In placing us at a remove from our relationships to familiar, domestic objects and environments, the labor-intensive work of Robert Gober (born 1954) defies our understanding of accepted conventions and draws attention to the movement of meaning between materials and across personal histories. Part of the 2000 Words series, conceived and commissioned by Massimiliano Gioni and published by the Deste Foundation, 2000 Words: Robert Gober presents the entirety of the sculptor's works in the Dakis Joannou Collection and includes an essay by Johanna Burton that examines how the artist's work alloys personal histories with collective experience.

For Los Angeles-based sculptor, painter, filmmaker and installation artist Kaari Upson (born 1972), possessions are the gateway into the human psyche.

Contained within them are all the hopes, dreams, fears and desires of their owners. Like a shaman, Upson creates her own gateways, using unorthodox techniques to imbue everyday objects such as mattresses and bags with an arcane magic. The result is auratic works that act as powerful symbols of absence, failed aspirations and loneliness.

Part of the 2000 Words series conceived by Massimiliano Gioni and published by DESTE Foundation for Contemporary Art, this monograph contains an essay by Ali Subotnick that examines Upson's pseudoscientific approach to her art that allows her to create confounding work that is simultaneously familiar and foreign.

A multipart installation on the island of Hydra exploring mythic themes of earth and sky

In 2019, multidisciplinary artist Kiki Smith (born 1954) was invited to present a site-specific project at the DESTE Foundation Project Space in Hydra, a former slaughterhouse perched on the edge of the sea. Drawing on maritime history, mythology, astronomy and site-specific anthropology, Smith combined naturalistic and fantastic elements into a multipiece composition that reflects the lived and imagined memory of both the slaughterhouse--a stage for sacrifices--and the Hydra region itself.

Alongside photographs of the installation and texts by Maggie Wright and Nadja Argyropoulou, Kiki Smith: Memory presents documentation of Smith's process for this project, which draws on a variety of mediums including sculpture, textiles and drawing.

A concise introduction to the subversive career of contemporary art's great trickster

New York- and Milan-based artist Maurizio Cattelan (born 1960) has provoked controversy and admiration alike with his subversive sculptures, installations and publications. His playful, satirical body of work--which includes Comedian (2019), a banana duct-taped to the wall at ArtBasel Miami Beach, and America (2016), the 18-karat gold toilet he later installed in the Guggenheim's restroom--reflects a pointed critique of institutional and cultural norms in the art world and society at large.
Part of the 2000 Words series conceived by Massimiliano Gioni and published by DESTE Foundation for Contemporary Art, this monograph contains an essay by Gioni that excerpts his previous writings on Cattelan, his close friend and collaborator.

A monograph exploring Smith's fascination with the human body and its ability to project emotional vulnerability

The art of Kiki Smith (born 1954) confronts what it means to be human. Her sculptures are often feminine figures that become personifications of sexuality, trauma and abjection. This monograph contains an essay by Margot Norton examining Smith's fascination with the human body and its ability to project emotional vulnerability.

Through painting, performance, sculpture and design, New York-based artist Kerstin Br tsch (born 1979) depicts the mutation of images over time, and the volatility of data consumption. This book includes an essay by Massimiliano Gioni on her engagement with the social lives of images.

Imbued with the collective memories of Romanian culture, Andra Ursuta's (born 1979) work uses her grim past to tackle our harsh present. This book includes an essay by Ali Subotnik on Ursuta's stark recreations of cultural turmoil.

The varied practice of Paul Chan (born 1973) includes paintings, drawings, video animations and font design, as well as critical writing. The characters in his works are animated beings, jerking and stuttering as they are violently thrust into the clumsy reel--or real--of history. Chan explores the intellectual and sexual animus that courses through our collective language and consciousness, drawing on sources as varied as the King James Bible, Marquis de Sade and Samuel Beckett. Part of the 2000 Words series, conceived and commissioned by Massimiliano Gioni, and published by the Deste Foundation for Contemporary Art, 2000 Words: Paul Chan presents the entirety of the artist's works in the Dakis Joannou Collection and includes an essay by Stephen Squibb that reveals the solitary image and its uncanny animation in Chan's work.

American artist Elad Lassry's work investigates the possibilities and impossibilities surrounding the current notion of a picture. With esthetic surefootedness the artist nudges photography ever closer to time-based mediums like film and dance. Displaying a wide array of Lassry's work in the Dakis Joannou Collection, this volume includes an essay by Tim Griffin that examines how the artist challenges the nature of our perception and questions the meaning of the contemporary image. Conceived and commissioned by Massimiliano Gioni, and published by the Deste Foundation, the new 2000 Words series is a compilation of small volumes that gives insight into the work of some of today's most exciting contemporary artists.

For over a decade, sculptor Pawel Althamer has been at the forefront of the Polish contemporary art movement. Emerging from the infamous Kowalski Studio at the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts, Althamer continues to investigate the intricacies of human relationships and question the limits and deeper meaning of individual and social identity. 2000 Words: Pawel Althamer presents the wide array of the artist's work in the Dakis Joannou Collection, along with a thoughtful essay by Massimiliano Gioni communicating the artist's commitment to the transformative potential of art. Conceived by Gioni and published by the Deste Foundation, each monograph in the new 2000 Words series combines a critical, forthright essay with a survey of an artist's works in this important collection.

Swiss artist Urs Fischer is best known for his dramatic transfiguration of the exhibition space, as well as for his unexpected transformations of quotidian objects. Offering grand gestures with a pop attitude, the artist works in a variety of media--which is grounded in sculpture despite the artist's training as a photographer--to explore the intersection between art and everyday life. Part of the new 2000 Words series, conceived and commissioned by Massimiliano Gioni and published by the Deste Foundation, this colorful monograph, with an essay by Jessica Morgan, presents the wide array of Urs Fischer's work in the Dakis Joannou Collection.

Through painting, collage, artist books, sculpture and ceramics, Josh Smith's work is dominated by spontaneous, gestural brushstrokes and vibrant colors and characterized by systematic processes, replication, and serial repetition. Using his signature to structure the space of the picture, Smith investigates notions of authorship, authenticity and originality. Part of the 2000 Words series, conceived and commissioned by Massimiliano Gioni, and published by the Deste Foundation, 2000 Words: Josh Smith presents the entirety of the American artist's works in the Dakis Joannou Collection and includes an essay by Anne Pontegnie that examines how the artist explicitly seeks to open up a different pictorial space.

Neither an academic textbook nor a conventional art book, Liquid Antiquity explores the intersection between contemporary art and antiquity in a fluid stream of images, ideas and voices.

This visual essay spans more than 2,500 years of art history in an open-ended dialogue with a series of critical texts and interviews with contemporary artists, exploring the possibility of reinventing classicism and arguing for its enduring influence on contemporary art. It includes a critical essay by Brooke Holmes investigating the concept of liquid antiquity; a series of 27 lexemes that critically rethink the traditional language of classicism, written by prominent critics and scholars; and ten interviews with contemporary artists (Matthew Barney, Paul Chan, Haris Epaminonda, Urs Fischer, Jeff Koons, Christodoulos Panayiotou, Charles Ray, Asad Raza, Kaari Upson and Adri n Villar Rojas).

Marathon Marathon documents a 2010 iteration of Hans Ulrich Obrist's series of Marathon events, held at the Acropolis Museum in Athens and co-curated by Nadja Argyropoulou. Marking the 2,500th anniversary of the battle of Marathon, international discussants spent 12 hours addressing questions of identity, antiquity, democracy and the politics of representation.

Works from Cao Fei, Marcel Duchamp, Pipilotti Rist and more examine the impact of technology on the human imagination

A fresh perspective on the future of art and innovation, Dream Machines walks the line between utopia and paranoia, fearlessly exploring the interplay of man and machine. Amid the growing prominence of AI in our daily lives, the exhibition catalog encourages us to reflect: can we keep up with the evolution of our own creations?

Putiferio documents the opening night performance and exhibition by Italian artist Roberto Cuoghi (born 1973) at DESTE's Project Space on the island of Hydra. In Latin, putiferio literally means to bring the stink, signifying chaos or a taste of hell. The fantastical installation depicts an onslaught of ceramic crabs, many of which were fired on-site during the dramatic opening that took place on the rare, simultaneous occasion of the summer solstice and a full moon (an event known as a Strawberry Moon).

Inside this volume is an extensive selection of photographs taken before, during and after Cuoghi's visceral performance at the island's former slaughterhouse, alongside an incantation written by the artist.

Male and female, sex and violence, art and trash: the power of Tim Noble (born 1966) and Sue Webster's (born 1967) art lies in its fusion of opposites. Working collaboratively since the early 1990s, these key figures of the YBA movement infuse their materials--pulsating hearts, flowers, dollar signs and their vulnerable, naked selves--with the intensity of their personal relationship.

Greek collector Dakis Joannou is one of the preeminent collectors of contemporary art in the world, with a collection that stands as a virtual who's who of artists from the 1980s through today. 85 of those artists are represented in Monument to Now--the most utterly relevant to today, of course. Leading curators from New York, Milan and Paris have contributed essays and helped to select the included artists. Designed by acclaimed graphic artist Stefan Sagmeister, the hardcover edition features a three-dimensional monument affixed to the front cover; the paperback retains some trace of the monument, perhaps a footprint of the monument on the front cover, a pop-up monument inside, or some other invention. The follow-up to Everything That's Interesting Is New, an earlier book on the Joannou collection, Monument to Now strictly includes work dating from 1985 and later, with a focus on the artists who are most relevant now. Among many new acquisitions featured here for the first time are works by Vanessa Beecroft, Maurizio Cattelan, Gregory Crewdson, Anna Gaskell, Mariko Mori, Chris Ofili, Tom Sachs, Fred Tomaselli and Kara Walker. Other included artists are Janine Antoni, Matthew Barney, Ashley Bickerton, Rineke Dijkstra, Olafur Eliasson, Robert Gober, Andreas Gursky, Peter Halley, Mike Kelley, Toba Khedoori, Jeff Koons, Paul McCarthy, Takashi Murakami, Shirin Neshat, Tim Noble & Sue Webster, Cady Noland, Gabriel Orozco, Charles Ray, Cindy Sherman, Kiki Smith, Wolfgang Tillmans, Gillian Wearing, Christopher Wool and Chen Zhen.

An artist's book and a solitary walk through the exhibition The System of Objects, this publication consists of two slipcased paperback books that represent Dakis Joannou's imaginative, inspirational and unexpected collection of objects, art works, props and unusual architectural elements. With an unprecedented combination of open areas, gangways, cages, black holes and dead ends, The System of Objects is experienced by visitors as a labyrinth and a revelation. The installation itself represents an original experience due to the several structural modifications on the building, making it a consistent and relevant part of the general concept of the project and empowering the presence of the pieces. The System of Objects is a straight and complex representation of the restless, constantly growing, visionary approach of a collector and his inventiveness.

Since the mid-1990s, Chris Ofili's (born 1968) painstakingly crafted paintings and sculptures have dazzled--and often distressed--viewers with a fusion of opposing forces: sacred meets profane, formal bows to demotic, and exalted bleeds into vulgar. Paintings of rare beauty are propped on elephant dung; deities squat to defecate; and lovers embrace and yet are forcibly bound.
This volume in Deste's 2000 Words series is authored by Katherine Brinson, Curator of Contemporary Art at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, where she curated the museum's 2013 Christopher Wool retrospective and also organizes the Hugo Boss Prize, a biennial award honoring significant achievement in contemporary art.