Michael Dumontier & Neil Farber
Library
Montreal, Canada: Drawn & Quarterly, 2021
108 pp., 7.4 x 7.3", hardcover
Edition size unknown
The final collaboration between the Royal Art Lodge (then consisting only of Dumontier, Farber and Marcel Dzama) was an accordion-fold, oblong book titled The Books I've Read, published by Martha Street. It's a long screen-printed drawing with some unique additions in pen. I framed my copy and hung it high over some other works in the bedroom of my previous house. Once I was drinking the final bit of cola from a bottle and had to tilt my head back, and I noticed a title I hadn't seen before: "I'll Give You A Punch." Alone in the room, I laughed out loud, almost enough for the Coke to come out through my nose.
The paintings in this title continue the idea of imagined books, simply rendered and with handwritten titles. Produced between 2013 to 2021, the paintings are reproduced here in a 1:1 scale. The over-a-hundred examples include deadpan jokes, sly observations and the duo's typical clever wordplay. For example:
The Third Anniversary Of Our Fourth Kiss
My Sing Alongs Were Now Sing Alone
Amoral But Artistic Photographs
You Won't End Up Where You Plan But You Still Need The Plan
My Way Is The Highway
I Have a Medical Condition That Makes it So I Don't Have to Talk to You
My Mom Made Me Out of Food
Things Changed For The Better Then Quickly Changed Back
Slippers Advocate
Jen and Ed Kernaghan are thanked in the colophon and I suspect the Toronto collectors own many of the original works reproduced here. I accompanied Michael and Neil to their home once, for a nice dinner, and their front rooms are covered floor to ceiling with these paintings, as the poor iPhone pics below will attest.
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