British artist David Shrigley has explained why he pulped thousands of second-hand copies of The Da Vinci Code and turned them into special editions of Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell’s landmark dystopian novel.
Shrigley, 55, first had the idea for his latest project “Pulped Fiction” in 2017, when he heard a charity shop in Swansea was requesting that people refrain from donating any more copies of the Dan Brown novel.
The Turner Prize-nominated artist told the BBC that the news story “sparked” his imagination, prompting him to acquire as many copies of the bestseller as possible. Once he had 6,000 books, Shrigley decided to pulp the novels and reprint Orwell’s 1949 novel, which came out of copyright in 2021.
“I had re-read Nineteen Eighty-Four again recently and realised that George Orwell had died in 1950, so it was coming up for 70 years [in 2020] since his death. Which means that all his works are in the public domain, so it means that anyone can publish one of George Orwell’s books,” he said.
Six years after Shrigley, whose celebrity fans include tennis star Sir Andy Murray and the late David Bowie, embarked on the project, these pulped editions will go on sale this Saturday (28 October) at the same Swansea Oxfam store where the project was conceived.
In total, Shrigley has produced 1,200 new editions of Orwell’s book, each one selling for £495.
When asked why he chose Brown’s novel, which was adapted into a Hollywood movie of the same name starring Tom Hanks, Shrigley stressed “Pulped Fiction” is not intended as a “piece of literary criticism”. He said that The Da Vinci Code and Nineteen Eighty-Four “presented themselves” to him “in different ways, for different reasons”.
Shrigley, whose celebrity fans include Sir Andy Murray and the late David Bowie, poses with his version of ‘1984’— (PA)
He added: “It’s almost as if the decision to use The Da Vinci Code was made for me. It was made by Broadhurst [the Oxfam manager] and the Oxfam shop. It was my decision to make 1984, as I still think it’s a really important book for people to read.”
Shrigley was referring to Phil Broadhurst, the employee who in 2017 put up a sign asking customers to donate vinyl records instead of further copies of The Da Vinci Code.
He also said the process of pulping these books to create something new was a “very direct reference” to the Ministry of Truth, the workplace of Orwell’s protagonist Winston Smith whose job involves rewriting historical documents.
Shrigley added: “The narrative of this project is one that sort of happened by accident...But there seem to be so many things that have happened in this project that are strange coincidences.”
One such coincidence involved the designer he recruited to create the cover of the book. “It turned out that the book designer’s grandfather proofread the original Nineteen Eighty-Four and then his sister actually proofread this version of it,” Shrigley explained.
Shrigley in conversation with the manager of the Swansea Oxfam shop where this story began— (PA)
Shrigley’s newly-minted copies have been signed and numbered by the artist, with fragments of the original novels still etched on the paper.
Alongside the sale of his books, Shrigley is also releasing a 40-minute documentary that is a visual retelling of how the “six-figure sum” project came to be and the obstacles he faced along the way, which include the 2020 Covid lockdowns and a fire at the papermill that his studio was using.
Fans can catch free screenings of the documetary at the Volcano Theatre in Swansea this weekend. David Shrigley: Pulped Fiction is taking place from October 28-29 at Oxfam Books and Music, Swansea, Wales.
Additional reporting on wires.
