do it, don't!?

The Heidelberger Kunstverein is currently showing an exhibition called "Das Buch" (The Book). It is about bookprojects by artists which have been produced since the 1960s. Most of the exhibits have a conceptual approach which sometimes isn't easy to understand nevertheless, the exhibition isn't brittle at all, even sometimes fun and definitely worth a visit! The participating artists are: Peter Piller (Archiv), Fiona Banner (Nam), Mel Bochner(Working Drawings and Other Visible Things on Paper Not Necessarily Meant To Be Viewed As Art), Mariana Castillo Deball (Never Odd or Even, Simon Faithful (Lost), Holmer Feldmann & Andreas Grahl (The Cabinet. / Der Schrank. The Art Collection The Cabinet of Art Detective, Artist & Collector Ramon Haze, Acquested by His Deputies Holmer Feldmann and Andreas Grahl).

My favourit exhibit is a work by Hans Ullrich Obrist called "do it". The book has been published by e-flux and Revolver - Archiv fur aktuelle Kunst, and sponsored by Art Basel. 368 pages, hard plastic cover, ISBN 3-86588-001-0
Design: Christoph Steinegger/Interkool

"With Do It in hand, you will be able to make a work of (someone else's) art yourself. Since 1993 Do It has provided its public with how-to pages of instructions written by 168 of the most important artists and writers working today. Some of the projects are historic classics brought forward especially for the occasion, but most of the contributions being imagined here are new. Do it has grown in stages, springing up around the world in 45 museums and art centers in Europe, the Americas, Asia, and Australia. The time has come to summarize the results in a book that is part manual, part cookbook, part do-it-yourself kit. Here it is. It has only just begun!" [...]

And here are some videos of artist doing it...

Credit: hdkv