New Bold Texas Book Venture Promises to Haunt and Draw You In: This Dallas Dealer is Shaking Up the Art World

BY Catherine D. Anspon // 07.22.17

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Archon Projects' promising launch features a volume by Misty Keasler documenting the weird world of an uniquely American phenomenon: haunted house attractions.

PaperCity commissioned Houston artist Erin Davis to create an illustration portrait of Archon Projects' founder, Brian Gibb. Shown: "Two Brians," 2017.

Page turner: Misty Keasler's "Banshee, Netherworld, Atlanta, GA," 2016, appears in "Haunt."

Misty Keasler's creepy good pics roll of the press of the inaugural books published by Archon Projects. Keasler photographed 13 haunted houses around the U.S., and her startling images come to life in "Haunt."

Misty Keasler traveled to an Atlanta haunted house attraction to capture "The Corbie, Netherworld, Atlanta, GA," 2016.

A spine-tingling image from Misty Keasler's new volume published by Archon: "Staircase (His House), 13th Gate, Baton Rouge, LA," 2016. The Modern will mount a show by the same name, "Haunt," opening September 23.

Keasler trekked to Pennsylvania to photograph in a haunted house that is rumored to have real paranormal activity: "Reflection (Mirror Maze), ScareHouse, Pittsburgh, PA," 2016.

The pic would make a good horror movie poster. It appears on the pages of Misty Keasler's "Haunt" and is entitled "Kitchen, Terror on the Fox, Green Bay, WI," 2016.

Robyn O’Neil's "Everything that stands will be at odds with its neighbor, and everything that falls will perish without grace.," 2003, appears on the cover of the artist's 20-year survey, a debut book from Archon Projects.

Robyn O’Neil's "As Ye the sinister creep and feign, those once held become those now slain.," 2004, is featured in O'Neil's new monograph from Archon Projects. O'Neil exhibited in the 2004 Whitney Biennial and was a MFAH Glassell Core Fellow.

Robyn O’Neil's "Oh how the hearless haunt us all.," 2005, demonstrates the artist's obsession with the medium of graphite. O'Neil is currently based in L.A., has widely exhibited, and merits this survey volume.

Robyn O’Neil's "The Edge of the World," 2008, evidences a dystopian view of reality.

Robyn O’Neil's "The Climate," 2009, alludes to a global environment crisis.

Robyn O’Neil's "Studies in Suffocation I," 2017, would not be collected by an optimist.

Gibb is best known in Texas art circles for his Dallas gallery, The Public Trust. The gallerist has presented shows for indie talents as well as big names like Trenton Doyle Hancock and Shepard Fairey. (Photo gallerymonthly.com)

Robyn O'Neil, circa 2008, by Sueraya Shaheen

PPhotographer Misty Keasler. Her documentary work on the subject of haunted house attractions makes for her second book.

Robyn O'Neil gets a press check. Gibb personally traveled to the printer outside of Shanghai to review each and every page.

Archon Projects' promising launch features a volume by Misty Keasler documenting the weird world of an uniquely American phenomenon: haunted house attractions.

Dallas dealer of the avant-garde Brian Gibb revealed his latest venture, and it is set to make waves in the Texas art world — plus it has national breakout potential, especially among legions of horror fans.

Yes, Gibb’s Design District digs, The Public Trust, will carry on business as usual exhibiting and supporting talents from indie outsiders to national and international figures of the likes of Shepard Fairey and Ryan McGinness, all among gallery headliners in its first 13 years.

What is new is Gibb has lured a big-time investor — not in the art world, he tells PaperCity via email — to support the newly minted Archon Projects, a niche art-book publishing biz, which if its debut releases are any indication, is set to be a darling of the collecting crowd.

Rolling off the presses in about eight weeks, collectors will be vying for monographic volumes by two artists with nice Texas credentials: the cool and respected documentary photog Misty Keasler, who calls Dallas home (and is also Gibb’s wife), and Robyn O’Neil, a former Whitney Biennial talent who lives now in Los Angeles, but studied at Texas A&M Commerce and was a Core Fellow at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

In the case of Keasler, the timing couldn’t be more perfect. Her book, Haunt, probes the spooky realm of commercial haunted houses around the United States, coinciding with the debut of the exhibition of the same name at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, curated by Andrea Karnes (September 23 through November 26). Haunt follows Keasler’s collectible and well-regarded Love Hotels, a look at cult theme rooms of Japanese hotels that appeal to couples seeking far-out fantasy.

O’Neil’s volume is a survey: Robyn O’Neil: Twenty Years of Drawing, with an essay penned by the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston’s modern and contemporary curator Alison de Lima Greene. (Oh, and Karnes contributes text to Haunt, which also functions as a de facto catalog for The Modern’s show of the same name.)

With both books affordably priced at respectively $45 and $50, and bearing the graphic design acumen of Gibb — a product of UNT at its finest — expect to see copies populating the best bookshelves and coffee tables in Texas, and beyond.

All Misty Keasler images courtesy of the artist and The Public Trust.

All Robyn O’Neil images courtesy of the artist, Talley Dunn Gallery, and Susan Inglett Gallery; book cover image, courtesy and Collection of the Blanton Museum of Art, The University of Texas at Austin.