ABOUT US
20 Romolo Place Suite B, San Francisco, CA 94133-4041 U.S.A.
(415) 362-1465 info@researchpubs.com
RE/Search History by Leslie Hodgkins.
RE/Search in the context of art history by Yoshitsugu Ranpeki.
As publisher-editor of the 1977-79 zine SEARCH & DESTROY, V. Vale helped bring international attention to a punk scene as prophetic as more publicized ones elsewhere. The publication was launched with $100 each from Allen Ginsberg, and Lawrence Ferlinghetti, and published at City Lights Bookstore, where Vale worked at the time. For Vale, punk provided a launching pad for a host of cultural-anthropological explorations, including industrial music, the writings of J.G. Ballard and William S. Burroughs, feminism, pranksterism, studies of The Body, plus “incredibly strange” filmmaking and music, which he has chronicled with the RE/SEARCH series of publications that he founded as **sole proprietor** in 1980 (he has the original DBA certificate hanging on his wall).
A J.G. Ballard champion since 1973, Vale has published a Ballard interview in Search & Destroy #10 (1978), a monograph (RE/Search #8/9: J.G. Ballard, 1984), the illustrated Atrocity Exhibtion (1990), J.G. Ballard Quotes (2004) and J.G. Ballard Conversations (2005). He has an important Ballard archive of letters, photos, taped interviews, rare magazines, signed books, and other “Ballardian” literary materials. Vale has participated in Ballard-focused presentations in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Barcelona and London, and written an introductory essay for a volume on J.G. Ballard published by CCCB.
V. Vale is an editor, writer, historian, photographer and pianist. He has lectured, appeared on panels, been interviewed for video and radio programs, and conducted live interviews for the past 35 years. He has been a guest lecturer at the Lausanne (Switzerland) College of Art, Cal Arts (Valencia, CA), University of Kansas, Duke University, San Francisco Art Institute, the California College of Art (C.C.A.), Academy of Art University, University of California at Berkeley, Stanford University, and in other cities and countries including Mexico City and Den Haag. He taught a class on the “History of the International Punk Rock Cultural Revolution” at New College, San Francisco. He also hosts a monthly one-hour interview show titled “The Counter Culture Hour” at Cable Channel 29 (Public Access TV), San Francisco; also, he occasionally plays piano for the “soundtracks.” He has played piano at El Valenciano, the Last Gasp Xmas parties, Tosca, and wherever a piano is available!
V. Vale is available for lectures, guest teaching, panels, workshops, interviews and consulting. Video shows created by Marian Wallace are available, and also can be commissioned.
