Published on the occasion of the exhibition at Mudima Foundation (once Multhipla) this book is the very first extensive retrospective overview of Gianni Sassi’s work, design career and role that he played in the development of alternative cultural action and promotion in Italy. Gianni Sassi  truly was a larger-than-life figure whose contributions were wildly varied. In the Sixties, inspired by the artist Marcel Duchamp, Sassi participated in the loose interdisciplinary network of Fluxus. During the Seventies he organised key events for John Cage (such as Il treno) and promoted the Spanish group Zaj - 'more zen than zen', as Cage stated. Sassi was also the manager for the vocal experiments of the Greek singer Demetrio Stratos and for his progressive rock group Area. Sassi's cultural promotion agency, AR&A, produced books for small presses such as the Co-operativa Scrittori based in Rome. He founded the (in 1973) the progressive and avantgarde record label Cramps, having been in the music business as an odd presence behind Franco Battiato's first production, both with his graphic studio "al.sa" and his work as lyric composer with the surname of Frankenstein (from which the Cramps logo derived). Cramps was an independent record label, responsible for some of the most advanced musical releases of the time (with artists such as John Cage, Robert Ashley, David Tudor, Cornelius Cardew, Alvin Lucier, Steve Lacy and Derek Bailey to name a few).

Sassi started (in Milan) the cultural co-op Intrapresa (later Nuova Intrapresa), which published throughout the hostile Eighties the monthly tabloid Alfabeta, a space for diverse cultural ideas. He also edited La Gola, a sophisticated monthly on recycled paper discussing traditional and new gastronomy issues. As an organiser and an art director, Sassi was at the heart of many intelligent activities. He was in love with the permanent avant-garde, both local and international. He saw himself as a 'remover of obstacles', so that the flow of research and experiment in music, the visual arts, poetry, dance, performance, video etc could be made accessible with true respect for their complexities.
And, above all, he was one of the most talented designers of his lifetime in Italy: spanning over 300+ pages and printed to the highest print standards, apart for few texts contributions in Italian language, this is the best meticulously illustrated collection of his incredible work. I can't recommend this enough!