We revel in the joys of book spines via the wonderfully Warholian works of British photographer Mark Vessey
Who? Many people resolutely stand by the adage: "don't judge a book by its cover." But we're somewhat inclined to disagree – looks can be deceiving, but a beautiful book cover is hard to resist. For book lovers, arranging books is the ultimate pleasure – think Audrey Hepburn’s Jo Stockton painstakingly organising the bookshop shelves in Funny Face, only to have them heart wrenchingly destroyed by Dick Avery (Fred Astaire) – and in that instance what counts more than the much-talked-about cover, is of course the spine. And it is the beauty of spines that has captured the attention of rising photographic artist Mark Vessey and spawned an entire series of brilliant spine-centric artworks.
What? In each of his pieces, Vessey arranges a collection of publications – from the iconic colour-coded Penguin books to magazines such as Playboy and AnOther – and photographs their spines, before creating large-scale prints to wonderfully Warholian effect. Sometimes he pays tribute to specific cultural icons – one work depicts the magazine spines of 20 years' worth of Kate Moss Vogue covers, while his latest piece is a photographic representation of the complete set of Shakespeare’s plays, completed ahead of the 400 year anniversary of the playwright’s death in 2016.
Why? Much like Warhol before him, Vessey is inspired by the idea of creating art from collections of everyday objects. "My love for magazines led to my addiction to collecting them," he explains. "Placing them in order creates a graphic timeline allowing me to make portraits of the publications I love." Today marks the opening of Vessey's pop-up exhibition in Covent Garden, which will see him selling many of these works, while others are available from his website and the SHOWstudio shop.
Mark Vessey's pop-up exhibition is at 9 Earlham St, Covent Garden, London until January 12.
Words by Daisy Woodward
