"The Interviews Vol. 1"

(58) Interviews. 268 Pages. 

 

 

INTRODUCTION

The first ten years of my career were spent in relative isolation. Except for my friends and family, nobody knew who I was or what kind of art I was making. That changed immediately once I started using social media and performing. Over the next decade, I was asked to do countless interviews. Some of the most insightful questions have arrived as the school semesters were ending. Student interviews, as well as interviews with various newspapers, blogs, zines, and magazines, have been helpful in deconstructing the reasoning behind my art projects. Having a dialogue with others and being asked questions I wouldn’t think to ask myself about my art has been really valuable.

Though I’ve done quite a few interviews, I haven’t done them all. I turned down a glamour magazine’s request for an interview because of the shockingly bad list of questions they sent me: “What is your favorite color? If you could sleep with anyone, who would it be? ...” I hung up on NPR in the middle of their interview because the interviewer had an agenda to label me “mentally ill.” Other times, I have put a great deal of thought into my answers, only to have them reduced to a two-minute read or a clickbait statement: “This Is Your Face on Drugs!” These instances inspired me to make this book of interviews containing the entirety of my responses, uncensored.

Some interviews are no longer available online. Others were published after being translated into another language. I've also included articles that originated from either in-person, video, or phone interviews where the source recordings are unavailable. They cover many subjects: performance art, drugs, found photographs, lost art, daily self-portraits, self-portrait experiments, psychological test cards, exhibitions, and more.

Putting these ten years of interviews together has been overwhelming. I've been blown away by the number of people who have found my art interesting enough to want to find out more about it and then share it with others.

I use the suffix "Vol. 1" with the hope that the curiosity will continue for decades to come. As humans, we create our own meanings, and the answers we discover are dependent upon the questions we ask. I want to thank all of the people who have asked me questions in these last ten years. You have helped me grow as an artist, and I am forever in your debt. Thank you.

-Bryan Lewis Saunders

 

 

The Interviews Vol. 1

268 pages.

6"x9". 

 

 

 

 

 

MY BOOK TO PRISONERS FUNDRAISER

 Update 10/28/19

66 Facebook donors and 7 others raised a total of 1,638.73! 181 books have been donated and shipped to 27 different books to prisoners organizations across the country. There are almost as many of my books in prison as there are outside of prison. Talk about a great thing we've done! I can't thank you all enough for donating, liking and sharing. Below is a list of all of the boooks to prisoners organizations I could find and how many books we sent out.

BOOKS TO PRISONERS: 

(5 Books)

Books to Prisoners

92 Pike St, Box A

Seattle, WA 98101

(10 Books)

Asheville Prison Books Program

C/o Downtown Books and News

67 N. Lexington Ave. 

Asheville, NC 

28801

(10 Books)

Athens Books to Prisoners

30 1st Street

Athens, OH

45701

athensbooks2prisoners@gmail.com

(10 Books)

Appalachian Prison Book Project

PO Box 601

Morgantown, WV 

26507

appalachianpbp@gmail.com

(10 Books)

Big House Books

PO Box 55586 

Jackson, MS 

39296 

bighousebooksms@gmail.com

(10 Books)

Book ‘EM

PO BOX  71357

Pittsburgh, PA 

15213 

Bookempgh@gmail.com 

(10 Books)

Chicago Books to Women in Prison 

c/o RFUMC

4511 N. Hermitage Ave.

Chicago, IL 60640

chicagobwp@gmail.com

(10 Books)

LGBT Books to Prisoners
c/o Social Justice Center Incubator

1202 Williamson St #1

Madison, WI 

53703

lgbtbookstoprisoners@gmail.com

(5 Books)

Louisiana Books 2 Prisoners

3157 Gentilly Blvd. #141

New Orleans, LA 

70122

books2prisoners@gmail.com 

(5 Books)

Louisville Books to Prisoners

C/O McQuixote Books & Coffee

1512 Portland Ave #1

Louisville, KY 

40203

louisvillebtp@gmail.com 

(5 Books)

The Midwest Pages to Prisoners Project

PO Box 1324

Bloomington, IN 

47402

mwpp@pagestoprisoners.org

(5 Books)

Olympia Books To Prisoners

C/O LAST WORD BOOKS

111 CHERRY STREET NE

OLYMPIA, WA 

98501 

olybtp@gmail.com

(5 Books)

Open Books Prison Book Project 

1040 N. Guillemard St.

Pensacola, FL 

32501

openbookspcola@riseup.net

(5 Books)

Portland Books To Prisoners

14 NE Killingsworth St

Portland, Oregon 

97211

pdxbookstoprisoners@riseup.net

(10 Books)

Inside Books Project

(Drop off)

Bouldin Creek Cafe

1900 S 1st St.

Austin TX 

78704

insidebooksproject@gmail.com

(5 Books)

Providence Books Through Bars, Inc.

42 Lenox Ave.

Providence, RI  

02907-1910 

NOTE- Located in the REAR (former garage).

info@providencebtb.org  

(5 Books)

Women’s Prison Book Project

c/o Boneshaker Books

2002 23rd Ave S

Minneapolis MN  

55404

womensprisonbookproject@gmail.com

(5 Books)

Prison Books Collective

Publishing & Distribution

PO Box 625

Carrboro, NC 

27510

(5 Books)

DC Books To Prisoners

(Drop off books only, can not mail books to them here)

Foundry United Methodist Church

1500 16th St NW

Washington DC

20036

contact: btopdc@gmail.com

(5)

Prisoners Literature Project

c/o Bound Together Books

1369 Haight St

San Francisco, CA 94117

(5)

Liberation Library

C/o In These Times

2040 N Milwaukee Ave

Chicago, IL 

60647

liberationlibraryil@gmail.com

(5)

Claremont Forum 

c/o Prison Library Project

56 W. 1st St.

Claremont, CA

91711

claremontforum@gmail.com

(5)

Read Between The Bars

C/O American Friends Service Committee

103 N. Park Ave. Ste. 111

Tucson, AZ 

85719 

readbetweenthebars@gmail.com

(5)

Reading Reduces Recidivism

UC Books to Prisoners

P.O Box 515

Urbana, Illinois

61803

3RsProjectCU@gmail.com

(5)

Prison Books Program

C/O First Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Ann Arbor

4001 Ann Arbor-Saline Road

Ann Arbor, MI 

48103-8739

prisonbooks@uuaa.org

(8)

BOOKS THROUGH BARS

4722 Baltimore Ave

Philadelphia, PA

19143

info@booksthroughbars.org

(8)

NYC Books Through Bars (Drop Off Only)

Freebird Books

123 Columbia St.

Brooklyn, NY

 

info@booksthroughbarsnyc.org