Wild, boisterous and humorous – Beni Bischof’s mises-en-scène of his unbridled creative urges deftly combine all kinds of media, everything from wall-sized paintings to filigree drawings and grotesque collages, from surreal objects to outlandish mixed-media sculptures. His trenchant artwork reflects both the banality of everyday life and controversial political issues. Bischof virtuosically leads the viewer out onto thin ice to expose the inner workings of the mass media and the illusions of glamour they manufacture.
Psychobuch (2014), his first book to be published by Edition Patrick Frey, was at once an overall view of his copious oeuvre and a self-contained artist’s book unto itself. Texte 1 (2015) came out for the presentation of the 2015 Manor Art Prize and an associated solo show at the Kunstmuseum St. Gallen. Texte 2 is the follow-up, another pocket-size volume presenting a mix bag from Bischof’s exuberant collection of headlines, slogans, jokes, junk mail, lyrics, dialogues from movie scenes, aphorisms and a whole lot more – a present-day selection and yet a subjective quintessence of the textual archive he has amassed over the years. (Nadia Veronese)
480pp, Paperback
Published by Edition Patrick Frey, 2016
10.8 x 17.7 cm
German + English
