< class="portfolio_title" > Thinking through pink
In 1992 David McDiarmid created a punk/situationist ‘zine of fierce uncompromising rage, an artist book he called Toxic Queen, made up of thirty double-sided leaves, spiral bound with board covers and presented in a box. The work lampooned fear-mongering tabloid responses to AIDS and the routine homophobia re-energised by the epidemic. The work is pre-digital, preceding the Rainbow Aphorisms of 1993-4. Text for Toxic Queen was hand-drawn, cut and pasted, blown up and re-photocopied. Transparent acetate sheets were printed with found print materials to be laid over the first print run and re-photocopied in a laborious crafted process. The exhibition consisted of thirty-four printed leaves selected, grouped and signed by McDiarmid for exhibition.
