To Bleed or Not to Bleed takes you on an up-close and personal journey with Håvve Fjell’s internationally renowned performance group, Pain Solution. Covering the period from 2003 until 2015, told in the words of the performers themselves, and seen through the lens of award winning photographer Helene Fjell, this book is a must have for aficionados of sideshow, body art, extreme performance, and powerful photography.

This is the third book by the brother and sister team of Håvve and Helene Fjell. Their first book: Ten Years of Pain (Hertervig Forlag, 2003), covered the genesis and early years of Pain Solution. The second book: Wings of Desire: Learning to Fly, (PS Media, 2012) was an award-winning look at the body suspension group Wings of Desire that Håvve founded in 2002. To Bleed or Not to Bleed picks up the trail of Pain Solution where the first book left off. In the last decade, Pain Solution has grown and morphed into something larger than Håvve. The intensity remains but the group has become more playful, funny, whimsical, and accessible with the addition of The Maniac and The Princess of Scars to complement The HeadMaster, Håvve.

To Bleed or Not to Bleed covers the trials and triumphs of Pain Solution through its second, exciting, and challenging decade of bringing their unique talents to the stage. It is the story of a lone performer who grooms two protégés to stand as equals at his side and, in the process, creates something larger than any of them could have made on their own. Håvve’s words (with contributions from The Maniac, and The Princess) combined with Helene’s striking and insightful photos provides you with a rare glimpse into these unique performers who give everything for their art.

With layout of this brilliant synthesis of words and images executed by the acclaimed Trine + Kim Design Studio, this book will be a work of art in itself. After two years of pre-production, sifting through thousands of images, and a painstaking process of converting thoughts and feelings to text, what we need now is your help to make the last, crucial bit happen. Yes, as you guessed, we need a little bit of your money but—in true Pain Solution style—you can expect to get back more than you give!

Who are we?

Håvve Fjell is the founder and driving force behind Pain Solution. Håvve’s uncompromising insistence on keeping it real underlies the essence of the troupe that he founded. Pain Solution, while performing all over the world for 25 years, has never ‘faked’ an act. Håvve insists that everything the audience sees on stage—shocking, amazing, and entertaining—must be real. It has earned him and the troupe that he founded utmost respect in the field of sideshow and body art performance. Additionally, Håvve has worked with psychologists and members of the Mental Health Services in his home country of Norway to help shed a more nuanced light on pain related subjects from pain management to self-harm. For Håvve, Pain Solution is more than a company of performers. Pain Solution is his calling. This is something he needs to do. It is both entertainment and a message to the world about the unacknowledged benefits and little understood power of pain, blood, humor, and entertainment.

Helene Fjell works as a freelance photographer, notably with fine art photography. She has followed Håvve’s work and the development of Pain Solution from the very beginning. Helene is more than a photographer; she has an extraordinary way of displaying the emotions and spirits of the people and surroundings in her photography. Her work is powerful, personal, intimate, and gives a sense of immediacy. In addition to numerous gallery shows in Norway and features in Scandinavian photography magazines, she has had exhibitions as far afield as Japan, Australia, and the USA. Helene’s massive archive of Pain Solution work is central to the production of To Bleed or Not to Bleed. For her previous collaboration with Håvve, Wings of Desire: Learning to Fly, she received an Honorable Mention from International Photography Awards (2013) and was a winner of the 2013 PDN Photo Annual award for photo books.

Trine + Kim Design Studio have been working with Pain Solution since 2007 using their exceptional talent and creativity to carve out a distinct visual profile for Pain Solution. Since founding their company in 1999, they have worked tirelessly producing work for some of Norway’s most notable artists, theaters, galleries and  publishers. They are perhaps most famous for their work producing album covers for groups such as Ulver, Mayhem, Darkthrone, Solefald, Shining, and more. Their attention to detail and exquisite design helped to make Wings of Desire: Learning to Fly the truly beautiful book that it is. Pain Solution is overjoyed to have them onboard again to package the text and images of To Bleed or Not to Bleed into a unique, superbly crafted work of art.

June Ailin Bonsaksen  will be reprising the Project Manager role that she excelled at through the making and shipping of Wings of Desire: Learning to Fly. Every great artist and successful project team should be lucky enough to have someone to help them keep their metaphorical wheels on the rails! For To Bleed or Not to Bleed, June is the person holding everything together and making sure that order prevails. June began working for Håvve as a volunteer in 2007. She quickly moved from running errands and selling merchandise to her position as the Pain Solution Secretary. Since then, she has been the administrative engine at the heart of Pain Solution where she manages the websites, merchandise and book orders, volunteer crews, Wings of Desire suspension events, and PS Media projects with style and grace.

Alan Louis Belardinelli is an American expatriate living in Oslo. He has long experience working with communications including work as a corporate spokesperson, lyric and speech writing, authoring and editing documents and plans, translating Norwegian to English, and proofreading English written by non-native speakers. He is a team leader in the Wings of Desire suspension crew and has worked with Håvve for years on many different projects. Alan edited Wings of Desire: Learning to Fly and has a knack for leaving the author’s voice as intact as possible while making sure that grammar is being reasonably respected and that sense is still being made.

What We Need & What You Get

Risks & Challenges

Even if you are not able to support us right now, we hope that you will help us to spread the word about this book! There is famously little money in the underground: we know. Get your local tattoo or piercing shop to order some copies (for the lobby and for you to buy when you have the cash). Get a group of your very busy friends to jump into the campaign as a Giver or Caretaker and ask for a copy for doing the legwork. Get your grandmother to support us and send the perk to your address. Pester your librarian to buy a copy so that it can fall into the right hands some day!

Reviews for Ten Years of Pain

“This really is a remarkable book. My review does not do it the justice it deserves. I literally believe it is the only book that has been able to take such a snapshot. I do not believe that any body modification book collection can be called complete without this book, and I believe this is essential reading for anyone involved in performance or body art as well as those interested in art history and body-art/modification/play-history.”

—Shannon Larratt, BMEzine
Full review

“The exploration of physical pain as such, is nothing new. But with the update Håvve Fjell, with various co-performers, has given it through the past ten years, where the extreme physical experience has taken the shape of an independent artistic medium of the same caliber as painting and video art, Pain Solution places itself—as the bearers of a tradition as old as the species- actually, in all senses, at a point in the outer marginal one have to define as ‘cutting edge’. Pun intended.”

—Tommy Olsson, Kunstkritikk.no
Full review (Swedish)
English (via translator)