"B.U.D." (1990)

Basel, Switzerland: Udo Breger (broadside, signed/numbered), 1990.
16" x 18", stated edition of 66 copies, signed and numbered by William S. Burroughs and Udo Breger with unique-per-copy holograph text.

The "B.U.D." print, so called for the blind stamp in the lower right corner, which refers to Bill [Burroughs], Udo Breger, and Dean Ripa – the collaborators on this work [Dean Ripa apparently dropped out from his inclusion – see Luzius' comments below].

This print displays the following items (as noted on print):

1. Brion Gysin: Calligraphic Poem at the end of W.S.B.'s "The Ticket That Exploded" – 1st edition, Paris 1962"
2. Roses from a Santa Fe birthday cake (February 5th, 1989)
3. One shard from Alamout where B.G. [Brion Gysin] travelled with L.D.L. [Lawrence Lacina] in 1974
4. Two shards found in front of the Villa Mouniria, Tanger 1987
5. "Indian Penny'" (1902) found in a Basel telephone booth
6. Snake Ring (silver)
7. Two empty shells: one fired from Bill's Smith & Wesson .45 Long Colt, one with Fred's [Aldrich] Colt .45 Goldcup
8. Vinsebeck currency (early 18th century)
9.  Pebbles from "Mr. B's" Lawrence, Kansas, driveway [this item is number 8 on the print, a miscounting]
10. William's annotations on the left

As noted in Schottlaender [v4], the BeatBooks catalogue #62 describes “each one featuring a unique holograph text by Burroughs.” The BeatBooks entry from which Schottlaender drew this information:

There is very little information publicly available about this print, and I wanted a little more confirmation as the Burroughs text certainly looks handwritten, but it is unusual for a print to include a long holograph. Thus I reached out – Luzius Martin noted in email:

“During one of Udo‘s stays in Lawrence he came up with this idea.

Originally Dean Ripa, WSB‘s snake charming friend was part of the project (he was the D. in B.U.D.; he would have contributed a piece of snake skin, to be glued on every print).

While Udo produced the artwork & got done the prints, WSB wrote short pieces on his favorite subjects: guns, hieroglyphs, drugs, criminals, words of advice, dreams, cats etc. When they spent time in Hamburg for the production of The Black Rider in early 1990, WSB spent two afternoons in his room at Hotel Reichshof & wrote down his texts onto all the prints (about 80 in total).

In Udo’s Road Stops there is a photograph of William sitting on his bed writing on a B.U.D. print.”

Thus it is confirmed that each copy differs in handwritten content. This particular copy, 40/66, has “Words of Wisdom by WSB” – a variant of “Words of Advice for Young People”. 

In later conversation Luzius Martin stated that 82 copies were made, and 82 released, which suggests 16 (H.C.) copies outside of the edition of 66. 

The copy above was acquired from GAD Antiques [Glen Davey] (Haverhill, England).

I also hold a second copy, #29/66, with a text "Snakes (cont.)", which is about Dean Ripa.  This copy was acquired from Richard Aaron of Am Here Books (Larned, KS.).

Schottlaender v4.B13.