Lying deep within the urban metropolis of Hong Kong, Happy Valley is one of the most iconic racecourses in the world. It is also the chief source of inspiration for a new body of work by American artist Marcel Dzama. Jockeys ride through waves and cathedrals, Chinese symbols pulled from racing paraphernalia adorn the edges of paper, and bats swoop, hunting for prey. Dzama’s distinct visions of the racetrack come alive through a series of large-scale paintings and drawings, transposing imagery from his prolific oeuvre into this adrenaline-filled sporting arena. His new works reflect on the culture of horseracing and how the track has become not only a symbol of sport, but also of commerce, class, and wealth. The publication includes a conversation between Dzama and Laila Pedro. Published on the occasion of his solo exhibition at David Zwirner, Hong Kong in 2019, Marcel Dzama: Crossing the Line is available in both English only and bilingual English/traditional Chinese editions.

Marcel Dzama (*1974 in Winnipeg) is known for his prolific drawings, which are characterized by their distinctive palette and subject matter. He has recently expanded his practice to encompass film and three-dimensional works, thus developing an immediately recognizable language that draws from a diverse range of references and artistic influences, including Dada and Marcel Duchamp. Created in close collaboration with the artist, this publication presents his 2013 exhibition at David Zwirner in London, which included videos inspired by the game of chess and puppets and masks based on the characters, along with drawings, collages, dioramas, paintings, and sculptural works. Dzama utilized the architecture of the gallery itself--an eighteenth-century Georgian townhouse--by hanging puppets from a skylight above the five-story building's central spiral staircase and placing monitors in the windows so that his videos could be viewed from the street.

Essays by Jason Rosenfeld and Jason Tougaw.

Set in an enchanted forest, Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream is the ideal subject for artist Marcel Dzama, whose work frequently references dreams, fairy tales, and mythical worlds. Inspired by Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Shakespeare’s celebrated romantic comedy intertwines multiple narratives under the influence of transformation and witchcraft. The play is often staged with actors wearing animal masks, an aspect which appeals particularly to Dzama, whose work is characterized by the fusion of human and animal, fantasy and reality. The second title in David Zwirner Books’s Seeing Shakespeare series revisits the ultimate fairy tale through the eyes of a contemporary artist who feels a special affinity for its imagery.

In recent years, Marcel Dzama (born 1974) has expanded his widely acclaimed drawing practice to incorporate theatrical realizations of his magical, myth-laden cosmology in three-dimensional dioramas and films. Behind Every Curtain provides a kind of sketchbook companion or dossier on the making of his latest film, A Game of Chess. This work draws on the importance of chess for the early twentieth-century avant-garde (Man Ray, Duchamp, Picabia) and the game's curious overlap with dance, in films and ballets by René Clair and--of especial significance for Dzama--Oskar Schlemmer, whose 1922 Triadic Balletincluded puppet-like masked figures performing on a checkered surface. In Dzama's film, characters based on chess pieces, clad in costumes made from papier-mâché, plaster and fiberglass and wearing elaborate masks, dance across a checkered board to engage their opponents in fatal skirmishes. Distinctions between reality and fiction collapse as both costumed and "real-life" characters in the film are killed. The filming and the creation of the costumes for A Game of Chess were carried out in Guadalajara, Mexico, and the influence of local crafts and religious traditions can also be felt throughout this body of work. Published on the occasion of Dzama's sixth solo exhibition at David Zwirner, this charming and affordable artist's book is packed with full-bleed drawings, sculptures, dioramas and film and production stills that give vivid testimony to the craft and thoroughness of his immensely popular art.

Marcel Dzama (born 1974) is one of contemporary art's hottest stars, and The Infidels is the most beautifully produced and substantial monograph on his work to date. Housed in a beige cloth cover featuring a tipped-in image, The Infidels contains fantastically sharp reproductions of paintings, drawings, film storyboards, collages and dioramas from the past two years, and installation shots from Dzama's exhibition of these works at Sies + Höke Gallery in Düsseldorf. The book also records an increased politicization in the artist's concerns, with references to American history and current events erupting in evocations of torture, terrorism and warfare (a partial result of Dzama's relocation from Winnipeg to New York). One special highlight of The Infidels is a new series of dioramas, housed in wooden boxes and vitrines, which transports Dzama's world of knife-wielding ghouls, mutant animal men and hooded, gun-toting girls into a three-dimensional wunderkammer, with figurines made of plaster, little cages with white cubes (a homage to Duchamp's "Why Not Sneeze?" assemblage), inscriptions and even taxidermied mice and birds, all recruited into the enacting of historical and mythic scenarios. These magical dioramas prove that the borders of Dzama's fantasy land continue to expand and find new forms and stages for their expression.

This lavishly illustrated monograph is the definitive publication on the internationally renowned Canadian artist Marcel Dzama. Characterized by an immediately recognizable cast of fanciful and frightening characters, Dzama’s work draws from a diverse range of influences, including Dada and Marcel Duchamp. While the artist is best known for his delicate psychosexual drawings, his work also includes sculpture, painting, and film. More than 500 color images from the late 1990s through the present trace the artistic evolution and tremendous talent of this highly acclaimed young artist. Textual contributions include a foreword by the contemporary artist Raymond Pettibon, three original short stories inspired by Dzama’s work by Dave Eggers, an essay by the art historian Bradley Bailey, and an interview with Dzama by the filmmaker Spike Jonze.

Text by James Patten, Wayne Baerwaldt.