Elena Volpato's 'Dieter Roth. Pages' Explores the Artist's Pioneering Book Works

A new publication titled 'Dieter Roth. Pages' by Elena Volpato, released by Edizioni FLAT in 2018, offers an in-depth examination of Dieter Roth's artist books. The book accompanies a dedicated exhibition at FLAT, the artist book fair held at Nuvola Lavazza in Turin during Artissima. Roth, a German-born artist naturalized Swiss, began creating artist books in 1954 and continued until his death at 68, twenty years ago. His early works include the 'Bok' series, starting with 'Bok 3°' (1961) using Icelandic newspaper paper in a 20 x 20 cm format. Notably, his 1961-62 volume 'Dagblegt Bull' (Daily Bull No. 8), published by Balthazar and Pury, measures just 3.3 x 3.6 cm and consists of about 150 cut sheets from color offset proof prints, bound with glue and a paper cover, housed in a small cardboard box. The text is in Icelandic, the language of the country where Roth moved in 1957. That same year, he produced 'Daily Mirror Book' (Forlag editions, Reykjavík) in 220 signed copies, even smaller at 2 x 2 cm. Roth also created children's books, such as his first 'Kinderbuch', begun three years earlier, featuring four-color printing, geometric shapes with hand-cut and die-cut holes, spiral binding, and a limited edition of 75 copies, reflecting his Swiss training. Volpato's volume includes documentation of projects, written and drawn diaries, and provides a comprehensive view of Roth's genre-defying practice.