Classifying the Thousand Longest Rivers in the World
Alighiero Boetti, Anne-Marie Sauzeau-Boetti
1977
Classifying the Thousand Longest Rivers in the World
Classifying the Thousand Longest Rivers in the World
Fullscreen
PAUSE
00:00
For Hans Ulrich Obrist, Classifying the Thousand Longest Rivers in the World is among the most remarkable artists’ books ever created: “one of the greatest artists’ books of all time” (Tate Etc., 2012). Invoking Heraclitus’s ...
Read more
Classifying the Thousand Longest Rivers in the World
Anne-Marie Sauzeau-Boetti, Alighiero Boetti
1977
N.p. [Rome]: Self-published
1016 pages
21.3 × 17 × 6 cm
Edition of 500; numbered 224/500

For Hans Ulrich Obrist, Classifying the Thousand Longest Rivers in the World is among the most remarkable artists’ books ever created: “one of the greatest artists’ books of all time” (Tate Etc., 2012). Invoking Heraclitus’s famous observation — “No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river, and he’s not the same man” — the Swiss curator recalls a reading of Boetti’s work in Turin several years ago, during which he recited every river’s name and length as an act of homage: “I learnt more from Boetti than I had in the previous years of studying”, he adds.


 


Co-authored by Boetti with his wife and collaborator, the writer and art critic Anne-Marie Sauzeau, this 1,016-page volume transforms a systematic index of the world’s longest rivers into an extraordinary meditation on the world and its flowing arteries. Through its rigorous classification, this vast conceptual cartography unfolds, in the end, as a poetic reflection, functioning simultaneously as a catalogue, a prose work, and an extended haiku distilling the ever-changing nature of memory and imagination.

N.p. [Rome]: Self-published
1016 pages
21.3 × 17 × 6 cm
Edition of 500; numbered 224/500

For Hans Ulrich Obrist, Classifying the Thousand Longest Rivers in the World is among the most remarkable artists’ books ever created: “one of the greatest artists’ books of all time” (Tate Etc., 2012). Invoking Heraclitus’s famous observation — “No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river, and he’s not the same man” — the Swiss curator recalls a reading of Boetti’s work in Turin several years ago, during which he recited every river’s name and length as an act of homage: “I learnt more from Boetti than I had in the previous years of studying”, he adds.

 

Co-authored by Boetti with his wife and collaborator, the writer and art critic Anne-Marie Sauzeau, this 1,016-page volume transforms a systematic index of the world’s longest rivers into an extraordinary meditation on the world and its flowing arteries. Through its rigorous classification, this vast conceptual cartography unfolds, in the end, as a poetic reflection, functioning simultaneously as a catalogue, a prose work, and an extended haiku distilling the ever-changing nature of memory and imagination.

DESCRIPTION

For Hans Ulrich Obrist, Classifying the Thousand Longest Rivers in the World is among the most remarkable artists’ books ever created: “one of the greatest artists’ books of all time” (Tate Etc., 2012). Invoking Heraclitus’s famous observation — “No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river, and he’s not the same man” — the Swiss curator recalls a reading of Boetti’s work in Turin several years ago, during which he recited every river’s name and length as an act of homage: “I learnt more from Boetti than I had in the previous years of studying”, he adds.

 

Co-authored by Boetti with his wife and collaborator, the writer and art critic Anne-Marie Sauzeau, this 1,016-page volume transforms a systematic index of the world’s longest rivers into an extraordinary meditation on the world and its flowing arteries. Through its rigorous classification, this vast conceptual cartography unfolds, in the end, as a poetic reflection, functioning simultaneously as a catalogue, a prose work, and an extended haiku distilling the ever-changing nature of memory and imagination.

N.p. [Rome]: Self-published
1016 pages
21.3 × 17 × 6 cm
Edition of 500; numbered 224/500

For Hans Ulrich Obrist, Classifying the Thousand Longest Rivers in the World is among the most remarkable artists’ books ever created: “one of the greatest artists’ books of all time” (Tate Etc., 2012). Invoking Heraclitus’s famous observation — “No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river, and he’s not the same man” — the Swiss curator recalls a reading of Boetti’s work in Turin several years ago, during which he recited every river’s name and length as an act of homage: “I learnt more from Boetti than I had in the previous years of studying”, he adds.

 

Co-authored by Boetti with his wife and collaborator, the writer and art critic Anne-Marie Sauzeau, this 1,016-page volume transforms a systematic index of the world’s longest rivers into an extraordinary meditation on the world and its flowing arteries. Through its rigorous classification, this vast conceptual cartography unfolds, in the end, as a poetic reflection, functioning simultaneously as a catalogue, a prose work, and an extended haiku distilling the ever-changing nature of memory and imagination.

MORE BOOKS

For Hans Ulrich Obrist, Classifying the Thousand Longest Rivers in the World is among the most remarkable artists’ books ever created: “one of the greatest artists’ books of all time” (Tate Etc., 2012). Invoking Heraclitus’s famous observation — “No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river, and he’s not the same man” — the Swiss curator recalls a reading of Boetti’s work in Turin several years ago, during which he recited every river’s name and length as an act of homage: “I learnt more from Boetti than I had in the previous years of studying”, he adds.

 

Co-authored by Boetti with his wife and collaborator, the writer and art critic Anne-Marie Sauzeau, this 1,016-page volume transforms a systematic index of the world’s longest rivers into an extraordinary meditation on the world and its flowing arteries. Through its rigorous classification, this vast conceptual cartography unfolds, in the end, as a poetic reflection, functioning simultaneously as a catalogue, a prose work, and an extended haiku distilling the ever-changing nature of memory and imagination.

MORE BOOKS