Harland Miller @ Ingleby Gallery

Harland Miller’s first exhibition in Scotland draws on his parallel career as a writer in his almost obsessive adaptations of Penguin book covers from the 1930s-60s. The show comprises a selection of large canvases and smaller works, including studies whose ostensible nostalgia belies their aggressive pessimism.

Immediately recognisable as copies of book designs seen in vintage shops everywhere, their form is reassuring in its familiarity. But Overcoming Optimism throws off the rose-tinted spectacles British culture has taken to wearing of late, replacing traditional Penguin fare with titles such as Incurable Romantic Seeks Dirty Filthy Whore and Heroin, It’s What Your Right Arm’s For. In his use of anti-romantic, anti-merchandising slogans Miller risks accusations of cliché, but by his own admission, his work satirises such “introspective stuff” and “macho shit.” His personal experience of the publishing industry (his debut novel Slow Down Arthur, Stick to Thirty was published in 2000) suggests that his real concern is the way in which literary politics and authorial interiority are sanitised by cosy packaging.

Nevertheless, born in the ‘grim north’ in 1964, Miller is not entirely damning of Britain’s tendency towards melancholy nostalgia. The geometric lines of classic 50s Penguin designs are disrupted by dripped and smudged paint and the artist’s pencil annotations, mimicking the wear and tear of a well-thumbed, rain-soaked volume. Browning pages are visible behind ageing covers and peeling spines.

Indeed, the works possess at once the tactile appeal of a good book cover and the visual impact of poster art. When viewed collectively, the large vertical canvases are imposing in their dynamic, painterly calm. Miller welds graphic and fine art to produce a visually arresting and tonally unified exhibition.