Shelf Obsession
Phil Shaw
In Phil Shaw's practice, a bookshelf is a channel for potent messages, and a mirror that reflects the ironies of society. His distinctive bookshelf prints interrogate the changing place of the printed word in a digital age, and the transfer of meaning through intertextuality.
Embracing paradoxes and contradictions, Shaw uses archival printmaking techniques to produce painstaking images in which book titles real and remixed coincide in unanticipated ways to reveal truths that are at once humorous and poignant.
Shaw's digital bookshelf prints are, at first glance, charming achievements in trompe-l'oeil, yet a closer look reveals that they cast a cynical eye on culture, daily life, current events and the human condition. Combining rigorous research and creative playfulness, the images in this book demand a second look.
With extensive commentary by the artist and an autobiographical essay providing insight into Shaw's career as a polymath spanning art, music and scientific research, Phil Shaw: Shelf Obsession is a comprehensive and entertaining presentation of this groundbreaking British digital printmaker.
Phil Shaw was born and brought up in the West Yorkshire woollen and engineering town of Huddersfield. He studied painting at Leeds Polytechnic and went on to study printmaking at the Royal College of Art. In 2000 he was awarded a Doctorate in Printmaking from Middlesex University, where he has taught since 1980.
