John Giorno emerged out of the ‘beat’ generation in the United States during the late 1950s. Characterised by the writings of Jack Kerouac and — later, in a more extreme form — of the late William Burroughs, the beats were inspired by jazz, drugs and a vehement resistance to the social conformity and materialism of ‘affluent’ North America in the 1950s and 60s. Working primarily as a poet, John Giorno embraced the spirit of the beats in his chant-like poems, which railed against the stifling rigidity of the sexual, social and economic framework of American society. You got to burn to shine 1989 adopts the clipped ‘cool’ speak of the beats, in which ‘attitude’ is compressed into short sayings or lines colouring their conversation and writing. Editions Conz — Francesco Conz’s publishing organisation — has wed this brief ‘anthem for living’ to a metallic fabric that literally reflects the phrase.