Tony Lewis: Anthology 2014-2016

Anthology 2014–2016 is an installation of thirty-four original collage-poems by the Chicago-based artist Tony Lewis. Exhibited at the Hirshhorn for the first time in its entirety, this series of evocative black-and-white works draws on an unlikely source—Calvin and Hobbes comic books.

To create Anthology 2014–2016, Lewis deconstructed hundreds of Calvin and Hobbes comic strips, reordered them, and ultimately shaped them into poems through a process of erasing, editing, and rearranging dialogue. Each poem is assembled as a collage of individual drawings that explores the collaborative nature of creativity and authorship, leaving meaning open to a range of interpretations.

Through this series, Lewis realized that one can write through drawing. He says, “This is the clearest form of writing I’ve done to date, transferring authorship from Bill Watterson’s dialogue to a distinct writing process. Calvin and Hobbes was a literary and artistic savior growing up in the ’90s. By physically destroying it, appropriating it, editing it and rebuilding its narrative, I find new language and ideas that culminate with an intimate collection of poems.”

Physical description: 
Softcover, 40 pages
Chicago: Tony Lewis & Condor Arts, 2018
Edition of 500
7 x 9 inches
Weight: 0.5 lbs.