In this text, Lawrence Weschler chronicles the antics of J.S.G. Boggs, a young artist with a certain panache, a certain flair, an artist whose consuming passion is money, or perhaps, more precisely, value. What Boggs likes to do is to draw money - actual paper notes in the denominations of standard currencies from all over the world - and then to go out and try to spend those drawings. Instead of selling his money drawings outright to interested collectors, Boggs looks for merchants who will accept his drawings in lieu of cash payment for their wares or services as part of elaborately choreographed transactions, complete with receipts and even proper change - an artistic practice which regularly lands him in trouble with treasury around the world. This volume teases out these transactions and their sometimes dramatic legal consequences, following Boggs on a larkish, though at the same time disconcertingly profound, econo-philosophic chase. For in a madcap Socratic fashion, Boggs is raising all sorts of truly fundamental questions - what is it that we value in art, or, for that matter, in money? Indeed, how do we place a value on anything at all?
And in particular, why do we, why should we, how can we place such trust in anything as confoundingly insubstantial as paper money? In passing, Weschler frames a concise, highly entertaining history of money itself - from cowrie shells through hedge funds.
Industry Reviews
JSG Boggs is an artist with a difference. This young American specializes in drawing money - and then he goes out and literally spends his drawings. There's no attempt at serious counterfeiting; although the draughtsmanship is breathtaking, he rarely draws both sides of a bank note and makes no attempt to pass off his work as the real thing. Nevertheless, he estimated he's succeeded in 'spending' around a million dollars worth of drawings at face value, by interacting with ordinary people who thought owning a piece of original art was at least as worthwhile as owning a notional sum of money in paper form. Hardly surprisingly, his activities have attracted the disapproval of financial and legal institutions the world over as well as the admiration and support of such artistic luminaries as David Hockney and Gilbert and George. He was arrested by Scotland yard detectives who later dropped the case, bemused. More seriously, he was pursued by a distinctly unamused Bank of England, culminating in a landmark case at the Old Bailey where Boggs was acquitted by a jury despite the judge having directed them to convict. Weschler's scholarly but readable account attempts to disentangle the moral, ethical and aesthetic issues that surround Boggs's brand of subversion. To what extent can paper, or electronic, money be said to have real value, and by whose authority? Is it possible to put a value on artistic endeavour? Can wealth be 'created'? in any genuine sense? With Mr Boggs still very much alive and kicking - and still under threat of legal proceedings - this is a fascinating topical tale, told with elegance, humour and panache. (Kirkus UK)
