Signs: Photographs by Jim Dow

This book features over 60 black-and-white photographs of American vernacular signage and architecture taken by Jim Dow between 1967 and 1977. Most of these photographs have never been published before, and they capture the "human ingenuity and spirit" that infuses the spaces. The photographs are influenced by Walker Evans, a mentor of Dow's, and depict time-worn signage from billboards, diners, gas stations, drive-ins, and other small businesses. The book includes a new essay by Dow that provides insight into the development of his work.

Format: Hardback
Length: 120 pages
Publication date: 05 April 2022
Publisher: Yale University Press

The American photographer Jim Dow (b. 1942) is renowned for his photographs that depict the built environment and convey the "human ingenuity and spirit" that suffuse the spaces. This book is the first to focus on his early black-and-white pictures, featuring more than 60 photographs made between 1967 and 1977, a majority of which have never before been published. Indebted to the work of Walker Evans, a key mentor of Dow's, these photographs depict time-worn signage taken from billboards, diners, gas stations, drive-ins, and other small businesses. While still recognizable as icons of commercial Americana, without their context, Dow's signs impart ambiguous messages, often situated between documentation and abstraction. Including a new essay by Dow that reveals his own perspective on the development of the work, Signs suggests how these formative years honed the artist's sensibility and conceptual approach.

Distributed for The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art

Exhibition Schedule:

The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO
(May 7–October 9, 2022)

Dimension: 28 x 28 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780300264012