Last chance: Off Beat Counterculture exhibition at John Rylands

A new exhibition on now at the John Rylands Library celebrates an underappreciated icon of British counterculture. Off Beat centres on Jeff Nuttall, a Lancashire-born author, critic and publisher. His seminal 1968 book Bomb Culture explored modern music and alternative artists under the spectre of nuclear war. He also helped to popularise the concept of performance art ‘happenings’ in the UK. Nuttall was part of the ‘International Underground’ publishing scene, a network of artists and writers whose work was shared worldwide via lo-fi, self-published magazines, in the so-called ‘mimeograph revolution’. The exhibition is a showcase of many of these magazines, including Nuttall’s My Own Mag. One edition of this features a rare ‘cut-up’ work by William S. Burroughs. In the coming months, there are several curator tours where experts will share their knowledge and answer questions. Because of the adult nature of some of the content, the exhibition is not suitable for children.

Fri 30 Sep 2016 – Sun 5 Mar 2017, The John Rylands Library, 150 Deansgate, Manchester, M3 3EH, Tel: 0161 275 3751, 10am – 5pm daily, FREE, www.library.manchester.ac.uk