Museé Imaginaire is an ongoing series by British artist Ann-Marie JAMES made directly onto the pages of a first edition of French novelist and art theorist Andre Malraux’s seminal publication from 1952.

 

Museé Imaginaire, or ‘the museum without walls’ as it is often translated, brings together imagery of art and antiquities from all over the world into one tome, calling into question the “home” of art and the role of museums, as well as representation and reproduction in art history. To James, the book is somewhat prescient of the way in which art is viewed via the internet and importantly, draws attention to the idea of editing as a creative act – a process integral to James’s work.

Ann-Marie JAMES (b. 1981) was born in Buckinghamshire, UK and currently lives and works in Suffolk. James studied MA Fine Art at Wimbledon College of Art, London (2010–12), received her Postgraduate Diploma in Fine Art from Chelsea College of Art and Design, London (2010), and a BA (Hons) Fine Art from Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, London (2001–04).

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Awards include the Artists International Development Fund travel award, Arts Council England (2016); The Derek Hill Foundation Scholarship at The British School at Rome (2013–2014); MFI Flat Time House Graduate Award, supported by the John Latham Foundation, London (2012); The Jealous Graduate Print Prize, London (2012) and The Queen's Award, Central Saint Martins Scholarship Awards (2003). Her work is featured in the collections of The British Museum, the Chelsea College of Art and Design Library, the University of the Arts, London, Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge, the Victoria and Albert Museum and The Ned.