Quotes about Books from Books about Books
Sveinn Fannar Jóhannsson
September 4 – October 11, 2025
Opening/ Thu. Sep. 4, 18 - 21 hr
Opening night reading at 19 hr with Anke Dyes, Inka Meißner, and Sveinn Fannar Jóhannsson.
Tues. + Wed. 11 - 15 hr / Thurs. + Fri. 11 - 18 hr / Sat. 11 - 15 hr
einBuch.haus / Florastr. 61, 13187 Berlin
Supported by Arts Council Norway and Office for Contemporary Art Norway
Quotes about Books from Books about Books is an artists’ book, an exhibition, and a library of books about books, including periodicals, journals, exhibition catalogues, zines, monographs, and artists’ books spanning 1974–2025. Edited and compiled by Sveinn Fannar Jóhannsson, the project presents 148 quotes, drawn from his archive of printed matter, that reflect on the book as medium, material, and metaphor. The accompanying exhibition makes each source publication physically accessible to visitors—creating a participatory experience that mirrors the democratic ethos of independent publishing.
Historically, publishing has allowed artists to reclaim control over their work and operate outside commercial or institutional frameworks—a tradition this project draws on. By compiling and sequencing excerpts from a broad spectrum of artistic and theoretical publications, it interrogates the formal and conceptual boundaries of print culture and bookmaking.
The selected quotes address themes such as the economic realities of production, freedom of the press, authorship, and the artist’s book as a political object. The project also considers the book as an exhibition space, an object that resists categorization, and a self-reflexive medium. Some quotes further reflect on the materiality of books in more abstract or experimental terms. At its core, the project engages with long-standing debates around what a book is—or might be—questions that continue to shape contemporary publishing practices.
Subtitled Revised, Reversed, Revisited Edition, the publication resists conventional ordering, unfolding according to its own internal logic. Through excerpting, recontextualizing, and cataloguing, it explores how books articulate their own conditions of production, distribution, and reception.
Printed in a limited edition of 555 copies, Quotes about Books from Books about Books—Revised, Reversed, Revisited Edition will be released on 4 September 2025 in conjunction with the exhibition at einBuch.haus in Berlin.
Sveinn Fannar Jóhannsson
Sveinn Fannar Jóhannsson is an artist and self-publisher. Through his imprint Multinational Enterprises (est. 2012), he produces printed matter that examines publishing as artistic practice. His work explores the book as object, archive, and conceptual medium, using systems of categorization and citation to play with the ideological frameworks embedded in print—often with a deadpan sense of humour.
The full list of publications from the book Quotes about Books from Books about Books—Revised, Reversed, Revisited Edition
Self-Shelf: private (artists’) book collections made public.
Quotes about Books from Books about Books is part of the ongoing exhibition series Self-Shelf: private (artists’) book collections made public.
Many people have their own criteria for collecting books—especially artists, curators, and designers from the artist book scene. Self-Shelf is a long-term, irregular but continuous curatorial program that explores private book collections through evolving thematic lenses.
Topics will expand over time and may include books as curated archives, books about books, wooden book covers, creative spines, artworks in newspaper format, blank books, and more. Each theme opens a new way of thinking about books—not just as vessels of knowledge, but as conceptual, material, and artistic objects.
To present these private bookshelves, einBuch.haus creates artistic installations of temporary libraries tailored to each topic. This approach allows for in-depth exploration of individual collections and offers insight into how books function both as carriers of meaning and as artworks within their respective thematic contexts.
