The Feverish Library at Friedrich Petzel

Burgess Meredith in the book-drenched Twilight Zone episode “Time Enough At Last“

They speak (I know) of the “feverish Library whose chance volumes are constantly in danger of changing into others and affirm, negate and confuse everything like a delirious divinity.” – Jorge Luis Borges, The Library of Babel

Front: Richard Artschwager. From left to right: John Stezaker, Richard Prince, Stephen Prina

The exhibit is organized in cooperation with noted curator and director of the non-profit alternative art space White Columns, Matthew Higgs.

“The Feverish Library” brings together a number of artworks whose premises are predicated on the book as a conceptual, psychological, and cultural form. In some pieces, the actual physicality of the book is addressed. The works collectively constitute a meditation on the page, book jackets, design, and content. Some works are arguably a fond or surreal portrait of pulp, a disconcerting look at hoarding and a general nostalgia or malaise regarding the impending obsolescence of the printed medium. And like the expansive and confused Borgesian library, the works in the show will be densely layered.

Front: Tauba Auerbach. From left to right: Rachel Whiteread, Candida Hoëfer

Front: Gavin Brown. From left to right: Martin Kippenberger, Jeremy Deller; Nicholas Abrahams, Anne Collier

The Friedrich Petzel Gallery also asked thirty of their artist to bring a copy of their favorite book to be on view during the exhibition.

Sean Landers

Mark Dion

I’m starting to feel warm.

If you are anywhere near New York City in the next couple of days it might be worth a visit.

Friedrich Petzel
The Feverish Library at Friedrich Petzel (Contemporary Art Daily)

List of Artists:
Richard Artschwager, Tauba Auerbach, John Baldessari, Steven Baldi, Erica Baum, Carol Bove, Matthew Brannon, Gavin Brown, Clegg and Guttman, Guy de Cointet, Anne Collier, Martin Creed, Moyra Davey, Jeremy Deller and Nicholas Abrahams, Mark Dion, Hans-Peter Feldmann, Liam Gillick, Wade Guyton, David Hammons, Matthew Higgs, Candida Höfer, Martin Kippenberger, Sean Landers, John Latham, Robert Longo, Jorge Pardo, Seth Price, Stephen Prina, Richard Prince, Allen Ruppersberg, Cindy Sherman, Josh Smith, John Stezaker, Wolfgang Tillmans, William Tyler, Rachel Whiteread, Steve Wolfe, Heimo Zobernig.

Cart