Maurizio Cattelan: All

This book was originally published on the occasion of Maurizio Cattelan: All at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York. For this retrospective survey in 2011–12, Cattelan sidestepped the totalizing effect of a retrospective by devising a site-specific installation in which his entire oeuvre—more than 130 works—was suspended from the oculus of the Guggenheim’s iconic rotunda. Designed to resemble an old textbook or bible, this second edition was published in 2016 to accompany Cattelan’s America, a fully functional toilet cast in solid 18-karat gold installed in one of the museum’s restrooms.

Written by curator Nancy Spector, the book offers a critical overview of Cattelan’s career, with chapters including “The Aesthetics of Failure,” “Political Dimensions,” “Duality and Death,” “From Disrespect to Iconoclasm,” “Spectacle Culture and the Mediated Image,” and “Coda—Redux.” It also features a comprehensive bibliography and exhibition history, along with an illustrated catalogue that presents each of the exhibited works chronologically, with discussion and analysis by Katherine Brinson, Diana Kamin, William S. Smith, and Susan Thompson.