Extra: How Many Extra Layers Can We Graft Onto Reality Before It Collapses?

The inspiration for this book can be found in the question posed in its subtitle. Aiming to define a new way of grasping the concept of reality, Extra plays with the idea that it is never really grasped. In a new realm of gliding over, through and between the surfaces of reality, art takes on diverse forms to reveal the extreme elasticity of the real. 28 artists have come together to graft their layers onto reality pending its collapse such as Olaf Breuning, Wim Delvoye, Fischli & Weiss, Sylvie Fleury, Gelatin, Lori Hersberger, Christian Jankowski, Ugo Rondinone with John Giorno and Urs Fischer, Jim Shaw, Olav Westphalen and Erwin Wurm. Each artist has contributed an eight to ten page original visual essay. Collaborating in this drive to expose the depth and complexity of reality are critics, curators and physicists. David Deutsch and Seth Lloyd, quantum physicists, deliver a passionate round of "brain tennis" in their correspondence regarding the concept of multiple universes. The ephemeral texts of Martin Tupper appear throughout as nonsensical transmissions from another reality. Art critic Bob Nickas, along with several of the artists, round out and complete this multilayered collaboration.