Tam Tam Art Direction & Design by Tom Recchion + Joseph Shuldiner

Tam Tam Books specializes in English translations of 20th-century French provocateurs such as Boris Vian, singer-songwriter Serge Gainsbourg, and the Situationist International’s Guy Debord. Vian’s To Hell with the Ugly and The Dead All Have the Same Skin come out this year, and a 600-page biography on Gainsbourg will follow in 2009. Owner and editor Tosh Berman sat down with PLANET° to discuss his personal campaign against blandness.

Where does the name Tam Tam come from? Josephine Baker, an African-American entertainer from St. Louis who went to France and became a mega-star in the 1920s, made a movie called Princesse Tam Tam. For me, this name symbolizes the bridge between U.S. pop culture — especially black culture — and French culture. So why is it important for English speakers to read these authors’ works? These days, artists are not willing to provoke their audience. Once upon a time artists were there to destroy everything; now they’re there to accept everything — meaning money and a career. The art world has become very corporate in its mentality. The words “career” and “art” don’t really mix, yet now they do. In that sense, the dictionary definition of art has totally changed.