Softcover, 96 pp., 5 x 7.5 inches

Inspired by literary precedents such as automatic writing, by the resourcefulness of the bricoleur making do with what is at hand, and by the openness toward chance that all artistic production under severe constraint must necessarily incorporate, Cabinet’s “24-Hour Book” series invites distinguished authors and artists to be incarcerated in an unfamiliar space to complete a project from start to finish within twenty-four hours.

The seventh volume in the series, The Death of the Artist breaks from prior volumes to stage an experiment involving six different contributors working simultaneously on a single book. Gathered at Cabinet’s Berlin event space, the six artists and writers were each asked to consider their own finitude, figurative or literal. The volume includes Sam Durant’s meditation on the death of an artwork as a political idea; Tom McCarthy’s forensic postulations about death and geometry; Eva Stenram’s modified found photographs that suggest violence-to-come; Omer Fast’s script in which a woman on an Austrian ski slope becomes the reluctant audience for a retelling of a Yiddish folk tale; Susan Ploetz’s outline for a Live Action Role Play (LARP) in which players can learn the art of dying; and Till Gathmann’s aleatory game whose outcome can invoke death.

A few sample images from the book are available here.