City Deluxe, a suite of ten newly produced etchings, each based on an example of Morris’ late 1960s engagement with Concrete Poetry. The original 1968 drawings of abstract black and white compositions of mainly letters and numbers arranged to emphasize the visual expressiveness of typographical language were made with a combination of ink and letter transfer techniques. Some of the designs reflect Morris’ strong interest in the legacy of Art Deco, while others show the influence of choreographer Busby Berkeley’s radial geometric patterns. Each image is rendered with an illusionistic third dimension, giving the design the semblance of an actual object. Originally intended to be part of an unbound book entitled The Problem of Nothing, the highly graphic images were recently shown for the first time in more than four decades as part of an exhibition around Morris’ work that was held at the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery at the University of British Columbia.
Edition of 200.