This artist book spectacularly documents John Bock's action MALTREATED FRIGATE, which represents the height as well as the culmination of his performative work. His vision comes to life In a multitude of colored illustrations. The libretto, printed in its entirety, explodes in linguistic fireworks and tumbles down to the ground, solid in its earthiness, ready to be constructed into a jumble of awesomely bizarre and whimsical neologisms - a vivid testimony to the artist's zest for expression.

The MALTREATED FRIGATE premiered in Berlin, in the autumn of 2006.  It is a spectacle in ten scenes, an artistic action, intertwining genres of rock opera, theater of the absurd, animated sculpture and puppet show. This book invites you to accompany the artist and his protagonists on a tour de force, along a powerful stream of consciousness. It is a violent ride on a machine from hell, steered by an idiosyncratic inner logic.

Texts by John Bock, Daniela Zyman & Andreas Schlaegel, Interview by Catherine Wood

Photography by Jan Windszus