Joseph Kosuth: The-Exchange-Value-of-Language-Has-Fallen-to-Zero

Six decades of semiotic investigation through text-based works and installations

A leading exponent of Conceptualism, American artist Joseph Kosuth (born 1945) places language at the center of his practice, often using neon tubing to create words and phrases. This volume presents a selection of Kosuth's works from the '60s and '70s alongside a new installation, A Chain of Resemblance (2025), conceived for the main entrance of the Casa dei Tre Oci in Venice. A large-scale intervention, the piece spells out a text by Michel Foucault in neon, addressing how meaning emerges in the relationship between text and context. Other pieces include his influential installations One and Three Mirrors (1965) and The Seventh Investigation (1970) as well as his poster for the 1976 Venice Biennale, Where Are You Standing? (1976), repurposed for the occasion. In addition to plentiful installation shots, the book includes an unpublished interview with the artist by Hans Ulrich Obrist.