Game, Set, Match: three concepts of the artist's books

29 June - 08 December 2019

Fundação de Serralves – Museu de Arte Contemporânea
Rua D. João de Castro, 210
4150-417 Porto
Portugal

The collection of artists’ books of the Serralves Museum, curated by Guy Schraenen until his death in 2018, is one of the leading collections in Europe. Represented are all types and tendencies of this art genre, which emerged in the late 1950s when artists invented the concept of the ‘artist’s book’, a new and revolutionary way of dealing with the space of the book and with the diffusion of ideas and works. On the occasion of its twentieth anniversary, the three-chapter exhibition Game, Set, Match will present major publications by visual artists of all horizons. It will highlight three main investigative fields within the universe of artists’ books: while chapter one deals with the tautological notion of the artist’s book as book, chapter two reflects on the book as an artwork in its own right, equivalent to a painting or a sculpture; chapter three focuses on works that exist at the interface between book and object. Altogether, the presented works are examples of how artists metamorphose the ordinary aspects of the book. Rather than destroying its ideas, they give new life and perspectives to it. Game, Set, Match: Three Concepts of the Artist’s Book is organised by the Serralves Foundation – Museum of Contemporary Art, Porto, and is curated by Maike Aden after concepts by Guy Schraenen.