François Matarasso

A Restless Art

The print run of A Restless Art is now sold out. I’m happy it found enough readers to use up the print run. It’s still available as a PDF but I know some of us like holding a book, so I’m going to look into the feasibility of a print-on-demand edition.  It will take a while because of other commitments, but if it works, I’ll post the details here. 

As I said, you can still download the book freely in PDF format from this page. My choice to make it available online was guided by knowing that many people would be unable to get hold of it in print for different reasons, and the belief that when my work is enabled by public or charitable resources it belongs to everyone. It was a good call, since A Restless Art has been downloaded more than 30,000 times, far more than the print run.

A Selfless Art

I have written about a companion book — A Selfless Art — which I see as a necessary continuation. The time since the last book came out has brought massive change in the world and in my own life and that led me to rethink some of my beliefs — not about the value of community art and co-creation, but about how it can be practiced today. I remain committed to that new vision but for now cancer has left me with fewer resources and more urgent priorities. I hope to return to this later.

A Book Worth Burning

For now, I want to focus on completing a book, I’ve worked on for several decades, about my father, the Shoah and what it is to live in a world of immense and organised violence. For my community art work, I believe in thinking in public, so the process of writing A Restless Art was documented here. But A Book Worth Burning is a personal project and I won’t write about it here.

All being well, I will return to A Selfless Art in 2027 or 2028. It’s strange to write that, because I’ve never looked forward more than a few weeks and, now especially, I take nothing for granted. Indeed, I want to focus on A Book Worth Burning because, not knowing what I can still do, that is what is closest to my heart.

Making the right promises

I was a teenager when I knew that I wanted, above all, to write. It took me many long years to find my subject, my voice and my readers. Together, they enabled me to make an independent path (only two of my books have been published by mainstream publishers) and so have control over the production and distribution of my writing. 

Still, it’s good to know my destination. As I’ve often said to the people I work with, I can’t guarantee we’ll reach it, but I do promise you won’t regret making the journey.