Produced on the occasion of Jacqueline Mesmaeker’s exhibition at Vleeshal, Middelburg, 14–26 January, 1982.

The work of Jacqueline Mesmaeker is intangible, discreet and captivating. Starting from analytical intentions and experimental protocols linked to perception and representation, her practice remains anchored in a literary and poetic universe, including references to Lewis Carroll, Mallarmé, Melville or Paul Willems. Minimal, sometimes even unnoted, her rare and precise work is nonetheless present. It willingly takes over space, playing with the actual and symbolic architecture, revealing the structures and lines of force, but also the errors, by thwarting their perspectives or correcting them with delicate touches.

This publication is an unedited reprint of the catalogue originally published by de Appel in 1980 as a follow-up to the international art manifestation Works and Words. The event sought to break with the one-way traffic of Western artists traveling to the East by inviting artists from Eastern Bloc countries to Amsterdam. The invited artists, theoreticians, film-makers, and art historians represented a broad spectrum of practices, theoretical approaches, and developments. Including artists such as; KwieKulik (Zofia Kulik and Przemysłav Kwiek), Július Koller, Jiří Kovanda, Dóra Maurer, Sanja Iveković and Dalibor Martinis, Mladen Stilinovic, Jozef Robakowski amongst others.

You can find more information on the exhibition here.

With a text by Ad Petersen in Dutch and English.

SM Cat. No 671.

Designed by Wim Crouwel.

*Please note this publication is secondhand and has some traces of previous ownership.

Jochen Gerz is a German conceptual artist who lived in France from 1966 to 2007. His work involves the relationship between art and life, history and memory, and deals with concepts such as culture, society, public space, participation and public authorship. After beginning his career in the literary field, Gerz has in the meantime explored various artistic disciplines and diverse media.

Produced on the occasion of the exhibition The New Japanese Painting and Sculpture at The Museum Of Modern Art, New York, 19 October–2 January 2, 1967. Including artists Natsuyuki Nakanishi, Tomio Miki, Atsuko Tanaka, Kumi Sugai, Nobuya Abe.

Intro – 4 Bars
Chorus 1 – 2 Bars
pity the nation… pity the nation
pity the nation… pity the nation
Pause – 2 Bars
Verse 1 – 8 Bars

pity the nation that is full of empty faith
pity the nation that wears cloth it does not weave
eats gluttony breads it does not harvest
drinks wine that flows not from its wine press
pity the nation that acclaims the bully as hero
hails and deems the glittering conquerer bountiful
pity a nation that despises passion
only in its dreams submits to awakening

Images & Text by Khaled Sabsabi. Typography by Ruud Ruttens.