This stunning book takes a fresh look at the work of renowned artist William Wegman. In reflecting on nature's place in the cultural imagination, Wegman often revisits those books which shaped his first outdoor experiences ? Boy Scout manuals, field guides, and the like. By creatively incorporating these materials, this volume embodies the artist's quirky and nostalgic aesthetic. Perhaps best known for his photography and videos, particularly of his dogs, William Wegman is also an accomplished painter, draftsman, and writer, and an avid outdoorsman. Throughout his work he looks to nature and its treatments in both popular culture and the arts for inspiration. He may use vintage postcards as the starting point for landscape compositions, borrow from the rhetoric of outdoor recreation in his wordplay, or invoke the writings of someone like Henry David Thoreau. In this unique and very personal volume, Wegman considers his artistic formation and with great sophistication examines his relationship to place, creatively incorporating some of the books and materials that are at the root of his aesthetic. Complete with the artist's commentary, texts by the exhibition curators, and a piece of short fiction by award-winning author Padgett Powell, Hello Nature provides a marvellous immersion, in image, written word, and design, into what can only be described as Wegman's world. ILLUSTRATIONS: 220 colour
