The effect - of richness within simplicity - suits “Ulysses,” the formidably complex account of a simple advertising agent on his daily routine in Dublin. Images are flattened out, replacing depth with collage-like layers, as seen in the cover portrait of Joyce, a study in green and beige. His formats run the gamut - paper collage, chalk, ink, watercolor and graphite. Madrid’s contemporary art museum has him in their permanent collection, as does the Institut Valencià d’Art Modern. His work was first shown in the US in 1975 at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. I said, ‘What is that?’ We started talking about it and I said, ‘You think we can do this together?’”Īrroyo’s playful, colorful works share a palette with the Pop Art prevalent in the 1960s, when he began to show mainly in Paris. “Joan arrived, and I didn’t even say hello. “There must have been 30 or 40 of these drawings or paintings that are now in the book,” Gurewich says. Arriving early for a visit with Tarrida in his Barcelona home, she waited in his office and found herself surrounded by Arroyo’s exquisite renderings, some framed on the walls and others lying on the sofa and chairs. Three months before Arroyo’s death, Judith Gurewich, publisher of the independent Other Press, was in Spain meeting with colleagues. This ‘Ulysses’ has been a project for a long time.” “And then Eduardo was always talking about, ‘my ideal, the dream project would be Ulysses.’” Arroyo suffered for decades from peritonitis, and “working on ‘Ulysses’ gave him the strength to survive. “In 2004, we had been working on the first five books of the Bible,” recalls Joan Tarrida of Galaxia Gutenberg, who had collaborated with the artist since the 1980s. “ Ulysses: An Illustrated Edition” includes 134 color illustrations and nearly 200 in black and white by Spanish artist Eduardo Arroyo, his final project before his death in October 2018. Other Press’ centennial edition, weighing in at 6 pounds, is likely to cut off the circulation in your thighs and force a skipped meal (at $75), but worth it for the extras.

Taking precedence over encomiums and recitations, costumes and nostalgia is the book itself, 710 pages of inner monologue and dialogue, stream of consciousness, blank verse, Greek classics and the venues and byways of Dublin, 1904. The occasion will be marked by readings, discussions and a Bloomsday that blossoms like none before (on June 16, the day of Leopold Bloom’s peregrinations).

James Joyce’s landmark modernist novel “Ulysses” turns 100 this year. If you buy books linked on our site, The Times may earn a commission from, whose fees support independent bookstores.

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