Making WET: The Magazine of Gourmet Bathing

by Leonard Koren

The Magazine of Gourmet Bathing was one of the seminal avant-garde publications of the 1970s and early 1980s. It had a quirky, prescient editorial sensibility and was a dynamic venue for graphic design experimentation. WET was a precursor to, and exemplar for, later publications such as Beach Culture , Ray Gun , Wired , and the like. Talents such as Matt Groening ( The Simpsons ) and others published their first work here. This book tells the story of the making of WET from its early formation in the Venice Beach creative milieu to its emergence on the international pop-culture scene. This book includes an extended commentary on the process of making WET , along with images and reprints from the magazine. No mere retrospective, this book offers instructive advice for anyone embarking on a journey of artistic entrepreneurship.
Leonard Koren trained as an artist and architect. He was the founder and publisher of The Magazine of Gourmet Bathing . Koren writes and consults about design- and aesthetic-related issues. Among his previous books are for Artists, Designers, Poets & Philosophers and Which "Aesthetics" Do You Mean? Ten Definitions .

176 pages, Hardcover

First published March 13, 2012

Reviews

[Glen Helfand · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Making Wet" is a California story. Emphasis 1970's LA. It is rooted in an ethos of gentle snark and pleasure, a brand of youthful rebellion amidst constant sunshine and ocean views. Leonard Koren started WET magazine playfully, as a means of recovering from the strictures of architecture school. The birth of the project coincided with the brash creative energy that led to punk, New Wave, and an LA aesthetic in graphic design, art and performance. (Not to mention a flurry of independent publishing.) I somehow got wind of the publication and subscribed to it when I was in high school in an LA suburb--even if I was unformed, I appreciated the sly sensualism and ads for cool restaurants and clubs on the other side of the hill. So this coffee table storybook magazine memoir filled me with nostalgia. It filled in some back story about the making of, and the 'promotional' pool parties I somehow never got wind of. Embedded is the conflicts between art and commerce, how success and money tainted the mineral waters. (And like so much else these days, there are aspects that don't jibe with contemporary mores--unpaid contributors and a story on necrophilia as performance art.) But who wants to linger on that side of the story when there are such wonderful splashes of skin and soapy water? I would have been thrilled to get more magazine spreads--and wish I could still order a WET t-shirt (for seven dollars!)--but I think I might have that Richard Gere issue in a box somewhere.

[Karyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I finally purchased a copy of this book as a treat, and was very happy that I did. I was probably too young when Wet, the magazine came out, and lived on the East Coast, so I had never heard about it until I randomly came across this book online last year. A pretty fascinating history of how creative people get together and make a magazine, purely for the sake of art and creative expression, and then the stakes ratchet up and get a little higher when it begins making money...to the point where it kind of implodes under its own weight and creative decisions start becoming marketing decisions. Outtakes from the magazine are interspersed with its history, and it is also interesting to see late '70s design become more deconstructed into early '80s Po Mo; and covers transforming from a silhouette of a naked women exiting a mud bath to a sexy shirtless cover of a very young Richard Gere shot by Herb Ritts.

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

My full review is here, but the short version is that I loved it, and the only thing I wish is that it were longer with more excerpts from WET itself.