Künstlerbücher für Alles

Exhibition at the Center for Artists’ Publications

Artists’ books are one of the special phenomena of contemporary art. Since their emergence in the 1950s, they have established themselves worldwide as a new art form. Artists’ books are autonomous works of art in the form of a book. As works of art in a larger edition, they stand, as it were, for a democratization of art as well as for artistic mobility and networking. They emerge as published, printed, and reproduced independent works of art out of an artistic conception and in the tradition of Dieter Roth, Ilya Kabakov, and Marcel Broodthaers in Europe, Ed Ruscha and Michael Snow in North America, Ulises Carríon, Clemente Padin, and Edgardo Antonio Vigo in Latin America, William Kentridge in Africa, Yoko Ono in Asia, and Robert Jacks in Australia.

For the first time, the exhibition aims to provide an overview of the current development and dissemination of the artist’s book and to show the diversity of this genre. Artists’ books will be shown that have been produced internationally in the last five years or so. For this purpose, the Center for Artists’ Publications invites artists from all over the world to participate with a work in the exhibition on the international artists’ book with a “Call for Artists’ Books”. Under the motto “Künstlerbücher für Alles – Artists’ Books for Everything – Livre d’artiste pour tout,” artists’ books can be submitted until the end of April 2017 that have been produced in a larger edition, i.e. not as one-offs or in very small editions, and are distributed via bookstores or galleries or by the artists themselves.

The aim of the exhibition is to show artists’ books from countries on all continents with their differences and similarities, characteristics, themes and motifs, and thus to give a representative impression of the status quo of the artists’ book. But it is also about demonstrating the importance and significance of the artist’s book in contemporary art. The Call for Artists’ Books is intended in particular to address artists in African, Asian, and Central and South American countries, whose works are often not yet known in Europe in particular, in order to be able to exhibit their works as well.

The title or motto “Artists Books for Everything” refers to the German-Swiss artist Dieter Roth and his “Magazine for Everything”, for which he also invited artists to participate with artistic contributions. For the exhibition it is planned to present the artists’ books in a catalog.

The exhibition of the Center for Artists’ Publications is a cooperation project with the University of Bremen.