Boggs: A Comedy of Values

Our second "True" selection for the Phinney by Post book subscription service (subscribe here!) might be more precisely categorized as "Strange but True." J.S.G. Boggs is an artist both fine and con, whose specialty is meticulous drawings of paper money that he tries, without deceit, to exchange as if they were paper money, a simple transaction that opens up the weird abyss of trust and belief underneath our everyday economy (and that drives the government enforcers of currency crazy). Any fan of The Orchid Thief, or of Weschler's other brilliant profiles of oddball obsessives (e.g. Mr. Wilson's Cabinet of Wonder), will appreciate how weird Boggs's own story gets after that.