A new work by Vancouver conceptualist Rodney Graham (born 1949) is always guaranteed to surprise and amuse in equal measure. Indeed, the idea of amusement, espoused by Duchamp as an aesthetic aspiration, is expanded by Graham in British Weathervanes to include the idea of folly, as espoused by the sixteenth-century humanist scholar Erasmus, author of The Praise of Folly (1511). Graham's Erasmus weathervane, made for the cupola of the Whitechapel Gallery in London, shows the author, modeled by the artist, reading a book while riding a horse backwards (elaborating on the anecdote that Erasmus wrote The Praise of Folly on horseback). Erasmus' weather-blown obliviousness continues Graham's inquiry into involuntary journeys and cyclical and backward motion. This beautifully produced artist's book derives its design from the 1940s series Britain in Pictures and contains photographs, drawings and essays on the project alongside a letter by Erasmus.

Early plans for the Whitechapel Library included provision for an unrealised weathervane. Over a century later this original intention has been achieved through Rodney Graham's Erasmus Weathervane - a glittering addition to the London skyline. This publication celebrates the inauguration of Graham's weathervane on the cupola of the Whitechapel Gallery's roof. Rodney Graham was born in 1949 in Canada and lives and works in Vancouver. He has continually worked across different mediums including photography, sculpture and installation as well as music, film, performance and writing and his work has taken the form of architectural models, books, camera obscuras, wallpaper and musical scores.