The Beauty of Books : Art Exhibition on The Best Books of the Frankfurt Book Fair 2022-2024

Opening：2024.5.23

Duration：2024.5.23-27

Academic Chair：Dr.Jasmin Gong

Curator：Lam Kongchuen

Address：

Hall 10, Shenzhen International Convention and Exhibition Centre, Frankfurter Book Fair Pavilion.

Organisers：InterCulture、DERUI Business

Supporters：Frankfurter Buchmesse、Goethe Institut、German Book Information Center

Artists/Writers

Josef Koudelka, Pauline Bachmann, Briony Fer, Susanne Gaensheimer, Nina Canell, Giulia Rispoli, Sally O'Reilly, Dimitri Hegemann, Paul Hockenos, Regina Baer, Tobias Zielony,Lam och Cherry Tsang, Sophie Taeuber-Arp, Yulia Aleynikova, Marcia Arrieta, Sean Cho Ayres,Christine Färber, Markus Färber, Ina Kwon, Sabine Appel, Jana Hoch、Emma Flint、Eva Schöffmann-Davidov、Annette Moser、Marina Krämer、Lilly Silver、Simona Ceccarelli、Lena Hach、Barbara Jung、Anne Becker、Jörg Isermeyer、Kai Schüttler、Assata Frauhammer、Meike Töpperwien、Almut Schnerring、Jennifer Coulmann、Claudia Scharf、Lisa Forsch、Ruth Rahlff、Timo Grubing、Susan Schädlich, Michael Stang、Bea Davies、Richard Schneider、Liza Neunzerling、Manuela König、Britta Vorbach、Nadine Bougie、Silke Reimers、Fiete Koch、Sarah Jäger、Sarah Maus、Kathrin Tordasi、Beatrix Mannel、Karolina Benz、Kathrin Schärer、Tanya Lieske、Sybille Hein、Ole Könnecke、Charlotte Inden、 Susanne Göhlich、Inka Brand、Markus Brand、Jens Baumeister、Burkhard Schulz、Benjamin Schreuder、Betty van Bonn、Kirsten Vogel、Ina Biber、Christina Röckl、Martina Walther、Reto Crameri、Pauline Pete、Dominik Hochwald、Jörg Ihle、Petra Fritz、Michael Engler、Matthias Derenbach、Thilo Petry-Lassak、Maximilian Meinzold、Michaela Hanauer、Helge Vogt、Martin Verg、Peter Zickermann、Carola von Kessel、Lucie Göpfert、Bärbel Oftring、Burkhard Schulz、Eike Marcus、Eike Marcus、Benjamin Schreuder、Dominik Rupp、Dr. Volker Kratzenberg-Annies、Nick Annies、Andrea Weller-Essers、Simone Leiss-Bohn、Bernd Flessner、Stefan Lohr, Dr. Marta Doehler-Behzadi, Kerstin Faber, Katja Fischer, Tobias Haag, Kim Marie Müller, Ulrike Rothe, Dr. Bertram Schiffers, Elisa Wrobel，FAhmad AlAqra, Ali Karimi, Asaiel Al Saeed, Aseel Alyacoub, Balsam Madi, Ben Tosland, Carine Assaf, Christine Mady, Dena Qaddumi, Eleftheria Exarchou, Faysal Tabbarah, Francois Nour, Galila Elkadi, Hamed Bukhamseen, Hanadi Samhan, Hareth Ramzi, Hicham Bou,Angelika Juppien, Richard Zemp, Meret Wandeler, Ulrich Görlich, Caspar Schärer, Nadine Rinderer, Frauenfeld, Henrik Spohler, Gerbrand Bakker, Annette Spiro, Elizaveta Radi, Florian Schrott, Axel Simon, Jasper Cepl mit Sam Jacoby, Valerio Massaro, Irina Davidovici, Philippe Dufieux, Nuno Grande und Anne-Kristine Kronborg, Ilka Ruby, David Vaner, Susan Freinkel, Mark Miodownik, Nanjala Nyabola, Jan Silberberger,Kim Helmersen, Walter Scheiffele, Steffen Schumann,Anke Haarmann und Harald Lemke, Günther Maier, Timothy Snyder, Arne Rautenberg, Dita Zipfel, Henning Wagenbreth, Christina Steinlein, Philipp Anz, Sara Arzu Hardegger, Gregor Huber, Markus Kenner, Pete Mijnssen, Susan Peter, Christian Holler, Joachim Gaukel, Harald Lesch, Jutta Görlich, Ulrike Rose, Seppe De Blust, Charlotte Schaeben, Freek Persyn,Nick Axel, Ilya Khrzhanovsky, Nicholas Korodody, Martin Dean, Nora von Achenbach, Ellen Maurer-Zilioli, Christianne Weber-Stöber, Jörg, Gläscher, Sonja Zekri, Robin Byland, Kathrin Sonntag, Dorothea Zwirner, Persis Bekkering, David Habets, Grace Ndiritu, Anna Haifisch, Hanna Mittelstädt, Alan W. Moore, Raymond Roussel, Thomas Köck, Sivan Ben Yishai, Miroslava Svolikova, Rosemary Mayer, Bernadette Mayer, Reem A., Rebecca Blady, Kristin Pietrzyk, Gabriele Stötzer, Gabriele Stötzer, Frank Berzbach, Jenna Gesse, Jan Mammey, Falk Messerschmidt, Annette Spiro, Elizaveta Radi, Florian Schrott, Markus Bader, George Kafka, Rosario Talevi, Hans Günter Schmitz, Armin Coray, Niklaus Heeb,François Charbonnet,Elli Mosayebi, Michael Kraus, Andrea Wiegelmann, Reto Crameri ,Britt Müller, Noemi Schneider, GOLDEN COSMOS

Introduction of the Exhibition

In the spectrum of contemporary art, artists pay more attention to the concepts and meanings conveyed by their works, and the identity of books becomes one of the best creative media. The contemporary art practice of books is not limited to "artists' books", but books from any field can become the medium of creation for artists, and most importantly, in the process of creation, the artist identity of the authors from different fields is discovered one by one.

"The Frankfurt Book Fair 2022-2024”selects the most beautiful books in Germany over the past three years in a variety of categories, including art, architecture, literature, children's books, social sciences, and life guides. We transform the book exhibition into an interactive installation by changing the way books are displayed and reading behavior through artistic concepts and strategies. Each book in the series has its spine hidden and its content made invisible, with only one or a few representative books showing their spines and their book information disclosed.During the exhibition, we invited visitors to take out the books one by one and put them back on the shelves in the normal way of revealing the spine, thus each German book had its first contact with the Chinese readers, and when all the books were revealed, that was the end of the exhibition.

When the content of books is covered, it suggests that information technology has brought about a gap among people and anxiety about knowledge. When people, through their shared roles, transform the books which store and transmit knowledge into a site of interaction and linkage, the "Best of Frankfurt Book Fair 2022-2024" becomes an intertextual and "wordless" contemporary artscape.  Books can always keep changing our perceptions in a new way.

Die schönsten deutschen Bücher/

The "German Best Book Award" is the highest honor for book binding design in Germany. Since 1929, it has been held regularly every year, with an independent jury selecting and rewarding books that excel in image, layout, printing and binding. The focus of the competition is on visual and tactile aesthetics and the combination of content and form. The competition is organized by the German Foundation for Book Arts (DFB) and the jury consists of 9-12 members. The competition is organized by the German Foundation for Book Arts and the jury consists of 9-12 people. The books in the competition are divided into five categories: literature, children's books, art, social sciences and guidebooks.

Official website: www.stiftung-buchkunst.de

Works on Display/

This exhibition features 114 of the most beautiful books in Germany from 2022 to 2024 - art, architecture, literature, children's books, social sciences, and life guides - a few of which are introduced below for your enjoyment.

German Best Book Award 2023：

in the Life Guide category (five volumes)

Kunsthandwerk ist Kaktus. Die Sammlung seit 1945

(Craft is cactus. The collection since 1945)

Author：Nora von Achenbach, Ellen Maurer-Zilioli, Christianne Weber-Stöber u.a.

Publishing house：arnoldsche Art Publishers

ISBN：978-3-89790-649-5

"Artworks are carefully calculated coincidences." For the exhibition, the Frankfurt Museum of Applied Sciences took stock of its own treasury and described its art collection since 1945 in the exhibition brochure. The heavy core of the book consists of three types of paper. The paper used for the opening titles is as thin as a window screen. The inner title is printed using a simple but fine manner, and the transparency of the paper is emphasized by the hidden text on the back.

Lygia Pape. The Skin of ALL

Author：Pauline Bachmann, Briony Fer, Susanne Gaensheimer

Publishing house：Hatje Cantz

ISBN：978-3-7757-5225-1

Lygia Pape is a central figure in Brazilian neo-figurative art. In commemoration of the artist's first major solo exhibition in Germany, this informative publication draws on a number of unpublished archival sources to present the full range of Pape's extraordinary talents. Pape's oeuvre spans more than fifty years, encompassing both two periods of repressive dictatorship (1937-1945 and 1964-1985) and Brazil's nascent cultural and economic emergence. In this environment, Pape developed her own unique artistic philosophy, which included an abstract-concrete language of form, experimental explorations of space, and poetic representations of minor revolts. In addition to ethical and socio-political issues, she combines her work with experimental and all-sensory experiences, claiming that the viewer, who is personally involved, is the true creator of her work.

Lygia Pape's exhibition catalogue documents her important position in the development of Brazilian modern art. Alternating chapters on "Essays," "Works," and "Archives" provide a full range of information, while a series of photographs at the end gives the reader a visual impression of the exhibition space. As presented in works such as The Book of Creation, Pape pursues more than a simple distortion of European avant-garde art. It achieves a transcendence of geometric abstraction with playful poetic assertions. The "Manifesto for a New Figurativism", which she was a signatory to in 1959, criticised the purely formal and rationalised approach represented by the Ulm School of Design.

Briefe 1905-1942 (3 Bände)

[Letters 1905-1942 (3 volumes)]

Author：Sophie Taeuber-Arp u.a.
Publishing：NIMBUS. Kunst und Bücher AG
ISBN：978-3-03850-080-3

The life of the Swiss woman artist Sophie Taeuber-Arp has so far appeared in a small number of texts, most of which also relate to the dramatic experiences of her later years: her escape from Paris in 1940 and again from Grasse in 1942.

The letters also bear witness to Sophie Arp's correspondence with artists, for example about supporters of Dadaism, such as the German writers Hugo Ball, Emil Hennings and Richard Huelsenbeck; the Dutch painter Theo van Doesburg; and the Romanian writer Teilhard de Klerk. van Doesburg, the Romanian writer Tristan Tzara, the French writer Paul Eluard, the French painter Max Ernst, the French painter Delaunay and the German poet Kurt Schwitters.) In this way, this collection of letters constitutes a unique research resource for the pioneering art world of the first half of the 20th century.

Arbeitet nie! Die Erfindung eines anderen Lebens.

Chronik eines Verlags

(Never work! The invention of another life.

Chronicle of a publishing house)

Author：Hanna Mittelstädt  ISBN：978-3-96054-317-6

Publishing house：Edition Nautilus

Following Lutz Schulenberg's unexpected death in 2013, Hannah Mittelstädt looks back over the past forty years of Nautilus Press. With the help of numerous documents unearthed from the publishing house's correspondence, she recounts a history that is both personal and collective. Inspired by the May Storm in Paris in 1968, the publishing house has always endeavoured to enrich interest, knowledge and autonomy, and has sought to move away from traditional notions of "political work" and "political literature". This is the story of the creation of an alternative life.

 From the end of the 1960s onwards, the search for social renewal in the arts, literature and among university students began to take the form of large-scale public protests. It was in this context that Nautilus Press was born in 1973. This publishing house was dedicated to promoting left-wing social ideas that were not conformist or dogmatic. Now its co-founder, Hannah Mittelstädt, has combed through the archives of this independent publishing house and distilled a personal chronicle from the last forty years of the publisher's correspondence.

Armando Ruinelli Architekten: Bauten 1982–2022. Leggere il tempo

Architect Armando Ruinelli: Architecture from 1982 to 2022

Publishing house：Park Books

Author：Axel Simon

ISBN：978-3-03860-320-7

Few architects are as closely connected to their hometown as Armando Ruinelli. In a village with fewer than 100 inhabitants, such as the village of Soglio in the Bregaria Valley in Switzerland, there is limited honour - Armando Ruinelli was born there in 1954, and it is almost as if his ideas and work have grown out of the village's solid stone. He is an international authority on the transformation of pre-existing buildings, especially in the mountains. He teaches, lectures, judges, undertakes design commissions and also works in architecture. The quantity is small, but the quality is high.

The book shows his journey: from the first buildings he built in his home town in the 1980s, through modernisation projects and new constructions that retain local traditions but are in line with contemporary ideas about housing, to his latest works that unleash his own architectural style, such as the almost abstract studio for the artist Miriam Cahn.

Albertas Wunschladen

(Alberta's dream shop)

Author：Martina Walther

Publishing house：kunstanstifter

All is quiet in the small seaside town where Alberta has her shop. Most of the time, Alberta is alone in the shop mending, polishing and cleaning. But one day, a desperate gentleman looking for a parking space suddenly causes a rumour to spread throughout the city that there is a very special shop in town.

More and more people flock to her shop, each with a special wish: some want a short-legged ottoman, others want a bad-tempered cloud, still others want more peppers in their lives, or even an inflatable dumbbell ...... Alberta busily traverses the shelves-laden shop in search of wonderful items and answers. and finding just the right thing for every customer in her wish shop.

Until one day, Alberta's most loyal customer, Pepe the fisherman, comes to town again and asks her a question that changes everything ......