Jim Shaw - Paperback Covers

From the vast corpus of Dream Drawings, the Paperback Covers (1996-2013) take the dimensions of book covers. The reference to the physicality of cheap paperbacks is combined with a nod to the Anglo-Saxon graphic tradition, with its full-page images and logos of publishers or collections. All that's missing is the text. Without titles, without authors, but not without fiction, the paintings depict dreamlike scenes whose titles illuminate the narrative elements, condensing the story into a single image, in which the first-person narrator identifies himself as Jim Shaw. They become possible snapshots of Shaw's autobiography, but they also constitute a repertoire of forms and references cultural of which the paperback is only one aspect. Comics, illustrations, naive and scholarly painting, fantastic stories and popular are all evoked by the corpus. Collection of short circuits encouraging imagination and subjectivity, Paperback Covers constitute a counter-encyclopedia of cultural, scientific and 20th century societal issues. Edited by Marc Jancou, presented by Lionel Bovier and Samuel Gross, the work brings together all the Paperback Covers inventoried, accompanied by In Memory of Godzilla: Reading Material for Jim Shaw, a creative work literary work by London writer and art critic Charlie Fox, conceived as a springboard for free association.