Paul de Guzman inserts himself into the canonical works of contemporary design and criticism by cutting sections from architecture books and anthologies which have become authorities on meaning and interpretation. While many a theory in the books appropriated and altered by de Guzman may in fact be disputable, the artist does not seem to be enacting his apparently irreverent attack on the books’ published content. As much as one might expect the book-object’s design to be linked to ideas professed within its once legible pages, it seems that a work’s design is subject to the artist’s whim and has little to do with the source material’s subject. A release from the impulse to interpret visual artistic practice through the automatic appeal to a few books of philosophy or architecture, Study for Wenn Berlin Biarritz wäre… and Proposed Double Layout for T. F. seem a declaration of de Guzman’s right to be an artist and not merely an interpreter of theories in books.
The dichotomy inherent in Paul de Guzman’s oeuvre is more complex than any literal translation of dissection into a meaningful gesture.

Paul de Guzman was born in 1965 in Manila, The Philippines, where he studied Engineering. He immigrated to Canada in 1986 and currently lives and works in Vancouver, Canada. He’s been exhibiting his work since 1997.

Download here a small publication about Paul de Guzman

NL

Paul de Guzman is geboren in Manila maar woont en werkt in Vancouver.

Hij is geboeid door de relatie tussen architectuur en taal: als een chirurg snijdt hij een constructivistische architectuur uit in kunstboeken. De uitsnijdingen worden bepaald door de tekst en lay-out op elke pagina afzonderlijk. De boeken worden nadien in plexi gevat maar zijn nog consulteerbaar.

Transit publiceerde een mini kataloog, die gratis verkrijgbaar is in de galerie.

Een pdf-versie kan u hier downloaden