Celebrating the life and work of Adrian Henri, Occasional Papers are launching a book about the Liverpool-based artist. A fully illustrated catalogue with essays by Bryan Biggs, Adrian Henri, Antony Hudek and Catherine Marcangeli, the book will be launched at an event at the Bluecoat.

The evening will begin with a short presentation from the book's authors, followed by a reading from Henri's poetry by poet and musician Pete Brown. There will also be rare archive video footage of Adrian Henri's band The Liverpool Scene, which will be shown throughout the evening. 

The book coincides with a retrospective of Henri's work currently on display at LJMU's Exhibition Research Centre as part of the Biennial. Total Art showcases Adrian Henri’s multi-faceted oeuvre from the 1960s and 1970s, a period of intense creativity and collaborative artistic endeavours.

Henri (1932–2000) trained as a painter under Victor Pasmore and Richard Hamilton, and taught at Liverpool Art College in the 1960s. He came to prominence as one of the ‘Liverpool poets’, alongside Roger McGough and Brian Patten, in the best- selling Penguin anthology The Mersey Sound – irreverently urban and popular. Although Henri is best known as a painter and poet, this exhibition reveals him to be a pioneer of performance and collective practices in Britain and internationally, taking part in happenings in Liverpool as early as 1962, and crossing over into the world of rock with the touring band The Liverpool Scene.

Reflecting Henri’s eclecticism and insatiable curiosity, the exhibition features numerous artifacts from the Adrian Henri estate, including original paintings, collages, prints, annotated scripts and hand-made posters for happenings, objects, ephemera, rock posters, counterculture documents and correspondence, as well as rare audio and video material. Total Art at the ERC is curated by Paris-based art historian Catherine Marcangeli. 

To order please visit www.occasionalpapers.org or email info@occasionalpapers.org