Martin Kippenberger / Psychobuildings

"Originally, Martin Kippenberger intended to have «Psychobuildings» published by Merve. When the project was abandoned due to a misunderstanding, he had the book published ... in the reversed layout of Merve (a publishing house)..…. and presents, contextually aware, only photographs. Kippenberger's procedure was not different, incidentally, when he designed the inside of Frauen [Women], a title that in 1980 Merve really did list in its programme. Here one can unquestionably infer the inside from outside, i.e infer from the camouflage, the greatest possible approximation to reality, an inversion which imperceptibly insinuates itself, finally becoming complete when the perused inside gradually turns out to be some thing different. The photographs are presented devoid of comment, and at first sight it seems as if they record only observations in urban space, architectural situations, which stand out, because, from some aspect of their design, they are burdened with too much striving for form and have become unbalanced. Then there are the beautiful corrections, the unintentional encounters, and the many small comedies of sculture in public space, everything that presents itself with such remarkable naturalness in reality. Various 'Peters' have been discovered during such observations, and, indeed, in the book one finds the sculptures again, discreetly placed here and there in the panorama of photographic documentation, returned to the continuous form from which they have developed." [Roberto Ohrt in Uwe Koch, «Annotated catalogue raisonné of the books by Martin Kippenberger 1977 - 1997», Cologne, Walther König, 1997]