Gus Van Sant Book order (chronological)

"Gus Van Sant: Icons offers insight into the world of filmmaker Gus Van Sant, published on the occasion of a major exhibition at the Cinémathèque française in Paris. This comprehensive monograph surveys the full range of Van Sant's artistry from photography and painting to music, filtered through the perspective of his films. The exhibition and catalogue are a thoroughly original take on a distinctive filmmaker, bringing together all facets of his work for the first time and offering a fresh vision of his iconic filmmaking." -- Publisher's description

Nick Haymes first met Gabe Nevins on an editorial assignment in the summer of 2007. Gabe had just wrapped up his lead role in Gus Van Sant’s Paranoid Park , in which he had played a teenage skateboarder who accidentally kills a security guard. Gabe had never acted prior to starring in the film; he had heard about Van Sant’s casting call from a skateboard store and initially auditioned as an extra. Meeting the teenager, Haymes “Initially, Gabe was fairly shy, but it quickly transpired that he had seen some of my skateboarding images online and an instant friendship was struck. When the assignment was over, I approached Gabe about the possibility of working on more photographs as there was something entirely captivating about him and his energy.” This volume tracks the highs and lows of Gabe’s teen years, from stardom to emotional breakdown and homelessness.

Pink is the first novel by film-maker Gus Van Sant, whose films include Drugstore Cowboy, My Own Private Idaho and Good Will Hunting. It tells the story of industrial film-maker Spunky Davis and his close encounters with two strange young men whose disturbing aura attracts Spunky's curiosity - especially as one of them strongly reminds him of a dazzling young star of the infommercial world who has recently died tragically of a drug overdose. Gradually, they draw Spunky into their world, revealing to him the secrets of the Pink dimension. Pink is suffused with a grief for the temporary nature of life, for the breaking of connections, for the difficulties of coping with inconsolable loss. It is also a tale of hope and rapture - one told with the aching tenderness of My Own Private Idaho, as well as the wickedly ironic tone of To Die For.

Wildly charismatic, impossibly brilliant, totally rebellious - Will Hunting is a mathematical genius who lives on the fringes of society, refusing to accept the talent that he has for maths and taking, instead, a job as a cleaner in a university.