February 17–June 24, 2013
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Dieter Roth. MUNDUNCULUM: A tentative logico-poeticum, represented as plan and program or dream for a provisional mythebarium for visionary plants. VOLUME 1: Rot’s VIDEUM (MUNDUNCULUM: Ein tentatives Logico-Poeticum, dargestellt wie Plan und Programm oder Traum zu einem provisorischen Mythebarium für Visionspflanzen. BAND 1: Das rot’sche VIDEUM). 1967
Artist's book, offset printed, with letterpress cover, page: 8 5/16 x 6" (21.1 x 15.3 cm). Publisher: Verlag M. Dumont Schauberg, Cologne. Printer: BossDruck, Kleve. Edition: 1,000. The Museum of Modern Art Library, New York. The Gilbert and Lila Sullivan Fluzus Collection Gift. Photograph: Peter Butler. © 2013 Estate of Dieter Roth
In the early 1960s Roth developed a visual system consisting of twenty-three images, each of which corresponded to one or two letters of the alphabet. The artist had a set of rubber stamps made from his sketches, which he used to produce about three hundred stamp drawings. Many of these are reproduced in this 1967 book, along with a key indicating which symbol corresponds to which letter of the alphabet and additional writings and illustrations by Roth. The drawings could, in theory, be read as texts; however, Roth intentionally complicated their legibility by layering stamps on top of one another and asserting that each symbol had varying meanings, depending on the orientation in which it was stamped.