James Birch: Gilbert & George and the Communists

Cheerio Publishing Ltd, 2026, softcover, 208 pages, 19 x 13 cm 

Picking up where the acclaimed Bacon in Moscow left off, Gilbert & George and the Communists sees daring art dealer James Birch take British art's most iconic duo on a subversive trip to Beijing, Shanghai and the dying embers of the Soviet Union James Birch has been a promoter of modern art for over thirty years and boasts a resume of exhibitions both throughout the UK and internationally. The first gallerist to show works by Grayson Perry and the neo-naturists, James was also a close friend of Francis Bacon, Gilbert & George, Denis Wirth Miller and Genesis POrridge. Written with the journalist Michael Hodges whose work has appeared in the Sunday Times, the Financial Times, the New Statesman and Esquire Gilbert & George and the Communists is more than just a picaresque and deeply funny riot through art history: it is an account of a world unthinkably different to and ever present in our own today.