Sporting a new landscape format (including a custom-designed slipcase), and printed with specially formulated inks on 11 different paper stocks, Esopus 19 featured artists’ projects by Sharon Core (with removable insert), Joyce Pensato (with removable poster), and John Sparagana (with removable poster); 100 still frames from the opening sequence of David Lynch’s iconic 1986 film Blue Velvet (introduced by acclaimed photographer Gregory Crewdson); fascinating materials—including 8 facsimile inserts—from MoMA’s archives related to late artist Scott Burton’s early performance pieces; 23 never-before-published photographs from 1949 by Magnum photographer Burt Glinn; insightful commentary on artworks from the New Orleans Museum of Art by two of its guards; an excerpt from an extraordinary journal by artist Matt Freedman related to his harrowing experience undergoing cancer treatment; an exquisite found object recovered from a Paris dumpster by artist David Scher; and gripping new fiction by first-time author Chelli Riddiough.

The issue’s themed CD was an audio compilation of brand-new songs inspired by the customer-service travails of Jens Lekman, Dirty Beaches, Richard Swift, Cakes Da Killa, Basia Bulat, Literature, and six other musical acts.