Produced on the occasion of Todd Norsten’s 2008 exhibition at Cohan and Leslie in New York, The Masterworks was conceived as an amateurish “process” or “source” book. Norsten’s paintings and drawings are often based on images from his expansive library of digital snapshots — a small fraction of which are presented here. These snapshots fill the bulk of the book — arranged as quickly and haphazardly as the images themselves. Seven large-scale paintings from the exhibition are also included at the end of the book. To avoid highlighting the crude print quality (the books were produced using print-on-demand technology) I chose to not silhouette the paintings on white. Instead, the artworks are left as photographed — on a wall in Norsten’s studio. Finally, cover and back cover images with reflective qualities were specifically chosen to play-up the super-glossy paper dictated by the printer.
Todd Norsten: Safety Club
Buy The Masterworks (Exhibition Edition)
Buy The Masterworks (Standard Edition)
6" x 9", 136 pages
perfect bound, softcover, 4/4 throughout
Collaboration with visual artist Todd Norsten
Cohan and Leslie Gallery
Art, On Demand, Process