"Sincerity and Irony" wrapped up in a new artists’ book by Dan Walsh and Marjorie Welish
I believe we can agree that these are very challenging times we are living in. Fortunately we have books and other readings to fill our souls. Despite the efforts of many, the book still lives on in our world and are a welcome relief to the chaos that the Internet offers. Don’t get me wrong, I love alot of what the digital world offers but disagree with those who think they are mutually exclusive domains. Taken together they offer a multi-dimensional space for intellectual and visual exploration. I am spending some of my time these days looking at artists’ books both in person and through online sources. My personal artists' book collection has grown by leaps and bounds since I retired from the Museum - miss seeing the Museum’s collections on an everyday basis! So I am going to start to shine a light on some new and old acquisitions in my personal library. So let me describe here a new acquisition of a newly published book:
I saw the prototype of the new book at the NY Artists Book Fair last September and was waiting patiently for its creation. Both Dan Walsh and Marjorie Welish introduced the book to me at the Fair and it is a pleasure to have it now on my shelves. Looking at the book is like opening a door and walking into a intriguing new space:
Between Sincerity and Irony a collaborative construction
by Dan Walsh and Marjorie Welish. Fabrication and photography by Stephen Sprott. Digital images provided by Emanuel von Baeyer, London. An accordion structured book in which folds develop complex interactions in this phased art dialogue.
(Edition of 50, 2019)
In the words of Marjorie Welish and Dan Walsh:
My interest in sets of relations proceeding from the same (yellow) and yet diverging in sense (gradient vs grating) to meanings further divergent (color swatches vs. barrier tape) is here engaged in folds--folds interfered with nicely by Dan Walsh's more elemental understated accumulations.
The result of this successful collaboration is book offering silkscreen sheets hand sewn into a double accordion fold. The overall effect is mesmerizing and one gets lost in the pages as they open and close. Sincerity and irony in addition to harmony call out to the fortunate person who can hold or view this book. The visual tour de force makes one think about the complexities of life in a pleasurable way.