Biographical Note
David Michael Wojnarowicz was an openly gay artist, writer, and activist who chronicled a late-twentieth century New York ravaged by AIDS. His multi-media work is notable for combining elements of personal narrative with erotic, often confrontational imagery.
Wojnarowicz was born on September 14, 1954 in Red Bank, New Jersey. Following his parents' divorce, Wojnarowicz moved with his mother to New York City, where he claims he began hustling at age eleven. He attended the High School of Music and Art in Manhattan for a time, although he never graduated. Wojnarowicz left his mother's apartment at age sixteen to live on the streets, where for two years he was a victim of numerous assaults, before seeking shelter at a halfway house.
In the ensuing years, Wojnarowicz traveled, often by hopping trains and hitchhiking. He lived in San Francisco, as well as in France with his sister, before eventually returning to New York, where he worked as a busboy or janitor to support himself and his art. His activities at this time included performing in a band (Three Teens Kill 4 - No Motive) featuring children's instruments and tape recordings of found sounds, and documenting the Lower West Side’s marginal characters through his film, writing and photography. His well-known series Arthur Rimbaud in New York, featuring images of the artist wearing a photographic mask of the symbolist poet, was created in 1978-79.
In the early 80s Wojnarowicz became known in the East Village art scene for making use of re-contextualized stencils, found maps, and grocery-store price signs to produce stark tableaux. By the mid-80s, after the death of his lover, the photographer Peter Hujar, and his own diagnosis with the disease, AIDS became a constant undercurrent in his work. The artist continued to work with images of decay, disaster and sexuality, adopting a militant stance against what he perceived as the complacency and ignorance surrounding the disease. An iconic image of the Wojnarowicz from this time appears in the film Silence = Death, where he appears with his mouth sewn shut in a reference to ACT-UP slogan.
At this controversial point in his career he was drafted in the "culture wars": the NEA rescinded and finally restored funding for an exhibition catalog in which he attacked various public figures, and he was criticized by both a member of Congress and the American Family Association. His book Close to the Knives: A Memoir of Disintegration was published in 1991. He continued to produce work until his death in 1992 at age 37.
SOURCES:
"David Michael Wojnarowicz."The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives, Volume 3: 1991-1993. Charles Scribner's Sons, 2001. Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Gale, 2009. http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/BioRC
"David Wojnarowicz." Contemporary Artists, 5th ed. St. James Press, 2001. Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Gale, 2009. http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/BioRC
Kimmelman, Michael. "David Wojnarowicz, 37, Artist in Many Media.(Cultural Desk)(Obituary)." The New York Times (July 24, 1992): NA. New York Times and New York Post (2000-present). Gale. New York Public Library. 22 May 2009. http://find.galegroup.com/itx/start.do?prodId=SPN.SP00.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Written Works by David Wojnarowicz:
Close to the Knives: A Memoir of Disintegration, New York: Vintage Books, 1991.
David Wojnarowicz: Brush Fires in the Social Landscape, Aperture, 1994.
Memories that Smell like Gasoline, San Francisco, ArtSpace Books, 1992.
Seven Miles a Second, New York: DC Comics, 1996.
Sounds in the Distance, London: Aloes Books, 1982.
Waterfront Journals, New York: Grove Press, 1996.
SOLO EXHIBITIONS:
1982: Milliken Gallery, NYC
1983: Hal Bromm Gallery, NYC; Civilian Warfare, NYC
1984: C.A.U.C. Buenos Aires, Argentina; Civilian Warfare, NYC; Anna Friebe Galerie, Cologne, West Germany; Gracie Mansion Gallery, NYC.
1985: Messages to the Public, Times Square Spectacolor Board, NYC
1986: Gracie Mansion Gallery, NYC; Anna Friebe Galerie, Cologne, West Germany; Cartier Foundation, Paris, France
1987: Ground Zero Gallery, NYC; Gracie Mansion Gallery, NYC
1989: PPOW, NYC
1990: David Wojnarowicz, Tongues of Flame, University Galleries, Illinois State University, Normal, Illinois. PPOW, NYC
1991: Exit Art, NYC, David Wojnarowicz: Tongues of Flame.
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS:
1980: Lower Manhattan Drawing Show, Mudd Club, NYC; Erotic Show, Club 57, NYC; : Hunger, Leo Castelli's Staircase, action installations with Julie Hair, NYC
1982: Fast, Milliken Gallery, NYC; Hunger Show, Gallery 345, NYC; Beast Show-Cock-a-Bunnies, PS.1, Long Island City, NY, action installation; 3 Person Show, Civilian Warfare Gallery, NYC; Famous Show, Gracie Mansion Gallery, NYC; Street Image Brawl (PADD), Franklin Furnace, NYC
1983: Sex Show, Sharpe Gallery, NYC; Underdog, East 7th Street Gallery, NYC; The Terminal Show, Brooklyn Terminal, NYC; Sofa/ Painting, Gracie Mansion Gallery, NYC; Soup Kitchen Benefit, Fashion Moda, NYC; From the Streets, Greenville County Museum of Art, South Carolina;: Summer Show, Hal Bromm, NYC; Speed Trials, White Columns, NYC; Wardline Pier Project, organized by David Wojnarowicz & Mike Bidlo, NYC; Intoxication, Monique Knowlton Gallery, curated by Nicholas Moufarrege, NYC; 3 Part Variety, Milliken Gallery, NYC (co-curator)
1984: East Village Artists, Virginia Museum of Fine Art, curated by Margo Crutchfield, VA ; Gracie Mansion Gallery, NYC (installation).; Neo York, University Art Museum, University of California, curated by Phillis Plous, Santa Barbara, CA.; Acid Show, Sensory Evolution Gallery, NYC; Indigestion, PPOW Gallery, NYC; New Galleries of the Lower East Side, Artists Space, NYC; 25,000 Sculptors from Across the USA, Civilian Warfare, NYC; Portraits, PS.1, curated by Jeffrey Deitch, Long Island City, NY
1985: Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum of American Art, NYC; Anchorage, installation, Brooklyn, NY; Indigestion, PPOW Gallery, NYC; #2 Smart Art Too, 55 Mercer St. Gallery, NYC; Graffiti and East Village Artists, Librizzi Gallery, NYC; East Village Sampler, Jones Troyer Gallery, NYC; Getting Off, Civilian Warfare, NYC; You Killed Me First Installation#8, collaboration with Richard Kern, Ground Zero, NYC; Benefit for the Kitchen, Brooke Alexander, NYC; 1986 The All-Natural Disaster Show, Bronx Council on the Arts, New York; The East Village, Fashion Institute of Technology, NYC; Heads, Mokotoff Gallery, NYC; Homage to Nicholas Moufarrege, Gabrielle Bryers Gallery, NYC
1987: Art Against Aids, Gracie Mansion Gallery, NYC; Exposed and Enveloped, Laurence Miller Gallery, NYC; Redtape Magazine Benefit, EM Donahue Gallery, NYC; Scott Hanson Gallery, NYC
1988: Vollbild- AIDS, N.G.B.K. Berlin, West Germany; Products and Promotion, Franklin Furnace, NYC; Unknown Secrets: Art and the Rosenberg Era, Traveled to: University of Colorado Art Galleries, University of Colorado, Boulder, Installation Gallery.; Still Trauma, Milford Gallery, New York; Fermate show/ installation/ films/ performance in Cologne Train Station, organized by Rilo Chmielorz.
1989: Witnesses Against Our Vanishing, Artist's Space, NYC, curated by Nan Goldin; Departures Photography 1924-89, Hirschl & Adler Modern, NYC; Art About AIDS, Freedman Gallery, Albright College, Reading, PA
1995-96: Temporarily Possessed The Semi-Permanent Collection, New Museum of Contemporary Art, NYC.
1996-97: Sex/ Industry, Guest curated by John Yau, Stefan Stux Gallery, NYC.
1997-98: Male, curated by Vince Aletti, Wessel + O'Connor Gallery, NYC.
FILMS/ VIDEOS/ AUDIO RECORDINGS:
1979: Heroin (partially destroyed), color, super-8
1983: 3 Teens Kill 4- no motive/ LP, Point Blank Records
1985: Satan Teens (made with Tommy Turner) b&w super-8, 90 minutes. (unfinished)
1987: A Fire in my Belly, filmed in Mexico City and various border towns as well as NYC, b&w and color super-8, 30 minutes.(went through 2 versions then disassembled for other projects.)
1987-88: Untitled (The Death of Peter Hujar), b&w super-8, approx.30 minutes, unedited.
1988: Beautiful People, starring Jesse Hultberg, approx. 30 minutes (soundtrack unfinished)
1989: Teaching a Frog to Dance (or: Building a Patriotic Beast) b&w super-8, 2 ; minutes, unfinished.; What's This Guy's Job in the World, 2 minutes, color video.; In This House..., 3 minutes, color video.; Howdie Doody Goes for a Drive, b&w super-8, 25 minutes,(unfinished).; Untitled, or Using My Sexual Energy As a Tool to Fight the State Is As Good a Tool As Any Other, 5 minute video & super-8 version featuring Marion Scemama (unfinished).
1990: Fear of Disclosure: The Psycho-Social Implications of HIV Revelation, 4 parts, in collaboration with Phil Zwickler.
1991: Site-less sounds/ Tellus #25. Compilation CD with various artists including David Wojnarowicz and Ben Neill performing "Vanishing act".
1992: ITSOFOMO: In the Shadow of Forward Motion /New Tone Records, CD of audio performance by David Wojnarowicz and Ben Neill.
FILMS (APPEARED OR ACTED IN):
1985: Stray Dogs, segment of Manhattan Love Suicides by Richard Kern (co-starring with Bill Rice).
1986: You Killed Me First, by Richard Kern, featuring Karen Finley, Lung Leg and David Wojnarowicz.
1990: Silence = Death, by Rosa von Praunheim and Phil Zwickler.
PLAYS:
1983: Sounds in the Distance/ Adapted and directed by Allen Frame and Kirsten Bates, Bill Rice's Garden, NYC, Berlin and BACA Downtown, Brooklyn.
PERFORMANCES:
1989: Itsofomo: In the Shadow of Forward Motion, co-conceived with musician Ben Neill. Multimedia performance presented in raw version for four nights at the Kitchen, NYC. Choreography Gloria McLean, videos edited by David Wojnarowicz and Phil Zwickler. Itsofomo was subsequently performed at Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; the Center of Contemporary Art, Seattle, San Francisco Art Institute; Hallwalls, Buffalo; and Exit Art, NYC.
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The David Wojnarowicz Papers are a part of the Downtown Collection at the Fales Library, New York University. The Fales Library is the primary special collections division of the NYU libraries, housing nearly 200,000 volumes of English and American literature from 1700 to the present. Strengths of the collection include the development of the English and American novel, with an emphasis on the Gothic and the Victorian novel. The Downtown Collection, of which the Wojnarowicz Papers are a part, is a comprehensive collection of printed materials, archives, and other materials related to the Downtown New York scene from ca. 1975 to the present.
The David Wojnarowicz Papers are comprised of journals, correspondence, manuscripts, ephemera, photography, artwork, film, video and audio works.
The film, video and audio series (Series VIII, IX and X) of the David Wojnarowicz Papers contain audio, film and video works by David Wojnarowicz, as well as an extensive collection of film, video and audio source materials produced by Wojnarowicz. The collection of source and production materials reflects his interest in documenting environments through visual and audio recording media, as well as his tendency to reuse imagery from various media. The source materials include recorded journal entries, ambient recordings and interviews with friends and colleagues. Works by other downtown NYC artists and collaborators, such as Ben Neill, Richard Kern, Charles Atlas, Phil Zwickler, and Rosa von Praunheim are included in the collection as well as commercial works representing David Wojnarowicz's personal videotape library. Also included in the collection are taped radio interviews which document the NEA and Donald Wildmon/ American Family Association controversies. The collection also includes phone message tapes from David Wojnarowicz's personal answering machine. These tapes document significant events in his life such as the death of Peter Hujar. Descriptive information for items in these series is taken from any descriptive information provided by the artist on the object or its packaging.
The photography series (Series IX) contains multiple formats of photographs taken by David Wojnarowicz, mainly during the 1980s and early 1990s. Negatives, contact sheets, prints, and slides offer different media in which to examine Wojnarowicz's camera style, subject matter, and photographic collages. Contact sheets often have Wojnarowicz's notation on them as to which frames to reprint or enlarge, allowing a glimpse into his artistic choices. In addition, the envelopes which originally housed the contact sheets and negatives are full of Wojnarowicz's descriptions of the images inside, and sometimes his thoughts about their artistic merit. Negatives of important Wojnarowicz photographic work, such as the Rimbaud series, diorama shots, and photographs of Peter Hujar's death, are included. In addition, Wojnarowicz's many trips to Paris, Berlin and Mexico are well documented; inspirations gained on these trips can be traced throughout Wojnarowicz's work. The prints, which range in size from 3 x 5 in. to 16 x 20 in., often show a variety of exposures and darkroom techniques on the same image, detailing the options from which the final choice was made. Wojnarowicz's collection of commercial pornographic images is included here, and contains images which were later incorporated into several of the Sex series works. Many prints of the Rimbaud series, as well as many copies of a source photograph of a meteor crater, are contained in this series. A numbered run of slides contains most of Wojnarowicz's completed art works and documents, along with the prints and contact sheets, of many of his installation pieces.
SERIES DESCRIPTIONS:
SERIES I: JOURNALS AND DIARIES
Series I consists of 2 boxes of journal notebooks with handwritten entries, encompassing the period from 1971 to 1990 (with discontinuities). The journals refer to sojourns in France, Berlin, Spain, Mexico, Louisiana, Illinois, Texas, and New York and include notes on art and film projects.
SERIES II: CORRESPONDENCE
Series II comprises correspondence of both a personal and business nature and covers the 1970's through 1992. The bulk of the correspondence is directed to Wojnarowicz, although correspondence authored by Wojnarowicz is included. Correspondence is ordered chronologically (where possible) and then alphabetically by correspondent. Only recurring and noteworthy names are listed in the finding aid.
SERIES III: MANUSCRIPTS
Includes drafts of various writings, transcripts of interviews, lectures, and monologues, and performance scripts and notes.
Subseries A: Manuscripts
Subseries B: Notebook manuscripts
Subseries C: Lectures/talks
Subseries D: Monologues
Subseries E: Booklength monologues
Subseries F: Scripts/Plays
Subseries G: Performance Collaborations
Subseries H: Manuscripts by Others
SERIES IV: TELEPHONE LOGS
Chronicles Wojnarowicz's phone calls; includes notebooks, loose paper, and scrap sheets upon which Wojnarowicz noted pertinent phone call information.
SERIES V: ART MAGAZINES AND CATALOGUE CONTRIBUTIONS
Subseries A: Contributions of Artwork to Art Magazines by Wojnarowicz. Wojnarowicz images and motifs which appear in commercial publications, including Spin, The New Yorker, and Artforum.
Subseries B: Articles by Wojnarowicz. Prose pieces by Wojnarowicz appearing in commercial publications.
Subseries C: Articles on Wojnarowicz in art magazines. Some 34 articles and essays discussing Wojnarowicz's career, work, and milieu.
Subseries D: Misc. Articles and Mention. Approximately 20 mentions or references to Wojnarowicz in various commercial publications.
SERIES VI: BIOGRAPHICAL
Subseries A: Photographs & Documents. Snapshots of Wojnarowicz, his work, and friends; biographical, contractual, and medical documentation.
Subseries B: Obituaries. Some 22 obituaries which appeared in such diverse commercial publications as OUT, Entertainment Weekly, and TIME. Also, files pertaining to Wojnarowicz's memorial service, including the funeral log.
Subseries C: Reviews. Some 50-odd critical reviews of various Wojnarowicz exhibitions, performances, writings, and art.
Subseries D: Business and Promotional. Various artist-related materials, including gallery papers, exhibition and performance flyers, and contracts. Also included are business cards and phone numbers of Wojnarowicz's friends and contacts, and other artists' exhibition flyers and catalogs.
Subseries E: Subseries E: Taxes, Receipts, and Legal Documents. Taxes, including Peter Hujar tax information. Receipts, ordered chronologically (where possible) from 1983 to 1986.
SERIES VII: SUBJECTS
Subseries A: Loft. Loft papers and loft board files, ca.1979-1991 (with discontinuities). Also various banking, telephone, and utility receipts; bills; and nine files pertaining to Peter Hujar, including Hujar's will and obituaries.
Subseries B: Legal Cases
Documentation pertaining to the Reverend Wildmon trial and NEA legal battles.
Subseries C: Announcements. Flyers, posters, and promotional material concerning political activism, Wojnarowicz's rock'n'roll band 3 Teens Kill 4, art exhibitions, and various cultural and social events.
Subseries D: General Subjects. Includes material on PPOW gallery, Dennis Cooper, and Tom Rauffenbart.
SERIES VIII: AUDIO WORKS
Series VIII contains both complete audio works and audio source materials. Letters and number sequences at the end of each description refer to the original box in which the work was found.
Subseries A: Composed of primary audio works including recorded journal material, radio interviews conducted with David Wojnarowicz concerning the NEA and Donald Wildmon controversies, and recordings of Wojnarowicz's public readings and performances.
Subseries B: A collection of ambient recordings and a sound effects library that David Wojnarowicz used for the production of audio works and soundtracks for his films.
Subseries C: contains original music recordings by David Wojnarowicz and the group 3 Teens Kill 4 No Motive as well as original and commercial music recordings by other Downtown NYC artists.
Subseries D: Phone Message tapes from David Wojnarowicz's answering machine. These tapes document major events in Wojnarowicz's life including the death of Peter Hujar, and other friends, as well as the NEA grant controversy and the lawsuit against Donald Wildmon and the American Family Association.
Subseries E: Commercial tapes. This series is processed at the box level. There is no list of the items included.
Subseries F: Contains dubs Wojnarowicz made of bands from commercial and other sources. This series is processed at the box level. There is no list of the items included.
Subseries G: Contains unidentified and blank tapes. This series is processed at the box level. There is no list of the items included.
SERIES IX: PHOTOGRAPHY
This series includes photographs taken by David Wojnarowicz, photographs taken by other artists, photographs of Wojnarowicz' artwork, and source photographs Wojnarowicz was inspired by or incorporated into larger works. The majority of the contact sheets and negatives correspond to each other, and comprehensive indexing exists between the two subseries. Negatives can be found for most of the Wojnarowicz prints in this series, but have not been indexed in this way. A large numbered run of slides of completed artwork is accompanied by a list of each artwork's date and media; these seem to be pieces represented by Gracie Mansion Gallery.
Subseries A: Contact Sheets
Subseries B: Negatives
The provenance of subseries A and B is complex, and needs to be understood in order to understand the two subseries. In 1994, Aperture acquired many negatives and contact sheets from Wojnarowicz in order to use some of them in the production of the book David Wojnarowicz: Brush Fires in the Social Landscape. Aperture received 58 manila envelopes containing negatives and contact sheets, which they numbered. Other contact sheets or negatives arrived in "box 108," "box 109," "paper bag 111" etc. This original housing forms the basis for Aperture's system of organization. They organized and rehoused all the negatives, leaving contact sheets in the original envelope or box housing. Aperture also created a list of what they received, transcribing Wojnarowicz' notes, and listing the numbers of contact sheets and negatives in each folder. An abridged version of this list appears in the Container listing, and the original is attached to the finding aid as Appendix A . All other contact sheets and negatives arrived at Fales Library also in manila envelopes. About half of these were numbered in red pen with numbers ranging from 2 - 41. The remaining envelopes were not numbered, but, as do all the envelopes, contain Wojnarowicz's notes about the negatives inside. A list similar to that created by Aperture was generated for these envelopes, and while much of it also appears in the Container listing below, it also is attached as Appendix B .
All contact sheets are currently housed in Boxes 30 - 44, in numerical order following photocopies of any notes on the original housing. Negatives are housed correspondingly in Boxes 45 - 55, and are labeled with the number or title of the envelope in which they originated. In this way, negatives can be found based on the number of the envelope in front of the contact sheet. There are some gaps in the contact sheet-negative match. For example, Aperture's "Box 108" has no batch of corresponding negatives; negatives to these contact sheets mainly occur in the "unnumbered envelopes." In order to make these discrepancies less complex, each contact sheet is marked with the Box number in which the corresponding negative appears. Aperture-numbered envelopes are marked as such. The non-numbered envelopes are titled based on Wojnarowicz' notes and ordered as they were originally in the box in which they arrived at Fales. "Order" of these photographs, however, matters little, as Wojnarowicz himself did not order or number any of the envelopes. Original housings or notations are housed at the end of the series.
Rimbaud series. Box 44 contains an almost complete set of what appear to be original Rimbaud series contact sheets. However, the negatives for these photos were in disarray when Aperture acquired them, and new contact sheets were created. These appear in Box 37. They contain strips of negatives from different rolls of film printed onto the same contact sheet. The majority of the Rimbaud negatives appear in Box 49, with others scattered throughout the collection. A list of where the Rimbaud negatives can be found, based on the original contact sheets in Box 44, follows as Appendix C .
Subseries C: Prints of Wojnarowicz Art Photographs
These prints are organized into known photographic series (such as Arthur Rimbaud in New York and the Sex Series) and then loosely by the subjects "Animals and Insects," "People," and "Things." The oversize prints are grouped together by series when known, or by photograph (including multiples from the same negative), and are described at the item level. The multiple versions reflect different contrast and exposure choices made while printing, and some of the photographs have been printed with alternative processes such as solarization or by painting directly on the print surface with chemistry. The oversize prints include the photographic series of Peter Hujar on his deathbed.
Subseries D: Prints of Source Photographs
Contains Wojnarowicz' collection of mid-20th century pornographic cards. Also included are Wojnarowicz photographs which were later used in larger collages, or were not used as part of any artwork. These are organized loosely by subjects as in Subseries C: "Animals and Insects," "People," and "Things," as well as by more specific subjects, such as "Statues," "Sex Pics," and "Paris."
Subseries E: Other People's Photographs. Composed of a 16 x 20 in. Nan Goldin photographic print (of Nan Goldin).
Subseries F: Slides. As with the contact sheets and negatives, many of these slides were acquired by Aperture in 1994 and organized and described based on letters or numbers given to the original boxes. Many of these works are reprints of photographs, some are entire rolls of color film (many of Mexico) which do not exist in print form in this collection. The majority of the slides have been housed according to this lettering and numbering system given by Aperture (A-Z, AA-ZZ, 1 - 106). An index to the topics covered in each box/sheet follows as Appendix D . These groups of slides are housed following photocopies of the notation on their original boxes, much as the contact sheets above.
A numbered list of over 300 completed artworks accompanied the slides; many of the corresponding numbered slides are scattered throughout the groupings by original slide boxes. An index to the location of these slides follows as Appendix E . In general, however, slides of completed Wojnarowicz artwork can be found in Boxes 80 - 86.
Slides not grouped or numbered in this way include documentation of Wojnarowicz installation pieces, photographs of Mexican mummies, additional numbered slides of Wojnarowicz artwork, as well as loose slides found throughout the collection. These are housed following any information which was attached to them, such as their original location or dates taken. Original housings or notations are housed at the end of the series.
SERIES X: FILM AND VIDEO
Series X contains completed film and video works, original film and video production and source materials and commercial videotapes from David Wojnarowicz's personal collection.
Subseries A: Video Recordings - Access Copies contains completed video works, films transferrred to video, plus additional original source material by David Wojnarowicz. This subseries is arranged by chronologically.
Subseries B: Video Recordings - Original Material contains completed film completed video works, films transferrred to video, plus additional original source material by David Wojnarowicz. Access copies may not be available for all material.
Subseries C: Film - Access Copies contains completed film works plus original source material by David Wojnarowicz originally on Super8mm preserved on 16mm.
Subseries D: Film - Original Material contains completed film works plus original source material by David Wojnarowicz. Access copies may not be available for all material.
Subseries E: Commercial Works by Others that made up David Wojnarowicz's personal collection.
SERIES XI: ARTWORKS
Artworks include sketches, drawings, studies, altered items, and collage; source material comprises diverse images and textual material which bear directly and indirectly on Wojnarowicz's art. Such items as maps, comic books, postcards, tear sheets, decals, and targets appear in the source material. Art by others includes work by downtown contemporaries Kiki Smith and Barbara Kruger.
Subseries A: Finished
Subseries B: Drawings
Subseries C: Sketches
Subseries D: Source Material
Subseries E: Plans
Subseries F: Xerox
Subseries G: Other People's Art
SERIES XII: LIBRARY
Books and publications, ordered alphabetically by author, which comprise Wojnarowicz's personal library. Many items may be considered source material, as a significant portion of the content is reflected in the motifs and preoccupations expressed in Wojnarowicz's art.
SERIES XIII: OBJECTS AND ARTIFACTS
Subseries A: General Objects and Artifacts. The objects in this series include religious objects, figurines, jewelry, toys, textiles, and artworks. While some of the objects are artworks made by Wojnarowicz, they also include artworks made by others, ritual objects, natural artifacts and commercial objects that he collected. Some of the objects figured as props in Wojnarowicz's photography and film works.
Subseries B: The Magic Box. The Magic Box is a group of fifty-nine small objects collected by Wojnarowicz and stored by him in a pine fruit box labeled "Magic Box." According to Tom Rauffenbart, Wojnarowicz kept the box under his bed and never discussed its function or significance. The objects range from organic materials such as stones and dried flowers, to commercial products like jewelry and plastic toys. To preserve the contextual and artifactual integrity of the box as a work, Fales has kept it in the same general arrangement it was in when it came to the Fales Library in 1997. This means the objects have not been physically separated from each other, but remain piled loosely in the box, and no steps have been taken to preserve their physical condition. However, scholar Mysoon Rizk cataloged the objects before they came to Fales, and some of them remain grouped in the plastic or tissue housings she used to organize and protect them. These items are generally wrapped in tape that has been marked with her initials.
Subseries C: Personal Items. These personal effects were part of a 2001 accretion of materials from Tom Rauffenbart. The inlcude Wojnarowicz's wallet, eyeglasses, and identification cards.
ACCRETIONS 2001
Comprises additional materials bearing on Wojnarowicz's life and career donated by various sources and persons. Includes VHS videocassettes and audiocassette formats.
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Arrangement
Folders are arranged both alphabetically by subject/author heading and chronologically depending on the nature of the materials.
The files are grouped into 13 subject based series and further subdivided into subseries.
Related Material at the Fales Library and Special Collections
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Restrictions
Access Restrictions
Open to researchers. Appointments are necessary for the use of manuscript and archival materials.
Use Restrictions
Collection use is subject to all copyright laws. Permission to publish materials must be obtained in writing from the Director of Fales Library and Special Collections. Please contact fales.library@nyu.edu. or call 212 998 2596.
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Administrative Information
Provenance
The David Wojnarowicz Papers were purchased in September 1997 from the estate of David Wojnarowicz with the assistance of Tom Rauffenbart, executor of the estate. The complete collection totals 128 linear feet. The collection was transferred from a storage unit on the West side of Manhattan to the Fales Library at New York University.
Preferred Citation
Published citations should take the following form:
Identification of item, date (if known); The David Wojnarowicz Papers; MSS 092; box number; folder number; Fales Library and Special Collections, New York University Libraries.