Gilbert (born in the Dolomites, Italy, i943) and George (born in Devon, 1942) met as art students at St Martin's School of Art, London, in 1967. Sacrificing their own identities to art, they made themselves into 'living sculptures', and have pursued a joint career of consistent iconoclasm, seemingly oblivious to the controversies they have generated, and enjoying both popular acclaim and critical hostility with equal aplomb.

For the first time Gilbert & George open up and talk at length to the public. In this extraordinarily revealing book, two of the world's most controversial contemporary artists, who have dubbed themselves 'living sculptures', explain and defend their views and actions. These freewheeling conversations are the fruit of over ten years of friendship with the critic Frangois Jonquet, and are distilled from an intensive series of unprecedented frank interviews. Candid and uninhibited, Gilbert & George provide a highly entertaining insight into their unique lifestyle and working methods, and give a robust exposition of their views on art, life, sex, money, religion and race. Equally revealing are the many illustrations, which comprise a retrospective of their finest and most powerful work, including new pictures published here for the first time, and also a rich and illuminating selection of new and old documentary photographs.

Foreword: It's not every day you have a cup

of coffee with a pair of living sculptures

'We're interested in the child in us'

'We met in London last year'

Mortification, from joy to pathos:

the black shadow

The fracture

The Fundamental Pictures

Shit faith

Order, eccentricity and madness

'Thanks to computers, we can make our

pictures sitting down'

12 Fournier Street

Sex, money, race, religion: London

The adventure of 'Art for All'

Normal conservative rebels

No one is a prophet in his own country

Thirteen Hooligan Pictures 2004: the scream

25 Years On

Chronology

Index

Acknowledgements