Ann Veronica Janssens & Michel François, Ann Veronica Janssens, Michel François
( details )
Book
25 × 30 cm, 332 pages
2022

Since meeting in 1985, Ann Veronica Janssens (b. 1956, Folkestone, United Kingdom) and Michel François (b. 1956, Sint-Truiden, Belgium) have orbited each other, drawing close at times and growing distant at others. Ann Veronica Janssens, Michel François stages an intimate dialogue between their work, tracing the “muted liaisons and subtle tensions,” as writes Palais de Tokyo director Guillaume Désanges, which course below the surface of two remarkably distinct oeuvres. In addition to one-hundred-sixty artworks, this landmark publication gathers an extensive collection of research and personal photographs across four decades of practice.

Published by Zolo Press, ISBN: 978-1-7345275-9-9

A photograph of the front cover of Ann Veronica Janssens, Michel François on a light grey background. A golden fedora is pictured on matte white paper.
Pages 4 and 5. The left page is blank. The right lists a series of page numbers set in jagged serif type.
A spread juxtaposing two sculptures by Michel François and Ann Veronica Janssens. François has scattered fourteen gilded Pringles atop a newspaper entitled 'La Journada' from 2003. It's front page reads, 'El Horror.' Janssens, for her part, has coiled a stretch of bronze, stamped with a circular mesh, into a wheel.
Here again, a juxtaposition. François has adjoined a mirror to one side of a geode. Janssens casts an ovular white light into the corner of a room drenched in blue.
The first page of Guillaume Désanges' essay, as written in Paris on December 25, 2021. Five paragraphs are set in black ink, with small indentations demarcating the beginning of each.
A spread bearing two, small rectangular photographs entombed in generous white space. Verso is an image captured in Havana in 2015 through an eroded fence. Recto stands a sink at the bottom of which is a pool of Klein-blue powder.
Pages 164 and 165, displaying four images and a description of Janssens and François' various collaborations with choreographer Pierre Droulers.
Two pages of the extensive index. Each entry lists the artwork's title, year, materials, dimensions, and, where applicable, place of display. For instance, number 33: L'ODRRE N'A PAS D'IPMROTNCAE, 2012, neon, 1,950 by 150 centimeters.
Yes, another juxtaposition. On the left François has fastened a thin, brown leather belt around a flat disc protroduing from a wall. On the right, Janssens has encircled a wood-panelled room with a steel ring.
Pages 328 and 329. Filling the top-half of 328 is a black and white photograph by François of a low, spiky plant with eggs on the tips of its leaves. An image of one of Janssen's light works—seven spotlights forming a star of crimson—fills the top two-thirds of 329.
The book's back cover, featuring a black felt fedora affixed to the wall. Its cavity is filled with dark clay pocked with a finger's pinches.