The publications
Breathing Underwater
The newest addition to The Art Monographs is the result of a collaboration between poet Lisa Davidson and artist Ralph Petty. Conceived as one, the poems and drawings tell of a duplicitous world in which dream may become nightmare, and beauty terror, in the blink of an eye. Theirs is a realm of shifting shapes and organic forms, saturated with a surfeit of life that seems variously splendid and miraculous, ruthless and inevitable. The natural world features strongly; we encounter storm-beaten trees, tired butterflies and panicked sheep. Yet the human world is never far away, a relentless presence
that changes and exhausts all that comes into contact with it. Davidson’s texts find a haunting echo in Petty’s dream-like ink wash drawings (Petty’s work also appears alongside Jeffrey Greene’s poems in Cahier 20,Shades of the Other Shore ). Breathing Underwater reveals the convergence of two minds on one theme, discovering in each drawing-poem pair the rich cross-pollination between the visual and the verbal.
Series: The Art Monographs (no.4)
Breathing Underwater
Text by Lisa Davidson
Drawings by Ralph Petty
32 images
24 pages | 310 x 225 mm
paperback
ISBN 978-1-909631-15-1
£16
The Art Monographs juxtapose works of art
with literary writing. Each publication
explores a work of art or the work of an
artist. The texts are informative, evocative,
and associative; they are a compelling
portrayal of what happens when word and
image coalesce.
Sylph Editions, London
winter 2015
2017
Breathing Underwater
Images by Ralph Petty, text by Lisa Davidson. Sylph Editions, London, 2017. 92 pages (distributed in the US by the University of Chicago Press).
2013
A Decade of Art at the AUP Fine Arts Gallery
15-page color catalogue reviewing over 100 exhibitions at the Fine Arts Gallery of the American University of Paris. Edited and written by Ralph Petty, published by Sylph Editions in the UK.
2013
Listening
12-page brochure on a granite sculpture created in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the American University of Paris. On permanent display in front of the university's main building, 6 rue du Colonel Combes, Paris 75007, and part of the university's Permanent Collection. Introduction, Still Not, written by Nancy Huston.
2013
Shades from the Other Shore
Images by Ralph Petty and text by Jeffrey Greene. Published by Sylph Editions in the UK and the American University of Paris. Number 20 in the prestigious Cahiers Series, distributed in the US by the University of Chicago Press.
2011
Démons Quotidiens
An intimate French journal, a dialogue between a writer and a painter, with texts by Canadian/French writer Nancy Huston and drawings by American/French artist Ralph Petty. Twelve months of taking in the world as it is — funny, incisive, at times dark — this book offers a unique view of contemporary life that is both political and intimate. Les Éditions L'Iconoclaste, Paris, 2011. 400 pages, 150 color reproductions of drawings.
2010
Créer avec Magritte
Contributor (drawing and exercise) to this children's book. Editor: Jean Poderos. Éditions Courtes et Longues, 16 rue Saint-Paul, Paris 75004.
2009
Encounters: A Riff on the Senses
Limited-edition fine artist's book by Ralph Petty and Charles Jones. La Nana Creek Press, Nacogdoches, Texas, 2009. Edition of forty hand-printed and hand-bound hardcover books using original writings and drawings by Ralph Petty and Charles Jones.
2008
Dolce Agonia
Book cover illustration for the Brazilian publisher L&PM Editores. Novel by Nancy Huston (publication date: January 2009). The Computer, The Painter, The Image and His Brushes — article written for the website www.digitalapplejuice.com. The Computer, Slow Food and Stone — article for the website www.digitalapplejuice.com.
2007
Créer avec Warhol
Illustration and text for a children's book, published by Éditions Courtes et Longues.
Créer avec Vermeer
llustration and text for a children's book, published by Éditions Courtes et Longues.
2006
The Permanent Art Collection of the American University of Paris Co-editor of the catalogue.
2001
Dolce Agonia Cover illustration. Nancy Huston (Actes Sud, 2001).
2000
Ralph Trio Cover and illustrations for the CD jacket.
Variations : Featured artist (illustrations and article entitled Festin), published by the Fédération des Relais Enfants-Parents, Montrouge, France.
Our Lady Illustration for the book cover. Dale Gershwin (Mosaic Press, 1999).
1993
Itinéraire 93 Catalogue of group exhibition, La Ville de Levallois, France.
1990, 1998 Frank (international art and literary journal) Interview and reproductions of work, Paris.
1982
Zephyr Calendar Design: Davidson/Petty. Illustrations: Petty. L.N. Fowler and Co., London.
PUBLICATIONS OF THE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY OF PARIS
2004, 2005, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 Paris Atlantic — illustrations.
2001, 2008, 2009, 2010 Core — illustrations.
2005 Keystone — interview and painting illustration.
2007 Language without Words, Scissors and Tooth.
Spotlight on
"Démons quotidiens"
"Demons Quotidiens" is a 350 page book with texts by Nancy Huston, the Canadian/French writer and drawings by Ralph Petty, an American/French artist. Both live in Paris. This book is a dialogue of a writer and a painter over twelve months of taking in the world as it is, sometimes dark, sometimes hilariously absurd, but always poignant. The dialogue worked both ways: Nancy would write a text about an event that happened in a day — it could be an intimate event or observation of a world event and Ralph would respond with a drawing. And then, another day, Ralph would make a drawing about something that affected him, intimately or a world event and Nancy would respond to the drawing.
And just to be clear — the drawings do not illustrate the text but respond to the text and visa versa. There are a 150 colored reproductions and 150 texts.
Nancy Huston’s Introduction to Démons Quotidiens :
" L'actualité est présente ici, c'est important de le souligner, seulement à titre indicatif. Il ne s'agit en aucun cas de nos "commentaires" de ce qui s'est passé dans le monde cette année-là. Plutôt de notre tentative pour explorer ce paradoxe que chacun gère comme il peut : nous sommes individus, mais ne pouvons vivre qu'avec les autres et grâce aux autres, dans un monde construit par les autres, pour le meilleur et pour le pire. Le meilleur peut être absolument génial, et le pire peut être l'enfer sur Terre. Impossible de les mettre dans la balance – pour la bonne raison qu'il n'y a pas de balance, pour la bonne raison que personne n'est là pour la tenir, cette balance.
C'est une banalité de dire que la beauté est impuissante face à la souffrance -- mais ce n'est pas une raison pour laisser la souffrance phagocyter la beauté. Ainsi, au lieu d'entériner le vieil adage "Pas de nouvelles, bonnes nouvelles", j'ai décidé que les bonnes nouvelles méritaient parfois, elles aussi, d'être dites. Le malheur existe, dedans et dehors – assurément, incontestablement, énormément. N'empêche ; le bonheur aussi. Dedans et dehors.
Nancy Huston
Frank magazine
Zephyr Calendar
Flesh & Flora
The company goal was to create bedding products such as sheets, pillow cases, bedcovers and comforters decorated with erotic designs to enhance a healthy atmosphere of complicity between modern couples in their pursuit of erotic fulfillment. These are examples of some of my designs for the company.
