Since bursting onto the scene in late 1970s New York, Lydia Lunch's confrontational music, art, literature and spoken word performances have been at the forefront of underground American culture. The Gun is Loaded is a provocative journey into the vision of one of America's most fearless and pioneering underground artists.

Lydia Lunch has worked with the most prolific and experimental musicians and artists of her generation, including Richard Kern, Nick Cave, Einsturzende Neubauten, Sonic Youth and author Hubert Selby Jr, continually setting the underground's aesthetic agenda through her groundbreaking work. More recently, Lydia Lunch has lectured in academic contexts alongside her repeated tours, vibrant spoken word performances and photography exhibitions across Europe and the United States.

Infused with her apocalyptic vision of American spiritual collapse and the violence of sexuality, Lydia's uncompromising work has defied categorisation and been largely under-represented in mainstream media. The Gun is Loaded fills this gap, narrating her evolution from No Wave singer and performer, through art-house actor, to spoken word poet and celebrated author. Featuring prose, poems and narrative alongside her own recent photography projects and a visually stunning collection of archive material, The Gun is Loaded is a provocative and powerful book.