By Jim Cogswell, with contributions by Gunalan Nadarajan, Terry Wilfong, Kathryn Huss, MaryAnn Wilkinson, Claire Zimmerman, Karl Daubman, Daniel Herwitz and Raymond Silverman

Year of Publication: 2017

Artist Jim Cogswell's Cosmogonic Tattoos is an ambitious work of contemporary art created for the windows of the University of Michigan Museum of Art and the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology. Drawing on imagery from both museums, Cosmogonic Tattoos liberates museum objects from their cases and pedestals to run wild and transform, dramatizing the complex and tumultuous ways in which art and artifacts go from creation to museum display. This handsome artist book, designed by Franc Nunoo-Quarcoo, contains a full photographic documentation of the installation, as well as the artifacts that inspired it, preliminary studies, and related work, accompanied by artist statement and essays and reactions to the work by artists, scholars, and museum professionals. 

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Cosmogonic Tatoos
Kelsey Museum Publication
Ann Arbor: Kelsey Museum of Archaeology, University of Michigan Museum of Art, and Stamps School of Art & Design, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-990-66237-2
Pp. 148, color illustrations throughout
Paperback, 9" x 12"
$27.95