James McQueen|Untold Stories

'Untold Stories' is a 2025 Castle Fine Art release of five James McQueen mixed-media prints, each an edition of 95, in a smaller format than his usual covers. Released on 27 November 2025, it sets returning titles such as 'It Is What It Is' beside new ones, and all five were also issued together as a framed set.

Significance & Analysis: Public (H2)

'Untold Stories' gives McQueen's titles a firmer edge: these covers set boundaries. 'My Castle, My Rules', 'This Is Not A Bloody Hotel' and 'I Won't Tell If You Don't' read as terms laid down rather than shrugs. The collection's theme is taking control of the final draft, keeping what belongs to the story and striking out what doesn't.

Borrowed marks, worn covers

Familiar devices from contemporary art, among them Damien Hirst's dots and Jackson Pollock's flung paint, are laid over his worn paperback covers and turned into statements of resistance, self-definition or plain humour.

The covers are made to look used, and that is deliberate. "I want to create that wear and tear, that authenticity," McQueen says. "It's too easy to do something clean. It's too easy to do something with straight lines. It's much harder to make something look old and tired."

From canvas to print

Some of the titles were paintings first. McQueen showed 'My Castle, My Rules' on canvas with Halcyon Gallery in London in late 2023 and posted a six-foot canvas of the title in February 2024. He opened 2025 with a new six-by-four-foot canvas of 'It Is What It Is', dots included. The prints bring those lines together in one release. By mid-December 2025, less than three weeks after the launch, some titles had already sold out.