The illustrated book was published on the occasion of the exhibitions Kiki Smith. Her Home, 2008, Museum Haus Esters, Krefeld, and 18 September to 16 November 2008, Kunsthalle Nuremberg. Kiki Smith (born 1954) occupied herself right from the outset with the human body and with the human condition in the broadest sense. Unlike classical figurative sculpture, which hides the insides of the body, Smith’s work also visualizes the organs and the body fluids, the fragility and transitoriness of the body. Smith’s work draws from myths and links spirit, human, and animal worlds. Starting from a silk embroidery from the 18th century Smith developed a scenario consisting of different narrative threads that revolve around the theme of the ‘unmarried woman’. With excursions into Christian iconography as well as into the history of the American post-colonial era, she speaks also to the inspired female artist as a prototype of the veritable creative woman. Once again she brings a wealth of material into play, which gives the exhibition its unmistakable character.

Dutch artist Marijke van Warmerdam has achieved international recognition in recent years, showing her videos at the MUHKA Museum, Antwerp, the Malm Konsthall in Sweden, the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, the Sydney Biennial and documenta X. Her pieces feature seemingly unspectacular actions–a small boy shivering in the cold, a bear groping about, a child’s hands catching and throwing a ball–repeated continuously until they become spectacular. Eschewing the narrative confines of film, van Warmerdam emphasizes video’s sculptural qualities, concentrating on calm and almost motionless images that exercise and sharpen the viewer’s perceptions. This new monograph presents the first ever overview of van Warmerdam’s video work to date, and also draws connections between the artist’s videos and her photography and sculptures. Featuring numerous color spreads of her video stills, Marijke van Warmerdam offers a fascinating insight into this artist’s already substantial oeuvre.

Sometimes plausible, sometimes inconceivable, Paul Morrison’s starkly black-and-white wall works, with their precisely defined forms, relocate the viewer into a fictitious place equipped with a range of comfortably familiar allusions. Constructed through a combination of gently rounded forms derived equally from Walt Disney and the rigor of the botanical draftsman, Morrison’s imaginary world mixes the earnest truth with the sincere make-believe. Essays by Simon Wallis, Godfrey Wordsdale and Andrea Madesta. Foreword by Ellen Seifermann.