David Weiss: Die Wandlungen

Following Nine Books 1973 1979, Edition Patrick Frey presents an exclusive new publication of drawings by late, internationally acclaimed Swiss artist David Weiss. Die Wandlungen (The Metamorphosis) reproduces for the first time all 82 series of graphic metamorphoses the artist made in Marrakesh and Switzerland between 1975 and 1979. Without knowing in advance what he would draw, he began at the upper left-hand corner of each sheet of paper with a scribble or image and followed it as it transformed from one thing into another. For example, a cube turns into a matchbox with a picture of a lion on it and a small deer inside, which turns into a bone and so on until a new series begins. Rendered in ballpoint pen on graph paper or china ink on plain white paper and varying from 1 to 37 pages in length, each series covers over 400 sheets in this overwhelming but addictive compendium.