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Background information
"For years, Candida HÖFER traveled the world to photograph public and semi-public libraries. Her iconic photographs present the rooms as cathedrals of the mind and temples of wisdom. The austere image compositions reflect the objective order of the endless rows of books and shelving systems in a unique way. This objectivity - a key feature of her photographic rhetoric - is nowhere better emphasized than in her depictions of libraries from around the world. When the artist visited the Neue Galerie Gladbeck, which is housed in the town's former library, in 2019, she was fascinated by the striking symmetry of the old building and the former reading room illuminated by stained glass windows. This encounter prompted her to return to her library series. The gallery is showing new and old works in a presentation co-designed by the artist. To this end, she photographed the stained glass window in question and then created a site-specific work by mounting the photograph as a kind of reflection opposite the original window.
Content
The photo volume 'Libraries. The Return' brings together an essence of past photographs by Candida HÖFER and juxtaposes them with her current work:" (© Kettler Verlag, 2020)