Overview

Phil Shaw is an acclaimed British artist who creates hyperreal images of bookshelves. While visually stunning Shaw’s work is always rooted in a conceptual context. Each image plays with an idea: an idea that challenges our expectations and interrogates the changing place of the printed world in our digital age.

 

Book-titles (all genuine) ranged on a shelf might spell out a fairy story when read in sequence, or reveal the names of the stations on a line of the London Underground, or conceal the words of a Shakespeare soliloquy. Or some subtle slippage may have occurred, the familiar book titles altered to reveal new meanings or suggest new possibilities.

 

Shaw’s work is clever, beautiful, sometimes unsettling, and often very funny. These are pictures to explore and re-explore. Each encounter yields fresh discoveries.

 

During the Covid pandemic of 2020, his print – Shelf Isolation – became both a viral and real-world sensation. 

 

At a technical level, Shaw’s work is something exceptional: neither a painting nor a photograph but a contemporary re-fashioning, and combining, of the two media. His pictures are digitally-constructed images, painstakingly drawn by hand, and then printed using the densest water-based inks on very fine-grain Hahnemühle paper to achieve an extraordinary intensity of colour. 

 

Phil Shaw was born in Huddersfield in 1950. Having studied at the Royal College of Art, London, he taught printmaking for many years at Middlesex University, London.  

 

He has exhibited extensively since the 1970s. His work is often shown at the Royal Academy, London, and is held in numerous important collections, including the British Government Art Collection and Paul Allen’s Vulcan Foundation, Seattle, USA. His 2004 print, Fiction 3, was chosen as the ‘Print of the Year’ by the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers.’ In 2013, he was commissioned by the then British Prime Minister, David Cameron, to create a commemorative print for the world leaders gathered at the G8 Summit in the UK. 

Works
  • A hyperreal bookshelf print featuring various book titles with questions and answers on the spine by acclaimed contemporary British artist Phil Shaw represented by Rebecca Hossack Art Gallery.
    The Big Question (Frequently Asked Questions 3), 2024
  • Conceptual bookshelf print by acclaimed British artist Phil Shaw represented by Rebecca Hossack Art Gallery, archival print, contemporary art, 2025, London,
    Wake Up and Smell the Coffee, 2025
  • Black and white bookshelf print with titles containing the word truth by acclaimed British artist Phil Shaw represented by Rebecca Hossack Art Gallery.
    The Truth In Black And White With Some Grey Areas 3, 2016
  • Conceptual bookshelf print containing colorful books with various titles by acclaimed British artist Phil Shaw represented by Rebecca Hossack Art Gallery.
    Big Fiction, 2014
  • Photo of conceptual bookshelf print by acclaimed British artist Phil Shaw installed in a home.
    Install shot
  • Conceptual blue bookshelf print containing titles related to aquatic life by acclaimed British artist Phil Shaw represented by Rebecca Hossack Art Gallery.
    The Life Aquatic, 2017
  • Bookshelf print containing gold book covers with the word gold in the various titles by acclaimed British artist Phil Shaw represented by Rebecca Hossack Art Gallery.
    All That Glisters, 2017
  • Bookshelf print by printmaker Phil Shaw represented by Rebecca Hossack Art Gallery featuring various black and white books with titles all containing the word truth.
    The Truth In Black And White With Some Grey Areas 7, 2023
  • Conceptual bookshelf print containing pastel colored books by acclaimed British artist and printmaker Phil Shaw represented by Rebecca Hossack Art Gallery.
    You Can't Judge a Book, 2022
  • Conceptual bookshelf print about love containing various colorful books by acclaimed British artist Phil Shaw represented by Rebecca Hossack Gallery.
    Love at First Sight, 2019
  • Detail shot of a conceptual bookshelf print about fairytales by acclaimed British artist Phil Shaw represented by Rebecca Hossack Art Gallery.
    Once Upon a Time (detail), 2017
  • Conceptual bookshelf print containing the titles of science fiction works by acclaimed British artist Phil Shaw represented by Rebecca Hossack Art Gallery.
    Science Fiction, 2018
  • Conceptual bookshelf print by Phil Shaw containing blue and green and yellow and red books with titles about locations in London and New York and Paris and Moscow by British artist Phil Shaw represented by Rebecca Hossack Art Gallery.
    London, New York, Paris, Moscow II, 2019
  • Photo of conceptual bookshelf print by acclaimed British artist Phil Shaw installed in a home.
    Installation Shot
  • Multicolor conceptual bookshelf print displaying the names of all stations on each line of the London Underground by acclaimed British artist Phil Shaw represented by Rebecca Hossack Gallery.
    Londonensi Subterraneis, 2012
  • Conceptual green and blue and brown bookshelf print with book titles relating to climate change by acclaimed British artist Phil Shaw.
    Climate Change, 2022
  • Phil Shaw, Londonensi Subterraneis: Victoria Linea, 2024
    Londonensi Subterraneis: Victoria Linea, 2024
  • Conceptual bookshelf print containing altered fairytale book titles by acclaimed British artist Phil Shaw represented by Rebecca Hossack Art Gallery.
    Fractured Fairytales, 2023
  • Phil Shaw, Londonensi Subterraneis: Iubilae Linea, 2024
    Londonensi Subterraneis: Iubilae Linea, 2024
  • Conceptual colorful bookshelf print based off of The Divine Comedy by Dante by acclaimed British artist Phil Shaw.
    The Divine Comedy, 2022
  • Red bookshelf print featuring the names of stations on the Central Line of the London Underground by acclaimed British artist Phil Shaw represented by Rebecca Hossack Art Gallery.
    Londonensi Subterraneis: Centralis Linea, 2024
  • Phil Shaw, Londonensi Subterraneis: Bakerloo Linea, 2024
    Londonensi Subterraneis: Bakerloo Linea, 2024
  • Conceptual blue bookshelf print containing titles related to aquatic life by acclaimed British artist Phil Shaw represented by Rebecca Hossack Art Gallery.
    The Aquatic Life II, 2023
  • Black Bookshelf print featuring stations on the Northern Line of the London Underground by acclaimed British artist Phil Shaw represented by Rebecca Hossack Art Gallery.
    Londonensi Subterraneis: Aquilonius Linea, 2024
  • Bookshelf print containing books of various colours with question and answer titles by acclaimed British artist Phil Shaw represented by Rebecca Hossack Art Gallery.
    Frequently Asked Questions II, 2023
  • A hyperreal image of a bookshelf displaying black and white books by acclaimed British contemporary artist, Phil Shaw.
    The Lost Goreys , 2025
  • Bookshelf print by artist Phil Shaw represented by Rebecca Hossack Gallery
    Once Upon a Time, 2017
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