No Fun Without U

No FuN Without U chronicles the life and times of Joshua Compston, a pivotal personality in the Shoreditch art scene of the mid-1990s, until his death at the age of 25 in March 1996. An enigmatic figure, his great creative energy was the driving force throughout his life, art his weapon. His lasting success has been to bring together a group of artists now at the forefront of the London art scene, including Tracey Emin, Gillian Wearing, Matt Collishaw, Gavin Turk, Gilbert and George, Sarah Lucas, Gary Hume, Damien Hurst.

Jeremy Cooper creates a narrative of Compston's life and his impact on the lives of those artists around him, and his relation to the wider London art scene of the time. A mass of photographic documentation of artists, events, exhibitions and memorabilia -- much of it unpublished elsewhere-illustrates the text. Joshua Compston's work and its strong influence on the contemporary art scene confirms the validity of the position of curator as artist, the role which he occupied to great effect.