Divine Violence

Bringing together two influential photobooks to explore the themes of violence, spectacle and history

Two influential photobooks by Adam Broomberg (born 1970) and Oliver Chanarin (born 1971) form the centerpiece of this publication: War Primer 2 (2011) and Holy Bible (2013), both heralded as contemporary classics of the photobook genre and now out of print.

Both books see Broomberg and Chanarin working with images of violence, war and terror–the unique legacy of the 20th century’s intense brutality and boom in photographic media. In both books, Broomberg and Chanarin collaged these charged images (mined from the internet or the Archive of Modern Conflict) in layered stacks on the pages of two already-existing, seminal books: Bertolt Brecht’s War Primer (1955) and the King James Bible. Appropriated and fragmentary, arranged in shocking juxtaposition to other images or neighboring texts, the images–and the artists’ handling of them–challenge the reader’s assumptions, knowledge and viewing habits.

Adam Broomberg / Oliver Chanarin: Don’t Start with the Good Old Things But the Bad New Ones brings together these two examples of the artists’ exploration of the themes of violence, spectacle and history. The latest in Spector Books’ Applied Publishing Studies series, this volume pays attention not only to the content of the two books, but also their form, particularly the novel spatial approach the artists take to the printed page.