Dedicated to Michael Asher (1943–2012), the publication examines the work of one of the most influential figures in contemporary art. Deeply engaged with the institutional conditions of art, Asher’s work challenges the very foundations of exhibition-making, institutional critique, and spatial interventions. By rigorously questioning the conceptual, spatial, and legal frameworks of institutions, Asher fundamentally reshaped the perception of artistic practice. His interventions foreground the sociopolitical structures underlying cultural institutions and invite audiences to rethink the function of museums beyond traditional object-based presentations. This publication is an unprecedented effort to comprehensively assemble Asher’s oeuvre, spanning his early works to his archival practice, which he considered an integral part of his artistic output. By contextualizing and discussing significant projects, the publication provides an in-depth understanding of Asher’s radical approach. Inclusion of materials from the archive will expand the discourse surrounding his work, framing it not merely as historical documentation but as a living, evolving intellectual legacy.

Susanne Pfeffer studied art history, philosophy, and theater studies at Humboldt University in Berlin. Since January 2018, she has been the director of the MUSEUM MMK FÜR MODERNE KUNST in Frankfurt am Main. From 2013 to 2017, Pfeffer served as the director of the Fridericianum in Kassel. Prior to that, she was chief curator at the KW Institute for Contemporary Art in Berlin from 2007 to 2012 and also worked as a curator and advisor at MoMA PS1 in New York, where she was awarded by the International Association of Art Critics, United States Section in 2009 for her exhibition on Kenneth Anger. At the 57th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia in 2017, Pfeffer presented Anne Imhof in the German Pavilion, which was awarded the Golden Lion for Best National Participation. In 2015, she curated the Swiss Pavilion in Venice. Susanne Pfeffer is also the editor of numerous artist monographs and exhibition catalogs.

The MUSEUM MMK FÜR MODERNE KUNST in Frankfurt am Main is one of the world’s leading institutions for international contemporary art. Since its founding in 1981, it has served as an important platform for the production, presentation, and critical discourse of contemporary art. The MUSEUM MMK believes a museum of the present must always be different. In this time of constant change and the feeling of powerlessness it prompts, the museum must seek to open up and think beyond “itself” and the structures that constitute it. It must undertake gestures of transformation, transgression, and creative intervention to give space to alterity and enable its visitors to do the same. Art is endlessly expansive in its thinking, and the museum should be no less daring.