I actually went to the show of this book a couple years ago at the David Zwirner gallery. I had a major art crush on Marcel back then and brought with me a drawing and a note I planned to give to him when I saw him. Well the place was packed and I don’t even know if he was there. I wound up leaving it on the gallery counter and running away embarassed. I doubt he ever got it-I sure hope he didn’t. I don’t know why I haven’t posted too much about Marcel on this blog yet besides here. I think because I have so many good books of his, where to even begin?. He’s been one of my favorites for a long time. I even bought a drawing of his, back before they weren’t too expensive, which is hanging just above me as I write this. It happened to wind up in Beck’s Guero album art which I was pretty excited about. Anyway, this book is great because it has a little of everything. When you open it it’s split into two parts. One half is a regular book of his works- beautiful, strange, sometimes hybrid characters in bizarro senarios on white backgrounds. Then the back of that book has a small section of sketchbook work which is always nice to see. Collaged drawings, writing and photographs fill the pages. The other half of the book is a large two-sided accordian foldout. Each side has one of his long panorama paintings on it. He sometimes paints with root beer so I am always trying to figure out which browns are actually soda. Marcel is from Winnipeg Canada and is one of the founders of the Royal Art Lodge- a drawing collective. He’s also made a lot of limited edition products- a set of action figures, salt and pepper shakers, lamps and canisters. He also works with McSweeneys on a lot of projects including the publication of this great book which maybe I will post about later. But you can read a good Sarah Vowell interview with him here and buy this book here.

© Julia Rothman 2007