At the onset of WWII, the visionary Dada artist Hannah Höch retreated to a secluded house on the outskirts of Berlin, fleeing persecution for her radical collage work and her unflagging opposition to fascism. In the decades that followed, the surrounding garden became her artistic muse, but it was also a means of survival: its fruits and vegetables were a vital source of sustenance during wartime, and its soil served as the hiding place for her priceless collection of Dada artworks. Eighty years later, this richly illustrated yet deeply researched book reimagines Höch’s garden from an artist’s perspective. It brings together Höch’s botanical collages and garden photographs with deep archival cuts exploring her queer history with Til Brugman; new art by the artists Scott Roben and Johanna Tiedtke, based on visits to Höch’s garden; and an essay by the writer Alhena Katsof. Together, these elements interweave past and present, private and public, personal and political, offering new views into Höch’s lush refuge.

In 1914, Marcel Duchamp purchased a bottle rack, called it a sculpture, put his name to it and the "readymade" artwork was born. "It Is What It Is. Or Is It?" considers the legacy of the readymade in contemporary artistic practice as the form approaches its 100th anniversary and attempts to recuperate the radicality of Duchamp's foundational gesture. Taking stock of the readymade's simple materiality and its economy of means, this catalogue includes work by 18 artists working in a variety of media from sculpture to photography, painting, video and installation-based works. "It Is What It Is. Or Is It?" includes works by Ellen Altfest, Faycal Baghriche, Bill Bollinger, William Cordova, Latifa Echakhch, Daphne Fitzpatrick, Claire Fontaine, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Rachel Hecker, Jamie Isenstein, Luis Jacob, Patrick Killoran, Jiri Kovanda, Klara Liden, Catherine Murphy and Pratchaya Phinthong.