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A quarter of a century has passed since Dieter Roth (1930–1998) left behind a bequeathal of a special order in his studio not far from the Rhine and close to the Kunstmuseum Basel | Gegenwart: Selbstturm; Löwenturm (Self tower; Lion tower, 1969/70–1998). The two high-rising towers made of chocolate and cast-sugar figures entered the collection of the Emanuel Hoffmann Foundation as a work in progress in 1989. Because the artist wanted to continue working on it, he moved the installation into a room outside the museum, which he used as a studio, but which was also accessible to visitors. The place is still open for visits.

The monograph Dieter Roth. Selbstturm; Löwenturm pays tribute to one of the key works of this universal artist. The image concept for the photo story was created by Peter Fischli. Roth himself meticulously documented his work and the installation itself in countless images, including portraits of each individual figure. In doing so, he created a veritable treasure trove of photographs, Polaroids, and videos. Roth’s body of work is as expansive as it is rigorous and ordered. The radical decision to reproduce each of the more than 800 images is, in effect, an homage to this virtuoso of contemporary art.

The publication “Bruce Nauman: A Contemporary” poses the question of Nauman’s contemporaneity and situates his oeuvre in the context of artistic positions and art theoretical discourses from the last decades. Six in-depth essays by renowned authors illuminate Nauman’s work, such as in regard to its inherent humour or the practice of endless repetition. The volume of texts examines the mirror image and rear-view figures, for example, along with questions of contemporary subject constitution, digital image production and cybernetics. Theories of labor and globalization are discussed in reference to Nauman’s creative output, as well as the connections between Nauman’s work and models of behaviorism, software and computer theory, or topology. The various essays consider Nauman’s oeuvre in relation to diverse artistic positions such as those of Ed Atkins, Erwin Wurm, Francis Alÿs, Fischli / Weiss, Dara Birnbaum, Yvonne Rainer or René Magritte. In so doing, the volume of texts seeks to counter the tendency to cast the artist as an outstanding solitary figure of postmodernism and opens up manifold references to works and theories concurrent with Nauman’s active career.

Release 17 March 2018

Schaulager is a unique institution funded by the Laurenz Foundation. It is dedicated to the art of the 20th and 21st century, focusing on research and education. Schaulager houses the international art collection of the Emanuel Hoffmann Foundation. Its accessible storage facilitates the preservation, conservation, documentation, research and exhibition of the art works.

Accompanied by a wide range of pictures, this book offers an exciting insight into the institution’s various daily activities. Moreover, it features documentation about past exhibitions and projects.

The work of Paul Chan (born 1973) has charted a course in contemporary art as unpredictable and wide-ranging as the thinking that grounds his practice. "Paul Chan: Selected Writings 2000–2014" collects the critical essays and artist’s texts that first appeared in leading art journals such as "Artforum", "October", "Texte zur Kunst" and "Frieze", as well as previously unpublished speeches and textual works. From comedy to Duchamp’s artistic freedom, to the contradictions that bind aesthetics and politics, Chan’s writings revel in the paradoxes that make the experience of art both vexing and pleasurable. Paul Chan reflects on artists as diverse as Henry Darger, Chris Marker, Sigmar Polke and Paul Sharits, and grapples with writers and thinkers who have played decisive roles in his practice, including Theodor Adorno, Samuel Beckett and the Marquis de Sade. Along the way, Chan lays bare the ideas and personalities that inform his work and shows a masterly understanding of ways to test and refresh the role and potential of art in a host of broader social and political arenas beyond galleries and museums.

• Catalogue Paul Chan
• Artistbook Paul Chan

This bilingual publication brings together seven lectures given during the programme of events that accompanied the exhibition “Steve McQueen. Works” at Schaulager Basel in 2013. The lectures delve deeper into the work of the British video installation and film artist, and illuminate the interaction between art and cinema in Steve McQueen’s work. It is interspersed with high-quality photographs presenting a - previously unpublished - visual review of the spectacular architecture designed specifically to present Steve McQueen’s work at Schaulager.

• Catalogue Steve McQueen

This bilingual German-English book brings together the proceedings of the conference held on 12 and 13 September 2008 on the occasion of the exhibition “Andrea Zittel, Monika Sosnowska : 1:1” at Schaulager in Basel. The question of the mutual relationships between everyday life and an artistic context has remained current since the beginning of the modern era.

• Catalogue Monika Sosnowska
• Catalogue Andrea Zittel

The book contains contributions to the “Gehen” symposium, held in Basel on 7 and 8 July 2006 to coincide with the exhibitions of Tacita Dean and Francis Alÿs at Schaulager. The contributions pick up on the peripatetic, process-oriented approach both artists take to their art and deal with analytical, theoretical and aesthetic aspects expressed within it.

• Catalogue Francis Alÿs
• Catalogue Tacita Dean

Conceived as a vade mecum, the seven chapters of the catalogue for the exhibition in 2004 held at Schaulager document and annotate the Basel-based architecture firm’s 250th architectural project: an exhibition offering examples of Herzog & de Meuron’s design process through models and material samples, whose instant allure makes a significant contribution to the architects’ success. Herzog & de Meuron also designed and built Schaulager.

In a conversation held on 18 August 2004 as part of Schaulager’s exhibition “Herzog & de Meuron: No. 250. An exhibition”, the Basel-based architect Jacques Herzog (b. 1950) and the art historian Gottfried Boehm (b. 1942), long-serving professor at the University of Basel, discussed the dynamic relationship between architecture and image - the two great qualities in Herzog & de Meuron’s work.

The book brings together the proceedings of the symposium held on 4 and 5 July 2003 on the occasion of the exhibition “Roth Time. A Dieter Roth Retrospective” at Schaulager Basel. The articles and essays introduce and discuss working processes, decisions on the selection of materials, the role of waste and the artist’s studio as an exhibition space, the relationship between text and images, and the interconnectedness of art and life in Dieter Roth’s thinking and his creative process.

• Catalogue Dieter Roth