David Bowie Is by Victoria Broackes

Author: Victoria Broackes

Title: David Bowie Is.

Publisher: V&A

Published: 2013

Pages: 288

Genre: Biography 

     David Bowie's career as a pioneering artist spanned nearly 50 years and brought him international acclaim. He continues to be cited as a major influence on contemporary artists and designers working across the creative arts. Published to accompany the blockbuster international exhibition launched at London's Victoria and Albert Museum, this is the only book to be granted access to Bowie's personal archive of performance costumes, ephemera, and original design artwork by the artist, and brings it together to present a completely new perspective on his creative work and collaborations. The book traces his career from its beginnings in London, through the breakthroughs of Space Oddity and Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, and on to his impact on the larger international tradition of twentieth-century avant-garde art.

     I've been a fan of Bowie's music for a very long time ever since I came across a best of cd in a now long gone record shop. There was something that sparked with me musically that I could not shake off. I suppose much like a lot of people when I first found him I never looked too deeply into the lyrics to me they were catchy tunes about people from space. But with all great artists who have multi-decade careers, we are given the opportunity to dig deeper into their works and discover more layers with the passage of time. And that is never more present when it comes to Bowie. I can't think of many other musical artists who have reinvented themselves so many times and managed for the greater part to pull it off. So when  I was given a copy of this book as a present I could not wait to jump in and see what they could offer.

     For me personally, his earlier works are the ones that still hold the most captivating tunes. But I still like to delve deeper into his entire body of work so books like this become so invaluable to me. Because I feel that when it comes to Bowie understanding the complete package of each era goes a very long way. After all for his first few albums, each one came with an entirely new character for him to play about with. So here within the pages of this book, we are treated to an inside look at how each reincarnation came to life. I believe this is one place where the V&A has a unique step up above many others who have tried to tackle this subject a great many times before. Within their collection, they have his original costumes and the work that went into building them from the ground up. We are treated to amazingly detailed photos of each of the costumes in a way you might not get from seeing the picture from when Bowie actually wore each of them. Sadly this time around I missed them when they were redisplayed at the V&A. but you can't win them all.

     I hardly ever would think to review a book attached to an exhibit from a museum or art installation. They do after all for the most part require you to have actually experienced them firsthand. We get to be educated as we move from one display to the next. But here I think the author has gone above and beyond what I would normally expect. There is so much information to be gleaned here that without even having been at the display I was able to learn more than I had before about the man. I suppose in part this is because in most of the biography I've read as you would expect they focus on his music, the lyrics he sent out into the universe. But it was for me so interesting to see captured on the page his other creative side. Just how much effort he put into the way he looked throughout his entire career. I must confess that in his post two thousand years I thought he simply picked suits to wear for ease. But even here each article of clothing was carefully chosen. He may have become the ever impeccable dressed English gentleman, even if he was still out there singing about Ziggy and the spiders from mars. 

     For me, I believe there is a great wealth of information to be gleaned for any bowie fan from the pages of this book. It for me helped to give a much greater understanding of the man as a whole. His meticulous eye for every aspect of his presence in the public eye. What I would say is that you need to be careful going into this book that you don't expect a full biography of the man. They have focused on the area of expertise. The V&A after all is about the collection and preservation of objects. But it more than certainly excelled at this and with many great photos throughout this was definitely a win for me.