On the Way to Work

Those familiar with artist Damien Hirst's preserved cows and medical v rit exhibits of human skeletons and pickled fetuses won't be surprised to learn that at age 16 he snuck into a morgue to have his picture taken with a severed head. These and other revelations of early life come out in On the Way to Work, a book-length interview with the controversial Young British Artist conducted by Whitbread-winning novelist Gordon Burn. Modeled loosely on John Lennon's conversations with Rolling Stone's Jan Wenner, the book offers Hirst's lively, irreverent takes on Francis Bacon, McDonald's burgers, Freud, the notorious Brooklyn Museum Show and, of course, his art. ( Jan.)