Heroes: A Tribute by Doug Meyer

In the 1980s and 1990s, AIDS claim the lives of some of the world’s most creative artists- actors, dancers, musicians, painters, designers, sculptors, photographers and their muses. In Heroes, Doug Meyer pays homage to this lost generation in both words and images. Join Doug for a conversation with co-author Beth Dunlop about the ideas that went into Heroes and the process of transforming it from an exhibition into a book.

About the Book:

The Collector’s Edition of Heroes: A Tribute is spectacular in every detail. The book pays homage to some of the first victims of AIDS and AIDS-related diseases—brilliant creative figures such as Robert Mapplethorpe, Keith Haring, Rudolph Nureyev, Freddie Mercury, Rock Hudson, John Duka, Tina Chow, Klaus Nomi, Halston, and Angelo Donghia. In Heroes, artist Doug Meyer honors 50 innovative pioneers from the worlds of art, design, film, and dance whose contributions may be unknown to a younger generation.

To make the 3D portraits depicted in this book, Meyer blended new and old techniques ranging from terracotta to eglomise to papier-mâché to computer generated collage, to name only a few. The collection was shown in an exhibition that toured to Los Angeles, Miami and New York City. Meyer performed extensive research for each portrait, ploughing through books and newspaper archives to gain intimate knowledge of the men and women he was depicting. “I immersed myself in their lives,” he says.

The book will be housed in a bright neon-colored slipcase where its spine, front and back colors differ from one another. Each Collector’s Edition will include two 51st-hero prints from the “blue” and “pink” editions with unique collage elements that will be cut, hand glued, signed and numbered by the Artist. The stand-alone 51st-hero is a portrait of the brilliant artist Jack Smith — acclaimed as a founding father of American performance art.

The book includes biographies of each figure based upon Meyer’s research and informed by obituaries published by The New York Times, Los Angeles Times and other newspapers. The hardcover coffee table book is printed in multiple papers with pops of neon color and painted edges, echoing the artist’s work.