‘Hammer!’ Is iconic filmmakers Barbara Hammers first book and covers the early years of her creative (and rather wild) life in the 1970’s, the development of her queer aesthetic in the 80’s and her fight for visibility during the culture wars of the 90’s. 

Hammer has included her writings and film stills, with excellent accompanying write ups using these combinations to create a memoir which is equally innovate and disarming as her films. She is candid, blunt and honest and there’s real warmth to this book.

Her 80+ films put her output up with Warhol and have dealt with everything from menstruation, lesbian sexuality and the female orgasm and she has often used the techniques of film making to peel off the layers of perception and prod us into an understanding of queer, invisible  and marginalized lives. Check out 'Nitrate Kisses'.

She’s been screened in the Tate, MOMA, Renia Sophia in Madrid and has recently won an award at the Berlin Short Film festival, but this book, at its core is a feisty, frank and sometimes funny look into her own life and the powerful passion she has put into her extraordinary films and art works.

Her mind and perceptions are sharper than a lot of her contemporaries and this book allows her the space - in print - to muse, think through and cajole the reader into thinking about what it is our lives mean, and who gets to decide that.

An inspirational treat.

Out now £13.99

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