Custom Built: A Twenty-Year Survey of Work by Allan Wexler

Atlanta: Atlanta College of Art and City Gallery at Chastain, 1999. Softcover. VG, cover and text both in very good condition. Heavy paper color cover (white, sage green and red) with french flaps, numerous color and BW photos of 35 works by the artist. This exhibition catalogue contains a wealth of photographs of selected projects by Wexler, along with an introduction by the curators and an article by Aaron Betsky, "Furnishing the Primitive Hut: Allan Wexler's Experiments Beyond Buildings." Also included is the text of an interview with the artist, notes from the artist from September 18 - September 29, 1990, a biography, selected bibliography, and the exhibition checklist.

From the introduction: Custom Built is the first exhibition in the United States to chronicle the development of Wexler's art. The assembled works represent the variety of subjects Wexler explores as an architect, furniture-maker, and sculptor, and includes indoor and outdoor structures, furniture, models, and projects on paper. For Wexler, function is the subject, not the object of his work...

Wexler's truth to materials, honesty of construction, joy in labor, and exploration of the dialectical relationship of beauty and utility closely link him to the Arts and Crafts movement. He reconfigures everyday objects in such a way as to alter people's engagement with them. Wexler highlights comfort, the meaning of ritual, and the symbolic power of objects....