Edited with foreword and interview by Marc-Oliver Wahler. Text by Tristan Garcia, Janine Perret-Sgualdo.
Graphics and propaganda from secret societies, evangelical and fundamentalist movements, new-age spiritualists, Scientologists, Freemasons, ultraconservatives and all kinds of conspirators; encyclopedias for children and even Dr. Netter's famous medical illustrations—with The Hidden World, Los Angeles–based artist Jim Shaw (born 1952) exhibits the incredible collection of didactic graphic art that is the main source of inspiration for his diversely informed art. Renowned for his striking paintings, drawings, videos, installations and performances, Shaw is also a compulsive collector, constantly on the hunt for pop-culture arcana in thrift stores or on the Internet. The Hidden World gives the reader the chance to dive into an overflowing world of paintings, sculptures, brochures, t-shirts, books, vinyl and educational material that recycles the myriad myths and beliefs of America. A lengthy interview with Shaw elucidates his fascination with this visual world.
Featured image, from the chapter on Jehovah's Witnesses and Christian Comics, is reproduced from Jim Shaw: The Hidden World.
Featured image, of a vintage Amazing Stories magazine featuring artwork and writing by outsider sci-fi legend Richard Shaver, is reproduced from The Hidden World, Jim Shaw's magnificent compendium of out-there American graphic materials and educational / religious propaganda. Shaw explains, "In the beginning Shaver was working in an auto assembly plant in Detroit, and a welding gun would be swung to him and he started having these visions from the arcs and sparks and he realized that it was the Dero, who were the deranged robots who had survived from the pre-flood civilizations. And they lived inside the earth and they would aim rays at people and make them go insane. And they had all these things, they would kidnap earth women and they would subject them to these sexual stimulations rays, so they would have orgasm deaths. It was these fantasies and they would be printed in a science-fiction magazine that Ray Palmer edited. Every time one of his stories would appear they would sell 100,000 extra copies and it was featured in Life magazine. Then the fact that he had actually been in an insane asylum during this period came out, so it kind of fizzled away." continue to blog
FORMAT: Hbk, 5 x 6 in. / 500 pgs / 500 color. LIST PRICE: U.S. $40.00 LIST PRICE: CANADA $50 ISBN: 9783863355845 PUBLISHER: Walther König, Köln AVAILABLE: 10/31/2014 DISTRIBUTION: D.A.P. RETAILER DISC: FLAT40 PUBLISHING STATUS: Out of print AVAILABILITY: Not available TERRITORY: NA LA ASIA AU/NZ AFR
Published by Walther König, Köln. Edited with foreword and interview by Marc-Oliver Wahler. Text by Tristan Garcia, Janine Perret-Sgualdo.
Graphics and propaganda from secret societies, evangelical and fundamentalist movements, new-age spiritualists, Scientologists, Freemasons, ultraconservatives and all kinds of conspirators; encyclopedias for children and even Dr. Netter's famous medical illustrations—with The Hidden World, Los Angeles–based artist Jim Shaw (born 1952) exhibits the incredible collection of didactic graphic art that is the main source of inspiration for his diversely informed art. Renowned for his striking paintings, drawings, videos, installations and performances, Shaw is also a compulsive collector, constantly on the hunt for pop-culture arcana in thrift stores or on the Internet. The Hidden World gives the reader the chance to dive into an overflowing world of paintings, sculptures, brochures, t-shirts, books, vinyl and educational material that recycles the myriad myths and beliefs of America. A lengthy interview with Shaw elucidates his fascination with this visual world.
