This, the latest publication by British artist Ian McKeever, documents Against Architecture – an exhibition that had its first incarnation, curated by Robin Klassnik, at Matt’s Gallery, London (2017) before being reconceived and presented as Against Architecture, Remodelled at TheGallery, Arts University Bournemouth (2023–24), curated by Violet M McClean as part of TheGallery’s twenty-fifth anniversary celebrations.

The exhibition was McKeever’s first foray into installation art, seeking to explore the relationships between his photo/painted panels and the physical spaces in which they are presented. For this he built a structure comprising myriad walls, passageways, openings, ledges and platforms, challenging the conventional white cube gallery space and bringing the viewer’s body into heightened dialogue with both their surroundings and the artworks. The works, a series of the acclaimed artist’s abstract paintings combined with ostensibly abstract photographs, pose formal and theoretical questions about perception, visual languages and modes of representation – ideas explored in an essay by Berlin-based English arts writer Mark Prince.

The publication features numerous other text contributions: an introduction by Professor Paul Gough, Principal and Vice- Chancellor, AUB; Sue Hubbard, poet, novelist and art critic; Violet M McClean, Curator at TheGallery, AUB; photography graduate Eliza Naden; interior architecture and design graduate Milly Louise Harvey; Associate Professor Dominic Shepherd, AUB; and Ian McKeever himself. The publication, which has been edited by Violet M McClean and Millie Lake, and designed by Warin Wareesangtip, has been produced in an edition of 1000 copies.

Ian McKeever was born 1946, Withernsea, Yorkshire, UK. He lives and works in Hartgrove, Dorset. McKeever has received numerous awards including the prestigious DAAD scholarship in Berlin 1989/90 and was elected a Royal Academician in 2003. He has held several teaching positions including Guest Professor at the Städel Akademie der Kunst in Frankfurt, Senior Lecturer, Slade, University of London and Visiting Professor at the University of Brighton.