The exhibition catalog “Bruce Nauman: Disappearing Acts” accompanies the retrospective of the same name at Schaulager, which was conceived in cooperation with the Museum of Modern Art, New York. The richly illustrated book offers a comprehensive overview of Nauman’s career spanning more than fifty years of artistic activity in a diverse range of media. Nauman’s works are very direct and confrontational and often have the character of simple exercises or critical self-interrogations. Whether through drawing, print, video, sculpture, sound or language, performance or complex installations—the artist consistently explores fundamental questions that examine the phenomenological and psychological experience of body, time, space, movement and architecture. A wide selection of authors turn their attention to series and themes that have previously been neglected in the critical examination of this body of work, such as Nauman’s interest in architectural models or the significance of color. In addition to an extensive introduction on the exhibition concept, 17 shorter essays concentrate on specific recurring ideas or media. An illustrated selected exhibition history featuring numerous rare or previously unpublished images completes the volume.

In the summer and early fall of 2016 Schaulager is presenting "Zita – Щapa. Chamber Piece by Katharina Fritsch and Alexej Koschkarow": a finely honed, three-room installation by Katharina Fritsch (*1956 Essen, Germany) and Alexej Koschkarow (*1972 Minsk, Belarus). The seven new sculptures and drawings premiered in this presentation are the outcome of an intense exchange of artistic ideas and concepts. These works of art enter into dialogue with each other in an almost theatrical setting, and what initially looks like a domestic scenario soon tips into a highly explosive ambience. The elaborately designed catalogue reflects in both its contents and scope the complexity and multiple levels of "Zita – Щapa". Four authors—Jacqueline Burckhardt, Robert Fleck, Julian Heynen, and Michael Rooks—variously explore different aspects of this multi-layered installation. Fritsch and Koschkarow, who have been friends for many years, are also united by the immense precision and meticulousness of their artistic working methods. Picture sequences document the development of an ensemble of works that will only be seen at Schaulager in this configuration. In the catalogue large-format installation views capture something of the artistic concentration of this unique mise-en-scène.

When the Emanuel Hoffmann Foundation published its last catalogue of the collection in 1991, there were 322 entries in the list of works. Today the collection comprises over 1,000 works and reads like a cross-section of the history of art and artistic thinking in the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries.

On the occasion of the exhibition FUTURE PRESENT the new catalogue Future Present: The Collection of the Emanuel Hoffmann Foundation takes stock of the present and provides a comprehensive insight into this vast treasure trove of artistic responses to the world since the 1920s.

The catalogue of the collection details paintings, sculptures, drawings, installations, photographs and video works owned by the Emanuel Hoffmann Foundation. The illustrated list of works is preceded by over eighty descriptions of works and biographies of all the artists represented in the collection. A conversation between the art historian Catherine Hürzeler and the President of the Foundation, Maja Oeri, adds a personal dimension to the Foundation’s commitment to contemporary art. Ralph Ubl, Professor of Modern Art at the University of Basel, portrays the Foundation’s collecting activities against an art-historical backdrop. Finally, this richly illustrated publication is rounded off with useful pointers to further reading.

The catalogue to the exhibition "Paul Chan – Selected Works", held at the Schaulager Basel in 2014, was developed by the artist in collaboration with graphic designers and is intended as a "picture book within a book." At its heart is the overwhelming wealth of images in the "Selected Source Files" series. The collages of heterogeneous material testify to the wide-ranging sources of inspiration and the visual context on which the artist has drawn in his works. A cleverly conceived essay by Daniel Birnbaum is an aid to deeper understanding. Photographs of the installations on view in the exhibition, a list of works, and commentary linking the individual groups of work round off the publication.

The publication, which accompanied the 2013 exhibition of works by Steve McQueen at Schaulager Basel - the world’s largest to date - comprises an extensively documented catalogue of the complete works of the British artist and filmmaker Steve McQueen from 1992 to 2012. There are illustrations of all the works, many of them on fold-out plates. Texts by a series of top-class authors - the artistic director of the Toronto International Film Festival, Cameron Bailey; the director of the Haus der Kunst in Munich, Okwui Enwezor; art historians Georges Didi-Huberman and Jean Fisher; and the curator of contemporary art at the Art Institute of Chicago, James Rondeau - and a substantial discussion with the artist offer deeper insights into Steve McQueen’s work and the nature of his powerful, thought-provoking creativity.

The catalogue documents the exhibition of Francis Alÿs’ collection of paintings of Saint Fabiola in the magnificent rooms of Kirschgarten House in Basel, staged here at the artist’s suggestion. Alÿs built up this collection of Fabiolas over many years. The conceptual artist used great cunning and aesthetic sense to position the portraits of the saint into the bourgeois context of this house, once a city mansion and now a museum of 19th century upper middle class domestic culture. Full-page illustrations of the rooms as they were used vividly showcase the art project. Essays by the exhibition curator Lynne Cooke and art historian Dario Gamboni provide in-depth analysis alongside the documentation, rounded off by information for further reading.

Written to accompany the exhibition held at Schaulager Basel in 2010, this book is the first complete record of “DRAWING RESTRAINT”, Matthew Barney’s performance project that started in 1987. It also introduces several of his large-scale sculptures with texts and numerous illustrations. In keeping with the artist’s ideas, Barney’s works are contrasted with selected northern Renaissance paintings and works on paper containing Christian imagery. It features illustrations and descriptions of all the exhibited works. Essays by the exhibition curator Neville Wakefield, New York, and Bodo Brinkmann, curator of old masters at the Kunstmuseum Basel, take us through the ideas behind the exhibition. A far-reaching discussion between the British psychoanalyst and writer Adam Phillips and Matthew Barney gives insight into the array of subjects the artist is interested in. A large-format photospread illustrates the exhibition.

The book documents the exhibition “Holbein bis Tillmans” held at Schaulager Basel in 2009 with works from the collections of the Kunstmuseum Basel and the Emanuel Hoffmann Foundation. It features illustrations and descriptions of all the exhibited works. The 14 chapters also contain sensitive explanations of the sometimes audacious juxtapositions. Additionally enclosed is a separate booklet with an English translation of the catalogue texts.

The photographs and drawings by Monika Sosnowska, published here for the first time, offer unexpected and fascinating insights into her artistic working process. For the artist, these digital images and drawings are working materials, created en route to her sculptures.

This catalogue, produced for the 2008 exhibition at Schaulager Basel, brings together for the first time an extensive selection of Andrea Zittel’s gouaches on paper and paintings on wood created since 1992. The colourful gouaches and paintings, a fascinating mixture of anonymous reportage and diary, seem to document something that could be considered the artist’s personal blueprint for life. One section contains commentaries written for the catalogue by the artist.

This book is the first complete presentation of Robert Gober’s sculptures and installations from 1979 to 2007. Approximately 250 pieces are catalogued with full-page illustrations, technical details and information on how they were created, as well as work-specific comments by the artist. The book also contains an introductory essay by Elisabeth Sussman, curator at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York.

The publication documents the “Sign Painting Project” initiated by the conceptual artist Francis Alÿs and carried out between 1993 and 1997 in collaboration with three Mexican sign painters, normally commissioned by clients to paint advertisements. In the course of the project, the artist gave designs to the sign painters and commissioned them to turn these into own paintings - the ones the artist then again rendered into new creations. A selection was exhibited at Schaulager Basel in 2005. The catalogue documents and illustrates all the works created as part of the project. An article by the artist and several essays by experts on Alÿs explain the project and clarify its context.

"Tacita Dean. Analogue" represents the first systematic collection of the artist's drawings. It focuses on her works on paper and alabaster as well as her wall panels and photographs created between 1991 and 2006. The book also contains a complete catalogue of Tacita Dean's works in all media she employs.

The first catalogue raisonné on Jeff Wall documents all the artist’s work produced between 1978 and 2004. It contains 120 entries with technical details and information on how the individual works were created, with additional comments by the artist. An in-depth essay by Jean-François Chevrier, an expert on Jeff Wall, introduces the body of work. In addition to reprints of three fundamental essays, the publication also contains an original text written by the artist for the catalogue, a comprehensive history of his exhibitions and an extensive bibliography.

OUT OF PRINT

The catalogue for the Basel Schaulager’s inaugural exhibition is the first comprehensive publication covering the full range of the artist’s spheres of work; it offers a complete overview of the work Dieter Roth created between 1945 and 1998. The rhythm of the artist’s life was set by his chosen home in Iceland, resulting in a lifetime spent travelling back and forth between the volcanic island, his homes in Basel, Europe and the USA. These factors also influenced his work, his combination of sensitivity and extravagance, the inherent contradictions of his extroverted nonconformism and the audacity with which he deliberately used perishable materials and playfully explored boundaries. Explanatory texts on the individual groups of works present the selected works in a historical context and shed light on the artist’s intentions.