M HKA Ensembles

Book, 19.7 x 13 cm, 277 p, language: English, publisher: Copycat Publications, ISBN: 03-2012-150.

Collection: Collection M HKA, Antwerp (Inv. no. B 2025/645).

Literary synopsis

On a seemingly normal day Richard Prince dusts off his old typewriter and sets out doing what he should have done a long time ago. The moment he strikes the keys and brings his most famous character back to life, Mr. C wakes up in a nursing home with an unnerving compulsion to fee his present situation. He boards a bus and embarks on a curious journey through the streets of New York. Sixty years after his debut as the great American antihero, Mr. C is yanked back onto the page by his creator without a goddamn clue why. This is an artwork by Eric Doeringer. Any similarity to a book is coincidental and not intended by the artist.

Relation of the novel to the artist’s practice

Most of Eric Doeringer’s artwork involves remaking works by other artists. This novel is an unauthorized sequel to Richard Prince’s appropriation of JD Salinger’s The Catcher In The Rye. For his book, Prince reproduced the second edition of Salinger’s Catcher, replacing Salinger’s name on the cover with his own but leaving most of the text untouched. The source material for my novel is John David California’s 60 Years Later, an unauthorized sequel to Salinger’s Catcher whose US publication was blocked by Judge Deborah Batts (the same judge who heard photographer Patrick Cariou’s copyright infringement lawsuit against Richard Prince). California’s 60 Years Later was eventually published in Europe but cannot be sold or marketed in the United States. For Doeringer’s version of the book, he made some small changes to the original novel, most notably replacing the original author’s name with his own and replacing every mention of “JD Salinger” (who appears as a character in the novel) with “Richard Prince”. There are also a few design elements that reference Prince’s Catcher.

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