Wet: the magazine of gourmet bathing and beyond; redux

In the coming week I’ll be posting a round up of a few new magazines (art based) I’ve been reading – I’m sure that will prove incredibly insightful. So today, I’ll be writing about a magazine that has been out of print for over 20 + years. Enjoy.

Wet Magazine was started in 1976 by Leonard Koren, the publication revolved around the idea of “gourmet bathing.” early issues were actually filled with this kind of information. However very quickly things changed – and for the better. Wet began to push into broader areas where art met street and high culture. I was introduced to Wet by Nancy Roeder while I was at VCU in the early eighties – this is where I first learned of Frank Ghery, and the art fringe of Los Angeles. In contrast Wet had an east coast “sister” as it were in “Interview”, which focused on New York. (don’t even for a minute think it focused on the east coast) Of course Interview had Andy Warhol behind it (as well as Glen O’brien) and seemed to have more money to use – although as far as ground breaking visual approaches Wet was always more interesting than Interview. This is especially clear as “The New Wave” began to take it’s hold. The visuals for that period in time may not have been 100% developed by Wet, (See ads below) but they sure were brought to the front from pink flamingos, leopard skin, wacky asymmetrical design, plastic palm trees, air brushy trendiness, and graph paper design, Wet became the archetype of everything we think of when we think of the eighties.

Interestingly enough, Wet was also forward thinking; articles with/about W. S. Burroughs, Laurie Anderson, Frank Ghery, Love Hotels of Tokyo, buildering (a small subset of rock climbing), Henry Miller, Brian Eno, Jim Carroll, Yoga, Dick Dale, Kenneth Anger, and a hundred other oddball ideas and people made Wet the definitive idea source of its time. (I like Wet as much for its ads as well as its content)

Usually you can find a few copies of Wet on ebay and every once in a while at yard sales. I would be willing to bet that it’s easier to find issues in LA – but I don’t live there so I can’t say for sure.