Operating at 3,500 metres: Urs Burki artist's monograph
Chaos und Ordnung
Works from 1973 to 2016
VEXER. Verlag, St. Gallen/Berlin
560 pages, thread-stitching, booklet with free spine, coloured page edges
ISBN: 978-30-909090-86-0
"A wonderful book! This book covering the artistic work of Urs Burki was another highlight among the books presented at the I Never Read, Art Book Fair, which was held during Art Basel 2017 at the Kaserne Centre and drew an international audience. The book made a profound impression on visitors to the fair. Its unusual design meant it also struck a chord with young graphic designers. Several important booksellers from abroad ordered copies of the book on Urs Burki while at the fair."
- Josef Felix Müller, President Visarte, artist and publisher
Over the past two years, Herren has worked with graphic artist Anatole Comte to develop the concept for a book. The result is a book about the artist that offers a broad insight into Urs Burki’s extensive creative output from four different perspectives.The book is therefore a multi-dimensional collage, offering insights into the rich work of the artist from four points of view. Six different subject areas, which can be identified even from the cover, form the guiding pillars of the book. The hand-crafted design used to transfer the work to paper, and its production using a process-driven, additive procedure, provide a worthy framework for the artist's oeuvre, set out over 560 pages.
Using Urs Burki's working collages as a starting point, the publication and its design presents a lively selection of his life's work. Individual pages are composed of the artist's hand-written notes, collected prints and texts by Burki printed on slides. Only the works themselves, as constants, have been digitally set on the page. The basic layout and the fonts used, for example, are both derived from Urs Burki’s working practices. The artist's wife has also made a major contribution to the book, having penned both a hand-written personal tribute and the captions for the pictures. Accompanying texts by individuals including Claude Hubert Tatot, HEAD Geneva and the writer Robert Inard d’Argence complete the publication.