Banksy: You Are an Acceptable Level of Threat

When Carpet Bombing Culture asked me to write this book, I tried to hide. They found me in a Bedouin village deep in the Moroccan mountains, where I was eking out a living entertaining local men with dances by the firelight. They drugged me, and a few days later, I woke up in London. Write a book about someone whose very existence (if they exist at all) is shrouded in mystery, filled with works that are definitely created by who-knows-who? Surely, there’s a massive budget for research? I wept. They slapped me into silence.

“We must act quickly, while the body is still warm!” they growled. “It goes to print in three days.” The manuscript was scrawled in a Shoreditch basement on the backs of counterfeit banknotes, using my tears as ink. I distinctly remember setting a tiny boat on fire and sending it afloat in an old, rusted tub filled with hobo urine—a symbolic farewell to any hope of ever being taken seriously as a writer. To hell with the past! I was ruined. Just like you, for choosing to take part in this charade. As always, Carpet Bombing Culture feeds you a stew of lies, half-lies, and three-quarters lies, appeasing your naïve and dreadful hunger for truth. Onward. Good luck.
— Patrick Potter, text author.

This book is a photo collection of Banksy’s works, paired with commentary on his activities and worldview. Much like the artist himself, it’s elusive. You won’t know where the truth lies or if Banksy is definitively behind the graffiti. Each page inspires but also provokes doubt.

The ArtHuss edition includes text from an interview with Banksy about his trip to Ukraine, his motivations, and photographs of the works he left on the walls of buildings in Borodyanka, Irpin, and Horenka. This is a fragment of our history, preserved on its pages, and one that is essential to highlight.