n.b.k. publications
n.b.k. Exhibitions Vol. 22

Candida Höfer is one of the most renowned German photographers with an international reputation. Her extensive oeuvre has been exhibited in museums worldwide and is represented in important collections. Neuer Berliner Kunstverein (n.b.k.) presented numerous new photographs and projections by the artist in the exhibition Nach Berlin (December 3, 2016–January 29, 2017).

The volume now published is an experimental arrangement: It documents the exhibition in pictures, it harnesses the printed page’s distinctive qualities as a scene of presentation and display. The book contains reproductions of the photographic works themselves, installation views, and shots of the show’s setup and dismantling. The latter two groups of pictures were taken by the photographer Jens Ziehe, whom Höfer hired for this purpose. She instructed him on the camera settings, perspectives, and fields of view she wanted. Rather than trying to represent the exhibition in an accompanying catalogue, the artist chose to use this publication to broach fundamental questions of pictorial representation and the way different media inform the photographic depiction of reality. The book is thus neither an exhibition catalogue nor an artist’s book (a standalone creation with distinctive artistic features that add to its value in the eyes of bibliophile collectors) but a printed work that grew out of the gallery presentation and reconstructs the exhibition situation in a different format.