A Man Walks Into a Bar

A man walks into a bar. . . . -the unmistakable prelude to a joke. This remarkable collection of artist's postcards of the same name could not have a more fitting title. Drawn, written, or stuck together, postcards featuring the contributing artists' favorite jokes make up the unique content of this amusing small volume. The postcards are addressed to the fictitious figure Pepe Nietnagel-a pseudonym that prompts us to pick up our ears: is it the rascal from the popular series of German Pauker films from the late sixties and early seventies? As it happens, there is indeed something mischievous about this undertaking. The two editors, Franziska and Johannes Sperling, wrote to selected artists, and about one hundred of them responded to their request and mailed them small works of art. Besides word- and joke-savvy contemporaries such as Erwin Wurm, Lawrence Weiner, Nedko Solakov, or Ragnar Kjartansson, to our great delight, protagonists such as John Baldessari, Jonathan Meese, Daniel Richter, and Karin Sander also participated in the playful game. The artists presented (selection): John Baldessari, Andre Butzer, Tacita Dean, Andy Hope 1930, Christian Jankowski, Ragnar Kjartansson, Jim Lambie, Erik van Lieshout, Jonathan Meese, Julie Mehretu, Jonathan Monk, Tal R, Tobias Rehberger, Daniel Richter, Ed Ruscha, Thomas Scheibitz, Thomas Schutte, David Shrigley, Lawrence Weiner, Erwin Wurm