{"product_id":"nina-simones-gum","title":"Nina Simone's Gum","description":"\u003cp\u003eI hadn't opened the towel that contained her gum since 2013. The last person to touch it was Nina Simone, her saliva and fingerprints unsullied. The idea that it was still in her towel was something I had drawn strength from.\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e I thought each time I opened it some of Nina Simone's spirit would vanish. In many ways that thought was more important than the gum itself. On Thursday 1 July, 1999, Dr Nina Simone gave a rare performance as part of Nick Cave's Meltdown Festival.\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e After the show, in a state of awe, Warren Ellis crept onto the stage, took Dr Simone's piece of chewed gum from the piano, wrapped it in her stage towel and put it in a Tower Records bag. The gum remained with him for twenty years; a sacred totem, his creative muse, a conduit that would eventually take Ellis back to his childhood and his relationship with found objects, growing in significance with every passing year. Nina Simone's Gum is about how something so small can form beautiful connections between people.\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e It is a story about the meaning we place on things, on experiences, and how they become imbued with spirituality. It is a celebration of artistic process, friendship, understanding and love. '[A] beautiful, strikingly idiosyncratic book - part memoir, part essay, part conceptual art project, all testament to humans at their strangest and best .\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFormat: Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e Published: in UK in 2021\u003cbr\u003e Publisher: Faber \u0026amp; Faber\u003cbr\u003e Pages: 208\u003cbr\u003e Language: English\u003cbr\u003e ISBN 13: 9780571365623\u003cbr\u003e ISBN 10: 0571365620\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Warren Ellis","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":39478263087207,"sku":"","price":26.95,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0282\/6066\/3399\/products\/image_6502d6c4-451d-4178-9060-45ebb9e2c9e5.jpg?v=1632136485","url":"https:\/\/www.shakespeareandsons.com\/products\/nina-simones-gum","provider":"Shakespeare \u0026 Sons Buchhandel GmbH","version":"1.0","type":"link"}