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Due to various factors there are four versions of the book GANTOB’s 25 Paintings. True to the original band and Bill Drummond’s solo work this is quite standard for a KLF re-enactment.

Number 1 – Proof copy: 5 copies in existence (one other copy having been thrown off the Manannan Ferry by The Benefaktor, October 2025, as detailed in the paperback Who Killed GANTOB?). A copy of the proof of GANTOB’s 25 Paintings will be included in the raffle at The KLFRS Calm Down event at Hale Village Hall on 9 May 2026.

Number 2 – Original printing of the finished product. 10 copies, one of which has been submitted to the British Library. This edition does not have a bookmark ribbon.  There are some details (text, formatting, occasional image) corrected from the proof edition.

Number 3 – An edition of 15, damaged in transit from printer. Issued with copies of The Broken Spine pamphlet, written to explain the situation. Ten of these books have been sent to contributors. Five of this consignment will be sent to the remaining copyright libraries in UK and Ireland once the request has been received. This whole edition has an orange bookmark ribbon. Otherwise these are identical to edition 2.

Number 4 – An edition of 8, which the printer has committed to deliver in pristine condition. With orange bookmark ribbon. Again no changes to content. The copy shown here is solely for illustrative purposes. It is a copy of edition 3 masquerading as a copy of edition 4.

That means that there will be 33 copies of the final version of GANTOB’s 25 Paintings, 6 in libraries, the rest in private collections. It is a work of deep appreciation, exploration and hypotheses. It is destined for cult status.

There will be no further printing. There are still some copies of issue 4 that are as yet unallocated. These will be sent to people who have contributed writing or art to this or previous GANTOB projects.

Have a look around the blog if you are interested. There is a menu bar. Click on the banner if you want to get back to the top.

To add to the intrigue, there were 42 copies printed on the Isle of Man in October 2025, but these were burnt following the sabbatical activities of one Douglas Kanning (AKA The Benefaktor, RIP). Only one heavily water damaged copy exists, sold to a private collector by somebody with no connection to GANTOB. This issue has not been included in this accounting. It had the same ISBN and content as issues 2-4. That publisher does not do orange ribbon bookmarks.