Art Is Magic

‘What makes Art is Magic so rewarding is that Deller can write. Strikingly, he finds the literary process “mortifying… as though I am slowly dying”. Perhaps it is that painful intensity that electrifies his prose, which comes across as crystalline, athletic, earnest yet frequently funny.’ – Financial Times’His work is hilarious and touching’ – David Byrne

‘Making good political art is almost impossible. Deller makes it fun. What sets him apart is his utopian optimism and belief in people.’ – Jonathan Jones, The Guardian

Art is Magic is artist Jeremy Deller’s attempt to tie up the key works of his career alongside the art, pop music, film, politics and history that have inspired his work. Much has been written about Deller over the decades but this is the first time he has pulled together all of his cultural touchstones.

The book features work from across Deller’s life and art and includes Sacrilege, the inflatable Stonehenge, the Iggy Pop Life Class, The Battle of Orgreave, a recreation of a confrontation from the Miners’ Strike, bats (a subject in at least three of Deller’s works), Andy Warhol (whom he met in 1986), rave culture, hen harriers pecking out the eyes of a Tory MP, and a giant Chameleon slide. Art is Magic gives us the most rigorous account of Deller and his work to date. Something for everybody.