Hello Nature

William Wegman is a dog man, and so he should be. His love of Weimaraners has led him to be recognised as one of world’s most widely known conceptual artists. If you fancy treating your pooch, you can also buy a luxury dog bed from the collection – perhaps not the artist’s finest moment.

Although he is best known for his photographs and films starring the breed – think his 1986 image Roller Rover, in which his cinnamon-grey Weimaraner Fay Wray (the successor to the artist’s deceased dog, Man Ray) is seen perched on top of two pairs of roller skates – Hello Nature reveals that the root of all of Wegman’s art is the same: a love of the outdoors and a vanished 1950s childhood.

There’s definitely something of the Wes Anderson to this compilation; sections such as “Why Do Stars Twinkle?” and “Make Your Own Compass” provide deliberately irreverent and humorous shifts towards an understanding of Wegman’s work. For an artist widely known for kitsch calendars and “quirky” wrapping paper, this volume provides a welcome and playful insight into his practice.

Bethany Rex