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.

A series of booklets produced on the occasion of If I Can’t Dance I Don’t Want to Be Part of Your Revolution’s 2013–14 Commissions.

Gerry Bibby’s booklet introduces the process of writing his novel The Drumhead and includes redacted editorial correspondence with novelist Natasha Soobramanien. Sara van der Heide’s booklet on her work Mother Earth Breathing includes an essay by Nikos Papastergiadis. Snejanka Mihaylova’s booklet about her work Inner Stage includes an annotated bibliography and part of the musical score to her performance A Song. Emily Roysdon’s booklet includes the original textual score to her new work Uncounted*.

Designed by Maureen Mooren.

Contributions by Manuela Ammer, Julie Ault, Monika Baer, Nairy Baghramian, Gerry Bibby, Jennifer Bornstein, Pauline Boudry & Renate Lorenz, Dragana Bulut, Katarina Burin, Françoise Cactus, Leidy Churchman, Ann Cotten, Juan Davila, Dominic Eichler, Elmgreen & Dragset, Yusuf Etiman, Isa Genzken, Susanne Ghez, Margaret Harrison, Daniel Herleth, Annette Kelm, Janette Laverrière, Adam Linder, Lee Lozano, Charlie Le Mindu, Shahryar Nashat, Gina D’Orio, Stephen Prina, Dean Spade, Ming Wong.

The Jahresring series is one of the longest continually published annual journals for contemporary art in Germany. The 61st edition is a reader and visual sampler with contributions from visual artists, writers, poets, musicians, choreographers, and designers. Bringing together a discursive array of forms and timbres, it takes an intertextual and interdisciplinary approach to exploring some contemporary cultural resonances with respect to gender and sexuality. In this sense, a “PS” or postscript might be understood as a place where relations or realities not explicitly stated in the main body of any given text, but nevertheless underpinning them, are revealed. A “PS” is a place of interpersonal agency; a compelling textual gesture that might add a “by the way” and an “also” and a “you know what we’re really talking about.” By its nature, a “PS” is contextualized and contextualizing. Though it may parade as the last word, it never is.

The Jahresring is published annually on behalf of Kulturkreis der deutschen Wirtschaft im BDI e.V.

Artist Gerry Bibby’s first publication is a work of fiction that expands on the use of text in his sculpture, performance, and image work. Evoking William Burroughs’s The Wild Boys and Robert Walser’s The Walk, these “language costumes” pay homage to an unruly tradition of radical and queer literary presences over the last century. Their captivating passages brim with wit, wry observation, and (occasional) disgust, offering viewers “ways out,” even if only while reading.

Commissioned by If I Can’t Dance, I Don’t Want to Be Part of Your Revolution, The Drumhead follows a two-year collaboration with KUB Arena of the Kunsthaus Bregenz, The Showroom London, CCA Glasgow, and the Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane. The book immodestly distills these institutional encounters into a multipart narrative that delves into the lives and psyches of those in the service industry. Exhaustion and frustration besiege a set of characters and the architecture that barely contains them, all of which are cipher-like in their multiplicity (and duplicity). Designed by HIT.

Mitchell Anderson, Marie Angeletti, Tenzing Barshee, Gerry Bibby, Mercedes Bunz, Stefan Burger, David Bussel, Eric D. Clark, Jay Chung, Tony Conrad, Eduardo Costa, Hans-Christian Dany, Nikola Dietrich, Levi Easterbrooks, Martin Ebner, Stephanie Fezer, Julian Göthe, Dunja Herzog, Karl Holmqvist, Stephan Janitzky, Verena Kathrein, Jakob Kolding, Chris Kraus, Veit Laurent Kurz, Quinn Latimer, Park McArthur, Robert McKenzie, Robert Meijer, Luzie Meyer, Ariane Müller, Shahryar Nashat, Viktor Neumann, Theresa Patzschke, Monika Senz, Natasha Soobramanien, Vera Tollmann, Anne Turyn, Antek Walczak, Mikhail Wassmer, Scott C. Weaver, Florian Zeyfang.

Editors: Gerry Bibby, Nikola Dietrich, Martin Ebner, Ariane Müller, Henrik Olesen. Graphic design: Dan Solbach. Cover: Martin Ebner, Shibuya/Sumida, 2017. Park McArthur for Starship, Studs, 2018. 1000 magazines pierced and bejeweled.