Funagainstawake.
Granary Books, 1997. Item #GB_48
10 x 13 in., 26 pp., printed paper over boards, clamshell box.
“Making art is a kind of research, an investigation of what we know, what we don’t know, and something in-between. My prints are meditations on some of these thoughts and possibilities...What interests me is that each thunder can be considered as representing a compression of words, puns, images, suggestions, and inferences that correspond to a particular technological period in the history of western civilization and culture.”
–Harry Reese
Funagainstawake plays on the satirical intent of the novel in which language is used inventively to entertain and to wake up its readers. This book concentrates on issues of language, technology, and artistic vision as presented in James Joyce’s classic work Finnegans Wake, published in 1939. The “ten thunders,” or one hundred-letter words, from Joyce’s book provide source material and titles for this series of monotypes. Reese’s examination of Finnegans Wake has been shaped by the work of Marshall McLuhan, Eric McLuhan, "Bob" Dobbs, and by artists such as John Cage, Robert Rauschenberg, and Dick Higgins.
Each book contains 10 monotypes and a letterpress text printed by the artist in his studio in Isla Vista, California, with an original image on vinyl for the title page. Bound in cloth and handcolored printed paper over boards with wire-edge binding by Daniel E. Kelm and staff at the Wide Awake Garage. Housed in a cloth-covered clamshell box by Jill Jevne. This is no. 10 from an edition of 30 copies, of which 10 are hors commerce and 20 are for sale; each signed by Reese. Out-of-print. As new.
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ABOUT HARRY REESE
Pictured: cover; p. 6; 14; and 24.
Out of Stock