TDCJonathan Ellery + Lawrence Weiner
NUMBERS DESIGN BY
AWARD
2020
Book Design Prize
Jonathan Ellery + Lawrence Weiner

HERE IT IS HERE IT AINT

Jonathan Ellery + Lawrence Weiner|HERE IT IS HERE IT AINT
Jonathan Ellery + Lawrence Weiner|HERE IT IS HERE IT AINT

Generated by a series of fertile exchanges between two artists, Jonathan Ellery and Lawrence Weiner, HERE IT IS HERE IT AINT is a quintessential artist book ― in that it has no foreword, appendages or footnotes; and the meaning, as indicated by the title, is far from absolute.

It is apparent that while there are clear distinctions in the work of Lawrence Weiner and Jonathan Ellery, they comfortably inhabit the same context. For both of them, art and life manifest in an objective, concrete synthesis. Their statements function as catalysts for conversations whose composition craft a seductive mise-en-scene.

DOES NOT REFER TO ANYTHING BUT ITSELF

Fragments tussle, collide and interrupt, negotiating all four corners of the glossy pages. Weiner’s works, as material language, are countered by Ellery’s material abstractions; arrows shift, tape flows in undulating tracks, generic dots and dashes collide, i.e. a conversation in morse code. Everything is non-hierarchical. Words, drawings, objects, photographs are used with equal measure to bring about a change of state.

Jonathan Ellery + Lawrence Weiner

Jonathan Ellery / Lawrence Weiner

Lawrence Weiner (American, b. 1942) is a New York-based artist known for his language-based works and redefining the artist-viewer relationship. Weiner is considered a key artist in the conceptual art movement of the 1960s and had a major retrospective at the Whitney Museum 2007. His work is held the collections of The Museum of Modern Art, Art Institute of Chicago, British Museum, and Centre Pompidou, among many others. Weiner is represented by Marian Goodman Gallery in New York.

 

Jonathan Ellery (British, b. 1964) lives and works in Bermondsey, London. Ellery works across a media including film, photography, performance, sculpture, print, and book arts. His conceptual approach examines the everyday concerns from a simple, sometimes absurdist perspective. Ellery has shown in solo exhibitions at Andrew Roth Gallery in New York, and the Londonewcastle Project Space and Wapping Project, both in London.