Cruising: Gay Matchbooks

By Lucas Hilderbrand

An homage to the legacy of matchbooks--a staple giveaway at gay bars and nightclubs--and a celebration of queer pleasure

Before the days of cell phones and social media, nearly every gay bar and club offered free matchbooks to their patrons. The custom matchbooks served not only as a means for lighting one's cigarette, but also to collect names and phone numbers on the matchbook's inside cover while cruising. A love letter to a lost art, Cruising: Gay Matchbooks is an archive of 200 matchbooks from gay bars and bathhouses. The publication includes matchbooks from iconic institutions, such as the Saint (New York), Florent (New York), the Stud (San Francisco), St. Marks Baths (New York) and the Eagle (New York), as well as lesser-known spots across the country. The archive is brought to life with 12 essays from leading voices on gay culture including Peter Berlin, Rick Castro, AA Bronson and Michael Bullock, who share their stories of love, loss, lust and possibility.
Cruising is both a design book and a time capsule. The matchbooks reflect a time when queer spaces had their own distinct visual identities--designed by and for the people who gathered there. Each unique matchbook delights and surprises with bespoke typography and imagery tailor-made for the bars and baths. Design for marginalized communities is so often focused on protest, but this collection of matchbooks exudes pleasure--the pleasure of being out and going out, the pleasure of lighting a cigarette, the pleasure of getting a stranger's number with the promise of fun.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0GWQRZP6R
• ISBN13: 9798985170467
• Release Date: September 2026
• Publisher: Dark Entries Editions
• Length: 256 Pages