J. S. G. Boggs

JSG BOGGS, or J.S.G. Boggs, is often referred to as " Just Some Guy" Boggs owing in part to the anonymity Boggs employs during his performances in public settings, as well as to the standard answer most often tendered in response to the question, "What does JSG stand for?". The unique response was originally coined at the Tampa Museum of Art in 1990 by an exhibition attendee who grew weary of repeatedly hearing the question repetitiously asked ad infinitum as he stood next to Boggs, who was greeting a long line of opening night guests. Some suggest that the popularity of this clever saw for remembering Boggs' initials in the correct order have contributed to the growing number of people who believe that Boggs does not really exist. Owing primarily to the almost unbelievable story of Boggs "Inter-Active Performance Art" in the first place, some find it difficult to believe that Boggs is not an "urban legend", but James Stephen George Boggs is a real American artist, best known for his hand-drawn, one-sided depictions of U.S. banknotes, and the "Boggs-Bills" he prints for use in his performances.

He spends his "Boggs notes" only for their face value. If he draws a $10 bill, he exchanges it for $10 worth of goods. He then sells any change he gets, the receipt, and sometimes the goods he purchased as his "artwork." If the art collector wants the Boggs note, he must track it down himself. Boggs will tell a collector where he spent the note, but he does not sell them directly.

His works are held in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago., The Museum of Modern Art, N.Y.C., N.Y., The Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., Babson College, Wellesley, MA, The Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach, FL, The Tampa Museum of Art, Tampa, FL, The Spencer Museum of Art, Lawrence, KS, and The British Museum, London, England, to name but a few.

Born Steven Litzner in Woodbury, New Jersey, U.S.A., in 1955, Boggs' mother Marelene Dietrich Hildebrandt divorced her first husband and took her young son along when she ran away with the carnival. After a second brief marriage, Marlene married James Henry Boggs on December 23, 1961, in Tampa, FL, and the three settled into a small, modest three bedroom home not far from the Tampa Airport. The young "Boggs" was soon signing his name "James Stephen Boggs" until an attempt at formal adoption failed. Contested in court in New Jersey by the biological male parent, Boggs was subjected to a long period of delay before finally being adopted in April, 1979. So pleased was he at finally, legally being a "BOGGS", he chose the name as that by which he would be addressed, and began introducing himself as "Boggs".

The story of Boggs and his work are best chronicled in "BOGGS - A Comedy of Values", by Lawrence Weschler, University of Chicago Press. At present, the book remains in print and is used in many universities for studies in such diverse classes as; Art, Law, Accounting, Business, Drama, Creative Writing, and Philosophy. It is easily found for sale on the web, along with many examples of Boggs' work.

Boggs, alive and well, is currently working on a new project in great secrecy. A debut of the work is expected in 2013.

Public response

Any person who gets a Boggs note can usually sell it for much more than its face value: a $10 Boggs note may be worth more than $1000. Any person who knows about Boggs is likely to accept a Boggs note; for this reason, Boggs prefers to spend his art with people who are unfamiliar with his work. He likes people to make a conscious choice to accept art instead of money, and their knowing how much money his art is actually worth spoils it. He views these "transactions" as a type of performance art, but the authorities often view them with suspicion. Boggs aims to have his audience question and investigate just what it is that makes "money" valuable in the first place. He steadfastly denies that he is a counterfeiter or forger, maintaining that a good-faith transaction between informed parties is certainly not fraud, even if the item transacted happens to resemble negotiable currency.

Later works

Recently Boggs has moved on beyond his hand-drawn works and embraced digital technology, creating his latest works on the computer. These works resemble paper money in fundamental ways but add subtle twists. One of his better-known works is a series of bills done for the Florida United Numismatists' annual convention. Denominations from $1 to $50 (and perhaps higher) feature designs taken from the reverse sides of contemporary U.S. currency, modified slightly through the changing of captions (notably, "The United States of America" is changed to "Florida United Numismatists" and the denomination wording is occasionally replaced by the acronym "FUN") and visual details (the mirroring of Monticello on the $2, the Supreme Court building, as opposed to the U.S. Treasury, on the $10 and an alternate angle for the White House on the $20). They were printed in bright orange on one side and featured Boggs's autograph and thumbprint on the other. The total run was several hundred and they command a modest premium but not as much as his older, hand-drawn works.

Other money art that he has designed include the mural "All the World's a Stage", roughly based on a Bank of England Series D 20-pound note and featuring Shakespearean themes, as well as banknote-sized creations that depict Boggs's ideas as to what U.S. currency should look like. A $100 featuring Harriet Tubman is one known example.

Arrest history

Boggs was first arrested for counterfeiting in England in 1986, but was acquitted. He was arrested for a second time in Australia in 1989, but also acquitted. Since 1990 some of his work and personal effects have been confiscated by the United States Secret Service Counterfeiting Division although no legal case has been brought against him.

See also

Other money artists include

• William Harnett
• John F. Peto
• Tim Prusmack
• John Haberle, who made trompe l'oeil paintings of U.S. currency in the 1880s
• Otis Kaye, who made both paintings similar to Harnett, and also actual-size pen-and-ink drawings similar to Boggs's, from the 1920s to the 1950s
• Cesar Tresobares
• Christopher Westhoff

Also related is

• Emanuel Ninger (Jim the Penman), who drew counterfeit notes, with the intent to defraud, by hand in the 1880s

Additional contemporary "money artists" include Stephen Barnwell (ANTARCTICA Dream-Dollars) and Franck Medina (State of Kamberra)

References

• Boggs: a Comedy of Values A good, though slightly outdated, reference on Boggs by Lawrence Weschler.
• Shapinski's Karma, Bogg's Bills, and other Truth-Life Tales Another Lawrence Weschler book, which is based on his original late '80s articles in The New Yorker profiling Boggs and his work.
• The Justice Game This Geoffrey Robertson book has a chapter on conducting the defence of Boggs in his British criminal trial.

External links

• Video of a Boggs exchange, an interview and more
• Article mentioning the Sacagawea Dollar and a comparison with Duchamp