Breath Holding Spell
Nairy Baghramian
Published by Revolver Publishing, Berlin, 2021, 16 pages (colour & b/w ill.), 30.4 × 30.4 cm, English
Price: €30

On the levels of both form and content, Breath Holding Spell unmistakably harks back to Bruce Nauman’s 1970 artist’s book LA AIR, whose eight monochrome pages present photographs of the atmosphere, illustrating the widely varying hues of the air over L.A.

It inspired this artist’s book by Nairy Baghramian, which features variations on a single photographic motif: no more than a cropped detail of a tightly packed standing crowd of people is visible in Tight Sluice. Monochrome pages that reprise the colors of their attire appear in rhythmical alternation with the pictures.

The artist has autographed the books on the back cover, again quoting Nauman, though his signature was a printed facsimile.

#2021 #brucenauman #nairybaghramian #revolverpublishing #secession
323
B. Ingrid Olson
Published by Revolver Publishing, Berlin, 2022, 328 pages (colour & b/w ill.), 16 × 16 cm, English
Price: €27

This book features 323 photographic images by B. Ingrid Olson, all taken in 2021. Near sunset, the artist often constructs provisional sculptural arrangements of raw materials, found objects, remnants of her other works, and studio detritus. Carefully stacked or precariously balanced, each temporary assemblage is documented in the evening, when the cast light creates long shadows, accentuating the shapes and textures at hand. The formations are adjusted across multiple images, creating varied sets of near repetitions that evidence Olson’s quick decisions, minor adjustments and the movement of light and shadow at the end of each day.

#2022 #bingridolson #photography #revolverpublishing
Parables of Friendship
David Medalla
Published by Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König, Köln, 2022, 300 pages (colour & b/w ill.), 21.6 × 33 cm, English / Italian / German
Price: €30

Produced on the occasion of the exhibition David Medalla: Parables of Friendship at Bonner Kunstverein, 18 September 2021–30 January 2022 & Museion, Bolzano, 9 April–14 September 2022. Curated by Fatima Hellberg and Steven Cairns. Exhibition design and architecture Michael Kleine.

The publication brings together previous unpublished writings of Medalla, interviews with the artists, alongside contributions by writers and academics including the Purissima Benitez-Johannot, Eva Bentheva, Gavin Jantjets, David Morris, Rasheed Araeen, amongst others along with visual material from the Medalla archives, the archive of art historian Guy Brett and David Medalla.

#2022 #bonnerkunstverein #davidmedalla #fatimahellberg #michaelkleine #rasheedaraeen #stevencairns
Symptom
Andrew Long
Published by Andrew Long, Adelaide, 2021, 4 pages, 21 × 29.7 cm, English
Price: €6

Produced on the occasion of the exhibition Symptom by Andrew Long, held at the Epworth Building, Suite 552, 33 Pirie Street, Adelaide/Tarndanya, 12 –27 February, 2021. Text by Patrice Sharkey. Designed by Robert Milne.

#2021 #andrewlong #ephemera #robertmilne
Briefe aus New York
Hanne Darboven
Published by Hate Cantz, 1997, 650 pages, clothbound in slipcase (colour & b/w ill.), 17.5 × 22.9 cm, German
Price: €38

Soon after completing her studies in Hamburg and embarking upon a two-year sojourn in New York, Darboven created “sketch sheets” on graph paper – early drafts of what would later form a system she would “write herself into” over the course of the ensuing years. In the letters written to her family during this time she goes yet a step farther. More firmly anchored in her own private sphere, they serve as a “lifeline” in her quest for objectivity in her existence through the medium of words and messages: encounters, questions regarding her own identity, her art and her efforts to come to terms with the self reflected in it. These letters from New York, which form both the core and the point of departure for important aspects of Hanne Darboven’s oeuvre, are reproduced in facsimile and in their entirety in this publication.

Numbered and signed with the artist’s initials.

#1997 #hannedarboven
The Halifax Conference
Published by New Documents, Los Angeles, 2019, 184 pages (b/w ill.), 12 × 19 cm, English
Price: €18

The Halifax Conference presents a transcript of a conference held at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design on October 5–6, 1970, transcribed and adapted by artist Craig Leonard.

Organized by Seth Siegelaub, the Conference was conceived as a means of bringing about a “meeting of artists…[from] diverse art making experiences and art positions…in as general a situation as possible.” Infamously, the conference was held in the college’s boardroom, while students and other interested parties watched the proceedings on a video monitor in a separate space. The result was a conversation that devolved—technologically and ideologically—into a quasi-tragicomic farce, punctuated by remarkable moments of rupture initiated by activist resistance to the Conference from the outside and dissenting voices from within.

Attendees at the conference included Carl Andre, Joseph Beuys, Ronald Bladen, Daniel Buren, Gene Davis, Jan Dibbets, Al Held, Mario Merz, Robert Morris, Robert Murray, N.E.Thing Co. (Iain and Ingrid Baxter), Richard Serra, Richard Smith, Robert Smithson, Michael Snow, and Lawrence Weiner.

#2019 #alheld #carlandre #danielburen #jandibbets #josephbeuys #mariomerz #michaelsnow #newdocuments #novascotiacollegeofartanddesign #richardserra #robertmorris #robertsmithson #sethsiegelaub