David Shrigley|One-Off Editions & Collaborations

Each edition in this series came out of a one-off project, and together they take Shrigley's drawing into public galleries, charity fundraisers and luggage design, and off the paper into brass, bronze and wool.

Prints for galleries and good causes

'Sell Your Soul' was published by the Hayward Gallery in London in 2012, the year the gallery staged 'Brain Activity', his first major survey show in London. Two prints titled 'It's OK' were made to raise money: the 2015 version for the House of St Barnabas, a London charity that helps people who have experienced homelessness back into work, and the 2016 version for the Hepatitis C Trust, in a portfolio of 20 prints developed from the 'Art on a Postcard' fundraiser.

The untitled linocut of 2014 was the first print Shrigley made at the Dundee Contemporary Arts print studio. It grew out of a residency in Auckland in 2013 for 'Below another sky', a Scottish Print Network project that paired artists from Scotland and the Commonwealth. The print is a short handwritten note to the viewer, and Shrigley cut each of its oversized letters by hand into the lino block, which was then inked and printed onto paper. New Zealand returns in 'Untitled (The World Cat)', a 2019 screenprint published by Two Rooms in Auckland, where he showed new works on paper that year.

Three prints for Melbourne

In December 2023 the NGV in Melbourne released three screenprints of new Shrigley drawings, sold only through its design store: 'I Destroyed The Tennis Ball', 'Preen Yourself' and 'Everything Is Good'. They came out during the NGV Triennial, whose programme brought his 'Melbourne Tennis Ball Exchange' to NGV International in January 2024. In the installation, visitors swap a used tennis ball for one of more than 8,000 new ones. "The Tennis Ball Exchange was initially inspired by my dog," Shrigley has said, and the title of 'I Destroyed The Tennis Ball' echoes the installation. All three are screenprints built up in many colours: 26 for 'I Destroyed The Tennis Ball', 15 for 'Everything Is Good' and 13 for 'Preen Yourself'.

Off the paper

'Brass Tooth' (2010), published by The Multiple Store, is a cast of a single tooth, roots and all, in solid polished brass. It sits in a wooden box whose lid carries a felt-tip drawing by Shrigley, different on every box. 'Right Ear Made From Bronze' (2019) was made for Little and Large Editions, the editions project founded by the artists Jonathan Monk and Douglas Gordon, and was the occasion for an exhibition at Klosterfelde Edition in Berlin. In his text for it, Shrigley explains that he had already made a left ear in bronze, and that it "seemed wrong not to make the right ear". 'Exibition' (2019) is a two-colour knitted blanket in extra fine merino wool, released through Art + Culture Projects in New York.

The two Globe-Trotter cases followed in June 2022: four-wheel carry-on suitcases in ivory vulcanised fibreboard, with cobalt blue corners and brass rivets that frame Shrigley's drawings in electric azure. "I got to design every part of the luggage from the Globe-Trotter template," he said. One design plays on luggage as a metaphor, with the line "I have some baggage, but it's not much of a problem". Shrigley has declined to fix what the designs mean: "My designs aren't crossword puzzles where there is just one solution."