Page 26 - Art First: Jack Milroy: INterVENTIONS

This work relates to Milroy’s The Librarian’s Garden of 1999 in the permanent
collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum (Museum no 38041999102799).
It was recently included in their exhibition display Quotations & Subversions.
The display label distinguished two approaches to form and style, and
suggested that some upset assumptions about the object’s use, form and
subject matter, whilst also sharing a revival of interest in meaning, an assertion
of personality, and a celebration of surface through texture or pattern:
‘Jack Milroy’s work with books hovers between the two-dimensional
realm of the printed page and the three-dimensional sculptures he
creates from them. His work has been likened to Joseph Cornell and
has been described as sharing some of the poetry and casual wit of the
Surrealists. Milroy acknowledges influences from Picasso and Max Ernst,
and his work shares the spirit of inventiveness of the former and the
humour of the latter. Librarian's Garden is a beautifully evocative piece
which uses the book form as both container and liberator.‘

The Librarian’s Garden II, 2013 • cut and constructed book, 26 x 16 x 13 cm