“What is the use of a book, without pictures or conversations?”

Alice in Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
 

Senior & Shopmaker Gallery is pleased to present A Private Reading: The Book as Image and Object – a group exhibition that examines the book as metaphor in modern and contemporary art. The show is comprised of paintings, sculpture, works on paper, and photographs by over thirty artists including Richard Artschwager, Sophie Calle, James Casebere, Clegg & Guttmann, Rodney Graham, Doug Hall, Ann Hamilton, Candida Hofer, Ron Kitaj, Tim Maul, Alan Ruppersberg, Ed Ruscha, Steve Wolfe, Peter Wuthrich, among others. 

In addition, the exhibition will present a selection of historical works by such artists as Christo, Joseph Cornell, Marcel Duchamp, Philip Guston, Man Ray, and Lenore Tawney.

That books have provided artists with provocative subject matter is hardly surprising.  Throughout history, books have formed the basis of shared experience that has in turn become inscribed in the psyche of a generation and an era. The mere physical presence of books provides people with a sense of security, a reminder of what they have learned as well as that which they strive to know. 

All the works selected for this exhibition take their inspiration from real books. The act of reading is secondary to viewing, as the artists deploy books as objects in order to explore their symbolic richness.  While all the artists in the exhibition explicitly reference the book, each manipulates his or her associations with books in different ways. For Christo, Claes Oldenburg, and James Rosenquist the book is depicted as a by-product of commercial pop culture.  Ron Kitaj and Steve Wolfe fabricate replicas of volumes which have specific personal or autobiographical meaning, while Barton Benes, Joseph Cornell, Buzz Spector, and Lenore Tawney deconstruct and form new poetic objects from actual book parts. 

Richard Artschwager and Peter Wuthrich are less concerned with text and content, focusing instead on the book as sculptural form and making reference to Minimalist sculpture and monochrome painting. Photographers Doug Hall and Candida Hofer depict books as cultural artifacts ensconced in public libraries, while Tim Maul imbues photographic “portraits” of worn, forgotten volumes with pathos and mystery. 

Through their diverse investigations of the book, these artists offer us a body of thought about language, creativity, and knowledge.

Gallery hours are Tuesday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Saturday 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.  For further information please call (212) 213-6767.