SHARON HELGASON GALLAGHER | DATE 6/5/2015

Announcing the Fall 2015 ARTBOOK | D.A.P. Catalogue

Before you delve into our new catalogue, take another look at Barbara Kasten's "Construct NYC-4" (1983), reproduced on the front cover from JRP | Ringier's excellent monograph accompanying her exhibition at ICA Philadelphia. Glanced at quickly, this image might seem to be a digital manipulation. But it's not; it's "real." Kasten's working process combines sculpture (she constructs three-dimensional "stage-sets"), performance (she physically moves within and around her props and lights them theatrically) and photography (she sets up her camera to frame a particular two-dimensional image). The resulting "reality" that Kasten shows us is the product of an individual act of seeing. As Andy Grundberg has eloquently written, "the photographs remind us that what we see depends on how we choose to see it."

What we see when we look at Barbara Kasten's work is her own photographic vision, a selective vision that implies rather than excludes other ways of seeing. In her hands—and eyes—the universalizing geometry of modernism is questioned by a fierce but modest and generous individuality. "This is what I see," she seems to be saying silently adding the question "…and what do you see?"

The books in this new Fall 2015 ARTBOOK | D.A.P. catalogue are brought to you by an ever-expanding community of passionate believers in the power of the visual book to define an era, change class, racial and gender perceptions, or articulate a singular way of being in the world. It's a community of proud independent publishers and dedicated museum curators and professionals, writers, photo editors, designers, booksellers, critics, and, of course, the artists themselves. Join us in discovering more than 500 new titles on the arts and visual culture being published by some 150 imprints, ranging from the world's foremost museums and international imprints to vibrant indie houses.

These are books that have the power to question geometries of gender, class and race. These are books that can change the way we see.

Sharon Helgason Galllagher
President and Publisher, ARTBOOK | D.A.P.