Jill Johnston. The Disintegration of a Critic
Book launch with editors Fiona McGovern, Megan Francis Sullivan and Axel Wieder
Jill Johnston—cultural critic, auto/biographer, and lesbian icon—was renowned as a writer on dance, especially on the developments around Judson Dance and the 1960s downtown New York City scene, and later as the author of the radical-feminist classic Lesbian Nation (1973). This book collects thirty texts by Jill Johnston that were initially published in her weekly column for The Village Voice between 1960 and 1974. The column provided a format in which Johnston could dissolve distinctions between the personal, the critical, and the political. Her writing took turns and loops, reflecting its times and contexts, and set a stage for the emergence of Johnston as a public figure and self-proclaimed radical lesbian that defied any prescribed position.
The book is published on the occasion of the exhibtion: Jill Johnston. The Disintegration of a Critic in Bergen Kunsthall, 23 May - 11 August 2019 curated by Fiona McGovern, Megan Francis Sullivan and Axel Wieder
