Set in an enchanted forest, Shakespeare’s 

, whose work frequently references dreams, fairy tales, and mythical worlds.

Inspired by Ovid’s 

, Shakespeare’s celebrated romantic comedy intertwines multiple narratives under the influence of transformation and witchcraft. The play is often staged with actors wearing animal masks, an aspect that appeals particularly to Dzama, whose work is characterized by the fusion of human and animal, fantasy and reality.

As the second title in David Zwirner Books’s

 series, this book revisits this ultimate fairy tale through the eyes of a contemporary artist who feels a special affinity for its imagery.

The second title in David Zwirner Books’s Seeing Shakespeare series

A detail from the cover of a book titled William Shakespeare × Marcel Dzama: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, published in 2021.

William Shakespeare × Marcel Dzama

Marcel Dzama: A Midsummer Nights Dream

“Asawa’s time is now,” the poet and critic John Yau writes in 

, “because we realize we have such a narrow aesthetic that left too many people out.” Asawa was also featured in 

's 2020 “True Believers’’ series, which explores her life and recognition as an American master.

Browse available works online in 

.

Read about Ruth Asawa’s life and work in 

, the first major monograph on the artist published by David Zwirner Books. Published earlier this year, Marilyn Chase’s biography 

Everything She Touched: The Life of Ruth Asawa

An Installation view of an exhibition titled, Ruth Asawa: A Line Can Go Anywhere, at David Zwirner, London in 2020.

Ruth Asawa Drawing in Space

Celebrating Ruth Asawa

’s obsessions—from sex to the Bible, music, politics, and the vicissitudes and obscenities of daily life—are chronicled in this comprehensive book of work by the illustrious American comic artist.

Instrumental in the formation of the underground comics scene in San Francisco during the 1960s and 1970s, Crumb has ruptured and expanded the boundaries of the graphic arts, redefining comics and cartoons as countercultural art forms. Presenting a slice of Crumb’s unique universe, this book features a wide array of printed matter culled from the artist’s five-decade career—tear sheets of drawings and comics taken directly from the publications where the works first appeared, magazine and album covers, broadsides from the 1960s and 1970s, tabloids from San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury, Oakland, Manhattan’s Lower East Side, and other counterculture enclaves, as well as exhibition ephemera. Complementing this volume are historical works from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries that have inspired Crumb and pages from his rarely seen sketchbooks from the 1970s and 1980s that reveal his exemplary skill as a draftsman.

Documenting the critically acclaimed exhibition 

Drawing for Print: Mind Fucks, Kultur Klashes, Pulp Fiction & Pulp Fact by the Illustrious R. Crumb

 at David Zwirner, New York, in 2019, curated by Robert Storr, this publication offers an opportunity to immerse oneself in Crumb’s singular mind. In the accompanying text, Storr explores the challenging nature of some of Crumb’s work and the importance of artists who take on the status quo.

R. Crumb’s obsessions are chronicled in this comprehensive book of work by the comic artist.

A spread from a book titled Crumb’s World published in 2021.

Crumb's World

—a documentary about the artist's life and work by Jeffrey Wolf—opened nationwide in the US on April 16th. In New York, the film will play at Film Forum. 

Born into slavery, Traylor spent much of his life after the 1863 Emancipation Proclamation working as a farm laborer in rural Alabama, and, later, as a shoemaker and factory worker in Montgomery. In 1939, at approximately the age of 85, having never previously trained or studied art in any formal way, Traylor began making drawings and works on paper using gouache and other media. Though he continued to make art for the remainder of his life, Traylor was most prolific between 1939 and 1942, creating a body of work that offers a unique and rich registry of his life, experience, and insights. As Kerry James Marshall writes, “By any measure the twelve hundred or so drawings that are the total known output of Bill Traylor’s brilliant but meteoric artistic moment is unprecedented.” Elaborating further, he notes, “I happen to agree with the late philosopher art historian Ernst Gombrich, that ‘great art is rare … but that where we find it we confront a wealth and mastery of resources’ that are transcendent. It would not be a stretch to say that Traylor had mastered his resources, and that the work he made transcended the limitations of his illiteracy.”

Exciting Event (Man on Chair, Man with Rifle, Dog Chasing Girl, Yellow Bird and Other Figures)

The little-known story of an artist born into slavery comes to New York's Film Forum

A detail from a work by Bill Traylor, titled Exciting Event (Man on Chair, Man with Rifle, Dog Chasing Girl, Yellow Bird and Other Figures), dated 1939-1942.

Learn More about Bill Traylor

Bill Traylor: Chasing Ghosts

David Zwirner is an art gallery with locations in New York, Los Angeles, London, Paris and Hong Kong. We present physical and online exhibitions, podcasts, books, and more.