Now this is really something. In the Stacks, Marc Bell creates a beautiful bright gentle universe of doodle figures. He collects pieces and pieces and more pieces and then piles them all together – in stacks. But watch out! This time, he has a bone to pick with the Canada Council, so he’s sending them some brick snakes. That’s right. Brick snakes. Marc shamelessly reprints rejection letters and draws evil Canada Council brick snakes on top of them with captions like: “I give you so much cultcha and you give me this Canada Council brick snake.” I doubt there’s an artist in the country who hasn’t wanted to send the ol’ CC a nasty brick snake. But there’s so much more here, including an interview with Mr Duck Chocolate (MDC) aka Millions of Dead Cops where Marc reveals the inspiration behind this collection of his work. Dozens of b&w drawings are mixed in with a good number of full colour pieces, and some wacky two-tones. Marc must have worked for months on The Stacks – and looking through it is like having a port-hole into Marc’s mind. Don’t let the slightly stiff price throw you off, because glancing through this book will give you hours and hours of enjoyment. Why do we have art galleries like the AGO, when people like Marc are out there, making the most incredible art, and sharing it around? (EPW)
comic, #1, $10ppd, Marc Bell, c/o World Wide Books, 1016 Dalhousie Dr, London, ON, N6K 1M7