Martin Wong: Das Puke Book

Lighthearted yet vivid scenes of psychedelia compiled in an affordable chapbook facsimile

This unforgettably named compact chapbook was first published by painter Martin Wong (1946–99) in 1977. Written in the early 1970s, the publication contains 13 chapters of handwritten micro-fictions filled with cringeworthy stories unfolding in San Francisco and beyond. The publication is populated with a cadre of colorful characters, some of whom are obscure underground figures such as George “Hibiscus” Harris from the Cockettes and Angels of Light, and others who are well known, such as Paul Gauguin, Vincent van Gogh and God. Written during his days working on the flyers and theatrical backdrops for the Angels of Light Free Theater and published just before his move to New York, these stories capture Wong’s playfulness and the absurdist, kaleidoscopic milieu of the moment in which they were written. Many of these stories appeared before the book’s publication in Wong’s now-iconic calligraphic scrolls.