Evidence: The Art of Candy Jernigan

For eight years after her untimely death in 1991, the evidence of artist Candy Jernigan's life was stored in a quiet Manhattan basement. Drawers and shelves were crammed with paintings, collages, drawings, journals, and eclectic installation pieces like Ninety-nine Bottles of Beer on the Wall-composed of, well, ninety-nine small laboratory bottles of beer on a wall. Little known until now outside a circle of New York's artistic avant- garde, Jernigan's one-of-a-kind talent is finally brought to light in Evidence. The works collected here reveal a fierce and funny creative spirit, an artist whose commitment to documenting life as she really found it led her not only to record sample swipes of the food she consumed, but also to stuff a roadkill rat and lovingly arrange it in a diorama. Jernigan's method - using the precision of a scientist to reveal the souls of discarded objects - makes her advocacy of the overlooked at once surprisingly charming and thought-provoking. Including four gatefolds, Evidence is an art book that gives readers a witty, transformative vision of the stuff that composes our lives - and bears witness to the genius of a truly original thinker.