Booksmith is excited to host Erik Davis and Mark McCloud for Blotter: The Untold Story of an Acid Medium. Join us!

About the book

Blotter is the first comprehensive written account of the history, art, and design of LSD blotter paper, the iconic drug delivery device that will perhaps forever be linked to underground psychedelic culture and contemporary street art. Created in collaboration with Mark McCloud’s Institute of Illegal Images, the world’s largest archive of blotter art, Davis’s boldly illustrated exhibition treats his outsider subject with the serious, art-historical respect it deserves, while also staying true to the sense of play, irreverence, and adventure inherent in psychedelic exploration. 

Davis weaves together two main stories: first, the largely unknown history of blotter paper’s development in the 1960s and its later flowering in the 1970s and 1980s; and second, the story of how San Francisco artist, professor, and “freak” McCloud began collecting blotter and ultimately became embroiled with the LSD trade. The book closes with a unique discussion of the market for “vanity blotter”—more recent perforated papers produced as collectible art objects never meant to be dipped in LSD. While vanity blotters are intimately related to the underground blotters of the LSD trade, they effectively open up their own visual world. As the ultimate document of this ephemeral artform, Blotter represents an exceptional contribution to the scholarship of art and psychedelics that will entertain older readers with lysergic nostalgia and younger readers with its image-driven journey through a colorful and scandalous corner of psychedelic lore.

“Blotter is a fascinating look at the history of underground acid warriors and the clever, subversive, and oftentimes simply stunning blending of art and chemistry that defied the war on drugs.”

Erika Dyck, Professor and Canada Research Chair in the History of Health & Social Justice, University of Saskatchewan; author of Psychedelic Psychiatry and Facing Eugenics

"Blotter is the vehicle for this newly dipped, finely detailed, and thoroughly absorbing account of the story of acid, a beautifully illustrated and fascinating book destined to become a classic."

Graham St John, author of Terence McKenna: The Strange Attractor

About the author

Erik Davis (www.techgnosis.com) is an author, scholar, award-winning journalist, and teacher based in San Francisco. He is the author, most recently, of Blotter: The Untold Story of an Acid Medium, a study of LSD blotter art. He also wrote High Weirdness: Drugs, Esoterica, and Visionary Experience in the Seventies (2019), Nomad Codes: Adventures in Modern Esoterica (2010), and the cult classic TechGnosis: Myth, Magic, and Mysticism in the Age of Information (1998), which is still in print.  Erik’s scholarly and popular essays on music, technoculture, drugs, and spirituality have appeared in scores of books, magazines, and journals, and his writing has been translated into a dozen languages. Davis has spoken widely at universities, conferences, retreat centers, and festivals, and has been interviewed by CNN, the BBC, NPR, and the New York Times. He is one of the founders of Alembic, a center in Berkeley, California devoted to meditation, movement, and visionary arts and culture.

Mark McCloud was the head of an LSD conspiracy that gained a new generation to the cause of LSD," assistant U.S. attorney Mike Oliver said. "It is a cause that creates in people the capacity to make life-threatening and life-stealing decisions.

Please note:

• Masks will not be required for this event, but can be provided upon request.
• Safety protocols are subject to change. If we feel it is not safe to gather, as the event gets closer, we will pivot to a virtual event and your registration will remain valid.
• Please be aware of the ticket tier you are selecting. The free general admission tier *does not guarantee a seat* and may be standing room if our seated tiers sell out first.
• Accessibility requests? Write tickets@booksmith.com.