The Purpose of The Pictures, Jubal Brown (signed)
Jubal Brown
The Purpose of The Pictures
ISBN: 978-1-0674598-0-2
10 x 8 inches
96 pages
hardcover, perfect bound, b&w5.0pt Groundwood Book White
May 1, 2026Published by Pseudonym Press
Edition of 300
Essays by Tasman Richardson, Luis Jacob
signed & dated
With pen and ink, Jubal Brown invokes the shock and awe of our media landscape. His naive re-creations of image and text illuminate existential dread in this time of doomscrolling and hyper-reality. Gathering slogans, logos, cartoons, cinema, and literature, THE PURPOSE OF THE PICTURES trawls the crises of identity, isolation and alienation in ways that are at once darkly humorous and tragically comic.
These drawings were made during periods of hospitalization, when Brown set aside his laptop in favour of pen and paper. In an irony worth noting, Brown made international news in 1996 when he vomited primary colours onto paintings as they hung on the walls of MoMA NYC and The AGO in Toronto. In 2015, Brown nearly died vomiting blood while hospitalized for multiple organ failure. During recovery, drawing became a way to reflect on vulnerability, purpose, and mortality. The late writer R.M. Vaughan called him “the Dark Prince of Toronto art”, this book suggests something more nuanced and complex.
The book itself is a considered objet d’art. Sage-green hardcover with a gold foil stamp opens onto 96 pages of black ink on newsprint. The elevated exterior giving way to the raw D.I.Y. interior reflects the contradictory tension of the drawings. Introductory essays by publisher Tasman Richardson and artist Luis Jacob provide critical context. Published in an edition of 300 copies.
Pseudonym Press is an independent publisher of art books, publications, and ephemera, founded by Tasman Richardson in Toronto.
pseudonympress.ca
