The Artist’s Novel

The Book Lovers is a research project on the phenomenon of the artist’s novel curated by David Maroto and Joanna Zielińska. The central question is how a literary genre like the novel can be considered a medium in its own right within the visual arts, as video or installation could be. There have been artists throughout the 20th century who wrote novels as an activity more or less detached from their visual art production.

However, in recent years, an increasing number of artists have begun to integrate their novels as a fundamental part of their visual art projects. Surprisingly, there is a lack of research on this subject. This circumstance gives rise to a situation in which artists who write novels are not aware of others doing the same. With The Book Lovers we are intending to create public awareness of this silently widespread artistic trend. The project develops in a number of different stages. Its base is the creation of a collection of artist’s novels with a parallel online database, both supported by M HKA. This is complemented with a series of exhibitions and public programmes, pop-up bookstores, commissions, and publications.

There are many ways to navigate the artist’s novels database. You can start by the artist’s index:

Noor Abuarafeh, Etel Adnan, Rouzbeh Akhbari, Sophia Al-Maria, Carl Andre, Alain Arias-Misson, Karin Arink, Eduardo Arroyo, Imma Avalos, Michael Ayrton, Txomin Badiola, Hugo Ball, Fiona Banner, Stephen Banz, Maria Barnas, Jennifer Bartlett, Cara Benedetto, Bernadette Corporation, The BERTY team (Angela Su et al.), Gerry Bibby, Simon Bill, Tonje Bøe Birkeland, Hannah Black, Jimbo Blachly, Luther Blissett, Paul Bogaers, Maxime Bondu, Jean de Bosschère, Joe Brainard, Matthew Brannon, AA Bronson, Evelin Brosi, Frédéric Bruly Bouabré, Wojciech Bruszewski, Kathe Burkhart, Zachary Cahill, Sophie Calle and Paul Auster, Paco Cao, Barbara Cardinale, Leonora Carrington, Brian Catling, Alex Cecchetti, Jake Chapman, Ivan Cheng, Giorgio de Chirico, Billy Chyldish, Sebastian Cichocki, Tyler Coburn, Guy de Cointet, David Colosi, Ithell Colquhoun, Jasper Coppes, Erin Cosgrove, Douglas Coupland, Jan Cremer, E.E. Cummings, Keren Cytter, Salvador Dalí, Bert Danckaert, Henry Joseph Darger, Oskar Dawicki, Constance DeJong, Eric Doeringer, Christian Dotremont, Laura Edbrook, Andreas Ejiksson, Scott Elliott, Tracey Emin, Steven Emmanuel, Pam Emmerik, eteam (Franziska Lamprecht and Hajoe Moderegger), Tim Etchells, Everyone Agrees, David Evrard, Öyvind Fahlström, Matias Faldbakken, Leonor Fini, Susan Finlay, Charles Henri Ford, Gregory Forstner, Nicholas Frank, Annabel Frearson, Klemens Gasser, Mark Geffriaud, Verónica Gerber Bicecci, Jef Geys, Tom Gidley, Liam Gillick, Dan Gilsdorf, Jérémie Gindre, Unni Gjertsen, Goldin+Senneby, Rodney Graham, Alasdair Gray, Renée Green, Sabine Groschup, Sigurdur Gudmundsson, Heather Guertin, Deniz Gül, José Gutiérrez-Solana, Brion Gysin, Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, Samuel Hasler, Raoul Hausmann, Richard Hawkins, Paul Haworth, Hallgrímur Helgason, Pablo Helguera, Emmy Hennings, Nick Herman, Louise Hervé and Chloé Maillet, Pati Hill, Norman James Hogg, Will Holder, Stewart Home, Erica van Horn, Isidore Isou, Guillermo Iuso, Marla Jacarilla, Łukasz Jastrubczak, Travis Jeppesen, Lisa Jonasson, Miranda July, Christopher K. Ho, Stephen Kaltenbach, Samson Kambalu, Ilja Karilampi, Phyllis Kiehl, Sharon Kivland, Pierre Klossowski, Emily Kocken, Jutta Koether, Joseph Kosuth, Arno Kramer, Syd Krochmalny, Raziye Kubat, Alfred Kubin, Yayoi Kusama, Fernanda Laguna, Peter Lemmens, Norman Leto, Jana Leo, Edouard Levé, Wyndham Lewis, David Lieske, Little Warsaw, Alex Llovet, Gareth Long, Kiba Lumberg, Jill Magid, Erwan Mahéo, David Maroto, Rita McBride, Tom McCarthy, Andrea McGinty, Barry McHamon, Lucy McKenzie, Bjarne Melgaard, Alan Michael, Harland Miller, Momus, Sean Monahan, Andrei Monastyrsky, Heather & Ivan Morison, Simon Morris, William Morris, Valérie Mréjen, Ariane Müller, David Musgrave, Hayley Newman, Trong Gia Nguyen, Erik Niedling, Krzysztof Niemczyk, Ingo Niermann, Emil Nolde, Filip Noterdaeme, Leticia Obeid, Gary O’Connor, Brian O’Doherty, Tom O’Sullivan, Kambui Olujimi, Katrina Palmer, Stefan Panhas, Philippe Parreno, Pathetic Sympathy Seekers, Francesco Pedraglio, Pavel Pepperstein, Mai-Thu Perret, Grayson Perry, PHILIP team (Heman Chong et al.), Tom Phillips, Francis Picabia, Kit Poulson, David Price, Seth Price, Richard Prince, PSJM, Ernesto Pujol, Reto Pulfer, Cheng Ran, Sal Randolph, Graham Rawle, Jannie Regnerus, Karen Reimer, Hubert Renard, Stuart Ringholt, David Robbins, Juan Carlos RodrÍguez, Pedro G. Romero, Roee Rosen, Richard Roth, Romy Rüegger, Allen Ruppersberg, Christopher Russell, Pepo Salazar, Pjeroo Roobje, Denis Savary, Arnold Schalks, Boris Schatz, Bruno Schulz, Joshua Schwebel, Kurt Schwitters, Dana Sederowsky, Lindsay Seers, Jack Segbars, Q.S. Serafijn, Benjamin Seror, Lytle Shaw, Eric Simon, Alexandre Singh, Societé Realiste, Suzy Spence, Cally Spooner, Lisa Stålspets, Maria Stangret Kantor, Dan Starling, Linda Stupart, Elaine Sturtevant, Władysław Strzemiński, Robert Szczerbowski, Mathilde Supe, Vibeke Tandberg, Dorothea Tanning, Joanne Tatham, Michael Tedja, Maija Timonen, Nicoline Timmer, Roland Topor, Francesc Torres, Thu-Van Tran, Oscar Tuazon, Parker Tyler, Linn Cecilie Ulvin, Félix Vallotton, Sarah Vanhee, Hannu Väisänen, Stijn Verhoeff, Gavin Wade, Ciarán Walsh, Andy Warhol, Mark Waugh, Ai Weiwei Julia Weist, Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz, Dale Edwin Wittig, Jacob Wren, Jack B. Yeats, Unica Zürn, Miek Zwamborn

This ensemble is an ongoing process, additional information is added on a regular basis. Click her e for more information.

Subcollections

The starting point for the M HKA’s collection was the Gordon Matta-Clark Foundation, established in an unsuccessful attempt by the International Cultural Centre (ICC) to build a museum around Gordon Matta-Clark’s Office Baroque.

The Artist’s Novel

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