Since the late 1980s, Jim Hodges' poetic reconsiderations of the material world have inspired a body of multimedia work in which the manmade and artificial are invested with emotion and authenticity. Co-published by the Dallas Museum of Art and the Walker Art Center, this volume accompanies the first comprehensive, scholarly exhibition to be organized in the United States of this critically acclaimed American artist. Examining over 25 years of his artistic career, this uniquely designed catalogue weaves together the voices of many to situate the artist's work within issues of identity, social activism, illness, beauty, generosity and death. Contributions include an in-depth overview of Hodges' career by Jeffrey Grove, Hoffman Family Senior Curator of Contemporary Art at the Dallas Museum of Art; an essay and interview with the artist by Olga Viso, Executive Director of the Walker Art Center; a reflection on Hodges' early artistic development by Bill Arning, Director of the Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston; an essay on sentimentality and the artist's recent video work by Helen Molesworth, Barbara Lee Chief Curator at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston; as well as ruminations on recurring motifs in the artist's work by author Susan Griffin.
Born in 1957 in Spokane, Washington, New York-based artist Jim Hodges has been featured in numerous solo and group exhibitions in the U.S. and in Europe, including the 2004 Whitney Biennial and a solo exhibition at the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris. Hodges' work is included in the collections of notable institutions, among them the Dallas Museum of Art; the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN; The Art Institute of Chicago; the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington D.C.; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Philadelphia Museum of Art; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.

In 1914, Marcel Duchamp purchased a bottle rack, called it a sculpture, put his name to it and the "readymade" artwork was born. "It Is What It Is. Or Is It?" considers the legacy of the readymade in contemporary artistic practice as the form approaches its 100th anniversary and attempts to recuperate the radicality of Duchamp's foundational gesture. Taking stock of the readymade's simple materiality and its economy of means, this catalogue includes work by 18 artists working in a variety of media from sculpture to photography, painting, video and installation-based works. "It Is What It Is. Or Is It?" includes works by Ellen Altfest, Faycal Baghriche, Bill Bollinger, William Cordova, Latifa Echakhch, Daphne Fitzpatrick, Claire Fontaine, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Rachel Hecker, Jamie Isenstein, Luis Jacob, Patrick Killoran, Jiri Kovanda, Klara Liden, Catherine Murphy and Pratchaya Phinthong.