Joshua Leon: The Process

Joshua Leon’s first book accompanies his new commission at Chisenhale Gallery, London. The outcome of two years of writing and documenting his own research processes, the publication comprises original writing by Leon alongside archival imagery. Tracing history, memory and self across time and site, the text traverses locations including a synagogue in Bordeaux, an American bar in Vienna and a veneer factory in London’s East End to reflect on the experiences of the Jewish diaspora in Europe and the formation of contemporary Jewish identity. Throughout, archival materials and images collected by Leon–architectural blueprints, immigration documents, musical scores and family photographs–visually trace slippages between personal and wider social histories. At once a fragment, a memoir and poetic prose, The Process details the varied ideas, intellectual figures and experiences that coalesce in Leon’s work, whilst complicating the role of artistic production in acts of repair, restoration and remembrance.