Few contemporary artists can demonstrate an oeuvre as varied, consistent and influential as that of Jim Dineincorporating painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture and photography, and sweeping across more than six decades. Fewer still can say they are respected poets. Dine has been writing and performing intensely autobiographical poems since the late 1960s, and With Fragile Spirit is his latest collection, consisting of five volumes. These differ greatly and include A Beautiful Day, exploring Dines polarities of experience from delight to melancholy, from disillusion to celebration; and Like the Big Boy Tomato, a hand-written version of his 2021 hate poem Electrolyte in Blue, probing themes of anti-Semitism, racism, climate change and failed world leaders. Together, these books affirm poetry as the unceasing critical flow that augments and energizes his visual work.

Born in 1935 in Cincinnati, Ohio, Jim Dine completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts at Ohio University in 1957 and has since become one of the most profound and prolific contemporary artists. Dine's unparalleled career spans more than 60 years, and his work is held in numerous private and public collections. His books with Steidl include Pinocchio (2006), Hot Dream (52 Books) (2008), A Printmaker's Document (2013), Paris Reconnaissance (2018), The Secret Drawings (2020), A Beautiful Day (2021), I print. Catalogue Raisonné of Prints, 2001-2020 (2021) and Electrolyte in Blue (2021).