The Art Guys
The Art Guys, The Codex of the Statue of Four Lies, 2010. Available at the University of Houston Special Collections.
The Art Guys
The Art Guys (Michael Galbreth and Jack Massing) were an active force in Houston’s art community between the 1980s and 2010s. As described on their website, “‘The Art Guys’ are perhaps most well known for their numerous staged performances, public spectacles, and ‘behavioral’ interventions that challenged perceived divisions between art and life”.
Beat It, Burn It, and Drown It
Herbert, & Herbert, L. M. (Lynn M. (1996). The Art Guys : think twice 1983-1995. Contemporary Arts Museum. Page 20.
Periodically the Art Guys used books as objects in their practice. In 1987, the Art Guys “tested” the product testing manual Beat It, Burn It, and Drown It. Like many of their works, the performance was literal. They beat, burnt, and drowned the book.
Using a readymade for the basis of the performance, it is not too surprising that it shares some commonalities with one of Marcel Duchamp’s rare interventions with books. Both involved some demolition of assumed authority. Duchamp’s Unhappy Readymade involved hanging a geometry book from a balcony where it was exposed to the elements overtime (Betty Bright, Book Art in America 1960-1980, page 41).
See the Funny Book in Front of You
In 1993, the Art Guys, or “Art Guise” in this case, unveiled See the Funny Book in Front of You with a book signing event. On the day of the event, supporters lined up with only the knowledge that the Art Guys had made a book. The contents of the book were unknown. The Art Guys, always bringing some form of foolery to the table, did not in fact author a new book. Rather, they published a book made from used found books (of the same size) and placed them in a new dust jacket.
Only when people opened the freshly signed, stamped, and puffy-stickered books did they discover that the book was in fact a found book whose contents were irrelevant.
The Art Guys, See the Funny Book in Front of You, 1993. Found book ("Tallahassee Higgins" by Mary Downing Hanh) with artist made dustjacket. Line Our Pockets Books. Photography courtesy of The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Hirsch Library, Gift of Clinton T. Willour, LIB.778.
Codex for The Statue of Four Lies
Matching the formality, weight, and jest of The Statue of Four Lies, the “codex” is a tabletop behemoth of a bookwork. Two pairs of googly eyes look out from the wood enclosure. A drawer slides open to a collection of odd tools including a harmonica. Inside the box are 77 of stacked pages. The pages read like a theatrical performance and switch between diagrams and short quotes. The final page features an image of a red curtain on a stage and a short phrase. Click here for the phrase if you don’t mind “spoiling” it for your own adventure.
The top of the codex.
The Art Guys, The Codex of the Statue of Four Lies (2010). Available at the University of Houston Special Collections.
Additional Books
The Art Guys also published several books using print-on-demand platforms (Blurb, etc). These works differ from the ones previously mentioned as content and photography take precedent.
The Art Guys, Finger Photos, 2014. 8 x 10 inches. Collection of Jack Massing.
The Art Guys, The Urban Preserve of Boulder, 2016. 9 x 11 1/2 inches. Collection of Jack Massing.
See the Funny Book in Front of You is on view at The Printing Museum through June 17, 2023. Otherwise available to view at The Hirsch Library at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.