'Amidst current global uncertainty failure has become a central subject of investigation in recent art. Artists have actively claimed the space of failure to propose a resistant view of the world. Here success is deemed overrated, doubt embraced, experimentation encouraged and risk considered a viable position. Between the poles of success and failure lies a productive space where paradox rules and dogma is refused. This anthology establishes failure as a core concern in contemporary cultural production. 

'Artists surveyed include: Eduardo Abaroa, Bas Jan Ader, Francis Alÿs, John Baldessari, Matthew Brannon, Chris Burden, Phil Collins, David Critchley, Sam Durant, Fischli & Weiss, Ceal Floyer, Isa Genzken, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Félix González-Torres, Renée Green, Wade Guyton, International Necronautical Society, Ray Johnson, Mike Kelley, Martin Kippenberger, Michael Krebber, Bruce Nauman, Yoshua Okon, Janette Parris, Simon Patterson, William Pope L., Yvonne Rainer, Paul Ramírez Jonas, Dieter Roth, Allen Ruppersberg, Roman Signer, Annika Ström, Paul Thek, Luc Tuymans, and William Wegman.

'Writers include Giorgio Agamben, Heike Bollig, Barbara Buchmaier, Johanna Burton, Emma Cocker, Gilles Deleuze, Russell Ferguson, Liam Gillick, Jörg Heiser, Jennifer Higgie, Jean-Yves Jouannais, Richard Hylton, Jean-Yves Jouannais, Inés Katzenstein, Joseph Kosuth, Christy Lange, Lisa Lee, Lotte Møller, Stuart Morgan, Paul Ricoeur, Scott A. Sandage, Edgar Schmitz, Abigail Solomon-Godeau, Coosje van Bruggen, and Marcus Verhagen.' (Back cover)

Failure is one of the Documents of Contemporary Art series, co-published by Whitechapel Gallery and The MIT Press which document major themes and ideas in contemporary art. Other sourcebooks of the same series are also available in the Archive. For more details, please go to this page.