{"product_id":"the-frontier-index-raymond-pettibon-mike-topp","title":"The Frontier Index Raymond Pettibon, Mike Topp","description":"\u003cp\u003eGuiding readers across the desiccated landscape of twenty-first century America in \u003cem\u003eThe Frontier Index\u003c\/em\u003e is the cult duo of Raymond Pettibon and Mike Topp, two of contemporary art and literature's wildest provocateurs in pen and ink. As they note, \u003cem\u003eThe Frontier Index\u003c\/em\u003e is loosely based on Kenko’s 1332 \u003cem\u003eEssays In Idleness\u003c\/em\u003e, comprising a preface and 243 passages that can span a single line or a few pages. \u003cem\u003eEssays In Idleness\u003c\/em\u003e is similar to Sei Shōnagon’s \u003cem\u003eThe Pillow Book\u003c\/em\u003e, from around 1000 AD, in that both books employ \u003cem\u003ezuihitsu\u003c\/em\u003e, a Japanese literary form that literally means “follow the brush,” where the creation of order depends on disorder. \u003cem\u003eZuihitsu\u003c\/em\u003e demands as its starting point juxtapositions, fragments, contradictions, random materials and pieces of varying lengths. Oh yes, and wrestlers.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRaymond Pettibon\u003c\/strong\u003e is an American artist who lives and works in New York City. Pettibon came to prominence in the early 1980s southern California punk rock scene; over the past three decades, he has become widely renowned for his iconoclastic—read, “fuck off”—use of motifs pulled from the high (literature, art history, philosophy, religion) and low (politics, sports, sexuality) to engage in “a steady indictment of American culture as he has lived it over the past 60 years.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eMike Topp\u003c\/strong\u003e was born in Washington, D.C. and currently lives in New York City unless he has died or moved. An emissary of enigma long before the era of the anon, Topp’s work moves between poetry, art criticism, satire and sloganeering in whimsical koans with an indelibly deadpan élan. Recent collaborative books include \u003cem\u003eThe Double Dream of Spring: A Peg Sluice Mystery with Sparrow\u003c\/em\u003e, and \u003cem\u003eBorn On A Train\u003c\/em\u003e with Raymond Pettibon.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Works on Paper","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":67991627300907,"sku":null,"price":16.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0678\/5679\/3643\/files\/Screenshot2026-10-23at12.23.48PM.png?v=1792772636","url":"https:\/\/worksonpapershop.com\/products\/the-frontier-index-raymond-pettibon-mike-topp","provider":"Works on Paper","version":"1.0","type":"link"}