First published 2003
This experimental collection brings together twenty-eight contemporary artists who probe the boundaries where reality bends and breaks. Each contributor presents an original visual essay spanning eight to ten pages, examining how art reveals the malleable nature of what we consider real. Artists including Olaf Breuning, Wim Delvoye, Fischli & Weiss, Sylvie Fleury, and Erwin Wurm create works that glide through the surfaces of reality, testing its extreme flexibility. The book weaves together visual art with critical texts and scientific perspectives. Quantum physicists David Deutsch and Seth Lloyd engage in spirited correspondence about multiple universes, while Martin Tupper contributes enigmatic texts that seem to transmit from alternate realities. Art critic Bob Nickas joins several artists in providing commentary that completes this multilayered exploration of how reality can be grafted with new meanings before it collapses entirely.
Genres: science-fiction, art, contemporary
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, unreliable-narrator
440 pages · Paperback · Swiss Institute/Christoph Merian Verlag