Ursus Wehrli's rigorous rearrangements captured in cool new book

In his new book The Art of Clean Up: Life Made Neat and Tidy Ursus Wehrli is described both as “a comedian, live performer and freelance artist” and as a “left-handed, broad-thinking professional typographer.” All of which suggests he is a hard man to pigeonhole, which is interesting because his work is all about compartmentalisation. We first posted him on the site back in September 2011 when his rigorously rearranged images tickled our funny bones, but in published form they are even more delightful.

The physical act of flicking through the book maximises the impact – interesting, surprising, oddly reassuring – of his before and after pieces which range from the a daisy and its petals to a whole park full of sunbathers. There’s also the odd bit of dark humour thrown in for good measure, so a pond of goldfish becomes a tray of golden fish fingers. This is a great reflection of Ursus’ talents as well as a fine reminder of the joys of engaging with art in print.

The Art of Clean Up: Life Made Neat and Tidy published by Chronicle Books is available now.