Distorted Faces & Portraits 1978–2007

Dedi­ca­ted to dif­fe­rent types of por­traits rea­li­zed by the Ame­ri­can artist bet­ween the end of the 1970s and today, this publi­ca­ti­on is pre­sen­ted as a luxu­rious, lar­ge-for­mat album, with a dust jacket-cum-pos­ter. The for­mat, lay­out, and mode of prin­ting under­li­nes the gra­phic talent of the artist, while the gathe­ring of the works jux­ta­po­ses the famous Dis­tor­ted Faces seri­es with the hyper­re­al por­traits, sym­bo­lic depictions―such as that of Ronald Rea­gan who­se face is liter­al­ly haun­ted by figu­res from the Ame­ri­can cul­tu­re of vio­lence (Charles Man­son, Ram­bo, etc.)―and Hol­ly­wood sub­jects. We thus redis­co­ver the sty­listic and anthro­po­lo­gi­cal ran­ge of the approach of Jim Shaw, that for­mi­da­ble rea­der of his country’s popu­lar cul­tu­re, from which he extracts per­ver­se sce­n­a­ri­os with a dis­quie­ting realism.

Accom­pa­nied by a text by Ali­son Gin­ge­ras, this limi­ted edi­ti­on publi­ca­ti­on, which echoes the nar­ra­ti­ve logic of the artist, is based on frag­men­ta­ti­on and impro­bable mix­tures of cul­tu­re: serious and popu­lar, per­so­nal and collec­ti­ve, real and fictional.
The book  was publis­hed on the occai­on of the exhi­bi­ti­on Dis­tor­ted Faces & Por­traits, 1978 – 2007 which took place in Gene­va at BFAS Blun­deau Fine Art Ser­vices from May 24 to July 14, 2007.

Publis­hed with BFAS, Blon­deau Fine Art Ser­vices, Geneva.
Awar­ded in the com­pe­ti­ti­on  The most beau­ti­ful Swiss books 2007.
Buchdesign/Bookdesign: Gavil­let & Rust, Geneva
Mit einem gefal­te­ten Pos­ter als Schutzumschlag