Published to accompany the exhibition Merlin James: River at Sikkema Jenkins & Co., New York, 2020
Interview by Louis Block, The Brooklyn Rail
Photography by Jack McCombe
Designed by James Brook
Soft cover | 165 x 240 mm | 80 pages | Printed by Allander, Edinburgh on Galerie Art Matt
Merlin James: River is a book I designed for the Glasgow-based artist, Merlin James. The book accompanied a solo exhibition of new paintings by the artist, at Sikkema Jenkins & Co. contemporary art gallery in New York, which ran from 21 November 2020 to 23 January 2021.
I have worked with Merlin before: firstly, in 2013, on the book that Merlin wrote about the work of the Franco-Russian painter Serge Charchoune, published to coincide with an exhibition of Charchoune’s work that was shown at Talbot Rice Gallery in Edinburgh and the Smart Art Museum Chicago; and, more recently on the monograph about the work of Merlin’s late partner, the painter Carol Rhodes, that was published by Skira, Milan in 2018.
This is a wonderful body of work of paintings and drawings, mainly of the view from Merlin’s home and studio on Carlton Place, overlooking the River Clyde in Glasgow. It was a pleasure to work with these images that became very familiar to me as the book took shape. The book is printed on Galerie Art Matt 170 gsm with a cover of Galerie Art Matt 300 gsm, a coated matt paper with a tactile quality that has allowed the detail in the works to shine through. The book is typeset in a combination of Meta Serif Pro and Meta Pro with pared back typography and layout that prioritises the artist’s paintings and drawings.
