Home Shop Artworks Artists' Books THIS WAY IS UP, THIS WAY IS NOT by WOO SEE-MING

A Newspaper standing up on its spine and packaged in clear plastic. It has text reading: "THIS WAY UP" above an image of a Japanese castle being mostly covered by a mountain.

This way is up - other side of newspaper standing upright showing the lower half of the mountain

This way is up - the closed newspaper laying flat

This way is up - open newspaper, one side with a non-serious content warning, and the other side with a photo of dense wild flowers

This way is up - open newspaper, one side with a photo of a graffitied wall with ripped ads, and the other with a photo of a mountain behind some greenery.

This way is up - open newspaper pages with a photo of white flowers on branches closeup.

This way is up - open newspaper, one side with a photo of a man mowing his lawn, the other with a photo of the side of a truck behind a bush.

This way is up - open newspaper, one side with a photo of a veiled sculpture of a torso, and the other side with a photo of decorated pillows under fluorescent light.

This way is up - open newspaper, one side with a photo of grass, and the other with a photo of cardboard bundles

This way is up - newspaper layed out on its front showing a photo of a large tree

This way is up - a sheet of paper with a note titled: "DEAR BUYER", explaining the artistic concept and thanking the customer.

This way is up - a polaroid picture of the inside of a music box captioned "mirror mirror"

This way is up - a small card signed by the artist with a drawing of a seal on it

This way is up - the backside of the small card with text addressing the polaroid picture

THIS WAY IS UP, THIS WAY IS NOT by WOO SEE-MING

C$39.00

An artists’ book of colour photography, sequenced into single- and double-page spreads, printed in broadsheet newspaper format. Contains newspaper and a surprise instant film print. 48 pages, ISBN: 9781738805518
Published by Young W, 2025.

This artist’s book is for you if you enjoy street photography from around the world and quirky shop windows.

In stock

Sold By: Young W

Categories: Artworks, Artists' Books

“THIS WAY IS UP, THIS WAY IS NOT” by WOO SEE-MING is an artists’ book of colour photography, sequenced into single- and double-page spreads, printed in broadsheet newspaper format.

In a divided and polarized world where someone’s view of what’s “right” is someone else’s view of what’s “wrong” and where “right side up” can equally be “upside down”, depending on the beholder, readers are encouraged to rotate this publication upside down, sideways, and back again, so that they may judge – for themselves – which way is up.

The photographic journey contained within this selection of 42 images, laid out over 48 pages, leads readers from Tokyo to Toronto, Osaka to Ottawa, Kyoto to the Austrian Alps, Hiroshima to Mississauga – and many more places in between – where they are met with, among other subjects, an instant noodle package, a mannequin with missing toes, a snow-capped Coke can, mini-golf players observed through a peephole, and a discarded cardboard cutout of middle-aged men.

The artist’s intent was to create an object that is fragile, while potentially falling apart in one’s hands at any moment, to not only match, but one up, our predicament in these 2020s. How a sequence of seemingly irrelevant colour images could ever capture this intention is up to the reader to see, or not.

Each copy of this publication is packaged in a protective translucent sleeve and contains a surprise instant film print, captioned by the artist.