David Shrigley

by Frederic Paul, David Shrigley (Artist), Neil Mulhoalland (Contributor)

To paraphrase the essayist of this tidy volume, Glasgow is neither here nor there, but then neither is Paris or Milan or New York. If each strives to be the center of the world, they do it primarily by establishing their brand-name products as better than someone else's. The vernacular is universal and the particular is general. What has value in Glasgow therefore has value elsewhere. And thus David Shrigley creates drawings, sculptures, installations and photographs that are no less but no more than a heroic act because they inspire the memory of sensations that are incongruous, repressed and sometimes just simply unpleasant. Featuring a thorough sampling of recent work, a conversation with the artist and the aforementioned essay.

Genres: Art

136 pages, Hardcover

First published August 1, 2003

Reviews

[Mawgojzeta · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was going to reserve "The Book of Shrigley" from my library because the description included a quote from The Guardian, "like a psychotic version of Matt Groening's 'Life in Hell' cartoons". The library did not have the book, so I got this one. I love "Life is Hell". I hated Shrigley's art. I see no similarities.

I did, however, find the couple of writings that were in English (also presented in French) moderately interesting. One was an interview by Neil Muholland.

I cannot say it was a bad book, but I am clearly never going to be a fan of his work.