Obrist - O'Brist

Gerhard Richter dedicated this artist's book to the art historian Hans Ulrich Obrist who he has worked with for many years.

The book comprises of three main elements: photographs showing Hans Ulrich Obrist, partly painted over, and text fragments of interviews that Obrist conducted with Richter. These elements are juxtaposed with photographs showing details of Richter’s paintings, depicting predominantly pastose colour application or structures of paint.

Randomness appears to have played a part in how the three elements are arranged, and the text fragments have been positioned with the help of a random generator. There are two front covers on either side of the book, which encourage the reader to start from either side. In keeping with the principle of randomness and shifts in structure, the pictures and texts in the catalogue do not follow a consistent direction.