Los Angeles artist Bettina Hubby (born 1968) takes a detour from her curatorial, community-based projects with Uniforms, an artist’s book of paper collages as precise and elegant as they are chaotic and devious. Here, clothed bodies collide, recombine and somersault across the page; machines mimic birds; jackets seem to genuflect in prayer. Constructed with the muted hues and contemplative negative space of a Noh play, Hubby’s mash-ups reassemble the familiar photographic imagery of fashion, commerce and reportage into a open-ended riff on personal identity and the human organism. Complementing the work is an original fictional narrative by Dave Cull, delivered in brief installments throughout the book. Uniforms is published in an edition of 750 copies on the occasion of Pretty Limber, Hubby’s fall 2013 exhibition at Klowden Mann Gallery.

Text by: Dave Cull