Carsten Höller. Book of Games - (Hardcover)

About the Book

Master of playful installations, artist Carsten Höller wants audiences to join in. With this set of 336 games, readers can play alone or in groups, with no props required. Höller explains the rules, while photos and artworks by the likes of August Sander, Rineke Dijkstra, and Salvador Dalí show how to step out of your comfort zone.

Book Synopsis

Carsten Höller invites readers to disrupt their daily lives with 336 mind-expanding diversions. They can be played alone, in pairs or in teams, in the street, in bed, on a train, wherever. No props or materials are needed. Just one body, all senses and a willingness to try something new, that's possibly conceptually or physically challenging, but guaranteed to entertain and to widen the player's horizons.

Some games are more obviously daring than others - unexpectedly shouting 'bang!' when your driver's reversing into a parking space is sure to elicit a reaction - but that's absolutely the point. Other games involve covertly dropping strange phrases into conversation, executing somersaults (without practice), or plucking hairs from your opponent's head while they stay poker-faced.

Höller's scientific professional background informs his keenness to create what he calls Influential Environments. He wants to tease the brain while testing its limitations, through activity and passivity, agency and inertia. He conceived his first game with a group of friends in 1992, during a tedious dinner after an exhibition opening. Since then, he has collected and invented ideas, inspired by friends, life, the Surrealists, and Arthur Rimbaud. All games are illustrated with commissioned or pre-existing artworks and photographs. We find portraits by Inez van Lamsweerde & Vinoodh Matadin, August Sander, and Nan Goldin next to paintings by Salvador Dalí; snapshots of Joseph Beuys plus son and Donna Haraway plus dog next to appointed pieces by Christine Sun Kim and Anri Sala; film stills by Chantal Akerman, extracts from Shakespeare as well as treasures from Höller's personal archive--and his mother's.

Edited by Stefanie Hessler and Hans Ulrich Obrist, this book encourages readers to engage in playful yet cerebral experiments that will leave them with a sense of wonder, disorientation, and a subtle smirk on their face.

Review Quotes

"The book calls for openness to new experiences and the courage to enjoy a touch of subversion."-- "Exibart"

"A special book that manages to challenge our long-held habits to explore new ways of interacting with the world around us."-- "Sky Arte"

"Expands your mind and broadens your horizons."-- "Living del Corriere"

"Get ready to play."-- "Il Sole 24 Ore"

"A compact tome which provides a brief - if to others slightly nutty-looking - respite from the everyday."-- "Art Review"

"A whimsical catalog of creative diversions for the ambitious and the bored alike."-- "The Wall Street Journal"

"Tongue-in-cheek diversions for single players or groups."-- "Financial Times' How To Spend It"

"Carsten Höller loves games, tests and challenges. In Höller-world, life is more fun - and more interesting - when it is disrupted."-- "The Guardian"

"If you want to shake things up a bit, try these games which were created by the artist Carsten Höller."-- "The Guardian"