Jerry Hunt: Transmissions from the Pleroma

Blank Forms, 2021, Softcover, 200 pages, 21 × 14 cm

Contributions by Kris Paulsen, Guy De Bièvre, George Lewis, David Rosenboom, Gordon Monahan, Karen Finley, Tyler Maxin, Lawrence Kumpf

Jerry Hunt (1943–1993) has been described as a shamanic figure with the look of a Central Texas meat inspector. One of the most compelling composers in the world of late twentieth-century new music, he made work that combined video synthesis, installation art, and early computers with rough-hewn sculptures, scores drawn from celestial alphabets, and homemade electronics activated by his signature wands and impassioned gestures. Hunt lived his entire life in Texas, eventually settling in a house (“an interactive environment”) he built with his partner, Stephen Housewright, in a rural area outside Canton, but his pataphysical, abrasive, and humorous performances took him across North America and Europe, where he amassed a small but dedicated following.

This volume, accompanying an exhibition of the same title, represents the first ever book-length collection devoted to the underknown composer’s work, and includes a biographical essay, interviews with and essays by Hunt, and detailed analyses of his visual art, and reflections from his friends and collaborators.