A study of assassination / George Selley ; edited by Vincent Marcilhacy with Veronique Prugnaud and Guillaume Lebrun.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Selley, George, artist, interviewee.

Contributor:

Warner, Marigold, interviewer, writer of preface.

Marcilhacy, Vincent, editor.

Prugnaud, Veronique, editor.

Lebrun, Guillaume, editor.

Jeffs, Peter, graphic designer.

Laboratoires Picto, lithographer.

Christine Hikawa Fund.

Art & Caractere, printer.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

United Fruit Company.

United States. Central Intelligence Agency.

United States.

Arbenz Guzmán, Jacobo, 1913-1971.

Arbenz Guzmán, Jacobo.

Propaganda, Capitalist--Pictorial works.

Propaganda, Capitalist.

Operation PBSUCCESS, 1954.

Operation Fortune.

Photomontage.

Undercover operations--Guatemala.

Undercover operations.

Assassins--United States--History--20th century.

Assassins.

Guatemala--History--Revolution, 1954.

Guatemala.

Guatemala--Economic conditions--1945-1985.

Guatemala--Foreign relations--United States.

Guatemala--Politics and government--20th century.

United States--Foreign relations--Guatemala.

Diplomatic relations.

Economic history.

Politics and government.

Genre:

History.

Pictorial works.

Physical Description:

1 portfolio (1 booklet, 1 folded sheet, 3 facsimile adverts, 1 facsimile newspaper, 3 books) : illustrations (some colour), facsimiles ; 30 cm

Place of Publication:

[Paris] : The Eyes, 2019

Summary:

"A Study of Assassination is a photobook exploring a CIA document recently made public, presenting a study to become an assassin. Young photographer George Selley denounces the United States tendencies to imperialism by playing with their double-edged international politics, business and influence intertwined. Between shameful lessons on murder and imperialism, George Selley presents in images this study he dutifully followed. In 1997, following a law on the right of information, the CIA released to the public a document called "A study of assassination", written in 1953 for the destabilisation of Guatemala. It aimed to discard the newly elected president, Arbenz, who wanted to buy lands from United Fruits, a multinational American company who controlled a fifth of the country resources and almost the whole worldwide sales of bananas. United Fruits led a campaign to paint the Guatemalan president as a soviet puppet. Ties between economy and politics led to an offensive in June 1954, made of mercenaries trained by the CIA overthrows Arbenz. The CIA had written this study with the purpose of training the mercenaries to the assassination act. This success leads Guatemala into a political disarray, which lasted up until 1990"--The Photographer's Gallery website (accessed 9/1/2020)

"This project is broken into two sets of images. The first is concerned with re-purposing the manual by way of photomontage. By combining pages of the document with archival press images of the time; united fruit advertisement campaigns; and cold war propaganda, the meaning of the documents is transformed. Connotations commonly associated with the banana of humour, sex, liberation and the American Dream are juxtaposed with its sinister history of oppression, capitalist imperialism and genocide - challenging our conceptions of the bananas symbolism. The document itself represents the bureaucracy of war, the everyday processes of a global intelligence agency - the banality of power. Such documents seem to always have an element of the absurd: a memo requesting a "delivery address for a heat seeking missile system"; a leaked email advising covert agents to "buy something at duty free"; a CIA "Assassination Manual" that begins: "assassination will never be authorized by any US Headquarters". After a while, one begins to question their authenticity. It seems there's almost a dry humour behind them. Playing on these questions of fact, fiction and absurdity, while also referencing the CIA's tactics of misinformation - the second set of images in the project are completely fictitious. Pairing documents from the manual and Guatemalan police reports with staged imagery and improvised documentary, they are the result of the photographer following the Assassination Manual, literally, with his camera."--Photographer's website (accessed 9/1/2020)

Contents:

[Booklet] A study of assassination: a 19 page field manual for all your assassination needs

[Folded sheet] Preface

[Facsimile advert] Great white fleet 17 day cruise to Havana

[Facsimile advert] Join now, the Office of Civilian Defence needs you

[Facsimile newspaper, front page] Workers Vanguard

[Book] The assassin

[Facsimile newspaper, page 2] Workers Vanguard

[Book] Planning

Facsimile newspaper, page 3] Workers Vanguard

[Book] Employment

[Facsimile advert] Host of the Caribbean.

Notes:

Photobook.

Preface includes conversation between George Selley and Marigold Warner originally published in the BJP online, 24 September, 2018.

Graphic design: Peter Jeffs

Photo engraving: Laboratoires Picto

Printing: Art & Caractere

Local Notes:

Issued in facsimile CIA folder with yellow band to front cover. Contents hole punched and bound with metal clasps. Assassination booklet inserted loose.

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Christine Hikawa Fund.

ISBN:

9791092727357

OCLC:

1119103394

Publisher Number:

99990296383