9 Artists

Accompanying an exciting exhibition at the Walker Art Center, this catalogue brings together 16-page "books" by the contributing artists, with occasional commentary from the curators. The eight artists (yes, there are eight) all create work that is dynamically and decidedly focused on contemporary questions. While their modes and perspectives vary, together they probe the role of the artist and citizen in a heavily networked, globalizing world. As editor/curator Ryan notes, the works are as much a part of the market as they are critical of it, aware of their identities both as tools of liberty and as tools of limitation, "implicated, compromised, and self-aware" Imagined letters between artist Yael Bartana and deceased philosopher Otto Weininger sit comfortably and intelligently in the same cover as Hito Steyerl's photo-essay, the text itself excised in protest of an ownership decision against printing the lyrics of a song from Les Miserables. The images throughout are as rich and thought-provoking as the text, resulting in a visual and textual object that continually rewards engagement. Though the critical framing can on occasion come across as off-puttingly insular to the art world it addresses, however, the book itself is consistently engrossing and provocative. Color illus. (Jan.)