JRP-Ringier
Encyclopedia
JRP-Ringier, formerly JRP Editions, is a Swiss publisher of high-quality books on contemporary art.
Run by Lionel Bovier in Zurich
, Switzerland
, the company has more than 400 titles in active distribution worldwide, including artists’ books, monographs, exhibition’s catalogues
, anthologies and books dedicated to writings by art critics and curators. It also publishes series from external associate editors, e.g., Christoph Keller Editions.
At the core of JRP-Ringier’s program lie the books by contemporary artists themselves: the artists’ books. JRP-Ringier has already published influential artists such as Fischli & Weiss
, John Armleder
, Isa Genzken
, Richard Prince
, John Baldessari
, Mike Kelley, Wolfgang Tillmans
, Elaine Sturtevant
or Rodney Graham
. However the publisher continues to support younger or still overlooked Swiss and international artists, including Urs Fischer
, Valentin Carron, Sterling Ruby
, Troy Brauntuch
, Tony Oursler
, Kelley Walker
, Mai-Thu Perret or Cyprien Gaillard.
JRP-Ringier’s publications have won numerous design awards, including The Most Beautiful Swiss Book and Best Book Design from all over the World. While the Geneva-based studio Gavillet & Rust is responsible for the art direction, other renowned graphic designers such as Norm
, M/M Paris
, Cornel Windlin, Marie Lusa or Peter Saville have also contributed titles from JRP-Ringier’s catalogue.
, Switzerland
, by art curators Lionel Bovier and Christophe Cherix, from their admiration for the small press scene of the 1970s. Between 1997 and 2003, around 30 artists’ books and prints emerged from this non-profit activity based on the founders’ network of friends in the art and academic world, design and printing industry.
In 2004, Lionel Bovier created JRP-Ringier, a new company in partnership with Michael Ringier, the owner of the Zurich-based Swiss media group Ringier AG. Christophe Cherix carried on his activities at the Cabinet des Estampes in Geneva and later at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, of which he became Chief Curator of prints and illustrated books.
Since its creation, JRP-Ringier has produced books at an ever-increasing pace and currently releases about one book a week.
artists in the 1970s, the book’s materialization through collaborative processes, cheap reproduction techniques and circulation, were as much influential to his understanding of book making.
Another aspect of Lionel Bovier’s publishing activities was born of a general dissatisfaction with group exhibition’s catalogues
(the pseudo-documentation of a project, produced before the show, with the two-pages-by-artist-rule, and the inadequate biographies). He replaced them in his own curatorial activity by another form: the anthology
. It allowed him to devise and organize the return of textual material that was used to prepare the show, as well as to open the exhibition to its research. It was important for him to state the unfinished status of an exhibition and the anthology seemed to offer an interesting way out, presenting the show as a mere step in a longer journey.
The most beautiful Swiss books 2005
The 2005 Jan-Tschichold
Award was attributed to Gavillet & Rust, JRP-Ringier's art direction.
The most beautiful Swiss books 2006
The most beautiful Swiss books 2007
Carsten Nicolai's Static Fades also received the Ehren Diplom 2007 (honorary degree) from the Leipzig book design competition (Best Book Design from all over the World).
The most beautiful Swiss books 2008
The most beautiful Swiss books 2009
Void, A Retrospective also received the Bronze Medal 2009 from the Leipzig book design competition (Best Book Design from all over the World).
Run by Lionel Bovier in Zurich
Zürich
Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is located in central Switzerland at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich...
, Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
, the company has more than 400 titles in active distribution worldwide, including artists’ books, monographs, exhibition’s catalogues
Exhibition catalogue
There are two types of exhibition catalogue : a printed list of exhibits at an art exhibition; and a directory of exhibitors at a trade fair or business-to-business event.-Art or museum exhibition catalogues:...
, anthologies and books dedicated to writings by art critics and curators. It also publishes series from external associate editors, e.g., Christoph Keller Editions.
At the core of JRP-Ringier’s program lie the books by contemporary artists themselves: the artists’ books. JRP-Ringier has already published influential artists such as Fischli & Weiss
Peter Fischli & David Weiss
Peter Fischli and David Weiss , often shortened to Fischli/Weiss, are an artist duo that have been collaborating since 1979. They are among the most renowned contemporary artists of Switzerland...
, John Armleder
John Armleder
John Armleder as the son of a hotelier , is a Swiss performance artist, painter, sculptor, critic, and curator. His work is based on his involvement with Fluxus in the 1960s and 1970s, when he created performance art pieces, installations and collective art activities that were strongly influenced...
, Isa Genzken
Isa Genzken
Isa Genzken is a contemporary artist who lives and works in Berlin.-Education:Genzken studied fine arts and art history at the Hamburg University of Fine Arts from 1969–1971, the Berlin University of the Arts from 1971–1973, and Arts Academy Düsseldorf from 1973-1977. Genzken married German visual...
, Richard Prince
Richard Prince
Richard Prince is an American painter and photographer. Prince began appropriating photographs in 1975...
, John Baldessari
John Baldessari
John Anthony Baldessari is an American conceptual artist known for his work featuring found photography and appropriated images. He lives and works in Santa Monica and Venice, California...
, Mike Kelley, Wolfgang Tillmans
Wolfgang Tillmans
Wolfgang Tillmans is a German Fine-art photographer and artist. His comprehensive and diverse body of work is distinguished by observation of his surroundings and an ongoing investigation of the photographic medium’s foundations. In 2000, Tillmans was the first photographer and also the first...
, Elaine Sturtevant
Elaine Sturtevant
Elaine Sturtevant, an American artist born 1930 in Lakewood, Ohio, has achieved recognition for her works that consist entirely of copies of other artists' works.Sturtevant turns the concept of originality on its head...
or Rodney Graham
Rodney Graham
Rodney Graham is an artist and musician born in Abbotsford, British Columbia. He is most often associated with the Vancouver School...
. However the publisher continues to support younger or still overlooked Swiss and international artists, including Urs Fischer
Urs Fischer
Urs Fischer is a Swiss contemporary artist living in New York.Fischer’s installations and sculptures have been exhibited in some group exhibitions and biennales worldwide, including Manifesta 3 and the Venice Biennale -External links:* * * *...
, Valentin Carron, Sterling Ruby
Sterling Ruby
Sterling Ruby is a contemporary American artist who lives and works in Los Angeles, California. Ruby was born in Bitburg, Germany, to a Dutch mother and an American father, and was raised in Baltimore, Maryland and near Shrewsbury, Pennsylvania....
, Troy Brauntuch
Troy Brauntuch
Troy Brauntuch is an American artist.He graduated from California Institute of the Arts with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1975.He was Adjunct Professor at Columbia University and teaches at the University of Texas....
, Tony Oursler
Tony Oursler
Tony Oursler is a multimedia and installation artist.- Tapes, Installations: 1977-1989:Tony Oursler is known for his fractured-narrative handmade video tapes including The Loner, 1980 and EVOL 1984. These works involve elaborate sound tracks, painted sets, stop-action animation and optical special...
, Kelley Walker
Kelley Walker
Kelley Walker is an American artist.Walker graduated with a BFA from the University of Tennessee in 1995.Walker’s work has been shown internationally at galleries and museums including the Museo de Arte Contemporanea de Vigo in Spain, the New Langton Center for the Arts in San Francisco, and FRAC...
, Mai-Thu Perret or Cyprien Gaillard.
JRP-Ringier’s publications have won numerous design awards, including The Most Beautiful Swiss Book and Best Book Design from all over the World. While the Geneva-based studio Gavillet & Rust is responsible for the art direction, other renowned graphic designers such as Norm
Norm (graphic design group)
Norm , is an experimental graphic design team best known for their typography. Their most influential project is typography for Cologne Airport. It is co-founded by two Swiss designers Dimitri Bruni and Manuel Krebs. Their approach to typography is known to be very strict and rigorous...
, M/M Paris
M/M Paris
M/M is an art and design partnership consisting of Mathias Augustyniak and Michael Amzalag , established in Paris in 1992....
, Cornel Windlin, Marie Lusa or Peter Saville have also contributed titles from JRP-Ringier’s catalogue.
Company history
JRP Editions (Just Ready to be Published) was founded in 1997 in GenevaGeneva
Geneva In the national languages of Switzerland the city is known as Genf , Ginevra and Genevra is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland...
, Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
, by art curators Lionel Bovier and Christophe Cherix, from their admiration for the small press scene of the 1970s. Between 1997 and 2003, around 30 artists’ books and prints emerged from this non-profit activity based on the founders’ network of friends in the art and academic world, design and printing industry.
In 2004, Lionel Bovier created JRP-Ringier, a new company in partnership with Michael Ringier, the owner of the Zurich-based Swiss media group Ringier AG. Christophe Cherix carried on his activities at the Cabinet des Estampes in Geneva and later at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, of which he became Chief Curator of prints and illustrated books.
Since its creation, JRP-Ringier has produced books at an ever-increasing pace and currently releases about one book a week.
Publishing philosophy
“Editing a book can be very similar to curating a show.” As an independent curator, Lionel Bovier, now JRP-Ringier's director, always considered the exhibition as a medium which can take very different forms, even that of a book. The artists’ books of the 1960s, with their autonomous and democratic qualities, seemed to him the ideal vehicles for art projects. But the production modes typically used by FluxusFluxus
Fluxus—a name taken from a Latin word meaning "to flow"—is an international network of artists, composers and designers noted for blending different artistic media and disciplines in the 1960s. They have been active in Neo-Dada noise music and visual art as well as literature, urban planning,...
artists in the 1970s, the book’s materialization through collaborative processes, cheap reproduction techniques and circulation, were as much influential to his understanding of book making.
Another aspect of Lionel Bovier’s publishing activities was born of a general dissatisfaction with group exhibition’s catalogues
Exhibition catalogue
There are two types of exhibition catalogue : a printed list of exhibits at an art exhibition; and a directory of exhibitors at a trade fair or business-to-business event.-Art or museum exhibition catalogues:...
(the pseudo-documentation of a project, produced before the show, with the two-pages-by-artist-rule, and the inadequate biographies). He replaced them in his own curatorial activity by another form: the anthology
Anthology
An anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler. It may be a collection of poems, short stories, plays, songs, or excerpts...
. It allowed him to devise and organize the return of textual material that was used to prepare the show, as well as to open the exhibition to its research. It was important for him to state the unfinished status of an exhibition and the anthology seemed to offer an interesting way out, presenting the show as a mere step in a longer journey.
Awarded books since 2004
The most beautiful Swiss books 2004- Mark Leckey, 7 Windmill Street W1, JRP-Ringier, 2004. ISBN 978-2-940271-34-4
The most beautiful Swiss books 2005
- Cory Arcangel, Beige, JRP-Ringier, 2005. ISBN 978-3-905701-15-9
- Shahrzad, History, JRP-Ringier, 2005. ISBN 978-3-905701-50-0
The 2005 Jan-Tschichold
Jan Tschichold
Jan Tschichold was a typographer, book designer, teacher and writer.-Life:Tschichold was the son of a provincial signwriter, and he was trained in calligraphy...
Award was attributed to Gavillet & Rust, JRP-Ringier's art direction.
The most beautiful Swiss books 2006
- Peter Fischli/David Weiss, Fragen & Blumen, JRP-Ringier, 2006. ISBN 978-3-905770-08-7
- Late Shift, JRP-Ringier, 2006. ISBN 978-3-905701-78-4
- Tom Burr, Extrospective, JRP-Ringier, 2006. ISBN 978-3-905701-82-1
- ECAL Typography, We make fonts, JRP-Ringier, 2006. ISBN 978-2-940271-76-4
- HGKZ, Announcements, JRP-Ringier, 2006. ISBN 978-3-905701-84-5
The most beautiful Swiss books 2007
- Dieter Roth, Drawings, JRP-Ringier, 2007. ISBN 978-3-905770-66-7
- Hanspeter Hofmann, Bonheur automatique, JRP-Ringier, 2007. ISBN 978-3-905770-67-4
- Jim Shaw, Distorted Faces & Portraits 1978–2007, JRP-Ringier, 2007. ISBN 978-3-905701-13-5
- Johannes Wohnseifer, Werkverzeichnis 1992-2007, JRP-Ringier, 2007. ISBN 978-3-905770-62-9
- Lyon Biennal, 00s—The History of a Decade that Has not Yet Been Named, JRP-Ringier, 2007. ISBN 978-3-905829-02-0
- Marc Camille Chaimowicz, The World of Interiors, JRP-Ringier, 2007. ISBN 978-3-905701-67-8
- Rirkrit Tiravanija, A Retrospective, JRP-Ringier, 2007. ISBN 978-3-905770-32-2
- It's Time for Action, JRP-Ringier, 2007. ISBN 978-3-905770-53-7
- Wouldn't it be nice…, JRP-Ringier, 2007. ISBN 978-3-905829-24-2
- Carsten Nicolai, Static Fades, JRP-Ringier, 2007. ISBN 978-3-905770-63-6
Carsten Nicolai's Static Fades also received the Ehren Diplom 2007 (honorary degree) from the Leipzig book design competition (Best Book Design from all over the World).
The most beautiful Swiss books 2008
- Minotaure, Chants exploratoires, JRP-Ringier, 2008. ISBN 978-3-905829-94-5
- François-Gédéon Reverdin, Gravures néoclassiques, JRP-Ringier, 2008. ISBN 978-3-905829-35-8
- Henrik Olesen, Some Faggy Gesture, JRP-Ringier, 2008. ISBN 978-3-905829-46-4
- Shifting Identities, (Swiss) Art Now, JRP-Ringier, 2008. ISBN 978-3-905829-70-9
- Bob Nickas, Theft Is Vision, JRP-Ringier, 2008. ISBN 978-3-905770-36-0
The most beautiful Swiss books 2009
- Francis Baudevin, Miscellaneous Abstract, JRP-Ringier, 2009. ISBN 978-3-03764-067-8
- Valentin Carron, Learning from Martigny, JRP-Ringier, 2009. ISBN 978-3-03764-095-1
- Forde 1994–2009, JRP-Ringier, 2009. ISBN 978-3-03764-082-1
- Yann Sérandour, Inside the White Cube, JRP-Ringier, 2009. ISBN 978-3-03764-042-5
- Kiosk, Modes of Multiplication, JRP-Ringier, 2009. ISBN 978-3-03764-075-3
- Ari Marcopoulos, Within Arm's Reach, JRP-Ringier, 2009. ISBN 978-3-03764-074-6
- Boris Groys/Andro Wekua, Wait to Wait, JRP-Ringier, 2009. ISBN 978-3-03764-021-0
- Voids, A Retrospective, JRP-Ringier, 2009. ISBN 978-3-03764-017-3
Void, A Retrospective also received the Bronze Medal 2009 from the Leipzig book design competition (Best Book Design from all over the World).