Barbara Kruger, Stephen King, Library Fellows of the Whitney Museum of American Art, May Castleberry, Derrière L'Étoile Studios, Pinwheel
My Pretty Pony
1988
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Barbara Kruger, Stephen King, Library Fellows of the Whitney Museum of American Art, May Castleberry, Derrière L'Étoile Studios, Pinwheel
My Pretty Pony
1988
Physical Qualities
Bound volume with color lithographs and screenprints, stainless steel cover with digital clock, Case: 515 x 350 mm. (20 1/4 x 13 3/4 in.)
Book: 515 × 348 × 32 mm. (20 1/4 × 13 11/16 × 1 1/4 in.)
Plate: 507 x 340 mm. (19 15/16 x 13 3/8 in.)
Credit Line
Purchase with exchange funds from Bequest of Blanche Adler
Object Number
1990.40
Its oversize dimensions and hefty weight to its stainless steel cover with a digital clock, "My Pretty Pony" is an imposing book. In Stephen King’s short story, a boy meets with his grandfather, who gives him a pocket watch and describes the nature of time as a pretty pony with a wicked heart. According to the grandfather, time moves faster as life continues, slipping away as one grows older, like a pony that always runs away. Barbara Kruger’s accompanying imagery of massive color screenprints shows people on or being thrown from horses. Each print includes a smaller composition of a hand holding
a stopwatch, with captions that together form the phrase “time ain’t got nothing to do with how fast you can count.” Kruger’s imagery and book design act as a physical and didactic manifestation of the grandfather’s warning, reminding the reader that time is passing even as they read King’s text.
Off the Shelf: Modern and Contemporary Artists' Books