Tauba Auerbach -- S V Z - (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

Part artist's book, part exhibition catalog, this book chronicles Tauba Auerbach's multimedia syntheses of abstraction, science, graphic design and typography

Tauba Auerbach studies the boundaries of perception through an art and design practice grounded in math, science and craft. Published in conjunction with the first major survey of the artist's work, this volume, designed by Auerbach in collaboration with David Reinfurt, spans 16 years of their career, highlighting their interest in concepts such as duality and its alternatives, interconnectedness, rhythm and four-dimensional geometry.
Encapsulating Auerbach's longstanding consideration of symmetry, texture and logic, the title S v Z offers a framework for this volume's typeface, design and structure. Images of more than 130 paintings, drawings, sculptures and artist's books are mirrored by a comprehensive selection of related reference images, illuminating their multifaceted practice as never before. Essays by Joseph Becker, Jenny Gheith and Linda Dalrymple Henderson provide further context for the work.
The book contains original marble patterns created specially for the book by the artist on both the endpapers and the edges of the book block. The cover is lettered in Auerbach's calligraphy, applied in black foil on a silver paper. The typeface was designed by David Reinfurt with Auerbach expressly for this publication, and is based on their handwriting.
New York-based artist Tauba Auerbach (born 1981) grew up in San Francisco and graduated from Stanford University in 2003. They apprenticed and worked as a sign painter at New Bohemia Signs in San Francisco. In 2013 they founded Diagonal Press. They are represented by Paula Cooper Gallery, New York, and Standard Oslo.

Review Quotes

Auerbach has for years been preoccupied with the slippages between formats and disciplines. But rather than read a given format as a mode of control, Auerbach sees it as an opportunity for intense cooperation and collective problem solving, an artifact of intersections of design, visual art, and histories thereof, a sort of pleat in human practice and cultural transmission--Lucy Ives "Art In America"

The paintings, prints, and sculptures float on cool, gray backgrounds, looking as unabashedly seductive as they are labored and--in every sense of the word--deep.--Alexander Provan "Art In America"

An extraordinary book-object ... Featuring 256 typefaces crafted by the patient, exacting designer David Reinfurt, the S v Z publication is obsessively Auerbachian ... Regardless of pandemic-related delays in mounting the physical exhibition (it was originally slated to open in 2020), the book will endure as a truly entheogenic object in keeping with Auerbach's art: a manifestation of precise practices that nonetheless open us to the woolly edges of what consciousness can reveal.--Caroline Jones "Artforum"

In the parallel universe, New York artist Tauba Auerbach--who engages with mathematics and fourth-dimension theory and carefully wrought patterns--would have celebrated the summer with a prominent survey at SFMOMA. Instead, with the show postponed to next fall, S v Z--part artist's book, part catalogue--is an intriguing placeholder. Alongside her maze-like weavings, anagramic wordplay, and interlocking glass sculptures (A Flexible Fabric of Inflexible Parts), her ligature drawings are a mesmerizing place to linger. They result from improvisational flow, which feels like the right spirit for right now.--Laura Regensdorf "Vanity Fair"

Much like her bookworks, Auerbach's catalogue S v Z deserves to be examined as a sculptural object before we unfold its cover and consider its contents.--Megan Liberty "Hyperallergic"

With sixteen distinct subsections collating as many years of work, the monograph Tauba Auerbach -- S v Z was intended to accompany the artist's long-awaited midcareer survey at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, an exhibition now postponed until 2021. Created in collaboration with graphic designer David Reinfurt, the catalogue is a work in and of itself.--Kate Sutton "Bookforum"

With the show postponed to next fall, S v Z--part artist's book, part catalogue--is an intriguing placeholder. Alongside her maze-like weavings, anagramic wordplay, and interlocking glass sculptures (A Flexible Fabric of Inflexible Parts), her ligature drawings are a mesmerizing place to linger. They result from improvisational flow, which feels like the right spirit for right now.--Laura Regensdorf "Vanity Fair"

There are certain flourishes that would make type nerds salivate... The book's innovative use of layout, typography and so on--the design itself--becomes as much an artwork as the pieces it documents... Adroit as a standalone piece or monograph.--Emily Gosling "Elephant"

Years from now, [Auerbach] will be included in retrospectives around the world, one of the most important artists of an era, who brought a philosophical and original voice to how science, technology and the arts can mesh, and how the unseen networks around us can be visualized. If you haven't indulged in her works before, S v Z is a great start.--Evan Pricco "Juxtapoz"

It's rather strange that the book precedes the show by a whole year," noted Auerbach. "But what can you do?" Designed by Auerbach in collaboration with David Reinfurt, the volume is a work of art in itself and serves as a fantastic teaser for the eventual in-person experience.--Shannon Lee "Artsy"