Damien Hirst | 
| Author: Gordon Burn
Publisher: Universe Publishing
Category: Book
List Price: $49.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  3 reviews
Sales Rank: 410425
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 224
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 7.3 x 1.3
ISBN: 0789306646
Dewey Decimal Number: 709
EAN: 9780789306647
ASIN: 0789306646
Publication Date: January 5, 2002
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com Review
Damien Hirst and his friend, the writer Gordon Burn, provide in On the Way to Work a fascinating window into the mind of one of the most successful artists of the turn of the 21st century. The book, which is beautifully produced, illustrated, and typeset, is a collection of interviews, the first on the eve of Hirst's first major exhibition at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London--when he unveiled his infamous shark suspended in a vat of formaldehyde (1991's wonderfully titled The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living. While the book is certainly skewed toward the later years (one interview in January 1992, one in April 1996, three in 1999, and seven in 2000), the reader does get a broad overview of how Hirst's relationships to life, art, and money have progressed. Hirst's fame, his spearheading of the YBA (young British artists) phenomenon, and his subsequent exposure in the gossip columns with the well-documented, and inevitable, drug and drink stories, are all fully covered here. But it is Hirst's genuinely profound artistic imagination and insight that best come across: his obsession with death--and with needing to prove his talent as a way to be immortalized in order to escape death--and his ambivalence toward art (the kind of ambivalence much of the public itself exhibits toward modern art) are key here. Also illuminating is Hirst's respect and admiration for Francis Bacon, as well as our discovery of Hirst's skill as a raconteur. If most visual artists show a disappointing inability to discuss their creations, Hirst, at least, shows an enviable ability to tell a divertingly good story: proof, if any were needed, of his working-class roots and his fidelity towards them (surely only the middle classes would see the selling of the fruit of their artistic labors as selling out). Hirst, candidly, sees the art world as always part of the work and space of art, and it is a part he sometimes enjoys, sometimes struggles with, and whose successes he has rightly benefited from. In 1996 Hirst displayed the body of a cow cut up and suspended in 12 vitrines. The piece was called Some Comfort Gained from the Acceptance of the Inherent Lies in Everything. Hirst seems to have decided that the inevitability of death, so futilely hidden by a society obsessed with youth and health, is the only truth--or rather, perhaps, the only incisive fact that may help us to fully live now and eschew those lies in which we all swim and in which we are always in danger of drowning. On the Way to Work is an excellent book and much recommended to anyone who has been fascinated by the sudden rise in the visibility of modern art and what it has to say about society at the beginning of the 21st century. --Mark Thwaite, Amazon.co.uk
Product Description
Damien Hirst is one of the most controversial, influential, and fascinating artists working today, and arguably the most famous. From the controversy of his early work to the political storm surrounding the arrival of the exhibition Sensation at the Brooklyn Museum of Art, his work has redefined international expectations of modern art. Even people with only a passing knowledge of art are familiar with his installations of a shark, cows, and sheep pickled in formaldehyde.
On the Way to Work is an extremely candid autobiography of Hirst presented in a series of conversations. He expounds in unpredictable and scabrously funny ways on everything from art to celebrity to sex, and these frank and intimate conversations are punctuated with art from all phases of his career chosen by Hirst himself. This book is a window into Hirst's world: growing up in working class northern England, roughhousing in pubs, obsessing about life and death, questioning art world fame, and believing that art and beauty make a difference in the modern world.
In addition to the attention he generates, this dynamic artist also garners critical acclaim-he is the winner of the Turner Prize and, ever since the groundbreaking exhibition that he organized as a fledgling artist in the early nineties, he is considered the unofficial leader of the Young British Artists movement. Hirst's appeal goes beyond the world of art; he's an influential figure to architects, designers, and the fashion crowd as well. Engaging, well-illustrated, and a real event in the art world, On the Way to Work, like its subject, will generate controversy and acclaim.
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| Customer Reviews:
 Having a Pint with Damien. September 3, 2008
'On the Way to Work' is many things.
It is a collection of conversations between Burn and Hirst. The conversations range from Hirst's love for Francis Bacon, to grumblings on his dealings with the media.
But perhaps most importantly, 'On the Way to Work' is Hirst's manifesto. It is an insight into how he views his own art.
This book is a great buy. If you are interested in Hirst, this book is essential.
(For those looking for a book that showcases Hirst's art, I would recommend the fantastic: 'I want to spend the rest of my life everywhere...' )
 bad boy tells all June 14, 2003
7 out of 10 found this review helpful
ON THE WAY TO WORK is not a book of interviews so much as a collection of Damien Hirst's angry rants on everything from art school to art dealers, Kurt Schwitters to Francis Bacon, drink, drugs, decay . . . and art. "I feel I've opened a can of worms in my own head," the artist states at one point. True enough. Hirst is at his best playing enfant-terrible/raconteur, spitting out stories of a hardscrabble childhood and grand-guignol adolescence, rejecting the polite aesthetics of art school, and raging against the vapidity of an art world that would use his creative rage for its own amusement. At their best, Hirst's rants can be of a piece with his art: visceral, gut-wrenching, profoundly disturbing. Yet at times he simply prattles on ad nauseum. Rather than rein the artist in, interviewer Gordon Burn lets Hirst flail wildly, challenging him only when directly taunted; and Hirst seems to desire nothing so much as a loud pub brawl with a worthy adversary. Burn's polite questioning proves no match for his subject's wry vitriol and relentless bombast. What both Hirst and Burn understand quite clearly is the infuriating, mind-numbing business of celebrity, and its potential for warping an artist's work. In this respect, the book's first interview, dating from 1992, is heartbreaking: it's a talk with a precocious, cocky, smart Damien Hirst, just before he tumbled into the voracious maw of the international art scene. The subsequent interviews are often meandering and unfocused -- but not without some cynically brilliant bits. This portrait of an artist careening into jaded middle age is wildly entertaining at times, but it will certainly disappoint any readers hoping for profound insights on contemporary British art. At one point during an interview tirade, the artist opines: "You're either angry or you're boring." With ON THE WAY TO WORK, Damien Hirst manages to have it both ways.
-conversation sensation!- January 21, 2002
5 out of 8 found this review helpful
I would recommend this book for only the deepest of Damien Hirst fans. It is mostly dialogue and photographs of him in his normal settings. The text is very interesting...I become so inspired I put it down immediately, and begin working on something. The book shows a realistic view into a truly remarkable artists mind.
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