Come Under the Cover with underground icon Kembra Pfahler as she introduces the books that have impacted her life and artistic practice over the past 4 decades.

Confessing to a habit of redecorating the covers of her most treasured books, Pfahler describes the important relationship she has with them. Her first job when she arrived in New York City was at the Strand Bookstore where she discovered the work of Hubert Selby Jr. which later influenced her 2007 exhibition, Womanizer. As she recalls encountering Angry Women as a young artist, she details the impact of women like Karen Finley, Diamanda Galás, and Lydia Lunch as voices that reframed anger as material, giving her permission to channel her own into performance and self-invention. From her favourite collaboration with Bruce LaBruce, to her unexpected career as a high fashion model, watch as the artist revisits her enduring archive on the occasion of her newly published Rizzoli monograph. Subscribe to our Substack for access to an extended cut of the interview and material you can’t find anywhere else.