JRP|Ringier

A Brief History of Curating

By Hans Ulrich Obrist

Part of JRP|Ringer's innovative Documents series, published with Les Presses du Réel and dedicated to critical writings, this publication comprises a unique collection of interviews by Hans Ulrich Obrist mapping the development of the curatorial field--from early independent curators in the 1960s and 70s and the experimental institutional programs developed in Europe and the U.S. through the inception of Documenta and the various biennales and fairs--with pioneering curators Anne D'Harnoncourt, Werner Hoffman, Jean Leering, Franz Meyer, Seth Siegelaub, Walter Zanini, Johannes Cladders, Lucy Lippard, Walter Hopps, Pontus Hulten and Harald Szeemann. Speaking of Szeemann on the occasion of this legendary curator's death in 2005, critic Aaron Schuster summed up, "the image we have of the curator today: the curator-as-artist, a roaming, . . . . Paperback, 6 x 8 in. / 200 pgs.

Edited by Hans Ulrich Obrist.

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Walther König, Köln

Gerhard Richter: Obrist-O’Brist

Gerhard Richter and Hans Ulrich Obrist first met in 1985. Their professional collaborations began seven years later, when the 24-year-old Obrist curated his first Richter exhibition; the following year he published a collection of his writings. Now Gerhard Richter has dedicated an artist's book to this longstanding relationship. The texts in Obrist-O'Brist have been produced by rearranging Obrist's interviews using a random generator, setting the results in blocks without discrete passages or paragraphs. The color plates are made up of photographs—both portraits and mementos—of Hans Ulrich Obrist, from the past 15 years, and photos of Richter's own paintings, which Richter has then painted over using brushes and scrapers. Chiming with many currents in contemporary writing and bookmaking, Obrist-O'Brist is an adventure . . . . Pbk, 6.75 x 9 in. / 184 pgs / 102 color.

Text by Hans Ulrich Obrist.

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Walther König, Köln

Indian Highway

Following the rapid economic and cultural developments on the Indian subcontinent in recent years, Indian Highwayis a timely snapshot of a new generation of artists. Its title indicates the significance of the road in migration, as well as the information superhighway” that has driven India's economic boom. A common thread throughout is the political and social engagement of these artists, who include: Ayisha Abraham, Ravi Agarwal, Sarnath Banerjee, Hemali Bhuta, Nikhil Chopra, Desire Machine Collective, Sheela Gowda, Sakshi Gupta, Shilpa Gupta, Subodh Gupta, NS Harsha, Abhishek, Hazra Shanay, Jhaveri, Jitish Kallat, Amar Kanwar, Bharti Kher, Bose Krishnamachari, Nalini Malani, Jagannath Panda, Prajakta Potnis, Raqs Media Collective, Tejal Shah, Valay Shende, Sudarshan Shetty, Dayanita Singh, Sumakshi Singh, Ashok Sukumaran, Shaina Anand, Thukral . . . . Pbk, 8.75 x 10 in. / 320 pgs / 290 color.

Edited by Julia Peyton-Jones, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Gunnar B. Kvaran, Thierry Raspail.

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Gregory R. Miller & Co.

In the Shadow a Shadow: The Work of Joan Jonas

One of the most continuously influential figures of the past half century, Joan Jonas was among the first artists to embrace the forms of video, performance and installation. From her beginnings as a sculptor, and her emergence in the New York art and performance scenes of the 1960s and 70s (including the seminal "Vertical Roll" video piece of 1972, in which the titular television malfunction enacted a memorably fractured female identity), up through her six appearances at Documenta and her performance at the Performa 13 biennial, her work has always been surprising, groundbreaking and necessary. This extensively illustrated volume, containing hundreds of full-color photographs, drawings, scripts and diagrams, presents the definitive collection of Jonas' work. The first and authoritative career-spanning monograph . . . . Clth, 9.5 x 12.75 in. / 536 pgs / 840 color.

Edited with text by Joan Simon. Text by Joan Jonas, Douglas Crimp, Johanna Burton, Barbara Clausen, Richard Serra, Susan Rothenberg.

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JRP|Ringier/BDV Bureau des videos

The Secret Files of Gilbert & George

For the last 40 years Gilbert & George have united and divided the international art scene with equal parts insolence and elegance. Their oeuvre, with its repeating figures and reprising themes of shit, piss, blood, tears, nudity, sperm, alcohol and drugs, overturned the conventions of the twentieth century and helped to set the agenda for the twenty-first. This 35-minute film produced, hosted and edited by the influential international curator Hans Ulrich Obrist is the first documentary to follow Gilbert & George inside their creative process, and into their archives and collection. Obrist discovers the couple's intimate life within the interior of their London house, a veritable museum of obsessions. Beyond good and bad, beyond appearances and objects (negatives, books, press cuttings… . . . . DVD video, PAL Multizone, 5.5 x 7.5 in.

Edited by Nicolas Tremblay. By Hans Ulrich Obrist.

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JRP|Ringier

Yang Fudong: No Snow on the Broken Bridge

Film and Video Installations

Though he trained as a painter at the China Academy of Fine Arts, Yang Fudong, one of the most interesting and influential young artists emerging from China today, has always preferred film. His videos and photographs combine and accumulate perspectives, investigating identity through ancient mythology, personal memory and lived experience. His subjects, often in their late 20s and early 30s, seem confused and appear to be hovering between the past and present, or perhaps China's past and present. That split gives them an expectant quality, as if something is going to happen that never quite does. Yang Fudong seeks, through vignettes, a poetics of place and people as an alternative to the politics of power. No Snow on the Broken Bridge . . . . Paperback, 7.5 x 10 in. / 180 pgs / 70 color / 20 b&w.

Edited by Ziba de Weck. Text by Hans Ulrich Obrist.

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JRP|Ringier

Merz World: Processing the Complicated Order

The evolving artwork and early, all-encompassing installation Merzbau was German Dadaist Kurt Schwitters’ obsession. He began building a fantastical structure inside his Hanover studio in 1923, which he conceived as a project without end. It gradually took over most of the house. He continued to work on it in different locations throughout his life, remarking that the Merzbau contained everything that was important to him. This groundbreaking volume results from the first of a series of Zurich-based symposia on the Merzbau and its legacy in contemporary architecture, art and society. The Symposium Merzbau sets a new standard for further research on Schwitter’s influential project. Edited by curator and writer Hans Ulrich Obrist, this book includes contributions by art historians, critics and . . . . Paperback, 4.25 x 6.5 in. / 124 pgs / 20 color.

Edited by Hans Ulrich Obrist, Adrian Notz. Text by Yona Friedman, Thomas Hirschhorn, Peter Bissegger, Karin Orchard, Gwendolen Webster.

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D.A.P.

On Curating: Interviews with Ten International Curators

By Carolee Thea

On Curating, Carolee Thea's second volume of interviews with ten of today's leading curators, explores the intellectual convictions and personal visions that lay the groundwork for the most prestigious and influential exhibitions in the world today. Among the aesthetic and theoretical issues raised are the relationship between artist and curator, globalism, post-colonialism, capitalism, the future of cultural tourism and the biennial as spectacle or utopian ideal. As Thea notes in her introduction, "the biennial or mega-exhibition--a laboratory for experimentation, investigation and aesthetic liberation--is where the curators' experience and knowledge are tested. As they negotiate venues for artistic expression, intellectual critiques and humanistic concerns in their own societies and others, they are challenged by the certainties and uncertainties of a constantly evolving . . . . Pbk, 6.5 x 9.5 in. / 144 pgs / 50 color.

By Carolee Thea. Edited by Thomas Micchelli. Foreword by Hans Ulrich Obrist.

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JRP|Ringier

Jennifer Allora & Guillermo Calzadilla

Puerto Rico-based American and Cuban-born Jennifer Allora and Guillermo Calzadilla are known for their playful, socially-involved, sound-based installations, videos and performances. This well-designed volume presents recent works that investigate how power, militarism and war are encoded into sound.

. . . . Hbk, 8.25 x 10.5 in. / 156 pgs / 112 color.

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JRP|Ringier

Hans Ulrich Obrist: Battery City: A Post-Olympic Beijing Mini-Marathon

On January 31, 2008, Swiss curator, critic and historian Hans Ulrich Obrist conducted a "marathon" of conversations in Beijing, after the example of his famous Serpentine Gallery marathons. This marathon called on artists, cultural producers and media practitioners to discuss the post-Olympic state of the city. Participants included internationally renowned artists Ai Weiwei and Cao Fei, writer and publisher Hung Huang, fashion designer Zhang Da and many others. Topics discussed included everyday life in contemporary Chinese society, the impact of the Olympic Games and the role of the internet in daily life.

. . . . Pbk, 4.75 x 8.25 in. / 138 pgs / 30 b&w.

Edited and with text by Hans Ulrich Obrist, Hu Fan.

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Walther König, Köln

Gilbert & George: Art Titles

1967-2010 in Alphabetical Order, Catalogue Raisonné

Gilbert & George Art Titles offers a new spin on the catalogue raisonné: a complete catalogue of the titles of all of the duo's works, from 1970 to the present, in the form of a continuous poetical index. Designed by the artists, it commences with their first performance at Nigel Greenwood Gallery in 1970, "3 Living Pieces"--flanking the title with the year on the left margin and the acronym "LS" ("living sculpture") on the right--and opens out into the more poetical titles for which they are known. The catalogue of works is also printed alphabetically, and each title is identified with an acronym indicating its format. Spanning more than 40 years of exhibitions, pictures, postcards, books and other formats, this volume . . . . Pbk, 6 x 8.5 in. / 180 pgs / illustrated throughout.

Edited by Hans Ulrich Obrist, Inigo Philbrick.

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Walther König, Köln

Elmgreen & Dragset: Trilogy

In their latest monograph, the Danish-Norwegian duo Elmgreen & Dragset address the world of celebrity: rumor-mongering, life in the public eye, the mechanisms of the media, its formation of myths and how those myths endlessly bombard us with staged presentations of the self. Two allegorical installations on celebrity and its implications of "the one" (the celebrity) and "the many" (the rest of us) were devised for the duo's exhibition at the ZKM | Center for Art and Media in Karlsruhe, and are here documented across 100 color plates. In one of the museum's atriums, Elmgreen & Dragset installed a full-scale high-rise apartment block; the other atrium was converted into a neoclassical ballroom. Also documented in this volume are The Welfare Show . . . . Clth, 8 x 10 in. / 384 pgs / 100 color.

Edited by Andreas F. Beitin, Peter Weibel. Text by Tony Benn, Hubert Burda, Tom Mole, Mehdi Belhaj Kacem, Nicolaus Schafhausen, Wolfgang Ullrich, et al. Interview by Hans Ulrich Obrist with Elmgreen & Dragset. Interview by Sacha Goldmann with Paul Virilio.

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Walther König, Köln

Jean Nouvel: Red Summer in Kensington Gardens

Renowned French architect Jean Nouvel designed the Serpentine Gallery's pavilion for 2010, and created a commanding, eye-catching all-red structure designed to mimic the moment "when the summer sun catches you full in the eyes and, as you blink, the world dissolves into red." Also inspired by London's red buses and telephone boxes, this dramatic and seductive pavilion consists of a cantilevered glass wall supporting a central frame, with retractable red canvas awnings, a red rubber floor and, to accommodate its many visitors, a red café bar, red table tennis tables and red hammocks, tables and chairs. "It's architecture on holiday," Nouvel has joked, also describing the pavilion as a "big sunglass." This similarly striking publication, designed by Nouvel, records the project . . . . Pbk, 9 x 10.25 in. / 44 pgs / illustrated throughout.

Edited by Kathryn Rattee. Text by Paul Virilio, Samantha Hardingham. Interview by Julia Peyton-Jones, Hans Ulrich Obrist.

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Walther König, Köln

Matthew Barney: Drawing Restraint Vol.1

This insightful book features a clear PVC cover designed by the artist, printed in silver ink. Barney's sometimes ominous and sometimes sexy black-and white work is highlighted by a 12-page high gloss full color insert--the centerfold, if you will.

. . . . Paperback, 6.5 x 9.25 in. / 96 pgs / 9 color / 46 b&w.

Edited by Hans Ulrich Obrist. Essay by Francis Mckee.

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Katherine Small Gallery

Alphabet in Motion

How Letters Get Their Shape

Ever wonder how we ended up with so many different styles of letters? Open any text editor, email client or design app and you will immediately be bombarded with a buffet of typographic choices. Serif or sans serif? Display or text? Classical or contemporary? Formal or casual?
Featuring 17 stunning interactive pop-ups, this ABC pop-up book explains—as well as demonstrates—the technologies and philosophies that have shaped letterforms through the ages. Readers will learn about '60s psychedelic type by projecting light through a phototypesetting pop-up; how screen technology shaped letterforms by turning on and off anti-aliasing; or the aesthetics of typographic modularity by reconfiguring the puzzle pieces of Josef Albers' Kombinations-Schrift.
Type history is often technical and always visual. It is therefore challenging to . . . . Hbk, 2 vols, 9.5 x 12 in. / 144 pgs / 280 color / 17 pop-ups.

By Kelli Anderson. Edited by Ben Kiel, Caren Litherland, Michelle Santiago Cortés, Claire Evans, Emily Doucet.

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National Portrait Gallery

Cecil Beaton's Fashionable World

A virtuoso in capturing beauty, glamour and star power, Cecil Beaton was an extraordinary force in the 20th-century British and American creative scenes. Renowned as a photographer, fashion illustrator, costume designer and writer, his impact spans the worlds of fashion, photography and design. From his early snapshots of the Bright Young Things and his breakthrough as Vogue's star photographer at just 24 years old, to his portraits of royals, celebrities and models and culminating in his award-winning turn as a costume designer, Beaton created an oeuvre of glamour, resilience and creativity that continues to captivate audiences today.
Cecil Beaton's Fashionable World, the catalog accompanying the exhibition of the same name at the National Portrait Gallery, London, is the first publication to delve . . . . Hbk, 9.75 x 11.75 in. / 288 pgs / 76 color / 180 b&w.

Edited with text by Robin Muir. Preface by Hamish Bowles.

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Primary Information

Paul Thek and Peter Hujar: Stay away from nothing

This volume shines a spotlight on the deep relationship between Paul Thek (1933–88) and Peter Hujar (1934–87) through the artists' letters and photographs. The book opens with Hujar's early portraits capturing the beginnings of their relationship, including Thek's first letters to Hujar, written while aboard a containership en route to Europe, where the two would eventually meet in Rome. From there, the publication traces their evolution into the icons we know them as today, with the remaining letters tracing Thek's travels and adventures, romantic dalliances, work and financial ups and downs through 1975.
Stay away from nothing reproduces more than 50 letters and postcards, along with drawings and other ephemera; their poetic, quotidian and melancholic tone provide a rare glimpse into Thek . . . . Pbk, 9 x 12 in. / 192 pgs / 9 color / 35 b&w.

Text by Paul Thek. Photographs by Peter Hujar. Afterword by Andrew Durbin.

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Wakefield Press

Little Castles of Bohemia

Prose and Poetry

Though Gérard de Nerval had originally intended it to be a small anthology of his early poetry, his 1853 Little Castles of Bohemia ended up as something more. As could be said of all his last works, the book was an effort at stability: worn out and financially impoverished, Nerval gathered his past writing in an attempt at assembling some sort of posterity. The melancholic, wandering castles presented here are gathered from the range of Nerval's literary life, from his autobiographical reminiscences of the bohemian neighborhood of Le Doyenné to the lyrical "odelettes" that established Nerval as a poet early on, the one-act Corilla and the mystical sonnets of madness that concluded his career. This bilingual volume containing the first full . . . . Pbk, 5.5 x 8 in. / 144 pgs / 10 b&w.

By Gérard de Nerval. Introduction and translation by Napoleon Jeffries. Illustrations by Alfred Prunaire.

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Vitra Design Museum

Barragán Outside Barragán

A Journey through Books, Trips, Exhibitions and Friends

Published with Barragan Foundation, Switzerland.

This publication is based on an illustrated talk presented by architect and historian Fernanda Canales in June 2024 at the Vitra Design Museum as part of the Barragán Lecture series. It focuses on the Mexican architect Luis Barragán (1902–88), whose work occupies a permanent place in the canon of 20th-century architecture and continues to fascinate architectural scholars, connoisseurs and enthusiasts.
Barragán strove for an "emotional architecture," claiming that "any work of architecture which does not express serenity is a mistake." He used raw materials such as stone or wood, and his preference for hidden light sources gives his interiors a particularly subtle and lyrical atmosphere.
In her lecture, Canales deftly interweaves Barragán's biography with his major built works, which . . . . Pbk, 6.75 x 9.5 in. / 64 pgs / 40 color / 35 b&w.

By Fernanda Canales.

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Soul Jazz Books

Freedom, Rhythm & Sound: Chapter Two

Revolutionary Jazz Original Cover Art 1965–83

Just over 15 years ago, Soul Jazz Records' Gilles Peterson and Stuart Baker published Freedom, Rhythm & Sound, showcasing the stunning graphic works of independently published jazz record cover designs of the 1960s and 1970s from radical jazz musicians such as Sun Ra, John Coltrane, Pharoah Sanders and more. These artists reshaped the cultural landscape for African American musicians in the US, transforming the role of jazz musician from nightclub entertainer to artist. The artwork of their often self-produced record cover designs reflected their radical agenda, spiritual awareness and singular search for musical and personal freedoms.
Following the success of the first volume, Freedom, Rhythm and Sound: Chapter Two features hundreds more of these beautiful and rare jazz record cover designs from . . . . Flexi, 11.75 x 11.75 in. / 208 pgs / 500 color.

Edited by Stuart Baker, Gilles Peterson.

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DelMonico Books

Routed West: Twentieth-Century African American Quilts in California

Published with Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA).

The first publication dedicated to historical African American quilts in California, Routed West traces the flow and flourishing of quilts in the context of the Second Great Migration from 1940 to 1970. As millions of African Americans sought greater economic opportunities and freedom outside of the American South, hundreds of thousands initially arrived in the Golden State. Many migrants carried quilts as functional objects and physical reminders of the homes they left behind. They also brought their quiltmaking skills, extending the art form’s Southern roots to the western United States in the later part of the 20th century.
Featuring vibrant images of over 100 quilts by nearly 90 individuals—the majority of whom are . . . . Hbk, 9 x 11 in. / 272 pgs / 280 color.

Foreword by Julie Rodrigues Widholm. Edited with text by Elaine Y. Yau. Text by Daphne A. Brooks, Bridget R. Cooks, Basil Kincaid, Eli Leon, Adia Millett, Matthew Villar Miranda, Wendy M. Thompson. Conversation with Sharbreon Plummer, Carolyn Mazloomi, A’donna Richardson.

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Damiani

Joshua Charow: Loft Law

The Last of New York City's Original Artist Lofts

Envied by artists and apartment hunters alike for their wide windows and open floor plans, New York City’s lofts were once manufacturing centers in the late 19th and early 20th century. As urban densification pushed industry into the suburbs, these buildings were left empty. Looking for cheap rents and ideal studios, artists struck bargains with landlords to live and work in commercially zoned spaces. By the 1970s, these same artists faced eviction as their landlords embraced the new wealthy clientele that seeped into neighborhoods such as SoHo, Tribeca and the Bowery. Enacted in 1982, Article 7-C of the Multiple Dwelling Law, better known as the Loft Law,” allowed artists to obtain legal occupancy and rent stabilization. After discovering a map of . . . . Hbk, 9.5 x 11.25 in. / 192 pgs / 108 color.

Text by Joshua Charow.

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Light Industry

Temporal Territories: An Anthology on Indigenous Experimental Cinema

Published with COUSIN Collective.

Founded in 2018, COUSIN Collective is dedicated to promoting Indigenous artists working with the moving image. Temporal Territories is the collective’s critical anthology on Indigenous experimental cinema, bringing together new works, reprints of key writings, theoretical interventions, artist portfolios, intergenerational dialogues and manifestos. With topics ranging from science fiction to found-footage filmmaking to the strange case of the DeMille Indians, the volume surveys a varied and vital body of work, and suggests new forms still to come.
As COUSIN writes in their introduction, "We hope this collection can be something like a celebration, a point along your path that fosters conversations and connections. There are no rules to this thing, and you are not alone."
Contributors include: Raven Chacon, Colectivo . . . . Pbk, 4.5 x 6.5 in. / 334 pgs / 6 color / 55 b&w.

Edited by COUSIN Collective.

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Royal Academy of Arts

Kiefer|Van Gogh

Ever since winning a travel grant as a 17-year-old to travel from the Netherlands through Belgium and Paris to Arles in Van Gogh's footsteps, the contemporary master painter and sculptor Anselm Kiefer has been inspired by the Dutchman's art. Van Gogh has thus been a profound influence upon the subjects and techniques of Kiefer's monumental paintings and sculptures, which draw on history, mythology, literature, philosophy and science. Published to coincide with Kiefer's 80th birthday in 2025, this book celebrates the power and luminous intensity of both artists' work. It is the first volume to consider Van Gogh's lasting influence on Kiefer and features works by both artists, including new, previously unseen pieces by Kiefer.
The German artist Anselm Kiefer (born 1945) works . . . . Hbk, 10.25 x 9 in. / 120 pgs / 100 color.

Text by Anselm Kiefer, Simon Schama, Tamara Klopper.

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Set Margins’ publications

Designerly Ways of Knowing

A Working Inventory of Things a Designer Should Know

In 2018, the architect and activist Michael Sorkin published the now beloved essay-list "Two Hundred and Fifty Things an Architect Should Know." Struck by the compelling form of this text, Danah Abdulla compiled a version for designers—"a list based on a search for knowledge and a designer’s commitment to making the world a better place," as she writes. Abdulla’s list includes the experience of scents; how critical theory does not account for the colonial experience; the dangers of seeking out simplicity; visual pollution; and how certain emblems and symbols make people feel. It is meant to be approached as a series of prompts to consider, discard or spark a conversation.
Danah Abdulla (born 1986) is a Palestinian Canadian designer, educator and researcher. . . . . Pbk, 4.5 x 7 in. / 64 pgs.

By Danah Abdulla.

PRICE: $18.00 | $13.50
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Set Margins’ publications

How Many Female Type Designers Do You Know?

I Know Many and Talked to Some!

First published by Onamotapee in 2021, this important book returns to print with a survey of the past and present of women working in typography. The first section is a statistical overview of the field apropos of gender, supplemented with biographies of female type designers that worked in the 19th and early 20th centuries. These women contributed to the industry significantly, but are rarely mentioned in histories of the subject.
The second portion of the volume comprises a series of interviews with 14 women that are either currently working as type designers or are in other ways involved in the field of type design: Gayaneh Bagdasaryan, Veronika Burian, Maria Doreuli, Louise Fili, Martina Flor, Loraine Furter, Jenna Gesse, Golnar Kat Rahmani, Indra . . . . Hbk, 4.5 x 8 in. / 320 pgs / 95 color / 78 b&w.

Edited with text by Yulia Popova. Conversations with Gayaneh Bagdasaryan, Veronika Burian, Maria Doreuli, Louise Fili, Martina Flor, et al.

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Set Margins’ publications

Becoming the Product

The Critical Internet Researcher as a Virtual Intellectual

By examining the pioneering work of early net critic Geert Lovink and the influencer-style approach of internet theorist Joshua Citarella, as well as the practices of Alex Quicho and Sophie Public, Morgane Billuart delves into the diverse strategies internet researchers adopt to share their work and sustain their careers in today's era defined by the attention economy. Charting the rise of subscription-based platforms and the increasing importance of engagement-driven metrics, she uncovers the tension between intellectual critique and the pressures of commodification. Thus Becoming the Product investigates the future of critical internet research and the sustainability of critical thinking in the digital age.
Morgane Billuart (born 1997) is an affiliated researcher at the Institute of Network Cultures and the New Center for . . . . Pbk, 5 x 7.5 in. / 164 pgs.

By Morgane Billuart.

PRICE: $28.00 | $21.00
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Inventory Press

Amanda Ross-Ho: Grand Gestures

Published with Vleeshal Center for Contemporary Art.

Building upon her background in prop design, Los Angeles–based artist Amanda Ross-Ho (born 1975) resizes and reinvents everyday objects such as clocks, drying racks and sheet masks, giving them a theatrical twist that uncovers the relationship between art, labor and systems of production.

. . . . Hbk, 7.5 x 9.5 in. / 580 pgs / 450 color.

Edited with interview by Roos Gortzak. Text by Catherine Taft.

PRICE: $60.00 | $45.00
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Set Margins’ publications

Conspiratorial Design

Information Design for the Bigger Picture

What if data was not a statement of fact, but an argument, and data visualizations mere representations of these arguments? After all, the goal of information designers is to synthesize a particular vision of the world. Taking this position to its ultimate (il)logical end, author Carlo Bramanti investigates the shady relationship between information design and conspiracy theories. Through esoteric diagrams and flowcharts, Bramanti argues that the conspiratorial haunts design even in its most basic paradigms. With a vital urgency to see and share the bigger picture, Conspiratorial Design probes the discipline’s clandestine facets and investigates how communities try to give meaningful narratives to information to overcome the vertigo of complexity.
Carlo Bramanti is a designer and writer based in the Netherlands. His . . . . Pbk, 4.25 x 7 in. / 144 pgs / 28 b&w.

By Carlo Bramanti. Introduction by Silvio Lorusso.

PRICE: $28.00 | $21.00
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Walther König, Köln

Hans Ulrich Obrist & Konrad Klapheck: The Conversation Series

Volume 3

In this German-language-only installment of Hans Ulrich Obrist's Conversation Series, the acclaimed curator-conversationalist speaks with the German Pop Surrealist painter Konrad Klapheck, and includes the German conceptual photographer Hans-Peter Feldmann--who was there to document the afternoon's activities with a series of photographic portraits--in the talk. Writing of Klapheck's psycho-erotic "machine" imagery in a 1994 Art in America review, critic Ken Johnson wrote, "What makes Klapheck's pictures compelling is the way the objects he paints are psycho-erotically animated. His machines…are like primitive totems…monumental, amusingly absurd and sexually suggestive." This volume contains generous photo documentation, with many new paintings depicting offbeat human sexual encounters reproduced in color.

. . . . Paperback, 5.5 x 8.25 in. / 68 pgs / 16 color / 21 b&w.

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Walther König, Köln

Hans Ulrich Obrist & Rem Koolhaas: The Conversation Series

Volume 4

In this traditional paperback, renowned critic and curator Hans Ulrich Obrist teams up with Dutch avant-garde architect and paradigm-shifting intellectual, Rem Koolhaas, for a discussion of Koolhaas's work in China, his designs for Prada, architecture as metaphor, and the development of urbanism in the slipstream of globalization.

. . . . Paperback, 5.5 x 8 in. / 68 pgs.

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Walther König, Köln

Hans Ulrich Obrist & Yona Friedman: The Conversation Series

Volume 7

People make too much of architecture. I have a running quarrel with architects who overestimate architecture. Reality is at eye-level with people walking down the street. Born in 1923 in Budapest, Hungary, Yona Friedman is widely considered one of the greatest utopian visionary architects of the twentieth century. Currently based in Paris, he is just as much a sociologist as a designer of buildings, more concerned with the way people interact with their environments than monumental statements by an ego-centric creator. In this illuminating talk with The Conversation Series editor Hans Ulrich Obrist, he touches on the needs of the individual in heterogeneous urban societies, past and future projects, utopia, influences and metaphysics, revealing a wise and deeply-animated humanistic intellect. Known . . . . Paperback, 5.5 x 8.5 in. / 126 pgs / 29 b&w.

PRICE: $22.00 | $16.50
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Walther König, Köln

Hans Ulrich Obrist & Gilbert & George: The Conversation Series

Vol. 9

Series editor Hans Ulrich Obrist here collects seven years worth of interviews with the hugely influential British artistic collaborators Gilbert & George, providing an intimate vision of what they consider the most important landmarks in their four-decade-long career together. Many of the conversations are delightfully performative.

. . . . Paperback, 5.25 x 8.25 in. / 192 pgs / 22 b&w.

PRICE: $25.00 | $18.75
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Walther König, Köln

Hans Ulrich Obrist & Gustav Metzger: The Conversation Series

Vol. 16

In volume 16 of The Conversation Series, Hans Ulrich Obrist presents an in-depth exchange with the venerable German-born artist and activist Gustav Metzger, which illuminates the artist's fascinating life and 60-year career. In 1959, Metzger penned a manifesto of Auto-destructive art, which states in part, "Auto-destructive paintings, sculptures and constructions have a lifetime varying from a few moments to 20 years. When the disintegrative process is complete, the work is to be removed from the site and scrapped." In this volume, Metzger talks to Obrist about his past and present association with Auto-destructive art, how he has come to fuse his art practice with his political commitment to human rights and ecology, how he escaped the Holocaust at the age of . . . . Pbk, 5.25 x 8.25 in. / 168 pgs / 41 b&w.

Text by Hans Ulrich Obrist, Gustav Metzger.

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Walther König, Köln

Hans Ulrich Obrist & John Baldessari: The Conversation Series Volume 18

Hans Ulrich Obrist has been a staunch supporter of the Los Angeles maestro of Conceptualism John Baldessari from early on in his career. For these conversations, the artist and curator were joined by, among others, the Uruguayan artist and author Alejandro Cesarco, a friend and previous public interlocutor of Baldessari's. Baldessari himself offers readers insight into the motives and semiotics of his multimedia work and his life as an artist, always expressing himself with precision and with wit. A recurrent topic throughout these discussions is the interaction of text and image (on which so much of Baldessari's work leans), and issues such as the museum as institution, idea archives and unrealized projects, and on his career, exhibitions and retrospectives of the . . . . Pbk, 5.5 x 8.5 in. / 242 pgs / 20 b&w.

Edited by Hans Ulrich Obrist.

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Walther König, Köln

Hans Ulrich Obrist & Jeff Koons: The Conversation Series

Vol. 22

Reflecting on 20 years of making art, Jeff Koons talks to Hans Ulrich Obrist about his vocation and its frequently controversial highlights. Koons makes acknowledgement here of determinative influences such as Marcel Duchamp, Salvador Dalí and Andy Warhol, and elucidates his sense of the legacy of Pop art and his own transformations of that legacy. Koons emerges from this volume as a charmingly open and very focused artist, with strong views on the purposes of art today, and advice for practitioners: See everything as an opportunity. Stay focused, then amazing things can happen.” Koons' goals are also inspiringly utopian and appropriate to all forms of art: The journey of art begins with self-acceptance,” he declares at one point, espousing his ideal . . . . Pbk, 5.25 x 8.25 in. / 123 pgs / 28 b&w.

Edited by Karen Marta.

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