Like the multifaceted work of Jeremy Deller himself, the book Art is magic defies easy description. It proclaims itself “Jeremy Deller’s best book” and is subtitled A children’s book for adults. Written primarily by Deller and featuring conversations with an eclectic array of contributors – from fashion provocateur Jonny Banger to classic Mary Beard – it offers insightful insight into the creative processes of one of our most original and engaging artists. .
I would have embarrassed him even more, but it’s probably good I stopped
The Art Newspaper: What was your goal with this book?
Jeremy Deller: It doesn’t cover everything I’ve done and it’s a pretty subjective view of things. In a way, it’s meant to be both an introduction and an overview, but very personal because I wrote everything in it, apart from the interviews, of course. It’s kind of an explanation and it’s also a question of motivation: why I wanted to do things and how I did things. It is therefore perhaps also a matter of lifting the veil a little on the process.
Artists don’t usually go to such lengths to explain their work.
I thought it would be good to get some insight into the thought processes behind what I’m trying to achieve, but also show things I’ve loved and people I’ve worked with, like Alan [Kane] and Jon [Banger], as well as to pay tribute to people like Ed Hall, the UK’s top banner maker. So I wanted to include people who inspired me. I guess a lot of artists appreciate the mystery around the work and so on, but I tend not to. If anything, I’m trying to debunk it. But a lot of my work is quite simple; it’s pretty obvious what’s going on.
The outside cover of Jeremy Deller’s new book Art is magic
You have always questioned what art is and what art can be.
I think it’s pushing the boundaries of what is acceptable to call art and what are its boundaries, if any. What exists on the margins always interests me. So things like [re-enacting The Battle of] Orgreave or taking the car bombed in Iraq around America pushes the boundaries of what can be considered a work or a project or a performance. Are there any limits? Where is the outer ring? And how can we get there?
Art is magic also reflects this spirit of format rupture.
I appreciate those little moments, like calling a chapter “Queen Victoria with her broken face.” Very late in the day, in the last two or three weeks, I just turned the book. It was quite traditional and I had to step in, put crazy chapter titles, change fonts and add more irreverent captions to replace the very dry ones. In the body of the main text, I try to keep it pretty simple, and then the captions are written in a more irreverent, slightly insider tone, almost to undermine what you’re looking at. If I had had another month I would have bothered even more, but it’s probably good that I quit when I did.
• Jeremy Deller, Art is magicCheerio, 240pp, £30 (hb)
