4 Questions for Christoph Schifferli
with Gianni Jetzer
Books on Books with Christoph Schifferli
Christoph Schifferli is an artist book maven. A true enthusiast for printed matters, his knowledge is both specialized and unparalleled, a talent which propelled SI Director Gianni Jetzer to ask Mr. Schifferli to curate a show at Swiss Institute. The exhibition Books on Books is on view until October 30th. Gianni sat down with Mr. Schifferli and asked him a few questions about his selection of books for the exhibition.
GJ: What is the first artist’s book that you purchased?
CS: Edward Rusha’s Parking Lots (1967) edition, a real classic. At that time I was collecting photography books, and I made the distinction between books about photographers and books by photographers. The categorization worked well until I ended up with books that were neither, such as Ruscha’s books that include photographs, which were not taken by a photographer and have no explanation text. This turned out to be the first of many artists’ books in my collection.
GJ: How would you summarize the concept behind the exhibition Books on Books?
CS: Books on Books departs from the artistic strategy of appropriation, which was prevalent in the seventies and eighties. When I started to look through my collection, I realized that many contemporary artists from the nineties to the present use this strategy to play with and to discuss books and prints. I thought this theme would be an interesting way to approach artists’ books.
GJ: What are the three books that you particularly like in your selection?
CS: The first is Playboy Volume XLI, No. 1. Barbara Bloom, which is partially an appropriation piece. The edition consists of a Playboy magazine translated in braille, an effort spearheaded by The United States Library of Congress. Bloom uses this braille edition and ads a photographic centerfold, the portrait of Marilyn Monroe reading James Joyce’s Ulysess.
A second title is the artist’s book by Marcel Broodthaers that cites Stéphane Mallarmé’s poem, Un Coup de Dés Jamais N’Abolira Le Hasard. Broodthaers redesigned the poem by blocking out the text with continuous black stripes. This edition was published in 1968. In the same year, and even in the same month, November 1968, Mario Diacono, an Italian artist who was part of the concrete poetry movement, had the same idea; he produced a similar citation with AMETRICA n’aboolira kat’Alogos. JCT #1 (1968). The similarity and synchonicity of the two books question traditional assumptions of artistic genius and originality.
The third book is by Dora Garcia, which reproduces the pocket edition of Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 (1967) with mirrored copy. When exhibited, all two thousand copies of the books were stacked on a table as an installation.
GJ: Which artists are the most crucial for the subject of the exhibition?
CS: There are quite a few people who access the concept in different ways. Olaf Nicolai presents a bibliography of books that were owned by Maria Colao, a Roman gallerist who passed away a few years ago. It is a reference not only to her collection, but also to her life achievements. Rodney Graham creates a bookmark for the trade edition of Ian Fleming’s Dr. No. When inserted into a specific page, the marker creates a textual loop.
