condition (whole set): EX
10"x8" original COUM-stamped photographic print plus five xeroxed A4 pages. 
One of the most famous artwork among those displayed in the exhibition, a pornographic photograph of Cosey Fanni Tutti. The artwork presented here is one original photographic print prepared for the 1976 exhibition, one of Tutti's most iconic images. The photo includes a stamp on the back with written “COUM TRANSMISSIONS. Transmission Title: PROSTITUTION. Time: Oct 1976. Place I.C.A. Gallery, London. Coum Personnel: Cosey Fanni Tutti”. In addition: 2 xerox pages with The Guardian review (dated Monday, October 18, 1976) titled “Art plunges in to the rusty hilt”, and Daily Express (dated Saturday October 16, 1976) titled “Rubbish! If you liked the bricks and dirty nap pies you’ll love the Art Council’s newest masterpiece…”, plus 3 xerox pages of more newspaper cuttings with Genesis P-Orridge's commentaries as well as a very direct and critical letter written by P-Orridge to the PR of the ICA.
COUM’s Prostitution retrospective at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, October18th, 1976, a notorious event that saw the simultaneous (though gradual) termination of COUM Transmissions and the emergence of Throbbing Gristle. The focus of Prostitution was to be on Tutti’s curation of her work in "tit magazines", framing them with the same care afforded all other exhibits. Unfortunately the ICA lost its mettle insisting the images were only to be made available ‘on request’, hidden away elsewhere in the gallery. "The fact I couldn’t hang them up on the wall pissed me off because all of a sudden the main items of the exhibition weren’t there, they were in the back room," Tutti said recently. "The relics from the Actions were an annex to the magazines, that was what the concept of the exhibition was going to be, but they caused so much trouble that they had to be put to one side. It had a big impact on the exhibition and how I envisioned it would be. But, then it became something else completely – which is very COUM. You sort of run with it and think ‘hmm that’s alright then." ‘Prostitution’s timely genius was in inviting the media to view these provocative images, along with photos and props from COUM’s previous actions such as the tampons and syringes, and to then add each ensuing piece of coverage to the exhibition. This turned the apparent ‘anti-art’ retrospective into an evolving piece in its own right, concerning "media control of information to the mass of people and the inevitability of corruption of information by reporting it." As the press outrage intensified, Cosey Fanni Tutti and Chris Carter would visit the gallery each day, pasting up newspaper cuttings in the ICA. Prostitution was therefore a kinetic exhibition, evolving in real time. "Now I look back retrospectively, I think that was fantastic," Tutti has said. "It had that underlying philosophy of COUM of letting things happen, throwing it up in the air and seeing where they will land and that is what happened with the ICA."