Lawrence Weiner: Nach Alles/After All

by Dr. Thomas Kren, Lawrence Weiner, Ernst-Gerhard Guse

Conceptual Art pioneer Lawrence Weiner has vastly extended and rewritten the notion of sculpture--language is his medium, and his sculpture is text. In Weiner's mind, it is of no importance whether or not a work is ''realized''--it is entirely up to the ''reader'' of a work of art whether and how she will implement the work in her own head. Beyond this, a work can be ''realized'' in many forms--since 1968, Weiner has been publishing his language-oriented works in book form. The artist's book After All was commissioned by the Guggenheim Berlin and features drawings, texts, and plans for an installation consisting mainly of dual language inscriptions on exhibition walls. The book is dedicated to the exploration of the microcosmic and macrocosmic levels of the world we inhabit, and draws its inspiration from the naturalist and explorer Alexander von Humboldt and his endeavor to describe and categorize the whole world. A unique and impressive artist's book from one of our great artistic visionaries, After All takes a deep look at the human urge to classify and the modern will-to-truth.

92 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2000

About the author

Thomas Kren was the Director of Collections at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, California, specializing in 15th- and 16th-century Netherlandish and French Manuscript illumination & 17th-century Netherlandish painters in Italy.