Philip Garner’s Better Living Catalog

Pippa Garner’s Better Living Catalog, originally published in 1982, takes the form of a mail order catalog featuring clever + whimsical inventions that parody consumer goods while simultaneously critiquing America’s obsession with ingenuity, efficiency, leisure + comfort. These works, which were made as prototypes + photographed for the publication, take the form of improbable accessories, clothing, footwear, home appliances + office gadgets. The Better Living Catalog was a pop hit when it was published, earning Garner spots on nighttime TV talk shows + attention from Vogue + Rolling Stone. A few years after the Better Living Catalog was published, Garner began her gender transition, which she has characterized as an artistic project that draws conceptual parallels to the altered consumer goods she has continued to create since the 1970s. Softcover. 100 pages.