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[In late July, The New Sins (Los Pecados Nuevos), a new book by David Byrne, will become available. In stores and here, online, through us. As Mr. Byrne tours the country in support of his new album, Look Into the Eyeball, he will here and there be visiting bookshops, signing copies of The New Sins. Information about this will be forthcoming as his schedule becomes more certain. The New Sins is the longest work of prose David Byrne has ever published. It is singularly Byrnian: simultaneously profound, bizarre, hilarious, beautiful and deadly serious. In addition to his elucidation of the qualities that are considered sins in contemporary life, the book contains approximately eighty color photographs taken by the author. The book is bound in an extremely handsome red faux-leather cover, in the style of Bibles of smaller size. The book, through and through — thanks to Byrne's vision and our partners at Oddi Printing -- is a truly gorgeous object. We are extremely proud to have been able to help with the publishing of this book. It really is something special, a must-have for fans of Byrne, or of sins. This week we will be presenting, in four parts, David Byrne's account of the birth of the book, up through its recent debut at the Valencia Biennal. This is part one, which is very short. - - - - PART I When I look at this book (I'm in Oslo today, on a music tour), I ask myself "What came over me?" and sometimes "What sort of madman wrote this?" The answer to those questions is that the writer (and let's not forget the guy who took the pictures) is me — me unchained, letting it all hang out, being real till it hurts. It's you too, if you'll admit it, but you probably won't. You'll probably say "That David Byrne is some kinda nut!" and never ask yourself if you too want to scream out loud that Charity is a fucking sin, and so is Hope, for that matter. Well, let me do it for you. You can thank me later. This book is real. It's insane, yes, but crazy like a fox. It felt so good to say these things, to hide behind the barricade of humor and throw rocks at sacred cows. It's truer than even I would care to admit. But why? About a year ago I was approached by some people who were organizing an art Biennial in Valencia, a city on the Mediterranean coast of Spain. I had recently been to Valencia on what turned out to be a wild goose chase of an art project for their new arts and sciences complex, so I was familiar with the city. It's a medium-sized city, but someone in the administration is hell-bent on raising their cultural profile. The arts and science center was designed by the acclaimed architect Santiago Calatrava, and it looks like the skeleton of a monstrously huge sea beast, truly immense and spectacular — and a completely inappropriate space for hanging shows of pictures. The word I got from Valencia this time, regarding their proposed Biennial, was that it was to include commissioned projects from cross-media artists like Robert Wilson, Peter Greenaway and the Catalan theater group Fura del Baus...and that invitations had been extended to many more artists. It was all very vague and grand, as only European art events in the planning stages can be. And it had a theme, as all European arts events must have. This one was "The Passions — Vices and Virtues." Or maybe it was "The Body and Sin." Or maybe, in true curatorial theme fashion, it was both. (It was!) By email I then made a series of written proposals for projects. Here's the first: 1. A series of civic sculptures based on local delicacies. Using recent computer technology, which allows a relatively small 3-D object to be scanned and then enlarged: computerized lathes or something follow the exact details of the scan as they carve away at some large piece of material- which can then be cast and molded in a more permanent material. My second proposal was that they produce a book. Here are my exact words: 2. A book — a book that explores, through text and image, imaginary passions, sins and desires. This book should be like a Bible, easy to hold, with the appearance of a book of dogma or a schoolbook... except with more pictures. The book would be published by the Biennial — and offered free to visitors to the city.... placed in hotel rooms alongside the New Testament. Given away free on the street in public plazas and mercados. A gallerist who has been showing my work in Italy, and who introduced me to the Biennial people, preferred the book idea. They felt that the other idea was "too Charles Ray, or even Oldenberg," and I could see their point. Well, not really, but the book sounded like a lot of fun to do, and equally challenging. - - - - TOMORROW: Part II. If you are a media person and would like to interview Mr. Byrne about his book, email us at byrnebook@mcsweeneys.net. In the subject header, please write BYRNE INTERVIEW. If you are a reviewer or writer about books and would like a review copy of this David Byrne book, email us at julie@mcsweeneys.net.
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