Since 1997, artist Claude Sandoz has been sharing his time between his native Switzerland and the Caribbean island of St Lucia. Each time he returns from the Antilles, he brings back chests of sketches and drawings produced during his stay. The island topic provides an assortative focal point for his exuberant work. Sandoz is no longer a tourist, he has 'gone native' at his second home and developed a much more complex relationship with St Lucia than a mere seasonal artist's residence would allow. This moment in Sandoz's art that ethnologists describe as going native is the focus of this new monograph: when own and alien match, overlay with and possibly enrich each other. The book features a vast selection of Sandoz's works, complemented by topical essays and a conversation with the artists. Interspersed poems by Caribbean writers round out the book. Text in English and German.

Swiss painter Robert Zund (1827-1909), also known in Switzerland as 'Master of the Beech Leaf', is revered for his light-flooded paintings of bucolic landscapes. Swiss photographer Tobias Madorin, born 1965, has gained international recognition for his tableau-like images that document the interaction between the inhabitants and their surrounding environment. This new book, published to coincide with an exhibition at Kunstmuseum Luzern in summer 2017, features work by both artists. Rather than merely enjoying the beauty of the sun-lit paradise Zund depicts in his precise manner, the book invites us to look more closely. For this purpose, Zund's paintings are juxtaposed with Madorin's photographs of the same views, captured today with an analogue large format camera. Thanks to the slowness of the procedure and the wealth of detail achieved in working with such an apparatus, Madorin's photographs boast an intensity comparable to that of Zund's paintings in terms of precision of the gaze. Observation, the gaze, and the aptitude to see is the real topic of this exhibition and accompanying book.