Taryn Simon: Father Country I Do Love You

By Taryn Simon

The most expansive project to date from an interdisciplinary artist whose work centers on storytelling, redirecting our attention to the unseen

Published with Guggenheim, New York .

This artist's book premieres a new body of work by artist Taryn Simon--her most expansive and personal project to date--which will be the subject of a major exhibition at the Guggenheim New York. Nearly a decade in the making, Father Country I Do Love You traces the life of an unnamed federal agent through 42 chapters, bringing together hundreds of photographs alongside text, video and sculpture works. In this labyrinth of stories, Simon uncovers the ripple effects of her protagonist's actions and inactions, intertwining accounts of victims, predators, survivors, and the mechanics of justice. This narrative is shadowed by the life of Simon's father, who lived in Thailand and traveled to Russia, Iran, Israel, China, Afghanistan, Korea and elsewhere while working for the US government, before ending his career manufacturing and selling arcade games. Simon never got his full story, but America, he always said, was the best story on earth, if you could find someone to tell it.
Taryn Simon (born 1975) has been the subject of monographic exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art, New York (2012); Tate Modern (2011); Neue Nationalgalerie (2011); and the Whitney Museum of American Art (2007). Her work is in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Tate Modern, the Whitney Museum of American Art, Centre Georges Pompidou and Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, and was included in the 54th Venice Biennale in 2011 and the Carnegie International in 2013. She is a graduate of Brown University and a former Guggenheim Fellow.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 3775763252
• ISBN13: 9783775763257
• Release Date: December 2026
• Publisher: Hatje Cantz
• Length: 696 Pages