Chris Brook

In the early hours of the morning of 23 August 1994, in a derelict boathouse on the island of Jura, Jimmy Cauty and Bill Drummond burned £1 million pounds in cash. The money had been earned in a previous joint music project.

It look slightly less than an hour to destroy the money and the act was recorded in an amateur video.

This book is a befittingly haphazard record of the destructive process and a collection of responses and reactions from audiences around the UK who were invited to view the film.

It’s not a book of answers or even the presentation of a philosophy or manifesto. At best it poses questions about what this act was, what did it mean to those who participated, and what does it mean to you the reader now that you are aware of it?

In reading the book it is clear that the burning solicited widely differing reactions, from those that saw it as an act of lunacy and arrogance, to those who saw it as a welcome snub to our one-dimensional pursuit of wealth.

The challenge for the reader is to set aside pre-conceptions and allow themselves to be truly questioned.

As the book puts it:
Was it a crime?
Was it a burnt offering?
Was it madness?
Was it an investment?
Was it Rock ‘N’ Roll?
Was it an obscenity?
Was it art?
Was it a political statement?
Was it bo**ocks?

The book not only challenges our picture of the world but also challenges our ability to challenge our picture of the world.… (mere)

A brief introductory account of the various abandoned ideas for desecrating £1m that the K Foundation set out with, followed by an edited selection of reactions to the showing of the film of the burning. Convincingly puts the case that Drummond and Cauty weren't entirely sure of the significance of what they'd done, and wanted to get multiple, contradictory responses to it -- which is certainly what they got. Illustrated with stills from the film, this book only takes 2-3 hours to read, but will make you think for longer.… (mere)