Interview with author of The Art of Clean Up

I can't wait to show Ursus Wehrli's book, The Art of Clean Up: Life Made Neat and Tidy, to Jane because her mind works this way. Here's a photo of her dinner place setting when she was five.

Is there a practical purpose to the book?

No. I don’t like to work with a moral goal in mind. If people see my work and like it I think that is ok. Of course, there are a lot of issues that come with it: we are living in a very complicated world and I realised the more topsy-turvy our world becomes the more satisfying it is to see these tidied up situations. It’s kind of reassuring to see these pictures even if it doesn’t make sense at all. I think it speaks to our complicated world because our days are full of decisions and sometimes it is really hard to decide what is right, what’s wrong and we have to fight against the mess and the chaos. I wouldn’t say it is a manifesto for a neat world, but I’m happy if it makes people think about the balance between chaos and order. Of course, we realise we need both poles and it’s the balance that makes life worth living.