Jim Dine: Electrolyte in Blue

A macabre and glorious poetic tirade by Jim Dine against the perils of racism, climate change and Donald Trump's presidency

In Jim Dine's (born 1935) bluntly honest words, Electrolyte in Blue is a "long hate poem" about "the evil in our now small world and those who unleashed it," exploring themes of anti-Semitism, racism, climate change, as well as the world leaders he condemns, prominent among them Donald Trump. Dine's fury and disappointment are clear, yet his vision is not merely bleak. He lays his words over luminous etchings, aquatints and lithographs of botanical themes in buoyant color. Luscious foliage, flowers, fruit and vegetables celebrate the natural world and offer solace against the social, political and environmental concerns that Dine voices. The book is based upon the original Electrolyte in Blue, a unique book object in an edition of one, typeset and printed by hand by Ruth Lingen, with whom Dine has collaborated for decades.