Jake and Dinos Chapman (2005)

Paperback collection documenting three major works by the Chapman brothers, including Hell, Sex, Death and Insult to Injury, and The Chapman Family Collection. “Talk about sibling ribaldry. Self-professed enfants terribles and brothers Jake and Dinos Chapman enrage some with their art and reduce others to laughter, but no one is neutral about these British provocateurs. The series documented here, including the “Sex” and “Death” sculptures and an installation created for this exhibition, present the bad boys at their most scabrous–and beautifully printed. In a counterintuitive titling, “Sex” shows decomposing bodies swarming with flies and maggots; “Death” depicts blow-up sex dolls engaging in lewd acts. Seriousness of purpose, however, underlies the gut-punching shock, and essays here, as well as drawings and plans never seen before, illuminate the artists’ work process. The dolls, for example, are cast in bronze and painted to resemble their original plastic, thus bringing a stolid permanence to a flimsy contemporary commodity.” Condition: light edge-wear, otherwise very good.