The exhibition features 50 workbooks produced by the Cologne-based artist, Nora Schattauer. Over the course of the workbooks’ numerous pages, each of which is displayed alongside a two-page spread, emerge the thoughts of an artist who uses both the written word and pictures to reflect upon drawing.

The artist created these workbooks on her travels and in her studio, drawing natural forms so as to hone her understanding of the art form. For this she employed a range of drawing techniques and different types of pencil. Evoking an intimacy akin to overhearing the artist talking to herself, the books are filled with jottings of her thoughts and observations, as well as quotations from literary and scholarly works, which are in turn accompanied by drawings that create an ongoing counterpoint with the text.

The exhibition is the first retrospective of Schattauer’s extensive engagement with the workbook as an artistic medium, and with the particular possibilities opened up by the book as an alternative space for exploring artistic concepts. A catalogue of the exhibition is being produced by Verlag Kettler, Dortmund.