Accession Number
1986/2.22

Title
Side by Side

Artist(s)
Gilbert & George

Artist Nationality
British (modern)

Object Creation Date
1971

Medium & Support
cloth and ink on paper

Dimensions
7 1/2 in x 5 3/16 in x 9/16 in (19.05 cm x 13.18 cm x 1.43 cm)

Credit Line
Gift of the Marvin Felheim Collection

Subject matter
Gilbert Proesch and George Passmore are a pair of artists who work together under the name Gilbert and George; the two met as students at London's St. Martin's School of Art in 1967.

Gilbert and George classify all of their work as sculpture, although their work includes paintings, photographs, and drawings. The theme that guides their work is "Art for All, " and they resist elitism in art. As with their other work, in which Gilbert and George insert themselves into their art, they do this in Side by Side with photographs of themselves. Gilbert and George commonly address social issues and urban life in their work.

Physical Description
This book is covered in a marbled book cloth. Inside there is black text on white paper with photographs of the artist's works on the opposite page from the text. There is a message from the artists at the beginning of the book that reads:
"To the reader of Side by Side from the sculptors
These chapters together represent a contemporary sculpture novel.
It is based on plans, intentions and experience.
The form being abstract air brushes and the expression pure sculpture.
The reader should not expect not to understand this volume as we have been careful to use only accessible material.
We beg you not to criticize this, our work, as this could only result in unhappiness for both the reader and ourselves.
And so, we leave you now with this our simple book.
Yours sincerely
George and Gilbert"

The book is organized into three chapters :
Chapter One: With Us in the Nature
Chapter Two: A Glimpse into the Abstract World
Chapter Three: The Reality in Our Living

Primary Object Classification
Bound Work

Collection Area
Modern and Contemporary

Rights
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please visit http://umma.umich.edu/request-image for more information and to fill out the online Image Rights and Reproductions Request Form. Keywords
Text-based Art
artists' books (books)
modern and contemporary art
photographs
sculptors
text (layout feature)
texts (documents)
words