Dieter Roth

February 17–June 24, 2013

  • Introduction
  • Selected Works
    • The Concrete
    • Mass Media Experiments
    • Reinventing Formats
    • Verbal Visual Equivalency
    • Snow
    • Containers
  • Multimedia: Staying Fresh
  • Interview with the Artist
  • Exhibition Checklist
  • Publication
  • Events
  • About the Department of Prints and Illustrated Books
  • Credits
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Collected Works, Volumes 1-20

Dieter Roth. Collected Works, Volumes 1–20 (Gesammelte Werke, Bande 1 20). 1969–79

Twenty artist's books in paperboard slipcase with chromogenic color print with gouache and felt tip pen additions. overall: 10 7/16 x 24 3/16 x 10 1/16" (26.5 x 61.5 x 25.5 cm). Publisher: the artist and Edition Hansjörg Mayer, Stuttgart, London, and Reykjavik. Printer: various printers. Edition: 102. The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Committee on Prints and Illustrated Books Fund. Photograph: Jonathan Muzikar. © 2013 Estate of Dieter Roth

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In 1969, Roth began planning Collected Works, a self-published twenty-volume catalogue raisonné that would contain, collect, classify, organize, and document much of the work he had made to date. A testament to his ongoing impulse towards accumulation, Collected Works shows the duality of his approach, both chaotic and organized. The books were not issued sequentially (Volume 15 was published first), nor did they present the artist’s work chronologically, but all were the same trim size, allowing for the economical reuse of material at the printer. He took the opportunity to review, and in some cases, amend the original artworks, and also issued deluxe editions of each volume, creating special covers that pertained to their contents—including a croissant-encrusted cover for Volume 6.