Meet the Artist Making Children’s Books With the Likes of Rachel Harrison

One of the highlights of 2025 is Rachel Harrison’s recent exhibition “The Friedmann Equations” at Greene Naftali Gallery in New York. In short, it’s quintessential Harrison: smart, cunning and funny. The show’s title alludes to mathematical formulas related to the expansion of the universe that have been used subtly by Chinese dissidents in their pleas for society to open up during the coronavirus lockdown. These include many of her block sculptures, which mix abstract shapes and found objects, as well as some pieces that allude to Marcel Duchamp and his feminine alter ego Rrose Sélavy. The key is a series of drawings modeled after Hans Holbein’s portraits of Henry VIII and his court. It seems as if the German artist was influenced by two artists who would emerge centuries later: Pablo Picasso’s Cubism and Andy Warhol’s daylight era of celebrity portraits.

What does this all mean? “Perhaps sculpture can be as hallucinatory as technology, like a translation app spitting out its own misworded words,” the press release stated before mentioning Duchamp’s ready-made work, “before it became abstract.” I absolutely love Harrison’s work, but it scares me because even after seeing it and reading it (and even writing about it) for years, I’m still very unsure am i really get it.

So you can imagine my surprise when, during a recent visit to the gallery, Carol Green handed me a new children’s book, Hold on, Henry!a reproduction of Harrison’s Holbein painting. It’s such a heartbreaking moment.

On the cover is Harrison’s color version of Holbein’s famous self-portrait that hangs in Florence’s Uffizi Gallery, while inside, page after page of thick cardboard (with rounded edges) shows courtiers in their regalia, but through Harrison’s distorted lens—eyes misaligned, facial features repeated, and so on.

On the back cover, Henry VIII introduces himself in kid-friendly terms: “A long time ago, from 1509 to 1547, I was King of England. I was a very big man, and famous for some big things I did!” (Sir Thomas More, whose stunning Holbein portrait hangs in the Frick Collection in New York, might have wanted to describe it in one sentence.) King explained that Holbein’s portraits of his contemporaries “made them look noble, but also very human,” adding, “The paintings in this book were inspired by his 500 Artwork from years ago. Some look like the original portraits, but others don’t. Nowadays, artists can do whatever they want with it!

Harrison’s book is the latest release from Rookie Books, a bookstore founded in 2022 by Basel, Switzerland-based artist Camillo Paravicini. Palavicini has previously worked with Monster Chetwynd, Nathalie Du Pasquier, Michaela Eichwald, Fabian Marti, Martin Parr, Vaclav Pozarek and Toni Schmale. Each book is available in 300 editions and costs 28 euros ($32.50) plus shipping. Since completing his MA at the Glasgow School of Art, Palavicini has exhibited at venues such as Last Tango Zurich, the Kunstmuseum Lucerne and the Kunstmuseum Winterthur, and his work is included in the collections of the Canton of Lucerne, Julius Bär Bank and Credit Suisse.

There are some quirky books that are less unexpected than Harrison’s. Parr’s contribution, animalThe late British photographer known for his uncompromising view of humanity turns his lens on our biological friends: seagulls stealing someone else’s french fries, a dog wearing sunglasses, a giraffe sniffing a smiling child peering out of an SUV’s sunroof. Everything is very cute. Works by Milanese artist and designer Du Pasquier, How manyintroduces children to the numbers 1 to 10, with visual cues for each number (e.g., hands representing the number 5). Educational!

However, Eichwald’s promotional copy is less obvious Flower photo coloring (2024) explain: “She ignores traditional methods and conventions, often experimenting with unexpected and often highly unusual materials,” which they write I’m not sure what a child would make of her images, some of which are illegible even to me.

“At first, I thought I would only “It makes absolutely no sense to ask people, but it would be a shame not to ask Martin Parr,” Palavicini said during the Zoom conversation. “For example, I want to ask Paul McCarthy.” I loved his idea of ​​making a children’s book. It’s nice to have these books that aren’t illustrated. That would be the first obvious choice, but I thought, let’s really pursue fine art. ”

Palavicini has long considered the project, but only really took off during the pandemic lockdown. He was familiar with covers and pages; in addition to his own work as an artist, he had a side business designing art volumes. When asked about sales, Palavicini said: “I can’t complain. This is not a project that I use to make money. The idea is that I make 300 copies and if I sell enough, I’ll have money to make the next one. Sometimes I invest a little bit. It’s not sustainable. My labor is unpaid. Of course, I won’t complain about anything.” Assuming everything remains relatively sustainable, future works will be written by Henni Alftan, Elene Chantladze, William Kentridge, Florian Meisenberg Completed with artists such as Albert Oehlen.

Books about contemporary children’s art, including contemporary art, are not as new as you might think. Hannah Stamler for american art 2022, on how early 20th-century artists found inspiration in children’s art and, in turn, “the avant-garde’s interest in children as artists also led to an interest in children as spectators.”

Stamler continued: “The close relationship between the visual language of childhood and that of modern art, coupled with children’s perceived innocence and impressionability, made young people an attractive target audience for artists seeking to spread new ideas in art and politics.” Soviet artist El Lissitzky produced a picture book for children. Recent stars including Yayoi Kusama and Faith Ringgold have done the same. Many biographies of modern artists are similarly aimed at children, emphasizing the artist’s “visionary and rebellious nature.”

Palavicini said in a phone conversation that she contacted Harrison a few years ago but told him the project would have to wait until she had an idea. He then sent her several existing books. “I think Mikaela Eichwald’s books are the best children’s books I’ve ever seen,” she told me. “I was inspired by her book. It has no words. It’s the same work you see on the walls of Reena Spaulings or the Walker Art Center or anywhere else.”

A year ago, after President Donald Trump’s second inauguration, Harrison began looking at Holbein’s portrait of the British king. (“He was much more dangerous than Henry VIII,” she said.) When the pictures were on the wall, she wanted the world to see them, she said, and that led me to the offer from Rookie Books.

Harrison demurred when I noted that she didn’t seem like the candidate most likely to appeal to kids. “There were a lot of kids in my last show,” the artist said. “I’m not ageist. Art is for everyone who wants to see it. As an artist, it’s natural to think about your audience being inclusive.”