THE DISCUSSIONS
Ian Wilson
Published by Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, 2008, 189 pages, 18.7 × 27 cm, English
Price: €60

Conceptual artist Ian Wilson (1940, Durban, South Africa) has been interested in spoken language as an art form since 1968. At first, he described his own work as ‘oral communication’, and later on as ‘discussion’. At Wilson’s own request, his work is never recorded either as film or audio in order to preserve the transient nature of the spoken word.

During a visit of Wilson to the Van Abbemuseum in 2006, the idea arose to make a catalogue raisonné, containing all of Wilson’s discussions from 1968 until 2008. Using documentation and the recollection of participants, the fleeting works have been catalogued by researcher Chantal Kleinmeulman.

Designed by Inge Ketelers.

#2008 #ianwilson #ingeketelers
Que–Sah
Manfred Pernice
Published by Verlag für moderne Kunst, Vienna, 2008, 208 pages (colour & b/w ill.), 25 × 30 cm, English/German
Price: €35

Monograph with comprehensive timeline, produced on the occasion of Manfred Pernice’s exhibition Que-Sah at The Neues Museum, Nuremberg, 25 April–6 July, 2008.

The exhibition title – Que–Sah – refers to one volume of the Brockhaus encyclopaedia, where alphabetical arrangement gives systematic order to the highly varied lexical contents. For Pernice, “the first entry (Quebec conferences) and the last (Saho, Ethiopian stock farmers), like all the other conceptual phenomena in-between, are potential areas of artistic exploration.”

Designed by Yvonne Quirmbach.

#2008 #manfredpernice #yvonnequirmbach
As Occasions
Wendelien van Oldenborgh
Published by Tent, Rotterdam, 2008, 51 pages (colour & b/w ill.), 17 × 24 cm, Dutch / English
Price: €5

As Occasions was the first significant review of the work of then Rotterdam-based artist Wendelien van Oldenborgh.

Van Oldenborgh’s work focuses on the dynamics of cultural identity in society by communicating the interactions between individuals, often working against the historical grain and in (public) locations, using the cinematic lens to investigate these intricacies, allowing for an alternative public discourse to take place.

#2008 #wendelienvanoldenborgh
WT reader: The Summer Reader, Again, or A Diamond in the Rough
Published by Werkplaats Typografie, Arnhem, 2008, 256 pages (b/w ill.), 10.5 × 17.5 cm, English
Price: €12 (Temporarily out of stock)

Being at once a school and at the same time not a school, a workspace, the WT tends to want to comment on its own distinctive form of academic pursuit (by way of, amongst other outlets, these School Journals). And during this sometimes faltering, sometimes successful quest, I’ve often thought about Jacques Rancière’s Ignorant Schoolmaster. Five Lessons in Intellectual Emancipation, not least because it outlines an “intellectual adventure” whereby any hierarchy amongst the students and between them and their tutor dissolves.—Maxine Kopsa, ‘Editorial Considerations’ (excerpt)

Including the work of Guy de Cointet, Ian Hamilton Finlay, Scott Ponik, David Lieske, Stephen Willats, Na Kim, Morgan Fisher, Karl Nawrot, Boy Vereecken, Cecilia Costa, Joris Kritis, Julie Peeters.

#2008 #boyvereecken #davidlieske #guydecointet #ianhamiltonfinlay #joriskritis #juliepeeters #karlnawrot #maxinekopsa #scottponik #werkplaatstypografie
For Every Dog a Different Master
Kateřina Šedá
Published by JRP Ringier, Zurich, 2008, 200 pages (colour & b/w ill.), 15 × 22 cm, Czech / English
Price: €28

Based on Sedá’s work for Documenta 12, this book documents a complex and long-term project realized in Nova Lisen, Brno, Czech Republic, where the artist lives. In the guise of a kind of “mail art,” Sedá put in contact the inhabitants of a housing project undergoing renovation, breaking down the conventions of addressing an audience in the art context, as well as stimulating exchanges and relations between the involuntarily participants.

Designed by Radim Peško, this is the fifth volume of the “Tranzit” series edited by Vít Havránek and focusing on Central and Eastern European artists, published by JRP Ringier.

#2008 #jrpringier #katerinaseda #radimpesko
Yellow Movies
Tony Conrad
Published by Galerie Buchholz, Köln, 2008, 80 pages (colour ill.), 25 × 19 cm, English/German
Price: €28

Published on the occasion of two exhibitions, one at Galerie Daniel Buchholz in Cologne and the other at Greene Naftali in New York, that presented a group of works by artist, filmmaker and musician Tony Conrad entitled “Yellow Movies”. Alongside an introductory note by Tony Conrad that served as a press release for the two gallery exhibitions, the book contains a new text by Diedrich Diederichsen and a comprehensive documentation of all the “Yellow Movies” still in existence. The catalogue is produced in collaboration with Galerie Daniel Buchholz and Greene Naftali.

“Yellow Movies,” is the title of a series of works in which Conrad explored the intersection of film and painting. He conceived of these works not as paintings but as films of incredibly long duration, devoid of the action or narrative typically associated with Hollywood cinema. When the works were first debuted in 1973, Conrad referred to their installation as a “screening.” To make this work, and others like it, he painted a rectangle of cheap house paint on paper and framed it with a black border. Over time the central painted rectangle will slowly yellow, much in the same way film emulsion does. This yellowing happens with or without exposure to light; it is always “screening,” as the passage of time itself actively marks its surface.

Design by Yvonne Quirmbach.

#2008 #galeriebuchholz #tonyconrad #yvonnequirmbach