Credit: Courtesy of Akron University Press
Jade Dellinger, director of the Bob Rauschenberg Gallery at Florida Southwestern State College has curated shows, commissioned installments and hosted lectures by a number of notable artists (Guerilla Girls, Yoko Ono, Laurie Anderson, Jane Wiedlin). And he has a strong connection to Northeast Ohio. He first invited musician and artist Mark Mothersbaugh from the Akron group Devo to Florida in 1999 for a project with the Contemporary Art Museum in Tampa Bay and world-premiered Mothersbaugh’s Postcards for Democracy exhibition (with collaborator Beatie Wolfe) at the Rauschenberg Gallery.

Now, he and Akron University professor David Giffels, the author of six books of nonfiction, have teamed up to write The Beginning Was the End: Devo in Ohio, a new book about the radical New Wave band. University of Akron Press has published the tome.

The book features more than 80 never-before-seen images of the band members and their visual history as it tells the story of how a collection of creative misfits formed a musical kinship and “channeled protopunk energy into a sprawling art project that would pioneer the use of music videos, innovate technology in pop music, define the aesthetic of the 1980s New Wave/MTV era, and maintain an edge of social, political, and cultural criticism that continues their relevance fifty years after their formation,” as it’s put in a press release.

The two authors will launch the book on Oct. 23 at the Akron Main Library auditorium. There will then be a release event on Oct. 24 at the Kent State Visitors Center, and Giffels will give a reading and talk on Oct. 26 at the Beachwood branch of the Cuyahoga County Public Library. A book signing also takes place on Oct. 28 at the Learned Owl Book Shop in Hudson.

More book signings and talks will take place in November and December. Dates and times are listed below:

Akron Press Club – noon, Thursday, Nov. 9
Mac’s Backs – Books on Coventry in Cleveland – 7 p.m., Saturday, Nov. 11
Loganberry Books in Cleveland – 1 p.m., Sunday, Nov. 26
Visible Voice Books in Cleveland – 7 p.m., Saturday, Dec. 2
Reed Memorial Library in Ravenna – 6 pm., Thursday, Dec. 14
North Water Street Gallery in Kent – 7 p.m., Friday, Dec. 15

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This article appears in Oct 11-25, 2023.

Jeff has been covering the Cleveland music scene for more than 25 years now. On a regular basis, he tries to talk to whatever big acts are coming through town. And if you're in a local band that he needs to hear, email him at jniesel@clevescene.com.