Richard McGuire | Weightless

The Weightless wristwatch McGuire designed for Swatch in 1996, some preparatory drawings of the work from the recently released book Richard McGuire Then And There, Here And Now, and a vitrine with four copies, from the exhibition Sound and Vision. 

Richard Mcguire | Go Fish Card Game

Richard McGuire

Go Fish Card Game

San Francisco, USA: Chronicle Books, 2016

[50] pp., 3 x 4 1/2 x 3/4”, loose leaves

Edition size unknown

Go Fish is a card game whose origins can be traced back to the mid-19th century (often known as just Fish, or Quartet). 

Originally produced in 1991, and impossible to locate, this twenty-fifth anniversary edition is available from Amazon for less than twelve dollars, here. 

"I had grown up playing 'Go Fish' as a kid. So I had this idea of creating a deck of cards, and packaging it as though it was a can of sardines. Each card had a 'name', an occupation or an attribute that ended in "er". That was just a self-imposed device to prod me to come up with characters. It's always helpful to me to create some kind of system to work in.”

- Richard McGuire

Liquid Liquid | Bellhead

Liquid Liquid

Bellhead

New York City, USA: DFA Records, 2024

12” vinyl single

Edition size unknown

DFA Records was founded in 2001 by Tim Goldsworthy from Mo’Wax Records, James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem, and manager Jonathan Galkin. The label put out records by a number of post-punk revival bands such as Black Dice and The Rapture, who owe a not-insignificant debt to Liquid Liquid for their sound. 

Today the label releases the double A-side single of “Bellhead" and "Optimo - Instrumental Mix by Optimo (Espacio)”, featuring cover graphics by Richard McGuire. 

Buy it here, for $22.00. 

"DFA no doubt owes a very large part of its existence to the incredible, indelible Liquid Liquid, so it is with great and humble honor that we release this 12” from the New York no wave legends, a double a-side package featuring sorta-new versions of classic Liquids tracks.

This torrential take on “Bellhead” was recorded and produced by James Murphy and Tim Goldsworthy in 2004 and originally appeared on DFA”s “Compilation #2.” It’s an all-timer percussion workout, bursting at the seams with marimba, drums, and, yes, all manner of bells, a far cry for the see-saw slouch of the original.

The other side is an unreleased instrumental remix of “Optimo,” which (bear with us here) was rerecorded by the Liquids in 2008 and then remixed by Optimo (Espacio), the Glaswegian duo who are named in tribute to the song in question. If you followed that, then you know. If not, just remember that we’re all showing up here because of how important and essential this band remains.”

- DFA Press Release

Richard McGuire | 2023 Calendar

Richard McGuire 

2023 Calendar

Toronto, Canada: Paul + Wendy Projects, 2023

8 1/4 x 11 3/4"

Edition of 50 signed and numbered copies

The 68th edition from Paul+Wendy Projects is their second project with Richard McGuire. The work is a signed and numbered Risograph thermography printed calendar. 

It is available for $30, here. 

Richard McGuire | Listen

Richard McGuire

Listen

Marseilles, France: Fotokino, 2021

32 pp., 21 x 15 cm., staple-bound

Edition size unknown

This risograph booklet was published to accompany the exhibition Sound and Vision at Studio Fotokino, in Marseilles, which ran from December 4th, 2021 to January 30th, 2022. The exhibition featured projects from across the artist’s long career, from the early street works of Ixnae Nix and Liquid Liquid posters, to The New Yorker covers, to the Popeye and Olive Oil paintings. It also included a display of McGuire’s editioned works. 

The small exhibition became the impetus for the larger career retrospective this year at Cartoonmuseum Basel − Centre for Narrative Art, and the book of the same name Richard McGuire: Then And There Here And Now, which is co-edited by Anette Gehrig of Cartoonmuseum and Vincent Tuset-Anrès, the artistic director of Fotokino. 

Listen is available at Printed Matter, here, for $17.00 US. 

"Listen is a sound book, a graphic score transcribing everyday sounds on 32 pages: a dog barking, the radio, a car door slamming… a few sounds among those that punctuate our daily life. During the first lockdown, Richard McGuire moved from downtown New York to Beacon, a small, quiet town in upstate New York, surrounded by nature. “There are 11 windows in my house, which allows me to capture the sounds coming from all sides. What you hear in Listen comes from there. Having lived in the city for so long, you become hypersensitive to all the sounds of the countryside, it’s like they’re amplified. That’s the starting point for this book, but there’s also the idea of graphically codifying sounds, which is a subject that has always interested me.”"

 - Publisher’s blurb

"McGuire’s attention to our most immediate environment is echoed in Listen, published by Fotokino on the occasion of his Sound & Vision exhibition in Marseille, in 2021. In this book, he puts his ear to the ground and stages a narrative made of sound. "There are 11 windows in my house, which allows me to capture the sounds coming from all sides," McGuire explains of his home in New York’s Hudson Valley, north of New York City, where he moved in 2020 during the Covid lockdown. “ That’s where Listen comes from. Having lived in the city for so long, you become hypersensitive to all the sounds of the countryside; it’s as if they’ve been amplified. That’s the starting point for this book, but there’s also the idea of graphically codifying sounds, a subject that has always interested me."

- Vincent Tuset-Anrès, Richard McGuire: Then And There Here And Now

Richard McGuire | Popeye and Olive

Richard McGuire

Popeye and Olive

Toronto, Canada: Paul + Wendy Projects, 2019

10 x 10"

Edition of 15 [+ 5 AP] signed and numbered copies

The fiftieth edition from Paul + Wendy projects is one of their best: a laser-cut steel, powder coated matte black version of Richard McGuire’s reductive images of Popeye and Olive Oyl. The work features two holes for hanging and comes in a silkscreened box, a signed and numbered risograph card, and some stickers. 

We’re grateful to have one, as the work quickly sold out and is no longer available.

"By 2001, [McGuire] had turned his attention back to books, this time for an older audience. First came Popeye and Olive, an edition of 200 silkscreen books published by Cornelius. A sequel, P+O, appeared in 2002. Both were an opportunity for McGuire to pay homage to the characters created by [Elzie Crisler] Segar, whom he is particularly fond of. "The books started with my decision to go on a meditation retreat at a Zen monastery. It was a silent weekend retreat, which included a class in Chinese calligraphy painting. The class required painting the same character over and over again, like repeating a mantra, a practice of meditation through repeated painting. Back home, I continued the exercise and one day, one of the shapes suggested the silhouette of the Popeye character. I decided to riff on Popeye’s and Olive’s silhouettes and created a series of variations. In the books, Popeye and Olive meet, and from that point on, their shapes merge and compose a language of relationship." He calls it "an abstract love story." 

- Vincent Tuset-Anrès, Richard McGuire: Then and There, Here and Now

Richard McGuire | Puzzlehead

Richard McGuire

Puzzlehead

Brooklyn, USA: Areaware, 2014

19 x 17.5 x 2.5 cm. 

Edition size unknown

The artist’s first toy is a woodblock puzzle of minimalist cartoon faces, first produced in 1990 and reissued by Areware in 2014. The reissue is now itself out of print, but can be found on Ebay for between sixty and seventy dollars. The original is very scarce. 

Below are images of the prototype, the original edition, and a preparatory sketch, both from the book Richard McGuire: Then and There, Here and Now, by Vincent Tuset-Anrès and Anette Gehrig. 

"Puzzlehead started as a phone doodle made on graph paper and then I made a prototype. I had the good fortune of meeting Steven Guarnaccia (now the head of Parsons illustration program). He was putting together a book project of 'artists who make toys'. We traded work.

A toy designer named Byron Glaser saw the prototype at Steven's studio and called me up. Within a few months I was in Indonesia working with a team who were manufacturing my product. Byron and his partner Sandra Higashi had altready created Zolo, a hand made wooden construction toy that was distributed by MoMA. in the late 80's. They were looking for other products to keep the team working that they had put together."

- Richard McGuire, speaking with Greg Allen