Walter De Maria
Published by Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt, 1991, 62 pages (colour & b/w ill.), 18.5 × 24 cm, English / German
Price: €15

In his sculptures, land works, and installations, Walter De Maria (1935–2013) explored the relationship between the relative and the absolute, using basic geometric components to produce sublime repetitions. By arranging forms according to mathematical sequences, he worked at the intersections of Minimalism, conceptual art, and land art—drawing attention to the limits of gallery spaces, prioritising bodily awareness, and locating the content of an artwork in the viewer.

#1991 #walterdemaria
Glass Sculpture
Vikky Alexander
Published by Kunsthalle Bern, Bern, 1990, 6 pages (colour & b/w ill.), 21 × 27 cm, English
Price: €8

Produced on the occasion of the exhibition James Welling, Vikky Alexander, 12 May–24 June, 1990 at Kunsthalle Bern. With a text by Bruce W. Ferguson. You can find more information on the exhibition here.

Vikky Alexander has worked in photography, sculpture, and installation since the 1980s. Her work is characterized by an ongoing consideration of illusion and desire within design and architecture. Through the appropriation of images of people and landscapes, Alexander recognises the artificial as a space of utopian fantasy that is built into design and photographic advertisements.

#1990 #kunsthallebern #vikkyalexander
secrets
Marija Olšauskaitė
Published by Grazer Kunstverein, Graz, 2023, unpaginated with inserts (colour & b/w ill.), 10.5 × 15 cm, English
Price: €9

secrets is a publication that gathers words, and glass summoned by Elena Narbutaitė and Marija Olšauskaitė. It is produced in conjunction with sekretas (Lithuanian for secret), the exhibition by Marija Olšauskaitė at the Grazer Kunstverein, which departs from a recreational activity performed by youngsters in the former Soviet Union. Stealthily, children would enter a courtyard, woods, or plains and place small objects under a piece of glass: flower petals, pictures, a note, golden bottle caps, shells, and other idiosyncratic elements would be organised and composed into a material expression of friend-ship. The pane would then be covered with earth or dust, as a sekretas withdraws from the eye.

With contributions by Elena Narbutaitė, Marija Olšauskaitė, Maria Tsoy, Aleksandra Krivulina, and Tom Engels, designed by Julie Peeters.

#2023 #elenanarbutaite #grazerkunstverein #juliepeeters #marijaolsauskaite #tomengels
Divine Drudgery
James Richards, Leslie Thornton
Published by Lenz Press, Milan; Bonner Kunstverein, Bonn; Malmö Konsthall, Malmö & Künstlerhaus Stuttgart, Stuttgart, 2021, 160 pages (colour & b/w ill.), 21.9 × 28.5 cm, English
Price: €25 (Temporarily out of stock)

Divine Drudgery is an artist book with collages and artworks by James Richards and Leslie Thornton, and contributions by artists, writers and poets centred around liminality and the aesthetics and politics of the invisible. These dialogues and strands are anchored in and loop back to three exhibitions developed by the editors: Speed (Künstlerhaus Stuttgart), Speed II (Malmö Konsthall), and The Holding Environment (Bonner Kunstverein), and radiate outwards.

Works and contributions by Horst Ademeit, Rae Armantrout, Tolia Astakhishvili, Ed Atkins, Kirsty Bell, Adelhyd van Bender, Bruce Conner, Fatima Hellberg, Mason Leaver-Yap, Veit Loers, Terence McCormack, James Richards, Jens Thornton, Leslie Thornton, Thomas Zummer.

Edited by Fatima Hellberg, James Richards, Leslie Thornton. Designed by Karl Kolbitz & Nicoletta Dalfino Spinelli. Published with Bonner Kunstverein, Malmö Konsthall and Künstlerhaus Stuttgart.

#2021 #bonnerkunstverein #edatkins #fatimahellberg #jamesrichards #kirstybell #kunstlerhausstuttgart #lenzpress #lesliethornton #raearmantrout #toliaastakhishvili
Italian Hours
Paul Thek
Published by Humboldt Books, Milan, 2023, 112 pages (colour & b/w ill.), 21 × 28 cm, English / Italian
Price: €25 (Out of stock)

Paul Thek’s Italian experiences between 1962 and 1976 left a deep mark on his sensitivity. From his visits to the Capuchin Catacombs to his witnessing of spectacular religious processions, Italy was a catalyst for several key moments in the artist’s career, triggering an elusive reaction in his practice to the trajectories of post-war American art. By reworking the stimuli gathered during his stays in Rome, on the island of Ponza and in Sicily, Paul Thek concocted a baroque response to Pop Art and Minimalism, which were dominant on the art scene of the time.

Texts by Nicola Del Roscio, Peter Benson Miller, Owen Laub, Robert Wilson. Designed by Francesca Biagiotti.

#2023 #humboldtbooks #paulthek
Sibyl's Mouths
Published by Sternberg Press, London, 2023, 304 pages (colour & b/w ill.), 16 × 20 cm, English with German & Arabic
Price: €22 (Out of stock)

From February 12 to March 6, 2022, Pure Fiction presented an exhibition and performance program at the Kölnischer Kunstverein in Cologne titled Shifting Theater: Sibyl’s Mouths. The starting point was a collective reading of Mary Shelley’s 1826 novel The Last Man, in which the narrator discovers a collection of scribbled oak leaves scattered in a cave outside Naples.

Contributions by Rosa Aiello, Gerry Bibby, Coleman Collins, Ayanna Dozier, Annie Ernaux, Amelia Groom, Michèle Graf & Selina Grüter, Monilola Olayemi Ilupeju, Ellen Yeon Kim, Bitsy Knox, Dan Kwon, Erika Landström, Enad Marouf, Katrin Mayer, Aislinn McNamara, Kamila & Jasmina Metwaly, Luzie Meyer, Vera Palme, Theresa Patzschke, Georgia Sagri, Mahsa Saloor, Elif Saydam, Mark von Schlegell, Simon Speiser, Elaine Tam, C.S. Tolan, Mikhail Wassmer, Anna Zacharoff.

#2023 #ameliagroom #annazacharoff #georgiasagri #gerrybibby #kolnischerkunstverein #luziemeyer #markvonschlegell #michelegrafandselinagruter #rosaaiello #sternbergpress