ARTISTS WHO DO BOOKS — IN THE RACK ROOM #29, Berlin

16.12.2023 — 13.1.2024
LAGE EGAL [IN THE RACK ROOM], Berlin

ARTISTS WHO DO BOOKS — IN THE RACK ROOM #29
Cura­ted by Sarie Nij­boer & Pierre Granoux

Cla­ra Bahl­sen, Black Zeus Books, Albert Coers, Danie­la Coma­ni, Ant­je Dorn, Knut Eck­stein, Gfel­ler + Hells­gård, Pierre Gra­noux, Ben Gre­ber, Anto­anet­ta Mari­nov, Mathieu Mer­cier, Ant­je Peters

Ope­ning SAT, DEC 16, 2023, 2pm — 7pm
Open by appoint­ment until JAN 13, 2024

LAGE EGAL [IN THE RACK ROOM]
Lise­lot­te-Herr­mann-Str. 26 (HH), 10407 Ber­lin
Cont­act: sarienijboer@​gmail.​com
0179 6796333

ARTISTS WHO DO BOOKS pres­ents a sel­ec­tion of uni­que artists’ books, each of which chal­lenges the medi­um of the book in its own way. The books on dis­play can be con­side­red as objects, sculp­tures or exhi­bi­ti­on for­mats in their own right, ther­eby playful­ly explo­ring the boun­da­ries of the medi­um. In addi­ti­on to the books that will be available for sale, a sel­ec­tion of art­works by the par­ti­ci­pa­ting artists will be exhi­bi­ted. The title takes its inspi­ra­ti­on from Ed Ruscha’s 1976 work ARTISTS WHO DO BOOKS, a work on paper that refers to the black and white pho­to­gra­phic publi­ca­ti­ons of Ruscha and his artist col­le­agues. It was inten­ded as a kind of non-style that did not con­tain any artis­tic jud­ge­ment but rather focu­sed on eli­mi­na­ting tra­di­tio­nal artis­tic and tech­ni­cal categories.

In the 1960s and ear­ly 1970s, the artist’s book began to be reco­g­nis­ed as an art gen­re in its own right. Con­cep­tu­al artists such as Ed Ruscha, Die­ter Roth and the Flu­xus move­ment, inclu­ding Geor­ge Maciu­nas, paved the way for it. As a medi­um, the­se books were seen as open and expres­si­ve, that could play with the tota­li­ty of its phy­si­cal expe­ri­ence whilst chal­len­ging a new way of rea­ding. In addi­ti­on to using it as a space for artis­tic expres­si­on, the books also beca­me a space for poli­ti­cal actions and ques­tio­ning the estab­lished art systems.

To this day, artists con­ti­nue to crea­te inno­va­ti­ve artists’ books that take the medi­um its­elf as their sub­ject mat­ter, ther­eby brea­king with tra­di­tio­nal book design and ope­ning up new crea­ti­ve spaces for art. The artists’ books pre­sen­ted here at IN THE RACK ROOM each take their own approach to the medi­um: from phy­si­cal col­la­ges that are trans­for­med into prin­ted mat­ter, to a fic­tion­al news­pa­per, a book pro­ject that refers to Hel­mut Newtown’s clas­sic pho­to­book SUMO, a cata­lo­gue that can be cut up and rear­ran­ged and many more…