304 pages Edited by Marie Baumann Photographs by Studio B (David Bonner & Marc Hallet) Designed by Nicolas Beaujouan 18 x 13 cm Language: French Paperback Publisher: Hoëbeke 2024
Canadian writer and contemporary artist Dana Wyse is best known for her long-running conceptual project Jesus Had a Sister Productions: a fictional pharmaceutical company that manufactures pills and cheerful little objects promising instant change.
Combining text and nostalgic imagery, Wyse’s work offers a biting yet playful reflection on an overmedicated, self-obsessed society perpetually searching for quick fixes and eternal youth. Behind the bright packaging and ironic slogans lies a sharp critique of consumer culture and the commodification of happiness.
Instant Happiness gathers some of Wyse’s most iconic works, where humor and melancholy meet in small capsules of truth. Her prescription for surviving the absurdities of modern life is simple: learn to laugh at yourself.
A member of the Art & Flux research team at Sorbonne University in Paris, Wyse continues to explore the thin line between sincerity and satire, without, as she specifies, living with a cat.
