We Did Porn: Memoir and Drawings - Tapa dura

Zak Smith is equally comfortable in the fine art scene, the literary scene -- and filming a scene. A porn scene, that is: Smith's alter ego Zak Sabbath is a renowned alternative porn actor. In this illustrated memoir (graphic in more ways than one), Smith describes his shift from New York's high-end art world to the seedy adult entertainment underbelly of Los Angeles, offering readers an inside understanding of the industry, its players, and its audience. Smith narrates his own foray into pornography and gives his readers a new understanding of the industry, its players, and its audience. Best known for his series of illustrations entitled Pictures Showing What Happens on Each Page of Thomas Pynchon's Novel Gravity's Rainbow, Smith is an artistic and storytelling force that cannot be ignored.

Zak Smith was born in Syracuse, New York, in 1976. In addition to theGravity's Rainbow illustrations, which were shown in the 2004 Whitney Biennial and are now in the collection of the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, Smith's recent projects include the multipanel painting 100 Girls and 100 Octopuses and an ongoing series of portraits of friends and acquaintances in the sex industry entitled Girls in the Naked Girl Business as well as a number of stand-alone paintings and drawings, abstract and otherwise. His work has appeared in numerous publications worldwide and is held in many public and private collections, including the Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney Museum. He is a frequent contributor to several independent comics and zines, including Papingand See How Pretty, See How Smart. His first monograph, Zak Smith: Pictures Of Girls, was published in 2005.