Void Corporation

From Blake Butler, the genius author of Archway Editions’ smash hit memoir Molly, comes Void Corporation—the crowning achievement of his fictional oeuvre. Initially published as Alice Knott in 2020 by Riverhead Books, it now appears for the first time in paperback with its originally intended title, a brand new foreword by the author, and an unsettling, iconic cover painting by Seymour Rosofsky. The most accomplished and accessible entrypoint into Butler’s hypnotic, hallucinatory aesthetic, Void Corporation is the ideal next purchase for anyone who loved Molly.

Published right as the world changed in early 2020, Butler’s riffs on art, technology, inequality and the conspiratorial impenetrability of our bureaucratic world are more prescient than ever. The recent spate of protest action involving art even seems inspired by the book—people have said as much online—and the resonances keep coming. Reclusive heiress Alice Knott’s self-imposed quarantine is reminiscent of our own, and the mystery deepens after she discovers her family’s world-class artwork collection destroyed and videotaped.

Void Corporation features Butler’s stimulating, immersive linguistic acrobatics, but in following Alice’s journey through a world of memory and conspiracy, he brings a looming clarity. After the artwork is destroyed, copycat incidents proliferate around the world, and she becomes the chief suspect in what may be an international conspiracy. With essential questions raised about the meaning of art and the ramifications of trauma, this definitive edition is a must-have for anyone who has read Molly or wants to discover the exceptional written universe of Blake Butler.