From 1967, up until his death, Eduardo Paolozzi was
involved with the innovative British literary magazine
Ambit, using its pages as a space for some of his most
experimental and innovative creations, pushing at the
boundary between text and image. Collages, visual
essays and fragments from novels, drawing on pop
culture images from newspapers, magazines and
advertisements. Reprinted in their entirety for the first
time, Paolozzi’s works for Ambit tackle the war in
Vietnam, the acceleration of Japanese technology, and
the utopias of mass advertising.
The Jet Age Compendium reproduces the Paolozzi
pages from Ambit along with magazine covers, poems
and advertisements that originally appeared alongside
the artist’s work. The book is housed in a day-glo pink
sleeve that also contains an essay written by David
Brittain which puts Paolozzi’s work for the magazine
into context.
An exhibition, inspired by the book, was at Raven Row in London in the autumn of 2009. Visit the Raven Row website for more details.
Spreads from the book:
80 pages, plus 28 page essay
Paperback with day-glo plastic cover
240 x 170mm
ISBN 978-0-9545025-8-4
£12.95
Designer: John Morgan
Available online from:
Amazon UK
Also available in London at:
Artwords
Design Museum Shop
Serpentine Gallery Bookshop
and in Glasgow at:
Aye-Aye Books, CCA
and anywhere where fine books are sold. Well, this fine book, anyway.
