man draws money & spends it

1.00

A funny and intriguing look at a conceptual artist whose work questions (and threatens) the philosophical foundations of our modern economy. ( )

Boggs caught my attention because when I first heard of him I was impressed that someone who draws well enough to be a counterfeiter (and indeed was charged with that by the Bank of England) instead is making social-commentary art - even, almost, performative art - out of his artwork. Read a bit about him via Wechsler in Google Books while surfing about, so got the real book to get the whole dose of it.

Some people have remarked that Wechsler's various digressive commentaries are informative and entertaining. I find some of them germane (such as the discussion of Fernand Braudel's writings about the history & evolution of money) but much of it I personally find falls into the "trivial pursuit" category of boring miscellanea. Neither especially informative or entertaining. This might be because I've already read Braudel's work (and others) and have been previously exposed to much of the historical sidelights contained in this book about money.

What I find most interesting about this work are the actual biographical details and facts about Boggs, his art, his actions, the legal trials against him and so on. I would rather get my historical discourse about money from the other eclectic sources I've already used, but insofar as this contains interesting biographical detail, it is an entertaining read. Consider that as coming from a biography purist with low tolerance for authorial digressions and philosophies that go far afield. ( )