New Books for the New Year: Made by MSCHF
Our new book on the often chaotic, always innovative, Brooklyn collective harnesses their unique brand of subversive humour to tell the story of how they operate and generate ideas.
While you might not know MSCHF’s name, you have probably witnessed one of the Brooklyn artist collective’s projects or products either online or IRL—whether it’s their viral Big Red Boots, their infamous designer-branded sneakers filled with holy water, the ATM installed at Art Basel Miami that ranked users by bank balance, or their cutting out of spots from a Damien Hirst print and selling them as individual art works.
Tax Heaven 3000, ARCHIVE #150, 2023. Image credit: © MSCHF. A dating sim–style visual novel video game that prepared a free, fileable federal US tax return.
Using the language of branding, and sometimes tinkering with the identities of existing brands, MSCHF’s provocative projects have always been circulated within the public sphere. The collective breaks rules in order to critique the very areas of culture that they inhabit. Undefinable by nature, MSCHF operates within and between various worlds—art, fashion, product design, tech, gaming, the American legal system, and so much more.
Global Supply Chain Telephone Handbag (orange), 2024. Image credit: Photo: Kendall Mills. A leather handbag produced through a series of prompts given to four factories around the world to make a bag designed entirely by cumulative factory creative labour.
Founded in 2019 by a group of friends interested in making self-described “weird things online,” MSCHF began as a series of project releases, launched every two weeks as a drop.
MSCHF has since evolved into a team with over thirty members. They now collaborate with global brands and celebrities and boast a loyal cult following of fans who buy out each and every one of those new drops.
Satan Shoes, Archive #65, 2021. Image credit: © MSCHF. Modified Nike Air Max 97 sneakers with blood injected into the soles, in collaboration with Lil Nas X.
Our new book, Made by MSCHF is the definitive guide to MSCHF’s work, bringing together their entire portfolio of projects for the first time. Written by cofounders Kevin Wiesner and Lukas Bentel, alongside art world veteran Karen Wong, the book uses the collective’s unique brand of subversive humour to tell the story of how they operate and generate ideas.
Spot’s Rampage, Archive #58, 2021. Image credit: © MSCHF. A livestreamed performance in which the public remotely piloted a Boston Dynamics Spot® robot with a paintball gun.
The book opens with an exclusive look into MSCHF’s internal handbook, which illustrates the principles of their creative process. With slogans such as “make objects with a point of view,” “always punch something but never punch down,” and “golf sucks now and has always sucked,” readers are invited into the often chaotic, always innovative, headspace of the collective.
Blur $20 USD, 2020. Image credit: Photo: Kendall Mills. A rectangular block printed to look like a block of money that has been blurred through a camera filter.
Following the handbook there are six thematic essays by experts in the fields MSCHF works in, including Art Law professor Amy Adler, artist Maurizio Cattelan, and Pentagram partner Natasha Jen.
Twelve deep dives make up the majority of the book, each one focusing on a specific project. These include a line of designer handbags visible only under a microscope, an anime dating game that helps players generate a functional tax return, and a communally owned PT Cruiser that made its way across the United States through the power of crowdsourcing.
MSCHF team in their studio with the PT Cruiser used in Key4all (Archive #118), 2022. Image credit: Courtesy the artist and Perrotin. Photo: Guillaume Ziccarelli
Each one of these provides a behind-the-scenes view into the work that goes into each project. The book also includes a comprehensive project archive listing all of MSCHF’s works to date.
The cloth cover of the book features a custom typeface based on the one used on a classic Michelangelo Phaidon monograph from the 1940s, above a tipped-on image of MSCHF’s branded socks.
Ultimate Participation Trophy, 2022. Image credit: Photo: Kendall Mills. An edition of one hundred trophies designed by MSCHF and produced by Tiffany & Co., numbered in order of purchase. The first buyer received the first-place trophy, the second buyer got second, the third buyer third; the remainder were labeled “Participant.”
In the words of culture strategist Lydia Pang, for MSCHF, “virality is merely an ingredient to play with, evidence of aliveness in the work.” While MSCHF’s projects are almost always viral on social media, Made by MSCHF goes one step further to showcase the deep cultural impact they leave.
You can pre-order Made by MSCHF here. It ships in March.