English artist John Stezaker (born 1949) reexamines various relationships to the photographic image—as documentation of truth, purveyor of memory and symbol of modern culture. In his collages, Stezaker appropriates images found in books, magazines and postcards, and uses them as "readymades." Through his elegant juxtapositions, Stezaker adopts the content and contexts of the original images to convey his own witty and poignant meanings. In this new volume, Stezaker started with found images from Hollywood’s golden era. Using publicity shots of classic film icons, the artist splices and overlaps famous faces, creating hybrid stars that dissociate the familiar and take on an uncanny quality, destabilizing our idealization of celebrity through work both surreal and grotesque. The volume includes an essay by writer, curator and artist David Campany.

"His is an art that returns seemingly banal imagery to its essential freedom. ... in working to set loose the most enchained of images, Stezaker's work offers the viewer an occasion, at least, to experience what image freedom might feel like, what it might imply, and what it tells us about the fears that bind images and the desires that loosen them." - David Campany

Edited by Markus Bosshard, Lionel Bovier, Jürg Trösch. Text by David Campany.

JRP|RINGIER

English / German 

January 2016

ISBN: 978-3-03764-449-2

Hardcover, 9.5 x 13.5 in. / 132 pgs / 79 color.