Bedtime Stories for Bad Boys and Girls
Collaborative artist book presenting photographs by Larry Clark paired with drawings by James Gilroy, documenting ten interconnected narratives shared between two lifelong friends who first met in downtown New York during the early 1970s. The stories span their parallel experiences from the 1950s through the 1970s and beyond, preserved as transcriptions of recorded conversations between the artists—candid recollections of youth, artistic life, danger, liberation, and survival in an era that claimed many of their peers.
Larry Clark (b. 1943, Tulsa, Oklahoma) pioneered confessional documentary photography with his groundbreaking photobook Tulsa (1971), which intimately documented drug use, sex, and violence among teenagers in his hometown between 1963-1971. The book caused a sensation within the photographic community and established Clark's raw, uninhibited approach that influenced generations of photographers including Nan Goldin and Ryan McGinley. His 1995 film Kids, written by 19-year-old Harmony Korine, became an instant classic that defined youth culture in 1990s New York. Clark's work fundamentally challenged boundaries of acceptable subject matter and photographer-subject relationships.
James Gilroy (b. 1948, New York City) is a contemporary abstract figurative painter formally trained at The New York Phoenix School of Design and Art Students League of New York, where he studied for over a decade. His practice emphasizes layered color that "transmutes and blends together as an alchemy of color," combining rigorous anatomical understanding with emotional expressionism. Gilroy represents the New York figurative expressionist tradition, bringing visual painting practice to complement Clark's photographic eye.
The two met through mutual connection Ralph Gibson in the early 1970s and "became fast friends" amid the social upheaval of downtown Manhattan. As Gilroy recalls: "Back then, you walked down the block and maybe ran into somebody or into a situation. We'd just get pulled into something every day." Economic conditions allowed them to "work two or three days and make enough cash for the month" then travel extensively. Many of their peers didn't survive the era's dangerous lifestyle. Now in their 80s and 70s, Clark and Gilroy remain "still standing," offering rare perspective on both the liberation and tragedy of that formative period.
Published by Dashwood Projects in conjunction with their March 25–April 4, 2026 exhibition. Dashwood Projects opened in 2024 as the exhibition and publishing extension of Dashwood Books, the influential independent photography bookstore founded in 2005 by David Strettell (formerly Cultural Director of Magnum Photos). The collaboration represents a mature, reflective perspective on an era that shaped contemporary photography and art, filtered through multiple artistic practices and decades of friendship.
