Paul Klee: ‘On Modern Art’

20-page manuscript book, written out in Chinese ink with gouache illustrations on Zerkall paper with green Canson endpapers and grey Somerset card cover, Japanese binding. Completed in March 2002

This is the first version I ever made of this text by Paul Klee, to which I have returned on several occasions over the years. I had recently returned from the US where I had spent time with a painter friend in Boston, Deborah Barlow. Looking at her work, I realized that I could make abstract patterns to accompany writing and did not have to be constrained by the Johnstonian dictum that illustrations should ideally be made with the same tool as the writing. This is a theme I have continued to explore, to varying degrees of success, in the subsequent quarter century. I recall being quite pleased with this work, which represented a new departure, although I never used the Japanese binding style again as it refuses to lie flat when opened.