Joseph Beuys. Mapping in Legacy
This catalogue, dedicated to the German artist Joseph Beuys, was created to coincide with the itinerant retrospective exhibition organized by the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis and the symposium held in 1998 at the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art in Sarasota, Florida. There is an assortment of texts written by art critics, historians, and artists of international repute: An essay by Peter Nesbit examines the well-known (and controversial) biographical episode concerning the wartime airplane crash in the Crimea; a consideration by Pamela Kort of Beuys’ studies and his early career; and an article by Gene Ray—also the author of the volume’s preface—that discusses the direct and indirect references to the Holocaust in the artist’s mature works. Other pieces are penned by Joan Rothfuss, Benjamin H. D. Buchloh, Lukas Beckmann, Mel Chin, Max Reithmann, Kim Levin, and Georg Jappe. Texts in English.

Joseph Beuys. Mapping in Legacy, D.A.P./Distributed Art Publishers, Inc. (155 Sixth Avenue, 2nd Floor, New York, www.artbooks.com), The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art (5401 Bay Shore Road, Sarasota, Florida), 2001, 213 pages, 18.5 x 26 cm.

Pipilotti Rist, Apricots Along the Street
Published for Pipilotti Rist’s solo exhibition at the Museo Reina Sofia in Madrid, this book is a kind of diary of an artist who is always “on the road.” Part love poem, part album of sketches and notes, it revolves around the theme of the mass media. The book includes several sequences of stills from her video installations as well as photographs taken in her studio, from which we glimpse a side of the Swiss artist that has never been seen before. At times she seems trapped by the doubts and fears that arise from her imaginary painted world of pleasures and amusements, closely tied to pop culture and contemporary art. It is tempting to go through this book more than once; it is a volume that rewards repeated perusal. Apricots Along the Street was designed by Thomas Rhyner, Rist’s favorite graphic artist, who created a selection of vibrant stickers for the catalogue. Text in English.

Pipilotti Rist, Apricots Along the Street, Scalo Verlag (Weinbergstrasse 22a, Zurich, www.scalo.com), 2001, 224 pages, 17 x 23 cm.

Unpacking Europe. Towards a Critical Reading
Unpacking Europe is a massive catalogue produced in conjunction with the group show of the same name, curated by Salah Hassan and Iftikhar Dadi and hosted by the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam. The volume’s format is very unusual: It is separated into two distinct parts, made to look as if they were two separate books. The first consists of a vast assortment of essays by historians, philosophers, sociologists, and art critics, including Leslie Adelson, Martin Bernal, Rustom Bharucha, Susan Buck-Morss, Dipesh Chakrabarty, Rey Chow, Jimmie Durham, Okwui Enwezor, and Slavoj Zizek. The second contains critical essays and reproductions of works by the eighteen internationally known artists who took part in the exhibition, non-Europeans invited to reflect on the concept of Europe. They are Willem Boshoff, Magdalena Campos-Pons, Heri Dono, Coco Fusco, Ni Haifeng, Fiona Hall, Susan Hefuna, Isaac Julien, Rachid Koraichi, Ken Lum, Nalini Malani, Yvette Mattern, Johannes Phokela, Keith Piper, Anri Sala, Yinka Shonibare, Vivan Sundaram, Nasrin Tabatabai, Beate Terfloth, Carmela Uranga, Fred Wilson, and Shi Yong. Text in English.

Salah Hassan and Iftikhar Dadi, Unpacking Europe. Towards a Critical Reading, NAi Publishers (Mauritsweg 23, Rotterdam, www.naipublishers.nl), 2001, 268 pages, 24 x 17 cm.

Wolfgang Tillmans, View from Above
This is the first complete monograph on Tillmans’ recent abstract works, photographs of landscapes and urban scenes reelaborated with stunning light effects—a series that includes Conquistador III and Icestorm, the latter created in a palette of yellow tones. The “Blushes” prints, created without negatives by directly exposing photographic paper illustrates the German artist’s ongoing investigation of light. This interest is also evident in the rest of his oeuvre, including his figurative pieces from preceding years, still lifes, and “Eclipse” series. The volume opens with prefaces by Zdenek Felix, Ida Gianelli, Jerôme Sans, Nicolas Bourriaud, and Poul Erik Tøjner, followed by an interview by Nathan Kernan and a critical text by Giorgio Verzotti. Text in English. Wolfgang Tillmans, View from Above, Hatje Cantz Verlag (Senefelderstrasse 12, Ostfildern-Ruit, www.hatjecantz.de), 2001, 204 pages, 29.7 x 24.4 cm.

Rosie Millard, The Tastemakers. UK Art Now
This weighty volume offers a careful analysis of the contemporary art scene in the United Kingdom. Author Rosie Millard is a correspondent for the BBC who also writes on art for television, radio, and the British press. Her reportage, characterized by amusing, offbeat gossip, is particularly interesting for readers who are not part of the contemporary art scene in the UK, whose epicenter remains London. Millard recounts anecdotes and information that she uncovered by interviewing a large number of art-world players, including Gavin Turk, Mark Wallinger, Will Alsop, Nicholas Serota, and Michael Craig-Martin. The text is accompanied by a substantial number of black-and-white photographs shot by Geraint Lewis. Text in English.

Rosie Millard, The Tastemakers. UK Art Now, Thames & Hudson (181A High Holborn, London, www.thamesandhudson.com), 2001, 258 pages, 16 x 23 cm.