Studio Exhibition

172 New Book Objects Book Designs and Artists’ Books in the Collection since 2012

26 April – 14 May 2017

The conception of collecting as one of the focuses of Book Art and Graphics at the Frankfurt Museum Angewandte Kunst has undergone many changes since the department’s collecting activities began in 1921.

Those changes closely mirror the development from a museum of arts and crafts to the present-day Museum Angewandte Kunst – a museum of applied art as a “space of possibility” under the direction of Matthias Wagner K since 2012. Thanks to digitalization, we’re no longer merely the recipients of books, but also their possible designers: in contrast to the cumbersome process of lead typesetting, now anyone can produce a blog or book of his/her own on the computer. The issue of which typeface to use is no longer the exclusive domain of the typesetter, but has become part of everyday office life. New methods of self-publishing have given creative people means of publishing their own books, while artists have discovered the book for themselves as an object and form of artistic expression.


Dr Eva Linhart, the custodian and curator of the Department of Book Art and Graphics, took these changes as her point of departure to discuss the conception of collecting with museum visitors.

From 26 April to 14 May 2017, the studio exhibition 172 New Book Objects: Book Designs and Artists’ Books in the Collection since 2012 showed the 172 book objects acquired over the past five years. Dr Linhart introduced these new acquisitions and, citing numerous examples, talked about the changing conception of collecting in her department. What criteria apply to artists’ books by Tobias Rehberger, Michael Riedel, Corinna Krebber and many other artists?

Books & Bookster – Die Zukunft des Buches und der Buchbranche, Inventar-Nr. LNBZ 1493, Gestaltung: Sandra Doeller, Foto: Christian Doeller

Okan Yildirim, „Guess woh´s coming to Dinnner???, Okan Okan Okan (Okanx3), IOTU Publishing, 2017, Danish Arts Foundation, English

Self-Publishing: 10 × 10:
Ten Book Works Introduced in Ten Minutes Each

Saturday, 29 April 2017, 3 pm

Presented by the Department of Book Art and Graphics at the Museum Angewandte Kunst
With Eva Linhart, head of the Department of Book Art and Graphics, and Sandra Doeller, designer and typography lecturer

Designers and artists could submit their own self-published books, a selection of which were discussed on Saturday, 29 April 2017 at the Museum Angewandte Kunst.