Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four ‘is still important’ as book store pop-up launches
The artist is launching 1,000 limited edition copies of George Orwell’s dystopian novel.
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.British artist David Shrigley has said that George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four is “really important” today while discussing his decision to create 1,000 new editions of the book.
New project Pulped Fiction has seen the 55-year-old launch limited edition copies of the 1949 dystopian novel, constructed from pulped second-hand copies of The Da Vinci Code.
The book store pop-up is taking place at an Oxfam charity shop in Swansea that made headlines in 2017 after it asked customers to stop donating copies of the Dan Brown thriller due to the amount they had been given.
Speaking on the significance of Orwell’s dystopian novel and why it forms part of the art project, Shrigley told the PA news agency: “I think it’s (the book) really important in that people in every sort of political climate project meaning onto it, and over the years it’s sort of meant different things to different people…
“I mean, George Orwell, I think, always intended it to be a warning, it wasn’t necessarily a parable of an existing state, but it was kind of a warning of what can happen when we don’t value our democracy.
“We don’t have to think too hard about the way that our current society is ordered to see some parallels.”
Shrigley said that the process of pulping the books to form something new was a “very direct reference” to the Ministry of Truth, the workplace of protagonist Winston Smith whose job involves rewriting historical documents.
The novel came out of copyright in 2021 and Shrigley cited this as the main reason behind his choice to use the book in his project.
The artist said that Pulped Fiction is “certainly not a piece of literary criticism” and mentioned that both of the books “presented themselves” to him “in different ways, for different reasons”.
He also said that a series of “strange coincidences” had linked the project to Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four.
The artist said: “The narrative of this project is one that sort of happened by accident…
“But there seem to be so many things that have happened in this project that are strange coincidences.”
He explained: “Getting a book designer involved. It turned out that the book designer’s grandfather proofread the original Nineteen Eighty-Four and then his sister actually proofread this version of it.”
Shrigley added: “That was just one of many very strange coincidences, and sort of odd things that happened along the way.
“The paper mill we used burned down, for example, which was quite difficult to deal with.”
Some of the limited edition books will be available for sale at Oxfam Books & Music, Swansea, during the weekend starting October 28, with remaining copies sold online after the event.
Each book in the edition has been signed and numbered by Shrigley and fragments of the original novels remain on the paper.
Alongside the book, the artist is releasing a 40-minute documentary telling the story of how the project came to be and the hurdles his studio faced along the way, from Covid 19 lockdown to the now burned down papermill he had partnered with.
During the launch weekend there will be free hourly screenings of the documentary at Swansea’s Volcano Theatre.
David Shrigley: Pulped Fiction is taking place from October 28-29 at Oxfam Books and Music, Swansea, Wales.
Subscribe to Independent Premium to bookmark this article
Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Premium subscription today.