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“Grounded in archival images, with contextualizing essays by academics and artist-collaborators
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and interviews with Sheree Rose, the project more than succeeds in giving Rose a platform that R
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is much needed, deserved, and welcomed.”
—MARGOT WEISS, author of Techniques of Pleasure: BDSM and the Circuits of Sexuality
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“A perverse original, Sheree Rose retools our understanding of pleasure and pain, sex and power,
love and loss, intimacy and yearning. Rated RX shows just how Rose exceeds the limiting R
roles—assistant, amanuensis, muse, or caregiver—she is sometimes assigned, to emerge as a
distinctive, defiant, prolific, and powerful artist.” A
—DOMINIC JOHNSON, Queen Mary University of London
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“The thing that people don’t understand is that Bob was my invention,” says Sheree Rose,
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the oft-overlooked partner of the late “supermasochist” performance artist Bob Flanagan.
Unpacking this statement is at the heart of this important collection, which seeks to recuperate D
and showcase Rose’s contributions as performer, photographer, writer, and cultural innovator.
While Rose is mostly known for blurring the boundaries between art and lived experience in
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the context of her full-time, Mistress-slave relationship with Flanagan, Rated RX shifts focus from
Flanagan to Rose, presenting a feminist project that critically reassesses the artistic legacies of
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Sheree Rose.
Curated with attention to queer-crip subjectivities and transgressive feminisms, Rated RX
includes essays by and interviews with scholars, artists, and Rose’s collaborators that address
gender politics, archival practices, minority embodiment, and disability in Rose’s work as well
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as more than eighty photographs and rare archival materials reflecting Rose’s recent and past F H
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performances. Offering a necessary corrective, Rated RX is the first collection to underscore E R
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Sheree Rose as a legendary figure in performance art and BDSM subcultural history, reflecting B E S H E R E E R O S E
her lifetime of involvement in documenting the underground and the transformative role her work O R
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plays in sexual, subcultural, and art exhibitionism. F S W I T H A N D A F T E R B O B F L A N A G A N
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YETTA HOWARD is Associate Professor at San Diego State University and author A IT A
of Ugly Differences: Queer Female Sexuality in the Underground. G H
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ISBN13 978-0-8142-5603-9
THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY PRESS
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COLUMBUS
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OHIOSTATEPRESS.ORG
COVER IMAGES: Judy Ornelas Sisneros O H I O
COVER DESIGN: Angela Moody | amoodycover.com STATE E D ITE D BY YE T TA H O WA R D
PRESS
RATED RX
R AT E D R X
SHEREE ROSE
WITH AND AFTER BOB FLANAGAN
EDITED BY YETTA HOWARD
THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY PRESS
COLUMBUS
Copyright © 2020 by The Ohio State University.
All rights reserved.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Howard, Yetta, editor.
Title: Rated RX : Sheree Rose with and after Bob Flanagan / edited by Yetta
Howard.
Description: Columbus : The Ohio State University Press, [2020] | Summary:
“A collection of photographs, archival materials, creative works, and essays
exploring BDSM, sexuality, disability, temporality, and artistic legacies in
the career of Sheree Rose, late partner of supermasochist Bob Flanagan”—
Provided by publisher.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020017685 | ISBN 9780814214480 (cloth) | ISBN 0814214487
(cloth) | ISBN 9780814256039 (ebook) | ISBN 0814256031 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Rose, Sheree, 1941– | Flanagan, Bob, 1952–1996. | Performance
artists. | Performance art. | Sadomasochism. | Bondage (Sexual behavior) |
Masochism in art. | Art, Modern—20th century.
Classification: LCC HQ79 .R273 2020 | DDC 306.77/5—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020017685
Cover photo: Judy Ornelas Sisneros, from 100 Reasons performance at Coagula
Curatorial, 2014
Cover design by Angela Moody
Text design by Juliet Williams
Type set in Palatino Linotype
For Jenn
C O N T E N T S
Acknowledgments xiii
Introduction: Performing the Minority Body Archive across Time and
Sheree Rose’s Legacy in Underground Art History
YETTA HOWARD 1
SECTION 1: WORDS
PART 1: IN HER OWN WORDS
Home
SHEREE ROSE 27
Why Not?
SHEREE ROSE 38
“Love Is Still Possible in This Junky World”: A Conversation with
Sheree Rose about Her Life with Bob Flanagan
INTERVIEW BY TINA TAKEMOTO WITH SHEREE ROSE 42
Why Kirby Dick Is a “Sick” Prick
SHEREE ROSE 60
PART 2: COLLABORATIONS AND CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES
Performing Again (after Bob)
TANYA AUGSBURG 65
Recorded Leftovers: Digesting Sheree Rose’s Video Archive
LUKA FISHER 78
Sheree, Bob, and Me: Performing Painful Histories
MARTIN O’BRIEN
WITH “A SERMON ON SICKNESS ACCORDING TO MARTIN” 89
viii • CONTENTS
Rose/Flanagan/O’Brien: The Aesthetics of Resurrection
AMELIA JONES 98
Obliquely Chronophilic: A Dialogue with Sheree Rose and Martin
O’Brien on Do with Me as You Will—A 24-Hour Performance
INTERVIEW BY YETTA HOWARD WITH SHEREE ROSE AND
MARTIN O’BRIEN 110
Sheree Rose, the Maternal, and the Erotics of Care
AMBER MUSSER 122
“You Always Hurt the One You Love”: Transference, Pain, and Endurance
CHELSEA COON 128
Artist’s Statement for An Illegal Operation for Mary Toft
RHIANNON AARONS 132
Sheree Rose, Martin O’Brien, and Rhiannon Aarons on Philosophy
in the Bedroom and The Viewing
INTERVIEW BY YETTA HOWARD 135
The Viewing: Supermasochism and Sanctification
RHIANNON AARONS 152
PART 3: PERFORMATIVE WRITING
Oatmeal and Shit: Some Notes on Mundanity
MARY ANN DAVIS 159
Bob Flanagan Sentenced
HAROLD JAFFE 172
The Duchess of LA
JANE DELYNN 176
Contributor Biographies 189
SECTION 2: IMAGES
PART 1: 1980s–1990s
Commitments, Consent, Contracts 197
1.1 Slave contract signed in blood by Bob Flanagan and Sheree
Rose (1984) 198
CONTENTS • ix
1.2 Sheree Rose and Bob Flanagan, wedding photo (1995) 199
1.3 Letter to Sheree Rose from Bob Flanagan (1 January 1985) 200
1.4 Letter to Sheree Rose from Bob Flanagan (7 October 1985) 201
1.5 Bob Flanagan and Sheree Rose’s 10th anniversary invitation
(1990) 202
1.6 Handwritten will by Bob Flanagan (1995) 203
1.7 An iconic photo shoot of Sheree Rose and Bob Flanagan
from 1995 204
Public/Private Exhibition(ist)s 205
2.1 Bob Flanagan with toy ambulance (circa 1990s) 206
2.2 Bob Flanagan’s penis with clothespins (1995) 207
2.3 Sheree Rose with black dildo (1995) 208
2.4 Bimbox zine cover (circa 1990s) 209
2.5 Bob Flanagan and Sheree Rose exhibition postcard,
(Re)Visiting Hours (1995) 210
2.6 Narcissistic Disturbance exhibit postcard (1995) 212
2.7 TranceSex pamphlet (1993) 213
2.8 Up with People flier (circa 1990s) 214
2.9 Sick: The Life and Death of Bob Flanagan, Supermasochist
(1997) DVD cover 215
Visiting Hours (1992–1995) 217
3.1 Visiting Hours exhibit pamphlet (1994) 218
3.2 Sheree Rose and Bob Flanagan in hospital bed at Visiting
Hours (1992) 219
3.3 Visiting Hours closing party (1993) 220
3.4 Detail from Wall of Pain collage (1982) by Sheree Rose 221
3.5 Bob Flanagan and Sheree Rose at (Re)Visiting Hours (1995) 222
Bobballoon (1996) 223
4.1 Bobballoon front view (1996) 224
4.2 Bobballoon side view (1996) 225
4.3 Bobballoon covered and uncovered write-up in Japanese erotic
magazine (1996) 226
4.4 Bobballoon at tribute to Bob Flanagan at Beyond Baroque (2013) 228
Music, Literary, and Sexual Subcultures 229
5.1 Nine Inch Nails, “Happiness in Slavery” uncensored music video
shoot featuring Bob Flanagan (1992) 230
