Ecce Homo
This large, heavy but very soft book by General Idea makes an immediate and strong haptic impact through the irregular, jagged edge of the softcover printed in black and white. It sits very nicely in the hands, enticing the holder to turn the pages. Every right-hand page (and the occasional left-hand one) contains a colourful drawing of caricature-style faces and designs – consisting of abstract forms, genitals, animals’ bodies, everyday objects or Buddhist patterns – all presented in an identical large format. The drawings emerged as a side product of General Idea’s conceptual art during their habitual working sessions in the early 1990s. Despite bearing the collective signature ‘G.I.’, these are all by Jorge Zontal, who like Felix Partz died of HIV-related causes in 1994. The third member of General Idea, AA Bronson, co-edited this book which also serves as a memorial to his friends and to the New York gay scene that was devasted by AIDS during those years. The title Ecce Homo, something of a trope in art history, on this occasion makes playful reference to that generation. Corporeality and fragility are also conveyed through a slender pink folded insert containing two accompanying explanatory texts. Despite the uncoated paper used throughout the book, the quality of the image reproduction is excellent.
