Performance/Reading: Warren Lerher, "A Life in Books, The Rise and Fall of Bleu Mobley

Warren Lehrer multimedia performance/reading of A LIFE IN BOOKS: The Rise and Fall of Bleu Mobley

3:00-5:00 pm
SF State Fine Arts, room 193

Award-winning writer/designer/visual literature pioneer Warren Lehrer presents a multimedia performance/reading of his new “illuminated novel." A Life In Books: The Rise and Fall of Bleu Mobley contains 101 books within it, all written by Lehrer’s protagonist—a controversial author who finds himself in prison looking back on his life and career. In this funny and thought provoking performance, Lehrer presents an overview of Bleu Mobley's life in books via many of Mobley's cover designs and other biographical materials including animations and video performances of Mobley book excerpts. The resulting retrospective explores the creative process of a writer/artist, as it reflects upon a half century of American/global events, grapples with the future of the book as a medium as well as the lines that separate (and sometimes blur) truth, myth and fiction.

WINNER 2014 IPPY (Independent Publisher) Outstanding Book of the Year Award
WINNER 2014 Best New Fiction Award USA Best Books

"A Life In Books is brilliant, beautiful, delicious for eyes and mind. A profound commentary.”
Andrei Codrescu, novelist, public radio commentator, editor The Exquisite Corpse

“An ingenious, one-of-kind novel." Kurt Andersen, Studio 360, NPR

"In A Life In Books, author and graphic design visionary Warren Lehrer crafts a vivid kaleidoscopic odyssey that frames one man’s life through not one, but one hundred different books—and book jackets... An unmistakably modern evocation of the illuminated manuscript."
—Jessica Helfand, founding editor Design Observer

“In Warren Lehrer’s books, words take on thought’s very form, bringing sensory experience to the reader as directly as ink on paper can allow. Once considered too far ahead of his time… now the times are beginning to catch up to him.”
—Julie Lasky, The New York Times Book Review

“A blend of writing and design, which extends to performance art… A Life in Books is a typographical and design tour de force.”
Ellen Shapiro PRINT Magazine