Weak Messages Create Bad Situations

A grubby yet high-minded and extremely satirical “manifesto” that undermines and critiques itself before the readers can do it themselves, this collection of one-page declarations and misgivings from Shrigley (Ants Have Sex in Your Beer) is scrawled with off-handed casualness but backed by a sly intelligence. Acclaimed as a fine artist in his native England, Shrigley also contributes weekly cartoons to the Guardian. Although divided into eight themed chapters—“Commandments,” “The Arts,” “Bugs and Insects”—each drawing is slapped down with thick black lines in a naive, juvenile style, with heavy blocks of letters twisting around the brutish illustrations. Severed heads are a constant, as are urination, pain, humiliation, and resentment. There are no setups or follow-throughs, simply hits of pain (the bloody hands accompanied by this nudging plea: “Now that you have torn out my heart you must wash your hands”) or commentary (a “Wheel of Fortune” where every choice is Poverty except for Death). Reading Shrigley’s weighty, partially tongue-in-cheek declarations all in one go is like finding a disturbed but thoughtful teenager’s notebook by accident, with all the surprise and worry that would entail. (Sept.)