Four Horses

 Four Horses

Burned leather and paper, apps. 6” x 2” x 8”, 2024

In 1956, an Austrian immigrant named Charles Bluhdorn purchased a bumper factory in Grand Rapids, Michigan. It was the first of hundreds of companies that Bluhdorn would purchase over the next quarter century, which together formed Gulf and Western Industries, an iconic U.S. conglomerate.

Gulf and Western drained profits from his manufacturing companies to fund media and entertainment companies, including the book publisher Simon & Schuster. The conglomerate epitomized the larger arc of late twentieth century U.S. capitalism, which has shifted from production of goods to the branding of images and the trading of financial products.

Gulf and Western’s exploitation of its manufacturing businesses left hundreds of closed and contaminated factory sites around the country.  Over those same years, its movie studio and book publishing company produced narrative fantasies of success, violence, love, and nostalgia that defined late twentieth century-U.S. culture.

“Four Horses” recasts Gulf and Western’s recurring iconography of horses in their brands and products into a surrealist narrative based on the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. The story re-centers the struggle and pain of the four horses who power the apocalypse – not the horsemen who rode them. Each of the chapters blends facts and fiction about the corresponding Gulf and Western brand and muses on the nature of its corresponding apocalyptic force. These include Chicago Thoroughbred Industries horserace tracks (Conquest), The iconic horse head from The Godfather (War), New Jersey Zinc’s horse head logo (Famine) and John Wayne’s horse Dollar in the Paramount film True Grit (Death). The chapters are encased in the 30th anniversary cover of Hatchet, the best-selling children’s book published by Simon and Schuster (acquired by Gulf and Western in 1975). Hatchet is a novel about a young boy’s survival where individualism is at the heart of his struggle.

Read the FULL TEXT here

Four Horses is currently held in the collections at the CENTER FOR BOOK ARTS CLICK EACH IMAGE FOR FULL VIEW
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 Four Horses

Burned leather and paper, apps. 6” x 2” x 8”, 2024

In 1956, an Austrian immigrant named Charles Bluhdorn purchased a bumper factory in Grand Rapids, Michigan. It was the first of hundreds of companies that Bluhdorn would purchase over the next quarter century, which together formed Gulf and Western Industries, an iconic U.S. conglomerate.

Gulf and Western drained profits from his manufacturing companies to fund media and entertainment companies, including the book publisher Simon & Schuster. The conglomerate epitomized the larger arc of late twentieth century U.S. capitalism, which has shifted from production of goods to the branding of images and the trading of financial products.

Gulf and Western’s exploitation of its manufacturing businesses left hundreds of closed and contaminated factory sites around the country.  Over those same years, its movie studio and book publishing company produced narrative fantasies of success, violence, love, and nostalgia that defined late twentieth century-U.S. culture.

“Four Horses” recasts Gulf and Western’s recurring iconography of horses in their brands and products into a surrealist narrative based on the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. The story re-centers the struggle and pain of the four horses who power the apocalypse – not the horsemen who rode them. Each of the chapters blends facts and fiction about the corresponding Gulf and Western brand and muses on the nature of its corresponding apocalyptic force. These include Chicago Thoroughbred Industries horserace tracks (Conquest), The iconic horse head from The Godfather (War), New Jersey Zinc’s horse head logo (Famine) and John Wayne’s horse Dollar in the Paramount film True Grit (Death). The chapters are encased in the 30th anniversary cover of Hatchet, the best-selling children’s book published by Simon and Schuster (acquired by Gulf and Western in 1975). Hatchet is a novel about a young boy’s survival where individualism is at the heart of his struggle.

Read the FULL TEXT here

Four Horses is currently held in the collections at the CENTER FOR BOOK ARTS

CLICK EACH IMAGE FOR FULL VIEW