John Cage: A Mycological Foray

Special Mention for Photo-Text Book Award * Rencontre D'Arles Awards *
Finalist for the Lucie Photobook Prize Award
Cage’s embrace of indeterminacy and chance, and his reminder to celebrate discovery and revel in the outdoors, feels like the poignant invitation we all need to receive over and over again and are rejuvenated in accepting. -- Allie Haeusslein * Photo Eye *
An omnibus of his mushroom-themed writings [...] Ever attuned to the music hidden in silence, he insisted that we should learn to listen to mushrooms as they released their spores to the air. -- Ligaya Mishan * T Magazine *
Cage’s brief brush with mainstream celebrity is recounted in John Cage: A Mycological Foray, an elegant art book that delves deep into the composer’s lifelong fascination with mushrooms [...]It is illustrated by photographs of Cage foraging; diary entries, notebooks and essay excerpts related to his passion as well as an often surreal selection of his vast collection of fungi-related ephemera – postcards, collages and various well-thumbed guidebooks on the identification of mushroom species. [...]Put simply, for Cage, music was music and mushrooms were mushrooms. -- Sean O'Hagan * Guardian *
A stunning new book about Cage’s mycology titled A Mycological Foray [shows the] serendipity involved in mushroom foraging, requiring both acceptance of chance and attentiveness to it, echoed Cage’s use of chance as a compositional technique. Contradicting avant-garde self-importance, Cage proposed that music and mushrooms were equivalent, and whether one chose fungi or sound, what mattered was the act of foraging. -- Jonathon Keats * Forbes *
Enchanting and idiosyncratic, A Mycological Foray is a tribute to the enigmatic composer John Cage and the magical nature of fungi. -- Frank Brasile * Shelf Awareness *
The composer John Cage was also a passionate mycologist. In 1972, he wrote a limited-edition book about mushrooms [...] Now the “Mushroom Book,” a reproduction with lithographic illustrations, anecdotes, poetry and even authors’ scribblings, has been reissued in a boxed set with “A Mycological Foray" by Cage and others. -- Florence Fabricant * New York Times *
This is an art object as much as it is a book [...] a diaristic hodgepodge of photographs, poems, and short essays explaining Cage’s relationship to mushrooms over the decades. For anyone with a passing interest in fungi or avant-garde electroacoustic music, this book is nourishing. -- Kate Knibbs * WIRED *
I have come to the conclusion that much can be learned about music by devoting oneself to the mushroom,' says John Cage in his book A Mycological Foray - Variations on Mushrooms. The experimental composer was not alone in his belief that humble fungi are, in fact, a treasure trove of unexpected revelations. Chefs, skincare experts, and artists alike are harvesting the various benefits of the ’shroom for their own creations. -- Mary Cleary * Wallpaper* *
John Cage: A Mycological Foray—Variations on Mushrooms embodies the artist’s devotion to foraging, in terms of mushrooms and his broader practice. It meanders across compositions, photographs, contemplations, drawings, and essays, rousing multiple senses as it goes. [...] No matter how much one knows about Cage or mycology, the book surprises with its unique sensuality, as well as its ode to continuous wonder. -- Victoria Nebolsin * Hyperallergic *
A fantastical journey into a familiar and foreign world, as multi-dimensional as Cage and the mushrooms themselves. -- Editors * AnOther *
Even the pages of this stunning tome are art, and part of it is printed on apple paper, a way of reducing food waste. -- Francesca Gavin * Financial Times *
The avant-garde American composer behind “4’33”,” that conceptual work of complete silence, was fascinated with mushroom foraging. Herewith, his collected writings and findings. -- Vivian S. Toy * New York Times *
John Cage: A Mycological Foray, traces the breadth of Cage’s interest in fungal species, digging out connections with his artistic philosophy. -- Josie Thaddeus-Johns * Apollo *
John Cage: A Mycological Foray explores the acclaimed (and often experimental) American composer and theorist’s fascination with mushrooms. As Cage famously proclaimed, 'I have come to the conclusion that much can be learned about music by devoting oneself to the mushroom.' * Cool Hunting *
Adds new depth to Cage’s well-trod biography... "John Cage: A Mycological Foray" paints a charming portrait of the composer by way of his habits and tastes. [...] The book’s accompanying photos, depicting Cage foraging and lunching with friends, make for an intimate character study. Together with the anecdotes and excerpts, they immerse the reader in his world, offering a sense of what it might have been like to share buttered chanterelles and watercress salad at his table in Stony Point. Reproductions of nature photos from Cage’s personal collection also suggest what this world looked like through his eyes, hinting at the ways that his personal life conformed to the logic of his teachings. Every Cage fan knows that the man was as extraordinary as his art; the revelation offered by this book is that there’s almost no point in trying to distinguish them. -- Max Pearl * Art In America *
In a world of cramped attention spans and widespread ecological devastation, A Mycological Foray serves as a timely reminder of the open-ended curiosity and patchy unpredictability that Cage found in his wanders through the woods. * Tank *
Mushrooms have been muses to artists from Beatrix Potter to Cy Twombly to Takashi Murakami. For the avant-garde artist and composer John Cage, foraging for them became a way of life. -- Julia Vitale * Airmail *
Despite his avid commitment [to mycology], Cage considered himself an amateur—and true to form, much of the scholarship surrounding his work has treated these activities as a charming but peripheral diversion from his artistic practice. A new publication, however, looks to shift this established narrative by revealing a veritable oeuvre of mushroom-inspired output. ...This new volume is easily the most comprehensive to date, lending readers the means to reassess his purportedly casual interest. -- Editors * Kaleidoscope *
This edition is an enrapturing and inspiring peek into the elusive world and mind of John Cage, and a reminder of the unique lens we can hold up to the enchanting world around us. -- Rae Niwa * Flaunt *
This handsome two-book set gathers almost all of Cage's mycological musings and includes the first reproduction of his gorgeous, now impossible-to-find 1972 portfolio 'Musroom Book.' -- Randy Kennedy * Ursula *