Max Guy : But tell me, is it a civilized country? Hardback

A catalog of an exhibition by contemporary artist Max Guy that uses The Wizard of Oz as a way to ask questions about society and culture. This book accompanies Max Guy’s exhibition “But tell Me, is it a civilized country?,” an installation of new works centered on The Wizard of Oz.

The title is drawn from a conversation between the Witch of the North and Dorothy in which the Witch defines “civilized” as not including magic. Anchored in Chicago—where L. Frank Baum’s novel was written and first published, and home to enduring monuments to Oz fandom—the exhibition and book bridge the parallel universes of the Emerald City and its birthplace, drawing out the traces each carries of the other.

A number of latent currents course underneath the work: critical perspectives on modernist urbanism, the peculiar products of fan culture, and the transformative power of storytelling and other acts of world-making. This catalog features essays by artist and writer Brit Barton and the exhibition’s curator, Michael Harrison, as well as a transcription of a conversation between Guy and artist and writer Irena Haiduk.

The book will also include a new artist project made specifically for the book in the form of an annotated bibliography created by Guy of writings and images that relate to and inspire his practice.