“We thought, ‘What if we treat this as a serious anthropologist would treat cave art?’” That’s the concept behind Combustive Motor Corporation’s new book on New York City graffiti artist, U.F.O. Using photos, illustrations, diagrams and artspeak babble, the book documents CMC’s interpretation of U.F.O.’s graffiti and supposes it’s evolution from ancient cave drawings. The trouble is anthropologists are not supposed to shut out their subjects, and U.F.O. was not only uninvolved with the book but his input was refused.

While the book is clearly about the author’s own understanding of U.F.O.’s work, there’s no reason to ignore the artist completely. When the authors were asking Stephen Hawking, Bill Clinton and Cornbread questions like, “Who do you think the artist might be trying to communicate with?” it would have been a good time to ask U.F.O. himself. Even as a purposefully absurd study of the alien spaceship graffiti around New York City, the absence of U.F.O.’s input undermines the integrity of the book, and appears incomplete.

Last week, U.F.O. showed up in disguise to chat with Combustive Motor Corporation at the release party they held to push their book. Though no minds were changed, the discussion continues on Suckapants. Intentional or not, we agree this book exploits U.F.O. and his work. Conducting an “urban anthropology” on U.F.O. without involving him is unethical and exploitative research by any definition.