Since the late 1980s, Tom Burr has been reusing appropriation strategies in his art. Not confined to his photographic and sculptural works, they also lend momentum to many of his writings. The artist has created assemblages of personal writings and sources, differing in nature and style, which he has used as both conceptual and aesthetic materials in his oeuvre. Thus, Burr extends his art praxis into the field of writing, and vice versa; art and language cannot be dissociated from each other. At times, the text precedes and anticipates the work; at others, it emanates and results from it; in most instances, it is an integral part of it. Words constitute the work.

Like a pictorial encyclopedia, Das Wunder des Lebens contains over four hundred drawings that show all that the modern world has to offer, from maps and city views to cars and airplanes. However, unlike conventional pictorial dictionaries, there is no symbolic system.

Copublished with Kunsthalle Wien and Kunsthalle Basel on the occasion of the eponymous exhibition at the former, 7 February–4 May, 2014, and Projekt 13 at the latter, 16 January–14 March, 2010.

Designed by Antoine Begon and Boy Vereecken.

Works 1965–Today stems from a retrospective held at the Grazer Kunstverein showcasing Josef Bauer’s experiments with language, colour, and their spatial contexts nearly forty years after his last exhibition in Graz. His practice combines sculpture, installation, painting, and performance to disturb our perception of words and colours as mere “carriers” of meaning. By removing their two-dimensional context, letters become objects that communicate directly with our bodies in an unfiltered and urgent language called “tactile poetry.”

Edited by Krist Gruijthuijsen. Designed by Marc Hollenstein.

This publication brings together extensive material from Hamlet, mise-en-scène presented at Portikus, along with recently restored as well as never-published stills, drawings, and writings by American filmmaker and artist Jack Smith, related to his film Hamlet in the Rented World (A Fragment) (1970–73).

Hamlet, mise-en-scène, directed by Mark von Schlegell, was an adaptation that retold Shakespeare’s most abused tragedy while channeling the ghost of Jack Smith. The two-night rendition of Hamlet was performed by members of Städelschule’s Pure Fiction seminar, presented here alongside a rare selection of works by Smith, both from private collections and from the Jack Smith Archive.

Texts By Sylvère Lotringer, Birte Löschenkohl, Sophie von Olfers, Laura Preston, Juliane Rebentisch, Mark von Schlegell.

With illustrations by Nairy Baghramian, Julian Göthe, Shahryar Nashat, Henrik Olesen, Danh Vo.

Dominic Eichler (born 1966 in Ballarat, Australia, lives and works in Berlin) is an art critic, artist, musician, curator, and co-founder of the contemporary art space Silberkuppe. He is also a contributing editor of Frieze. In 2005 he was awarded the AdKV Prize for Art Criticism. In 1999 he co-founded the pop band Dominique, which has released three albums.

Based on questions raised by the work of filmmaker Trinh T. Minh-ha, the second volume of the Wattis Institute’s annual reader includes new writing and art by Ranu Mukherjee, Kathy Zarur, Shylah Hamilton, Astria Suparak, and Tamara Suarez Porras, as well as written and visual contributions by Trinh T. Minh-ha, Mei-mei Berssenbrugge, Sky Hopinka, Christina Sharpe, Christine Wang, Camille Rankine, Dionne Brand, Renee Gladman, Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, Kameelah Janan Rasheed, and Steffani Jemison, among others. Designed by Scott Ponik.