Nayland Blake in conversation with Jarrett Earnest

City Lights celebrates the publication of

My Studio Is a Dungeon Is the Studio: Writings and Interviews, 1983–2024

By Nayland Blake, Edited and with an introduction by Jarrett Earnest

Published by Duke University Press

For four decades, artist, writer, curator, and teacher Nayland Blake has been at the center of discussions of queer aesthetics and contemporary art. Their work has examined racial hybridity, the ins and outs of the BDSM world, and the importance of self-representation. From interviews and critical essays to performance scripts and collage pieces, My Studio Is a Dungeon Is the Studio gathers forty years of Blake’s groundbreaking thought and writing on their personal explorations of kink and creativity as well as on the making, teaching, and curating of art and queer culture. Whether delving into furry fandom or analyzing art, Blake bridges the art and queer kink communities. They also argue that queer artists must champion the work of their peers and elders. As Blake demonstrates throughout, sexual self-expression is an extension of artistic self-expression: they are the same. The volume includes an introduction by artist and critic Jarrett Earnest.

Nayland Blake is an artist, curator, and Codirector of the Studio Arts Program at Bard College. They are coeditor of In a Different Light: Visual Culture, Sexual Identity, Queer Practice.

Jarrett Earnest is an artist, writer, and author of What It Means to Write About Art: Interviews with Art Critics. His writing has appeared in books and catalogs around the world and regularly in the New York Review of Books.

What has been said about the work of Nayland Blake:

“Nayland Blake is a significant American artist who has said more about their nation than most. Their intellectual and visual acumen are a pathway, lit on either side by love, and truth.” - Hilton Als

“In their heterogeneity, humor, and sexual embrace, Nayland Blake’s writings are as good a teacher as any about the near-boundless capacities of art to unsettle and affirm one’s sense of self and the worlds that matter most to them.” - Andy Campbell, author of Bound Together: Leather, Sex, Archives, and Contemporary Art

"There’s refreshing ways here of playing along the borders between art, politics and queer sexual life. I learned a lot from Blake that I find I can apply to the frictions I find between writing, rave culture and transsexuality. . . . This book is itself such a utopia." - McKenzie Wark, ARTNews

"If you’re already a Blake fan, this book is a welcome opportunity to peek inside their mind. If you’re new to their art, take it as an invitation (leather and latex optional)." - Natalie Haddad, Hyperallergic

Made possible by support from the City Lights Foundation