6/6/2023 0 Comments Epstein little black bookHabib is a native Upper East Sider, who's often looked to his neighborhood for inspiration. It is not just morbid curiosity inspiring the work, Epstein’s immorality occurred in the artist’s backyard. And yet, many of those people are the same individuals who have DM-ed Habib to purchase a copy, as if the book can somehow provide an aesthetically acceptable way to deal with their guilt by association. Their unsigned work immediately achieved instant tabloid fame in the New York Post and Daily Mail, and thus accomplished its goal-a lingering stain, one anyone can cheaply reapply with less time and effort than it takes to remove.įocused on the little black book for the past month, Habib's created a distinct object of desire, a participation trophy for a violent act that's as soft and fragile as an adolescent girl, and just as likely to raise uncomfortable questions for those who engage with one. ![]() On August 10th, hours after Epstein's death was reported, he tweeted, "bought a bucket of chalk and we're headed to epstein's," where he and his girlfriend scrawled XOXO HILLARY + BILL on the doorstep. Over the summer, Habib began his project. ![]() In a time when suspected perpetrators are shielded from justice, and exposure among the public and one's peers is the only alternative recourse, it is also in its own way poetic justice. The first edition of 50 books is priced at $50 (and has since sold out), and is both a Smythson-style memento mori, and a shame-chic indictment of the names within, a new model for memorializing class tragedy in the 21st Century. He would find himself a kindred spirit in the reclusive designer-fabricator Chris Habib, were Myhrvold not immortalized in the artist’s latest work, a hand-sewn pocket-sized reproduction of Epstein's address book, debossed in gold with the same tarnished monogram found on the exterior of the late billionaire's East 71st Street mansion.
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