The FBI Files
Paper: ISBN 978-1-931236-41-6 $30
For 26 years the F.B.I. watched the artist Arnold Mesches. Federal agents took note of his illustrations for political journals and magazines. They watched him march for peace and disarmament and demonstrate against Senator Joseph R. McCarthy and the House Un-American Activities Committee. They were also, during this time, compiling an 800 page dossier on him.
Today he has turned these files into art and put them on view at P.S. 1 in the exhibition “The F.B.I. Files.” The art consists of colorful collages of news clippings, personal photographs, 50’s era images and hand-written and typed script, all surrounded by decorative painted borders. Mr. Mesches said the works were inspired by the mix of image and sacred text found in illuminated medieval manuscripts.

