THE BELIEVER NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2013

After a half decade away The Believer has returned home to McSweeney’s. To celebrate the momentous occasion, we’ve dug through our archives and found an extremely limited number of classic and timeless issues for your purchasing pleasure. Once these are gone, they’re gone forever.

Read Best of All Possible Worlds, Mark Lane’s essay on the potential perils of urban renewal, in its entirety here. Check out excerpts from this issue here.

Table of Contents:

Best of All Possible Worlds by Mark Lane
An effort to kickstart urban renewal in Evansville, Indiana, leads residents to take sides and artists to consider the social implications of their work.

Womanhouse Revisited by Sasha Archibald

When tracing the roots of feminist art, all roads lead back to Southern California in the early 1970s and an installation called Womanhouse.

Art Grenade by Damaris Colhoun
One Iraq veteran faces censorship over his confrontational performance art; another is nicknamed “the Kiln Fairy.”

Elizabeth Peyton interviewed by Leanne Shapton

“I don’t ask anybody to do anything. I just want to see.”

Chris Martin interviewed by Ross Simonini

“Finding one’s freedom is about surrendering to your helplessness. I’m a painter. That’s what I do.”

“Comics” edited by Alvin Buenaventura

Reviews:
Siobhan Phillips on Mason Currey, Daniel Levin Becker on Genpei Akasegawa, Kathleen Rooney on David Abed.

Pillow of Air by Lawrence Weschler
The debut installment of Lawrence Weschler’s column of loose-synaped peregrinations.

Schema: A Retrospective of Fictional Artists by Louisa Dunnigan

Winnie Wong interviewed by James Hughes
What do the masterful painters of Dafen, China, teach us about authenticity and exceptionality?

Real Life Rock Top Ten by Greil Marcus

The Process by Amy Klein
A conversation with Suzanne Lacy about her piece Three Weeks in January.

Aaron Hughes interviewed by Meehan Crist
“There are still flowers in the desert, and that’s beautiful in the midst of all this destruction.”

“A Sudden Gust”: a new poem by Sheryda Warrener