The Reading Warehouse

Robert Heinecken (1931-2006) seldom used a camera. A self-described "para-photographer," he repurposed found imagery to explore the underpinnings of daily life. He cut into periodicals--snipping heads from lithe bodies and slicing rouged lips from smiling cheeks--and reorganized these fragments into collaged wholes that reveal the greed, hypocrisy and misogyny behind traditional depictions of America.

This book presents Heinecken's Periodicals (1969-72) and Revised Magazines (1989-94) as 25 facsimiles. Originally conceived as insertions into everyday life, these collage-publications were taken from newsstands, altered and then returned to be purchased by unsuspecting consumers. By pasting a Vietnam War image into fashion magazines or a dominatrix into Time, Heinecken created serials that are disturbing yet familiar; known cultural referents now oppose their presumed functions.