Well into the throes of publishing her collection of photographs for her book “Punk House,” Abby Banks unwittingly found herself stuck squarely amid the troika of the often opposing worlds of commercialism, art and the punk rock ethos.

Banks, along with friend, musician and troubadour Tim Findlen, had compiled more than 6,000 photographs of her crusty compatriots and their communal dwellings after a three month tour of the country. With help from Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore, who lives near Banks in New England and got wind of her project from a mutual bookstore-owner friend, she had pared them down to around 300 and signed a deal with Abrams Image, an arts and culture arm of New York publishing house Harry N. Abrams.

Throughout her travels – which amounted to more than 60 punk houses in 20 states – Banks said she made her intent transparent to her punk photographic subjects that she was creating a photo-documentary. All but a small handful, “who thought we might be the FBI,” she said, happily agreed to take part.

But when she and Moore, who assisted in securing her book deal and contributed a forwarding essay to “Punk House,” brought the photographs to the publisher, they ran into legal brick wall – Abrams Image required a model release form for all subjects represented.

“I had to go back and ask everyone to sign a release,” she said. “[The publisher] was like, ‘I can’t believe you didn’t think to do that!’ And I said, ‘These are all punk kids! And what do I know about publishing?’”

Banks said she worried that some punks, who live in houses like Chattanooga’s “Antarchtica,” Bloomington, Indiana’s “House of 1,000 Daggers” or Minneapolis’s “International House of Mancakes” would object to their likeness or that of their squats being for sale.

“Letting someone take your picture is one thing, but then having to have them sign off for you, and some company, to make money off of it is another,” she said.

None balked however, and after conquering the logistics of putting a release in the hands of dozens of scattered punks – and getting them returned – the punk house project Banks envisioned when she first stumbled into the 4th Street House in San Pedro, Ca. would see the light of day.

“The 4th Street house in San Pedro had been there for like 14 years. They had shows and there was a casket next to the house,” she said. “I was inspired, and asked if they minded me taking photographs of them and the house, and they said ‘No.’ Then I asked if they knew if anyone had put together, like, a coffee table book of punk houses, and they said ‘No, but that’s a great idea.’ So that’s how it all started.”

Banks said the publisher slipped the book’s subtitle “Interiors in Anarchy” past her. “I didn’t want that,” she said.

The book features more than 250 pages of dirty floors and dirty faces, flyers on the walls for bands like Jonnyx and the Groadies and Rotten Living, grubby kitchens and spray-painted basements, homemade bikes, record collections, combat boots, lip rings, patched pants, skulls and more than a few of the inevitable single-mattress beds, which proves the theory that the closer you sleep to the floor, the punker you are.

One disheveled backyard in Seattle gives a nod to a record from Moore’s band – there’s an old broken down washing machine tagged with Sonic Youth in purple spray paint.

Banks said she’s thankful Moore, who lives in Northampton, Mass., 45 minutes from Banks’ home in Brattleboro, Vt., was involved and that it sticks closely to her original manuscript.

“[Moore] likes to get involved and he really got the project. He understood right away,” she said.

Since the publication, Banks has received considerable attention from mainstream media, getting a book review and interview in both the New York Times and Boston Globe.

Photos from the Punk House book project hang in Get This! Gallery in Atlanta for an art show called “If You Lived Here, You’d Be Home Now” until the show closes June 21.

Banks, who is part of an art collective called Tinderbox in Brattleboro, says she’ll soon begin working on a follow-up project.

“I have big plans to work on a second photo book in the future,” she said.