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Special Edition

James McQueen's 'Special Edition' is a series of book-cover prints released by Castle Fine Art from 2024 to 2026, in editions of 195 and 95. Four titles came out in February 2024, two prints about a night out followed in May 2025, and 'Shut Up And Kiss Me' was issued in pink and red in January 2026. Each release was also offered as a set.

All Special Edition Works By James McQueen (11)

Significance & Analysis

'Special Edition' shows how McQueen builds out a series in instalments: the format stays fixed while the mood changes from chapter to chapter. Every print is a worn vintage paperback with a single line across its cover. The 2024 titles shrug at bad luck and flirt with romance, the 2025 pair go out for the night, and the 2026 print is a straight love story.

2024: the opening four

The first chapter launched on 22 February 2024 in Castle Fine Art's UK galleries, at Castle Contemporary in New York and online. 'Shit Happens' and 'Oh Bollocks' are two shrugs at a day going wrong; 'It Started With A Kiss' is about love at first sight. McQueen describes the aim as reimagining "the dust jacket of a classic book, retro aesthetics with a provocative modern twist". On his canvases the worn look is physical, built from layers of paint that are sanded back and lacquered. The prints reproduce that surface flat on paper.

2025: a night out

The second chapter, released on 23 May 2025, kept the paperback format and changed its surface. 'We Love To Party' and 'Nobody Gets Out Sober' throw Jackson Pollock-style splatters across the cover and show each book in three dimensions, spine and all, with small details such as library stamps, a shopping list and drink rings. The pair launched with 'We Love To Party', an exhibition at Castle's King Street gallery in Manchester that ran until 29 June 2025 and included a recreation of McQueen's studio. Both were issued in a smaller edition than the 2024 prints.

2026: romance

'Shut Up And Kiss Me' followed on 23 January 2026, in time for Valentine's Day. It looks back to vintage Hollywood films and the romance paperbacks once kept on bedside tables, and McQueen calls it "my love letter to the kind of romance that never apologises". He had painted the line on canvas in 2025, the year before the print.

How Many Prints Were Made in Each Special Edition Chapter?

The four 2024 prints are silkscreen and archival pigment on deckle-edged 410gsm Somerset Satin paper, 101.6 x 67.3 cm (112.5 x 78.5 cm framed), each in an edition of 195; the set of four, framed or unframed, is also an edition of 195. The 2025 pair are mixed media on 410gsm Somerset Satin, each an edition of 95 framed at 104.1 x 78.7 cm, and their framed set of two is also 95. 'Shut Up And Kiss Me' is an edition of 95 in each colour, framed at 111.8 x 78 cm, and was also offered as a framed set of two. Artist's proofs and printer's proofs were made for the individual prints.

Where Does the Title Protect Me From What I Want Come From?

McQueen borrowed it from the American artist Jenny Holzer, whose line "Protect me from what I want" appeared in lights in New York's Times Square in the 1980s. On a battered paperback cover the phrase can be read as a comment on consumerism, or on the pull of our own vices and self-sabotage.

Are the 2025 If You Ever Leave Me, I'm Coming With You Colourways Part of Special Edition?

No. Castle Fine Art launched those five colourways in February 2025 under the 'Special Edition' name, but FairArt lists them as a series of their own, built around a single title. 'Special Edition' covers the four 2024 titles, the 2025 night-out pair and 'Shut Up And Kiss Me'. A listing that calls one of those colourways a 'Special Edition' print is describing the 2025 'If You Ever Leave Me, I'm Coming With You' release.

Are There Unique Versions of Shut Up And Kiss Me?

Yes. Alongside the edition of 95 in each colour, McQueen made unique hand-finished versions, numbered in Roman numerals (for example XV), which were sold separately from the edition. Each is a one-off, so a print numbered as a fraction of 95, such as 12/95, belongs to the edition rather than to the uniques.