Just Another Asshole

Just Another Asshole was a no wave mixed media publication project launched from the Lower East Side of Manhattan from 1978 to 1987. Barbara Ess organized and edited seven issues of Just Another Asshole, which formed thanks to an open, collaborative submission process. Issues 3 and 4 were co-edited by Jane M. Sherry and issues 5 through 7 were co-edited by Glenn Branca. Issue formats include: zine, LP record, large format tabloid, magazine, exhibition catalog, and paperback book.

Barbara Ess edited the first two installments of Just Another Asshole alone; these photocopied zines utilized intermingling high contrast compositions of apocalyptic warnings, celebrity close-ups, helicopters, and tabloids. The title for these works came from the first zine, which contains an alarming juxtaposition of the image of a deaf boy killed by an attack that he could not hear alongside the handwritten words just another asshole, a coupling which drops both cynical subjectivity and objectivity in the viewer's lap. The materiality of the zines, taped together with electrical tape and overlaid with red writing, heightened the boldness of the aesthetic.

This issue was co-edited by Jane M. Sherry and was born out of an open call for work, where anything would be accepted for publication. The final product included contributions from Jenny Holzer, Barbara Kruger, Carla Liss and as many as forty others.

The fourth installment of this project lived as a four-page spread included in the February 1980 issue of Artforum.

Just Another Asshole #5 (1981) was a compilation anthology LP of 84 artists' and musicians' work. The LP was released with the help of White Columns. No single track is longer than one minute. A CD reissue was released in 1995 on Atavistic Records.

Anthologies played a major part in defining the various attitudes of downtown no wave work.Just Another Asshole #6 is often cited as one of these seminal writing compilations. Edited with Glenn Branca, the sixth issue of this downtown magazine outlines the variety of styles and aesthetics that were developing in the early 1980s. Included in the issue are works by Kathy Acker, Eric Bogosian, Mitch Corber, Brian Buczak, Jenny Holzer, Cookie Mueller, Richard Prince, Joseph Nechvatal, Judy Rifka, David Rattray, Arleen Schloss, Kiki Smith, Tod Jorgenson, Lynne Tillman, Anne Turyn, Ann Rower, Reese Williams, David Wojnarowicz, Barbara Kruger, and others.

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