snyder: "A Virus Runs Through It" (review)
• William S. Burroughs: 
• quotations
• "PRISON-RIOT, for Udo" (painting)
• "Nova Police besieged McEwan Hall" (prose)
• letter and typescript to Brion Gysin
• Mescaline Sulphate order 
• photograph
• "Songbook" (essay)
• Jon Blumb:
• photographs
• "Hell, Man, I'm Not Gonna Shoot 'Em Way Out There!" (essay)
• James Grauerholz: "The Great Globe Is Paint in Air" (essay)
• Philip Heying: photograph
• Rob Johnson:
• photograph
• "Burroughs on the Border" (essay)
• Carl Michael von Hausswolff and Eric Pauser: "Alamut" (photographs)
• Oliver Harris: "DANGER Sign: Burroughs against the Academy" (essay)
• Suzie Léger: 
• digital art
• "W B S L 2018-2024 (A Journey)" (project)
• Audrey Szasz: "Regina Achse Advances Her Interests" (prose)
• Assunta Abdel Azim Mohamed: 
• introduction to Endlich 
• "Endlich III" and "Endlich IV" (art)
• Robert Wilson: 
• art
• script ("a letter to Queen Victoria")
• John Geiger: 
• "Click, Click, Click to Countdown" (diary)
• photograph
• Phil Baker: "'Scrapbooks and Time Travel': Burroughs and the Art of Association" (essay)
• Max Blagg and Jeanine Weissglass: "EAT A PEACH" (drawing)
• Michael March: "Jean Genet" (poetry)
• Christoph Lissy: "Painkiller" (art)
• Phil Haddock: "The Last Words of William Burroughs" (script)
• Xepo: "Shanghai 1931" (art)
• Pat Moriarty: "HOLD STILL JESSE" (comic)
• Martin Rowson: "B is for Burroughs" (comic)
• John Hopkins: photograph
• Françoise Janicot: photograph
• Carl Michael von Hausswolff: photograph
• Ulrich Hillebrand: photographs
• Marcia Resnick: photograph
• Rosemary Bailey: photograph
• Udo Breger and Christopher Gibbs: "In Silent Memory of Christopher Gibbs" (letters)
• Victor Bockris: 
• photographs
• "Unanswerable Beauty" (essay)
• Christoph Kohlhofer: 
• paintings
• comics
• Ramuntcho Matta: art
• Brion Gysin and Udo Breger: "A Life along Music" (interview)
• Udo Breger and James Grauerholz: "Re: The evil is there waiting" (letters)
• Eric Andersen: "Adonis the Freak" (prose)
• Danilo Stojic: "Bones of Invisible Ones" (prose)
• Vladislava Savic: photograph
• Ranka Delic Piffoux: photo of WSB portrait
• Andreas Hochuli: paintings
• Matthias Esch: art
• Dirk Meinzer: paintings
• Terry Wilson: 
• collages
• "Severed Due Stations (The Known World Over)" (essay)
• Maketa Smith-Groves: poetry
• Julia Aaron: collage
• Louise Landes Levi: "Where I Stand in Angel" (poetry)
• David Snell: letter to Burroughs
• Pascale Dombis: "The Limits of Control" (essay + art)
• Gerald Nicosia: "The Ghost of Bill Burroughs" (poetry)
• Luzius Martin: photograph
• Lars Movin: "A Visit to Freeland: Burroughs in Denmark, 1957" (essay)
• Thomas Keller: "The Remains of the Moody Street Bridge and the Royal Theater in Lowell, Massachusetts, September 2017" (photoessay)
• Mike Cooper: art
• Theo Mouxigouli: art
• Wolf Pehlke: "Trojan Viruses" (art + essay)
• Jim Penington: photoessay of Burroughs' copy of Genet
• Jan Peter Tripp: drawing
• Eddie Woods: "Soyo Benn: A Profile" (memoir)
• Einar Moos: photograph
• Hannah Woods: poetry
• Win Harms: poetry
• Gregory Hesse: photograph
• David Lillington: photograph
• Brassaï: photograph
• Charles Gatewood: photographs
• Klaus Mettig: photograph
• Graham Keen: photograph
• T. S. Eliot: from The Waste Land

Publishing Information: 

• Editors: Udo Breger, Luzius Martin
• Graphic Concept: Ronnie Fueglister, Marco Papiro
• Design: Ronnie Fueglister, Livia Benz, Alisa Strub, Idil Umay Mercan
• Reproductions: mustera Lithographie, Andreas Muster, Basel
• Funding Adviser: Dominik Mendelin
• Printing: Longo AG, SpA, Bolzano, Italy