Close To The Knives is a beautifully written memoir about the artist’s turbulent life, politics and the AIDS crisis, and about art, life, and humanity. It is written in a series of sections which are in different styles and take broadly different focuses, but overall emerges a picture of not only Wojnarowicz, but of life in America in the 70s and 80s and the harsh realities of a world torn apart by AIDS and victimised by the government.

The chapters vary, with some giving details and political attacks and some using vague anecdote and no names. Through this, a juxtaposition of highly specific and artistically abstract emerges, which gives the book a powerful texture and a sense of an artist looking for different ways to express themselves. Metaphorical descriptions of the spread of HIV sit alongside figures and facts about the key political figures who did not help or actively discriminated against those with the virus and LGBT people in general. Anger seeps through the words of the book, making it a powerful read.

First published in 1991, Wojnarowicz’s work is still vitally important as a memoir of the AIDS crisis, of political injustice, and of the life of a provocative artist. Not only that, but the political and social implications and messages are still - and indeed very - relevant today.