Futureways (Ways Books)

Futureways is a faux science fiction novel that dares to reinvent the future. The story of an art exhibition in the distant future, the book posits an otherworldly community of alien shape-shifters, robotic administrators and demon-conjuring Magi who inhabit spaceports, otherworldly archeological sites, gated utopias, courthouses and bars.

This beguiling “novel” features chapters written by different contributors—including artists, critics, curators, museum directors, journalists and writers—all of whom create fantastical landscapes that simultaneously work within and outside the convention of science fiction. At its heart, it depicts the “tangible marvels” of the imagination and the role of the artist as time-traveler, forward-thinking yet never forgetting the past.

Conceived by internationally acclaimed artist Rita McBride, Futureways is the second book in the Ways Books series (the first was Heartways), a unique collaboration between the Whitney Museum of American Art, Printed Matter, Inc. and Arsenal Pulp Press. Forthcoming titles include Crimeways and Myways. Books in the Ways Books series—which include more than 50 different contributions by artists, architects, writers, journalists, scientists, curators and critics—exploit and decipher genre writing with an entertaining and refreshing collective structure.

Contributors include Laura Cottingham, Nick Crowe, Aline Duriaud, Nalo Hopkinson, Nico Israel, Matthew Licht, Peter Maass, Rita McBride, Glen Rubsamen, David Schafer, Mark von Schlegell, Rutger Wolfson and Alexandre Melo, translated by Brad Cherry.

Rita is an artist living and working in Cologne and New York. Her projects vary greatly from unorthodox books to very large sculptures. She is currently planning a sixty-meter tall carbon structure entitled Mae West to be erected in 2006 on the Effnerplatz in Munich. Glen is a visual artist from Los Angeles who lives and works in Cologne and New York. He has had solo exhibitions throughout Europe, Asia, and the United States.