Vanity Fair UK - 11.2019

(sharon) #1
Christopher
Anderson’s record of New
York City police o cers
following 9/11, the Wall Street
occupation and Trump’s election,
Cop is a response to the traumatised
city. Originally conceived as a project
“surveying the surveillance”, the
resulting portraits are surprisingly
tender and compassionate. Using
paper as the white walls in which to
frame the pictures, it allows the
reader to rest with each one
without interference.

NOVEMBER 2019 VANITY FAIR ON ART

Beyeler in Basel, Switzerland, Pablo
Picasso: Blue and Rose Periods
contains a wealth of additional material
that further enriches the work of these
two seminal periods in Picasso’s career.
In art books, it is not solely the
images and the words used to describe
them that come together, but the
images themselves, which can speak to
each other from across history, medium
and gender on the page. Two such
examples are Appearance Stripped
Bare: Desire and the Object in the
Work of Marcel Duchamp and Je
Koons, Even and Louise Bourgeois

and Pablo Picasso: Anatomies of
Desire. Each brings together iconic
Šgures of 20th- and 21st-century art,
making use of the open book to create
an immediate “compare and contrast”
format. The former o‘ers the masterful
output of Duchamp alongside the
high-octane sculptures of Koons. The
latter suggests parity in subject matter
in the work of two greats, Picasso and
Bourgeois, though their sensual
handling of the human form is, one
suspects, determined by gender.
Jack Latham’s Parliament of Owls
by the independent publisher Here

Press is an equally covetable object. A
pleasure to hold in the hand, it reminds
you that the art of making a book is a
craft, not solely a means to convey
content. An investigation in words and
photographs of a bizarre secret
American society, the book traces a
dark journey characterised by
concealment and conspiracy.
In compiling this list, I often Šnd
myself pondering the parameters of the
art book. Here, titles can slip out of
view. Moonlight Travellers is a
collaboration between virtuoso
illustrator Quentin Blake and
wordsmith Will Self. The two are well


  1. Magdalene Odundo: The Journey of Things (InOtherWords) 8. Parliament of Owls by Jack Latham (Here Press)

  2. Moonlight Travellers by Quentin Blake and Will Self (Thames & Hudson) 10. Harland Miller: In Shadows I Boogie
    (Phaidon) 11. Cop by Christopher Anderson (Stanley/Barker) 12. Jack Davison: Photographs (Loose Joints)


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A pleasure to


hold in the hand,


it reminds you


that the art of


making a book


is a craft, not


solely a means to


onvey ontent


loved for their sharp, inquisitive
perspectives, and the pairing provides
pages of layered meaning. They are a
harmonious match in their ability to say
so much through exactitude of line and
wash and perfectly crafted narrative.
A pleasingly pared-down o‘ering is
Jack Davison: Photographs. This
young but already highly regarded
British photographer creates surreal
images, often disquieting and
suggestive of a past era. This title is
truly a curated exhibition in book form.
It seems Štting to end this round-up
by recommending a monograph
published by Phaidon earlier this spring,
on the work of an irrepressible British
artist and writer—Harland Miller: In
Shadows I Boogie. Miller’s paintings
are predominantly based on book covers
and here, the book as a painting is
returned to the printed page. A
beautifully produced monograph, it has
two cover designs and a book block that
mimics the unwieldy edges of a canvas.
CHRISTOPHER ANDERSON, MAGNUM PHOTOS COVER Humour and poignancy abound.

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