CHERRY VANILLA'S POP
TART COMPOSITIONS WAS SELF-PUBLISHED IN 1974 IN A SIGNED AND NUMBERED EDITION OF JUST 250.
STYLED LIKE A TEXT BOOK,
IT LOOKS HANDMADE. IN
FACT IT IS SIGNED BY HAND
BUT STAMPED WITH A
NIPPLE PRINT!

This is Pop Tart Compositions by Cherry Vanilla. Everything about this cover is somewhere beyond brilliant. It is as if each element; 'David Bowie', the double scoop graphic, the felt-tip colouring in, the title itself; have passed some earthly test and are now floating in space. They have gone to a heaven of accidental, inspired, graphic non-design!
 
From A to B and Back Again was the subtitle of Warhol's autobiography. Cherry Vanilla went from A (Andy Warhol, as a star in his stage play Pork ) to B (Bruce Weber, she appears in Broken Noses ). In between were David Bowie and the London punk scene. The title of her biography... Lick Me . Shorter and more to the point even than Warhol.
This picture! Accompanied by Cherry Vanilla's Ziggy Stardust poem but, in fairness, totally and only about David Bowie's extraordinary poise. This being the period where he didn't eat and only drank milk, the chances are he is silently asking for a refill.
Our favourite picture (and not just from this book!). Questions beginning who, what, why, where... That haircut?!?! The LIBRA doodle has been added in and the text reads ' my sign   COFFEE AND BUNS SERVED HERE'. Please don't explain. The pleasure is in not knowing!
After many salacious pages, poems and pictures the book's final page is one of considerable calm. "The Pink House". Very beautiful it is too.
 
The nipple print does make quite an impression. It is a charmed book. See more of it on this link and here in the hands of Mick Jagger!