Etching on laid paper
54 x 68 cm
Signed and numbered in pencil
Edition of 9
In his latest edition, John Bock shows a fragmented figure, drawn in fine red lines against a monochrome background — a hybrid being at its center, part human, part creature, with disjointed yet fluid anatomy. The etching on handwoven paper includes words like QUASI-ICH, EVIL, and MODDER — hastily outlined, offering contradiction and confusion.
In the foreground and across the body, a cluster of objects or materials appears — functional yet nonsensical — unclear if in use or merged with the being.
The etching could be a portrait, though not in a traditional sense. The figure resists definition, and language here offers no guidance. It seems caught in motion or paused mid-rest — its state undefined. There’s no clear line between body and object. Are the materials extensions, or is it dissolving into them? In this environment, only the subject and its things seem to exist — the scattered words acting like verbal hallucinations.
Like a Dadaist stage, and in line with Bock's practice, the piece resists logic. Yet something feels familiar. Moving through the daily, we carry objects and materials so tied to us, they feel part of us. In constant interaction, the line between self and object dissolves. Here, as in life, with Dada as compass, contradiction becomes structure.
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