ABSTRACT
In June 1890 the American painter James McNeill Whistler, who was then living and working in London, published an unusual-looking book titled The Gentle Art of Making Enemies. For Whistler's book hardly comprises a coherent narrative in any formal or chronological sense. Whistler prints the opening pages of the legal transcript in an apparently neutral fashion, set within extremely wide margins containing the simple note 'Lawsuit for libel against Mr. John Ruskin November 15 1878'. Whistler's absurd emphasis on Ruskin's professional titles – Ruskin gets cited as 'Art Professor', 'Slade Professor' or simply 'John Ruskin: Professor of Painting' on page 12 alone – produces an effect not far short of the ridiculous. The margins of the Whistler page, for instance, always assume a weight that is disproportionate to their 'marginal' status; and though they appear blank in 'The Prologue', the citation positioned asymmetrically on the left reminds us that they are also the site of potential disagreement and confutation.
