Marguerite Van Cook

Van Cook was born in Portsmouth, England. She attended Portsmouth College of Art and Design, Northumbria University Graphic and Fine Arts programs, BMCC, and Columbia University for English (BA) and Modern European Studies (MA). She holds a Ph.D. in French on eighteenth century political economics in the work of women writers from CUNY Graduate Center. She has also served as an adjunct professor at Columbia University and currently at the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) in New York.{{Cite web |title=Leadership Team |url=https://unbuiltlabs.com/leadership-team |access-date=2023-01-24 |website=Unbuilt Labs, The Global Think Tank Ecosystem |language=en-US}}

Van Cook was the lead singer for The Innocents, a UK punk band, who toured as opening act for The Clash and The Slits on the "Sort it Out Tour."{{cite web|url=http://homepage.mac.com/blackmarketclash/Bands/Clash/recordings/1978/78-12-28%20Lyceum/78%2012%2000%20Advert.jpg |format=JPG|title=Tour poster|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070220111817/http://homepage.mac.com/blackmarketclash/Bands/Clash/recordings/1978/78-12-28%20Lyceum/78%2012%2000%20Advert.jpg |url-status=dead |archive-date=20 February 2007 |accessdate=1 May 2011 }} After this group disbanded, she joined "Steppin' Razor," an all female reggae band, as the bass player. They opened for Yellowman at Harlem World.{{cite web|url=http://www.punk77.co.uk/wip/innocents.htm |title=The Innocents|publisher=Punk77.co.uk |date= |accessdate=2014-08-26}}

Van Cook opened and ran Ground Zero Gallery NY with her partner James Romberger in the East Village Art scene, from 1983 to 1986. Among the gallery presentations was the David Wojnarowicz show Mexican Diaries, which informed the video A Fire in My Belly, which sparked a controversy when it was removed from the exhibition Hide/Seek from the National Portrait Gallery in 2011.{{cite journal|last=Smith|first=Paul|title=David Wojnarowicz at Ground Zero|journal=Art in America|date=September 1987|pages=182–83}}{{cite journal|last=Corriel|first=Michelle|title=Approaching Ground Zero|journal=Say!|date=November 1986}} Under the banner of "Ground Zero", the couple curated and produced shows at Danceteria, Max Fish and other downtown clubs. In 1991, she became the director of Elston Fine Arts. In 2003, together with Romberger she directed the Fine Art elements of the Howl! Festival, an annual festival of the East Village, which included public outdoor sculpture exhibits, gallery shows. In 2006, she became the director and producer of the festival.

Van Cook has presented solo and group shows and her work is in many major public collections.Reid, Calvin, "Marguerite Van Cook: Cold War". 108 Newsletter, 6 1985 Van Cook has presented works as a performance artist.{{cite book|title=Anti-empire, anti-war cabaret (DVD video, 2003)|publisher=[WorldCat.org]|date=1999-02-22|oclc=85032016}} She was part of a collaborative group curated by Carlo McCormick, which included, James Romberger, David West, Marilyn Minter, David Wojnarowicz, Christof Kolhofer, Keiko Bonk and Luis Frangella. Together they painted installations in New York and Virginia.{{cite book|title=David Wojnarowicz: A Definitive History of Five or Six Years on the Lower East Side. Interviews by Sylvère Lotringer|first=Sylvère|last=Lotringer|editor-first=Giancarlo|editor-last=Ambrosino|location=NY|publisher=Semiotext(e)|year=2006}}

File:11.26.14MargueriteVanCookJamesRombergerByLuigiNovi.jpg, at a November 2014 signing for The Late Child at Jim Hanley's Universe in Manhattan]]

Van Cook produced and directed the film Funky Shui in New York. Additionally, she appeared in David Wojnarowicz and Tommy Turner's film Where Evil Dwells, as well as taking the role of Red Snapper in Nick Zedd and Rev.Jen's series Electra Elf.

While attending Columbia University, Van Cook won the Van Rensselaer Poetry Prize, previously won by notables such as John Berryman and Thomas Merton.{{cite web|url=https://www.wikicu.com/Van_Rensselaer_Poetry_Prize |title=Van Rensselaer Poetry Prize - WikiCU, the Columbia University wiki encyclopedia |publisher=Wikicu.com |date=2010-11-12 |accessdate=2014-08-26}} Her book "Stigma" is in the "Joan Flasch Artists' Book Collection" and her periodical The Murdering Class was carried by art book distributors "Printed Matter".{{cite book|title=Stigma (Downloadable archival material) |publisher=[WorldCat.org] |date=1999-02-22 |oclc = 232641406}} Other publications in which her work has appeared include "Peau Sensible", or "Sensitive Skin", "The Hooded Utilitarian" and in Sounds for whom she wrote music reviews.

Of her comics work, Van Cook is known for her color work on the graphic novel Seven Miles a Second, with Romberger and David Wojnarowicz.{{cite web|url=http://comicscomicsmag.com/2010/09/seven-miles-a-second.html|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110308040624/http://comicscomicsmag.com/2010/09/seven-miles-a-second.html|archive-date=8 March 2011|title=Seven Miles a Second|publisher=Comics Comics|access-date=3 September 2016|first=Jason T.|last=Miles|date=11 September 2010}}{{cite web |url=https://www.imageandnarrative.be/inarchive/autofiction2/berona.html|title=A Renegade of Expression: David Wojnarowicz's Autofiction in Comics by David A. Berona|website=Imageandnarrative.be}} Van Cook was nominated for an Eisner Award in 2014 for her work on this book in the category of Best Painter/Multimedia Artist (interior art).{{cite web|url=http://www.comic-con.org/awards/gallery/2014-eisner-retailer-award-nominees|title=2014 Eisner Retailer Award Nominees | Comic-Con International: San Diego|publisher=Comic-con.org|date=2014|access-date=2014-08-26}} The graphic novel was reprinted in 2013 as 7 Miles a Second by Fantagraphics Books publishers with amended color production. It rose to No. 5 on the New York Times best-seller list.{{Cite web |last=Gustines |first=George Gene |date=2013-02-15 |title=Graphic Books Best Sellers: A New Superhero Power Couple |url=https://archive.nytimes.com/artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/15/graphic-books-best-sellers-a-new-superhero-power-couple/ |access-date=2024-03-27 |website=ArtsBeat |language=en}} The original artwork was shown at the New Museum and the comic was included in the Museum of Modern Art "Open Ends, Millennium Show".{{cite web|url=https://archive.newmuseum.org/index.php/Detail/Occurrence/Show/occurrence_id/322|title=New Museum - Digital Archive|publisher=Archive.newmuseum.org|date=1999-04-11|access-date=2014-08-26}} In 2014 she wrote and colored The Late Child and Other Animals, a generational memoir, which was adapted and drawn by James Romberger and published by Fantagraphics Books. The story "Nature Lessons" from the book received an Ignatz nomination for "Outstanding Story" in 2015.{{cite web|url=https://comicsalliance.com/spx-2015-ignatz-nominees/|title=Small Press Expo Announces 2015 Ignatz Award Nominees|first=Jennifer de|last=Guzman|website=ComicsAlliance.com|access-date=10 May 2020}}

She has worked for DC Comics as a writer and colorist. She has collaborated on a comic Ground Zero with James Romberger, which was serialized through the 1980s and 1990s in various downtown literary magazines.Up Is Up But So Is Down, NY’s Downtown Literary Scene, 1974-1992. NYU Press, 2006: p. 182-83Creating Comics!, Eds. Judith Salavetz and Spencer Drate. Rockport Publishers, 2010. p. 120-123

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• {{comicbookdb|type=creator|id=1505|title=Marguerite Van Cook}}
• [http://www.thearteriesgroup.com/GroundZero.html Ground Zero comic]
• [http://www.thearteriesgroup.com/MargueriteVanCookmusic.html The Arteries Group / Marguerite Van Cook]
• [https://www.aylesburyfriars.co.uk/clashdec78.html The Official Friar Aylesbury Website]

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Category:1954 births

Category:Living people

Category:Alternative cartoonists

Category:Alumni of Northumbria University

Category:Artists from Portsmouth

Category:British female comics artists

Category:British women punk rock singers

Category:Columbia University alumni

Category:English punk rock singers

Category:English women curators

Category:Musicians from Portsmouth

Category:People from the East Village, Manhattan