Jock Sturges, New Works 1997-2000
This is a large, elegant catalogue compiling the recent works of celebrated American photographer Jock Sturges from 1997 to date. The artist himself decided on the layout and page size. Born in New York in 1947, Sturges has spent his summer holidays on nudist beaches on the French and Californian coasts for over twenty years. The catalogue contains a variety of images depicting the bodies of young girls, whose nudity is seen as a glorified vision of the spontaneity of human nature. The last section of the book contains the artist’s new series of photographs from 2000. Opting for color in these works, Sturges makes a change from his previous preference for the black and white previously a characteristic feature of his work.

Jock Sturges, New Works 1997-2000, Scalo Verlag AG (Weinbergstrasse 22a, Zurich, www.scalo.com) 2000, 112 pages, 32 x 36 cm.

Remake Berlin
This impressive catalogue was produced for the exhibition, curated by Katrin Becker and Urs Stahel, held at the Fotomuseum in Winterthur. Eight international visual artists and six writers were invited to take part in this project giving thought to the city of Berlin in its role as new capital of the German Republic. The works are presented in very high quality photographic images and are further enhanced by the choice of an almost transparent silver color print for the captions and titles. The texts, in English and German, are printed in white blocks onto evanescent gray images of various parts of Berlin. The artists invited to participate include: Clegg & Guttmann, Astrid Klein, Rémy Markowitsch, Boris Mikhailov, Juergen Teller, Frank Thiel, Céline van Balen, and Stephen Wilks, while the writers are László Földényi, Thomas Kapielski, Monika Maron, Emine Sevgi Özdamar, Paul Virilio and Matthias Zschokke.

Remake Berlin, Steidl Verlag (Düstere Strasse 4, Göttingen, www.steidl.de), 2000, 235 pages, 25 x 32,5 cm.

Sub Rosa. Flowers in Contemporary Art
This catalogue was produced for an exhibition first hosted in Denmark at Charlottenborg, and later at the Swedish Södertälje Konsthalle, and the Finnish Amos Anderson Konstmuseum. The theme of the exhibition was the use of floral motifs applied in a variety of ways in Nordic contemporary art. The catalogue elegantly, and rather particularly, reproduces the numerous works included in the show, which ranged from Tuulla Lehtinen’s oils on canvas to installations by Clara von Rettig and Marianne Heske. The texts in the catalogue are printed in English. They include Beauty as an Aesthetic Strategy, by Nina Björkman, Sub Rosa—Subrosaobservans by Pia Thunholm, Flower Power by Charlotte Brandt, and With Loving Greeting by Mette Thelle. There is also an historical excursus on floral iconography in the history of western art.

Sub Rosa. Flowers in Contemporary Art, Charlottenborg Udstillingsbygning (Nyhavn 2, Denmark), 2000, 111 pages, 23 x 30 cm.

Olivieri. Opere 1969-2000
This catalogue was printed to coincide with the anthological exhibition dedicated to Roman artist Claudio Olivieri. Curated by Marco Goldin, the show was held at the Civic Art Gallery of the Palazzo Sarcinelli in Conegliano. Olivieri’s works, brought together for the first time in the show, are fully documented here in the catalogue. The oeuvre of this rather reserved artist, untouched by artworld trends and fashions, moves from paintings with a strongly informal component, like Boreale and Thule, which date back to the late Sixties, through the Trittico di Bentivoglio from 1999. There are critical commentaries by Bruno Corà, Fabrizio D’Amico, Marco Goldin, and Silvia Pegoraro.

Olivieri. Opere 1969-2000, Linea d’ombra libri ( www.lineadombra.it ), 2001, 172 pages, 24 x 29 cm.

Novecento. Arte e Storia in Italia
This generous volume is the catalogue for the exhibition of the same name, which was held in two locations: the Scuderie Papali at the Quirinale and the Mercati of Traiano. Edited by Maurizio Calvesi and Paul Ginsborg, the volume offers a reading of twentieth century art and history in Italy, citing around two hundred paintings, sculptures, and drawings. Their approach to the development of Italian art in the last century is not chronological and looks, instead, at some of the era’s major themes and problems: futurism and the issue of materials; abstraction; between naturalism and the Informal; classicism between metaphysics, tradition, and concept; expressionism, antinovecento, a new interpretation; signs of communication; and, finally, the immaterial image.

Novecento. Arte e Storia in Italia, Skira Editore (Palazzo Casati Stampa, Via Torino, 61, Milan, 2000, 614 pages, 24 x 28 cm.