Artist Books 2026

alt=2026 – Artist Book by Marlen Wagner >

Books from earlier years you can find here: 2025, 2024, 2021–2023

“The task of art is to open doors where no one sees them.” — Peter Weibel

At times when it is not art itself, but rather the nationality of artists, that proves decisive, it becomes the task of art first to make the walls visible and then, where there are now stones, to create openings. To open doors is a noble aspiration …

Coming soon: Something personal …

alt=Coming soon: "In the Shadow of Towers. My Father's Land" – Artist Book by Marlen Wagner >
“In the Shadow of Towers. My Father’s Land” – Artist Book by Marlen Wagner

Black and White – again

alt="Black and White - again 1" – Artist Book by Marlen Wagner, some impressions">
Black and White – again 1 – Artist Book by Marlen Wagner

Abstract painting on an A3 sheet, folded into an artist’s book measuring 21 × 14 cm, offering multiple possibilities for unfolding. 

UN 1, 2, 3

alt="UN 3" – Artist Book by Marlen Wagner, some impressions">
UN 3 – Artist Book by Marlen Wagner
alt="UN 2" – Artist Book by Marlen Wagner, some impressions">
UN 2 – Artist Book by Marlen Wagner
alt="UN 1" – Artist Book by Marlen Wagner, some impressions">
UN 1 – Artist Book by Marlen Wagner

Three artists’ books: leporellos with 8 pages each, 12.5 × 10.5 cm. Eight words each set against continuous black-and-white thread drawings on red paper.

The prefix un- functions in German both negatively and positively. Positively, as in unbeugsam (“unyielding”), it expresses the absence of something undesirable. Negatively, as in unglücklich (“unhappy”), it transforms something positive into its opposite …

Secret inside

alt="Secret Inside 1" – Artist Book by Marlen Wagner, some impressions">
Secret Inside 1 – Artist Book by Marlen Wagner

Suminagashi on blue paper, Lotus Fold; 10.5 × 10.5 cm – within it hides a second Lotus Fold, in which a text, a small gift, etc., may be concealed …

Rilkes Hortensien – rosa und blau

alt="Rilkes Hortensien. Rosa" – Artist Book by Marlen Wagner, some impressions">
Rilkes Hortensien. Rosa – Artist Book by Marlen Wagner
alt="Rilkes Hortensien. Blau" – Artist Book by Marlen Wagner, some impressions">
Rilkes Hortensien. Blau – Artist Book by Marlen Wagner

Two leporellos, each 15.5 × 11 cm. A new reading of the Rainer Maria Rilke poems “Blaue Hortensie√ (Blue Hydrangea) and “Rosa Hortensie” (Pink Hydrangea): across eight pages in each book, certain words almost completely disappear as the letters fade, while others remain clearly legible. Two new texts emerge, one from the faded words and the other from the remaining visible words, each readable from the front and the back of the book respectively. Monoprints of blue and pink hydrangea blossoms drift lightly across the pages onto which the lines of the poems have been mounted.