Since 2001, Salon Verlag has invited more than thirty artists to transform existing publications of their choice into artist's books in the fullest sense of the term. These "metabooks" are published under the EX LIBRIS series, and include interventions by artists such as Louise Bourgeois, Thomas Ruff, Mark Dion, Albert Oehlen, Thomas Demand, Gregor Schneider, Peter Doig, Luc Tuymans, and Berlinde De Bruyckere. For each title, Salon Verlag has also produced a limited collector's edition accompanied by a limited-edition ex-libris (a print or a unique artwork).

For his “metabook” at Salon Verlag, Wolfgang Tillmans chose to intervene in an anthology of excerpts from Jiddu Krishnamurti, selected and edited by Mary Lutyens. In describing his intervention, the artist recalls the trajectory that led him to the philosopher's writings:

"I first came across the name Krishnamurti when studying at Bournemouth College in the early 1990s; my tutor Tony Maestri referred to him occasionally. Then Gilbert & George mentioned him to me when I portrayed them in 1997. In 2002 I then saw a notice in a Quaker meeting house announcing Krishnamurti video screenings. I went and bought some books and felt very at home and inspired by his writing and thinking. I often observe that it takes three cues until one acts on something. After the third time hearing his name, I acted upon it. Freedom from the Known is my favourite book of the few of his I own. It works as a whole but also particularly well when just opened up at any page and read for three or four pages. The design of the paperback cover seemed perfect as it was, so for the Ex Libris I didn’t want to take away the cover photographed by Cecil Beaton. Instead I designed a dust jacket for which I used my photograph paper drop (Krishnamurti) 2005."

By intervening only at the level of the cover, Tillmans preserves the original publication while introducing a new visual and conceptual layer through his own image. This gesture resonates with Krishnamurti's rejection of authority and inherited truths: rather than proposing a system of belief, he advocated direct experience in the pursuit of knowledge. Tillmans's EX LIBRIS contribution thus becomes a dialogue between two forms of attention: Krishnamurti's philosophical inquiry and the artist's own act of reading and distilling his words.