The first monograph on an artist whose theatrical sculptures elevate the grit and absurdity of everyday life into monumental, thought-provoking installations.

Will Ryman was destined to become an artist—born and raised in New York City into a revered art family (his father is the late Robert Ryman), the city in all its hard-scrabble beauty shaped him from a young age. Best known for sculptures and installations that fuse satire, spectacle, and a distinctly urban sensibility, Ryman trained as a playwright before turning to sculpture. In his work, he transforms overlooked details of daily life—roses and pigeons, trash bins and candy wrappers—into larger-than-life forms that are humorous, unsettling, and unexpectedly poignant.

His signature monumentally scaled rose sculptures have been exhibited as public art projects from New York City to Taipei. His work is held in prominent public collections, including The Broad, 21C Museum Foundation, and the Margulies Collection, as well as regional institutions such as the Farnsworth Museum.

Ryman’s theatrical vignettes of street life brim with wit while engaging themes of consumerism, labor, mortality, and the fragile beauty that persists amid urban disorder. This special volume features three different paper stocks and is bound in a silver, highly reflective foil paper that mirrors the materials the artist incorporates into his work.

Andrea Glimcher is a writer and curator. Courtney J. Martin is the executive director of the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation and former director of the Yale Center for British Art. Carl Bernstein is a Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist and author. Eleanor Heartney is an art critic and author specializing in contemporary art. Seth Barrish is a theater director and actor. Joe Fig is an artist and author known for his paintings and sculptures of artists and their studios.