David Shrigley @ EIBF

The funniest man in art appears at the Book Festival to promote his new book, What The Hell Are You Doing: The Essential David Shrigley. It’s an anthology of work from throughout his career, a selection he edited himself to reflect his own unique perception of his work and the world.

Shrigley takes to the stage like a stand-up, swiftly eliciting gales of laughter from the audience as he confesses his worry at being intellectually out of his depth at a book festival. He went to art school, you see. He makes an abortive attempt at a traditional book reading, projecting his drawings behind him and reading them out. Cock. Shit. Prostitute.

Shrigley’s unique brand of pithy one-liner art does not lend itself to the traditional approach, so instead he talks us through his work with the simplicity of a child showing off his toy box. He makes thirty drawings a day. He likes diagrams and maps and stationery and he thinks this has a lot to do with being a Virgo. He’s had drawing columns in broadsheets and Esquire Japan. He even has a political cartoon in the New Statesman, which is somewhat complicated by his inability to accurately draw faces. He has an entertaining story about herpes.

David Shrigley in person conveys all the endearing humour and tangential, surprising ideas that have made his artwork so widely appreciated. And, as he points out, his book’s cheaper than Martin Creed’s. [Rosamund West]