This limited edition catalogue accompanies Dant’s solo exhibition at The New Art Gallery Walsall and remarkably is the first monograph on this unique artist.

Dant creates large, richly layered, dense, cartoon-like drawings that demand focus and concentration from the viewer. His meticulously researched works often represent mishap and folly and often take place within recognisable buildings and institutions.

Common subjects include museums, maps and complicated jokes. His makes a satirical commentary on contemporary life and can be associated with the traditions of Hogarth and Swift.

For The New Art Gallery, the artist has created a new body of work exploring British attitudes to drinking, inspired by George Cruikshank’s The Worship of Bacchus and also the work of Peter Bruegel and William Hogarth.

Dant has created a body of work that wittily explores this topical theme in contemporary Britain, while making reference to its (art)historical context.

Published on the occasion of the exhibition Adam Dant: Dant on Drink – Drawings about Drinking in Britain at New Art Gallery Walsall, May – July 2010.