William S. Burroughs: The Ripper Spirals, 11 March - 29 April 29, 2023, Semiose Gallery, Paris

I have often felt uneasy about William S. Burroughs’s romance with guns. A central figure of the Beat generation, Burroughs (1914–1997) was born in St. Louis and resided in various locations throughout his life, including New York, Mexico City, Paris, London, and Tangier. In 1981, he settled in Lawrence, Kansas, where he amassed an extensive collection of guns and regularly went target shooting at the nearby farm of his friend, Fred Aldrich. Guns played a prominent role in his literary works,...