Anne König, Jan Wenzel: The Revolving Bookshelf or The Joy of Reading

Reading photobooks together with other photobooks or works of literature and theory is an illuminating process, shedding light in both directions. Moving between individual books is a source of pleasure, giving rise to a more nuanced appreciation and a keener awareness. Anne König and Jan Wenzel, the publishers at Spector Books, have written a number of short essays capturing their interlinked reading of photobooks and their joint reflections on content, material form, and design. Books lying side by side on a table create situations that potentiate reading; they comment on one another and enter into elective affinities read Evelyn Richters Entwicklungswunder Mensch with Judith Butler and Friedl Kubelka. Observing the American election campaign in the books of Ferdinand Kriwet, Norman Mailer, and Jonathan Horowitz. From Brechts modelbooks to Jules Spinatschs Opera Ball book. From Monica Haller to Geert van Kesteren and Carolin Emcke. From Erik van der Weijde to Albert Renger-Patzsch. From Erich Salomon to Rainald Goetz. From Einar Schleef to Michael Schmidt. Via fold-out pages in the works of Evelyn Richter, Pontus Hultén, and Nicolò Degiorgis. From Heartfield photomontages to the cover designs of Lothar Reher and Christian Chruxin. From Ilya Kabakov to Christian Patterson and Broomberg & Chanarin. From Chinese photographer 214 back to Sergei Tretyakov. Anne König and Jan Wenzel live in Leipzig. They started the Spector Books publishing house in 2001 together with Markus Dreßen.