Books of the Books

Annotated and lavishly illustrated catalogue raisonné of Jonathan Meese's artist books The medium of the book plays a central role in Jonathan Meese's oeuvre. His first artist books were created at the HFBK University of Fine Arts Hamburg. Here, Meese also began writing and publicly reading texts. These readings then developed into his first performances. Meese's serial work process resulted in a wealth of material, presented by him in the form of installations, portfolios, books, and notebooks. Following his graduation, the artist books' formats and often also their materials changed. In large collage books and folios friends and protagonists from the artworld were combined with historical figures, philosophers or pulp fiction heroes. The artist books' stylistic elements were also used for the creation of special editions and exhibition catalogs. The lavishly illustrated, annotated catalogue raisonné covers more than 400 artist publications in chronological order: books, unique copies, notebooks, exercise books, material and collage books, atlases, facsimiles and catalogs in which Jonathan Meese was significantly involved. Work and archive numbers are followed by detailed bibliographical data supplemented by material, technique, edition, signature, printer or production and, where possible, prominence. Text: Robert Eikmeyer, Wolfgang Ullrich.