The book in question was Art and Culture by Clement Greenberg. Latham disagreed with the American critic’s emphasis on the formal content of art, and he objected to his dismissal of British art as being too tasteful. He therefore subjected Greenberg to a test of “taste” – metaphorically and literally.

In August 1966, Latham had assembled a group of students at his home where together they dismembered a library copy of Greenberg’s book. After removing the pages, they each tore the leaves into smaller fragments. They then “ate” the American’s prose – or, rather, chewed it over, the paper being masticated, pulverised with saliva into a pulp and spat out. The resulting mess was carefully collected and then, using various chemicals and yeast, left to ferment. When Latham received his overdue notice from the library at St Martin’s School of Art he responded by returning a phial containing the distilled “essence” of Greenberg. For this gesture, Latham was dismissed from his teaching post at St Martin’s. But in this instance, he had the last word. He went on to transform his record of the action, comprising letters, the overdue notice and the phial itself, into a work of art titled Still and Chew: Art and Culture 1966–1967 (now in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art, New York).