Anne-Marie James @ Richard Saltoun Gallery

Museé Imaginaire is an ongoing series by Ann-Marie James made directly onto the pages of a first edition of French novelist and art theorist Andre Malraux’s seminal publication from 1952.

Museé Imaginaire, or ‘the museum without walls’ as it is often translated, brings together imagery of art and antiquities from all over the world into one tome, calling into question the “home” of art and the role of museums, as well as representation and reproduction in art history. To James, the book is somewhat prescient of the way in which art is viewed via the internet and importantly, draws attention to the idea of editing as a creative act – a process integral to James’s work.

 Working across the mediums of painting, drawing, printmaking and collage, James’s work explores two main themes: the idea of change and metamorphosis, of one thing turning into another, and the idea of connection or dialogue with art history, through the use of found imagery and texts.