Artists Book

In the collection, as well as the unique approaches of the authors (Dalibor Chatrný, Rudolf Fila, Milan Knížák, Květa Pacovská, Miloš Šejn etc.), conceptual (Petr Babák, Vladimír Havlík, Jiří H. Kocman, Vladimíra Sedláková, Jiří Valoch, Jan Wojnar ad.), and lettrist (Jan K. Čeliš, Jiří Hůla / Josef Volvovič, Ladislav Novák, Václav Vokolek ad.) forms of work with artists’ books are represented. Another line is represented by works dealing with the relationship between music and fine arts (Milan Grygar, Petr Pokorný). The border between an artist’s book and an object is represented by works from the authors of the Fluxus movement (Hendriks Bici, George Brecht, Robert Wats etc.), which are considered as classic and founding works in the field of artists book. A specific part of the collection consists of works that may be categorized as books or catalogues representing a work of art (Christian Boltanski, Marcel Broodthaers, Daniel Buren, Gilbert & George, Andy Warhol, Sol LeWitt etc.).

The first wave of acquisitions was carried out at the suggestion of Pavel Zatloukal and Ladislav Daněk in co-operation with external specialists Jiří Valoch and Zdenek Primus between 1997 and 2002. In 2003 it was suggested that a separate collection of artists books be established, based on an extraordinary acquisition of hand-made prayer books and also thanks to the acquisition of other international works from the 2nd half of the 20th century.

Since 2004, the curator of the collection has been Gina Renotière, who gradually acquired the unique collection of the Rainer Verlag publishing house, Berlin (Dieter Roth, A. R. Penck, Emmett Williams, Ann Noël, Endre Tot, Jan Voss, Ben Vautier, Damien Hirst etc.).