Bernadette Corporation: The Complete Poem

The Bernadette Corporation was formed in a Manhattan nightclub in 1994, and began organizing social events that evolved into unofficial art carnivals in SoHo parking lots. From 1995 to 1997, the collective worked under the guise of an underground fashion label, later issuing the magazine Made in USA and authoring the collective novel Reena Spaulings. For this unique amalgam of poetry and fashion shoot, the Corporation alternates fashion photographer David Vasiljevic's 38 photographs of six male and female models with an epic poem structured on various formal constraints, such as (in one section) the inclusion of words beginning with the letters B and C in each line. Corporation member Jim Fletcher describes the poem's content as "A time and a place, New York... epic means, letting it in." Thus: "What's the beautiful chorus/I hear while basting my capers/It's Bellini on the CD..." The Complete Poem offers a rare synthesis of authors and genres.