Published by Hatje Cantz. Text by Andrei Codrescu, Lisa A. Crossman, Eleanor Heartney, Patricia Covo Johnson, Miranda Lash, Patricia C. Phillips.
Eschewing a trademark style, the common thread through Mel Chin’s practice is his conceptual rigor, thoughtful historicism and concern for social justice. His land-based works such as "Revival Field" from the early 1990s and "Operation Paydirt" (2008–ongoing) garnered significant international press for presenting the science of soil remediation as an art form. Challenging the traditional concept of a retrospective as a linear presentation of a single individual’s work over time, the publication celebrates the artist’s practice of constant evolution, re-examination, and collaboration. It includes an extensive illustrated chronology and an essay by the poet Andrei Codrescu, and is published on the occasion of a major Mel Chin exhibition at the New Orleans Museum of Art.
