Jean Keller was born and raised in Switzerland and currently lives and works in Paris, France. He is an artist whose work combines photography, writing, and design to explore the history, structure, and limits of the book.
Ink used for digital printing is one of the most precious substances in the world. A single gallon of ink costs over four thousand dollars and this is one reason why digitally printed books are so... More > expensive.
However, the price of a book is not calculated according to the amount of ink used in its production. For example, a Lulu book of blank pages costs an artist as much to produce as a book filled with text or large photographs. Furthermore, as the number of pages increases, the price of each page decreases. A book containing the maximum number of pages printed entirely in black ink therefore results in the lowest cost and maximum value for the artist.
Combining these two features, buyers of The Black Book can do so with the guarantee that they are getting the best possible value for their money.< Less
“The smell of a freshly printed book is the best smell in the world.”
Karl Lagerfeld
This tells the story of a passion and a twisting plot to put the particular bouquet of... More > freshly printed books in a book.< Less
The artworks in this book are by Richard Prince. They are based on photographs by Patrick Cariou. The works were shown at Gagosian Gallery in New York in 2008. In March 2011 federal district court... More > judge Deborah Batts ruled that Prince broke the law by using Cariou’s photographs without permission to create collages and paintings based on them. Prince and Gagosian Gallery have been ordered to destroy all the works and exhibition catalogues that they hold and to tell buyers that the paintings were not lawfully made and cannot lawfully be displayed.
"No Rasta" defends the freedom of appropriation and makes the incriminated works available in bookform.< Less
In the winter of 2010, Jean Keller worked as a caretaker in a former nursing home near his hometown in the Swiss Alps, using the home's solitude to work on his own projects.
Since the home's closure,... More > the isolated building remained abandoned for almost a decade until a consortium of local businessmen stalled its decline by funding makeshift repairs.
Soon after Keller began working in the building, he discovered in the basement the pages of an unfinished manuscript belonging to the American writer, Jack Torrance.
Torrance had resided at the home for some weeks in 1980, following a dramatic breakdown that preceded his accidental death later that year. Inspired by this discovery, Keller ditched his other projects and began using Torrance's typewritten pages as the basis for a new book.
Titled 'The Overlook Manuscript' as a tribute to Torrance and his very last place of activity, the present edition is a facsimile of Jean Keller's original text written during his own sojourn at the former asylum.< Less
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