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Ninety Nine Books by Peter Wuthrich

Ninety Nine Books by Peter Wuthrich 

Purchased by the Contemporary Art Society Special Collection Scheme on behalf of Mead Gallery, University of Warwick with funds from the Arts Council Lottery, 2001

Since the1990's Wuthrich's art has revolved around books which he has used as raw materials for creating installations within galleries. He buys large quantities of clothbound books from antiquarian books sellers, selecting them not for their content, but for their physical, aesthetic qualities. He uses them intact, yet alienated from normal usage, producing displays where the coloured cloth bindings find new precedence over the contents of the book, often creating playful colour combinations. The books are installed in such a way that they can easily be returned to their true purpose and the contents can be discovered once again. They are piled or stacked or individually fastened to the gallery walls.