Christopher WOOL, Absent without leave

How to define artistic influence ? Let’s take for instance a book published by Christopher Wool in 1993, titled “Absent without leave”. I can’t be sure today’s artists have seen it, or even heard of it. But its content – black and white photocopied photographs of European urban landscapes – resonates with many recent works, focused on the status of images after their alteration. Namely, RH Quaytman, Wade Guyton, Nathan Hylden, and countless others.
Christopher Wool is more well known for his canvases, such as the word paintings. His photo work has less been exhibited, and seems totally out of the scope of the art market. But the way Wool xeroxed the prints, then printing them in offset, in a repetitive yet imperfect manner, fits well with many contemporary strategies in the art world. What is more, “Absent without leave” enjoys an interesting book design. The pages paper and binding yield with an impression of both density and fragility. Its aesthetics pre-announces the return to the very direct and simple style of many publications of our time (Nieves for example), with at least a ten years advance.
For all these reasons, as an answer to the initial question, the book may well become a “classic”, exerting influence for some time again.