david shrigley patches up unwanted 'the da vinci codes' into limited-edition 1984 copies

David Shrigley presents pulped fiction

Known for his unanticipated and delightfully absurd creative projects, British visual artist David Shrigley unveils his most recent venture, Pulped Fiction. In this latest endeavor, Shrigley has crafted a distinctive limited edition of 1,250 copies of George Orwell’s iconic dystopian masterpiece, Nineteen Eighty-Four (1984), using an unconventional material: the pulped remnants of discarded copies of Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code.

Shrigley has recycled copies of The Da Vinci Code into new 1984 books | all images courtesy of David Shrigley

From discarded Da Vinci Codes to New 1984 copies

The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown is one of the most popular books ever written, with over 200 million copies sold. It’s hard to find someone who hasn’t read it. At its peak, copies of the book were everywhere, from bookstore windows to library shelves to coffee tables to public transportation. But once people were done reading it, there was an abundance of unwanted copies in charity shops and used bookstores. In 2017, a charity bookshop in Swansea, UK, made headlines when it displayed hundreds of copies of The Da Vinci Code in its window with a sign asking customers to please stop donating them. The shop had more copies than it could sell.

Artist David Shrigley (find more here) saw this as an opportunity. He collected 6,000 unwanted copies of The Da Vinci Code and mushed them in order to create new versions of George Orwell’s 1984. The book cover features the title and author’s name in Shrigley’s signature handwritten font, black letters on a white background. The project is set to launch on November 4th, 2023, at a special pop-up weekend hosted at the very charity shop in Swansea that started it all. 250 copies of the limited new edition of 1984 will be on sale for an exclusive price, with the remaining copies going on sale on this website after the event. Alongside the books, the artist is releasing a 30-minute documentary telling the story of how the project came to be and the numerous hurdles his studio faced along the way.

the book cover features the title and author’s name in Shrigley’s signature handwritten font