This is a book of 56 drawings by artist and bookmaker Sturla Heggdalsvik. These drawings made up one sketchbook, which Heggdalsvik filled throughout 2014 on travels in Bergen, Molde, Oslo, Edinburgh, Dublin, Otrøya, and New York. These drawings, which tend to increase in complexity as the book goes on, range from abstract geometric shapes and patterns to sketches of landscapes and odd figures. Idiot Nomad draws attention to itself as a replica of one original book, as opposed to an edited collection of works: its pages bear signs of wear and tear, ink smudges, and color bleeding through the paper.
Idiot Nomad ends with an essay by Steinar Sekkingstad, which discusses the original copy of Idiot Nomad—the artist’s sketchbook— as an artwork in the context of publishing, bookmaking, and Benjamin’s “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction.” The reader is left to draw their own conclusions about this replica.