Afraid of Modern Living: World Imitation & Monitor, 1977-1982

Available now is the authorized history of the obscure and influential Los Angeles art and music collective World Imitation Productions (WImP). Emerging as creators of collaged and photocopied mail art and publications in the late 1970s, World Imitation is perhaps best known in its musical incarnation, the band Monitor, which was active between 1978 and 1982, with live performances as well as two self-produced 7" singles and one LP. (The LP was reissued by Superior Viaduct in 2013.)  Afraid of Modern Living: World Imitation & Monitor, 1977-1982, authored by WImP scholar Antonio S. Beecroft, accompanied a successful eponymous exhibition mounted at These Days in downtown Los Angeles in 2017. The initial edition of 100 pocketbook catalogs sold out on opening night. This expanded and enlarged edition draws from an archive of materials that hold up a funhouse mirror to Southern California culture, consumer dystopia, and the late 1970s punk movement. Rarely seen handmade publications, pa