A Mycological Foray
by John Cage
$ 85
John Cage’s Mycological Foray is a two-volume artist’s book published in 2010 that gathers his writings, drawings, and reflections on mushrooms, a subject that fascinated him throughout his life. Cage, better known as a pioneering avant-garde composer, was also an avid amateur mycologist who spent countless hours in the woods, collecting, cataloging, and meditating on fungi. His connection to the Northwest began in 1938 when he taught and performed at the Cornish School in Seattle. It was there that he first met painter Morris Graves. Graves attended a performance in which Cage was deliberately destroying a piano, pulling at its strings and dismantling parts of the instrument to create unusual sounds. Shocked by the spectacle, Graves loudly protested, making a scene in the auditorium. Despite that dramatic introduction, Cage and Graves formed a friendship, united by shared interests in nature, Eastern philosophy, and experimental approaches to art.