Archive

First edition of Archive by Joyce Lee (2024)

First impression 

Large format hardback in new condition 

Comes with a dust jacket

About

Archive is Baron’s latest collection of Joyce Lee’s artworks, following the debut publication titled after the artist. This book contains 150 images from Lee’s body of work and offers a look into the lush, sensual and strange worlds the artist creates.

The human body is almost always at the centre of Lee’s work and is often transformed into objects that are suggestive of human body parts, such as penis-shaped mushrooms and vulvic flowers that spit out sticky pearls. These surreal transformations move the viewer away from reality and into imaginary spaces, where desire and the body’s experience of pleasure are the main focus. Over-the-top sexuality is combined with visual gags to lend the images a bizarre and obscene sense of humour. The exaggerated campness of Lee’s work is joyful, mixing comedy with sex and working against the idea that art has to be serious.