Jonathan Monk

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“The End”

Published 2019 Edition of 24 copies All copies are signed and numbered at the colphon

Format: 25 x 35 cm / 9,8 x 13,7 in Handmade marbled paper with silk screened text Japanese stab accordion binding Stamped slipcase 48 pages

One second of “The End” on marbled endpapers

Jonathan Monk knows that in order to create decorative marble paper you have to mix oil paints and water, two incompatible elements. In this case the artist mixed handmade marble paper sheets (used by bookbinders to create end pages) with end (movie) credits.

Paper marbling is a method of aqueous surface design, which can produce patterns similar to smooth marble or other kinds of stone. The technique was invented in Japan as early as the 10th century. Occidental bookbinders have been using marble papers as their favorite end pages material since the 16th century.

In bookbinding, end pages consist of double-size sheets folded, with one half glued against inside the covers, and the others serving as the first and last free page.

When Three Star Books challenged Jonathan Monk and asked him to think about a project using hand made marble papers, the artist quickly responded with a play on words as well as an indirect quote of Ed Ruscha’s numerous paintings and prints that carry the words “The End”. (Jonathan Monks frantically collects artist’s books by Ruscha)

In the volume created for Three Star Books, the words “The End” composed with typefaces from old movies are silk screened on the pages. The text scrolls down on the marbled paper along the twenty four printed pages of the book mimicking the twenty four frames of one second of a movie end credits.

Of course, these twenty four one seconds of “The End” by Jonathan Monk at Three Star Books have no end pages.

Also on view in our showroom:

John Armleder, Tauba Auerbach, John Baldessari, Frank Benson, Matthew Brannon, Maurizio Cattelan, Cheryl Donegan / Kenneth Goldsmith, Sylvie Fleury, Simon Fujiwara, Cyprien Gaillard, Ryan Gander, Liam Gillick, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Thomas Hirschhorn, Alison Knowles & Rirkrit Tiravanija, Gabriel Kuri, Sam Lewitt, Ken Lum & Hubert Damisch, Sean Micka, Jonathan Monk, Olivier Mosset, Matt Mullican, Ebecho Muslimova, Seth Price, Blake Rayne, Tobias Rehberger, Slavs and Tatars, Simon Starling, Haim Steinbach, Mika Tajima, Lawrence Weiner