A WAY WITH WORDS

British artist Harland Miller is most famous for painting covers of imaginary books. On the eve of his first exhibition in Hong Kong, he tells Oliver Giles of the inspiration behind his new works

Rou may have been taught not to judge a book by its cover, but that’s exactly what you have to do at Harland Miller’s exhibitions. The British artist and author has spent more than 15 years painting book covers, many of them based on the classic design of vintage Penguin paperbacks. But these aren’t books you can find in a library or bookshop; they’re all the product of Miller’s imagination, complete with funny and sometimes filthy new titles. A navy-blue Penguin paperback purportedly by the hyper-macho author Ernest Hemingway has been given the title I’m So F**king Hard, while a book by Edgar Allan Poe has been rechristened Wake Up And Smell The Coffin. Other paintings aren’t riffs on the lives of famous writers but imaginary new books by Miller…

You're reading a preview of

Tatler Hong Kong (Digital) - 1 Issue, June 2019

DiscountMags is a licensed distributor (not a publisher) of the above content and Publication through Zinio LLC. Accordingly, we have no editorial control over the Publications. Any opinions, advice, statements, services, offers or other information or content expressed or made available by third parties, including those made in Publications offered on our website, are those of the respective author(s) or publisher(s) and not of DiscountMags. DiscountMags does not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, truthfulness, or usefulness of all or any portion of any publication or any services or offers made by third parties, nor will we be liable for any loss or damage caused by your reliance on information contained in any Publication, or your use of services offered, or your acceptance of any offers made through the Service or the Publications. For content removal requests, please contact Zinio.