«Since the 1990s, I have been working on a project aimed at cataloguing and depicting my dreams, trying to bring to life many of the works I had imagined in my dreams. This triggered a strange cycle of dreams.

I began drawing my dreams, working full-time to bring these objects to life. Eventually, I asked several people to help me achieve this goal, and I dreamt of a work that would be a Plexiglas box in which all the works I had dreamt of up to that point would be represented in miniature. At the top of the pile of objects would be a mini-sculpture of the Great Whore of Babylon drinking a large cup of mud and riding a beast with seven heads and ten horns. This idea was inspired by a painting from the 1890s that I had seen only once on a psychedelic poster by Alton Kelley and Stanley Mouse in San Francisco. At the time, I saw the Great Whore of Babylon, perched atop a heap of filth, as a symbol of the futility of the material world. Perhaps this mound of tiny works of art was symbolic of the folly of my quest.

My team and I set about sculpting or printing these works in miniature and then placing them all together in the box. Given that a huge amount of work was about to be reduced to a shapeless heap, the miser in me wanted to document the contents; so, I asked Sachiyo Yoshimoto to organise an exhibition of miniatures in a miniature museum made of foam for the walls and printed wooden flooring, all assembled by Brigitte Coleman. And I asked Michèle Didier to produce and publish the catalogue, entitled Dream Object Book, for this temporary exhibition.»

Jim Shaw 

Dream Objects Book is the sole record of this imaginary and lost exhibition. But it also serves, in the second part of the book, as the catalogue raisonné of the Dream Objects series. Imagination and reality are thus brought together, and both saved from destruction. 

A few Dream Objects featured in the catalogue, captioned with their actual dimensions.

Dream Object – « Haystack », 2007

Mixed media (resin, hay, wood and metal)

Overall: 108 x 84 x 168 inches (274.3 x 213.4 x 426.7 cm)

Dream Object – « Elephant trunks », 2007

Mixed media sculpture

Long trunk: 68 x 12.5 inches dia. (172.7 x 31.7 cm)

Short trunk: 45.3 x 8.5 inches dia. (115 x 21.6 cm)

Dream Object – « Hanging testicles », 2007

Mixed media sculpture

Testicles: 26 x 24.5 x 15 inches (66 x 62.2 x 38.1 cm)

Dream Object – « Butt-head bucket », 2007

Urethane and foam

19.5 x 24.3 x 31.8 inches (49.5 x 61.7 x 80.7 cm)

Edition of 5

Dream Object – « I was looking for a red blouse that was that one of my students… », 2007

Mixed media (copper wire, polyurathane rubber, polyurathane foam and paint)

Sculpture: 21 x 23 inches dia. (53.3 x 58.4 cm)

Crate: 25.8 x 25.8 x 24.8 inches (65.5 x 65.5 x 63 cm)

Chocolate box: 21 x 14.5 x 5 inches (53.3 x 36.8 x 12.7 cm)

Dream Object – « A room with waves of meat frozen crashed in the corner », 2007

4-part mixed media sculpture (wood, magic sculpey, resin and fiberglass)

Overall: 60 x 60 x 78 inches (152.4 x 152.4 x 198.1 cm)

Dream Object – « I was washing some silverware in abrasive powder… », 2007

Mixed media sculpture

Howdy Doody doll: 20.4 inches (51.8 cm)

Aluminum sphere: 25 x 8.3 x 19 inches (63.5 x 21 x 48.3 cm)

Aluminum base: 21.5 x 39.3 x 20 inches (54.6 x 99.8 x 50.8 cm)

Wall: 72 x 72 x 4.4 inches (182.9 x 182.9 x 11.2 cm)