In Extremis – the A to Z of Francis Bacon
by Steve Finbow
From Abstraction to Zooparasites by way of Muybridge and Nietzsche, In Extremis – the A to Z of Francis Bacon – a decade in the conception and writing – begins with a rejection of the 'bio-graphy' – the writing of a life. The hyphen acts as a scar. For Francis Bacon, the life was merely the armature on which the meat was hung. To attempt a linear excavation of this subject, moving from his mother’s womb in Dublin to the stainless-steel body-rack in the morgue in Madrid, constitutes an act of literary reassurance, but In Extremis operates as a taxonomy of ruins, a torn ace of spades in the gutter next to a used prophylactic filled with glittering haemospermia. As Virginia Woolf noted, “Biography is considered complete if it merely accounts for six or seven selves, whereas a person may well have as many thousand”.
By Steve Finbow
Illustrated by Martin Bladh
out now
Hardbound, 263 pages, 206 x 148mm, 27 colour plates
ISBN 978-1-915908-14-8
Release date 01/09/2026
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About the authors
Steve Finbow
Steve Finbow is an independent scholar and writer whose work explores the limits of desire, disease, and death. A former editor for Allen Ginsberg, he wrote a critical biography of the poet (2012) alongside cultural histories including Grave Desire: A Cultural History of Necrophilia (2014; 2024), Notes from the Sick Room (2017), and The Mindshaft (2020). His fiction includes Balzac of the Badlands (2009), complemented by hybrid projects like Polaroid Haiku (2023). Through radical historiography and postdisciplinary critique, his forthcoming volume, The Disorder Diaries: Neurology and the Arts, is published by Iff Books in 2026.
Martin Bladh
Martin Bladh is a Swedish-born artist of multiple mediums and co-founder of Infinity Land Press. His work is driven by the idea that cruelty is the source of creativity, the relationship between victim and executioner, and the ever-present notion of evil.
Bladh’s published work includes The Rorschach Text, The Hurtin’ Club, The Torture of the 100 Pieces, Braquemard: The Clavicle of Gilles de Rais, DES: The Theatre of Death and Michael Carter - The Practitioner. He lives and works in London.