Catalog of a retrospective exhibition held at the Grazer Kunstverein showcasing Josef Bauer's experiments with language, color, and their spatial contexts. His work combines sculpture, installation, painting, and performance to disturb our perception of words and colors as mere carriers of meaning. By removing their two-dimensional context, letters become objects that communicate directly with our bodies in an unfiltered and urgent language called tactile poetry. In addition to over one hundred career-spanning works by Bauer, this volume brings together critical commentary from a variety of experts. In his introduction, Krist Gruijthuijsen illuminates Bauer's tactile poetry as a radical embodiment of 1960's Concrete poetry. In an essay from 1974, Austrian philosopher Thomas Zaunschirm explores Bauer's formal bid to transcend the representational relation of language to images. Situating Bauer's work in a historical context, Bettina Steinbrügge throws light on the reception and development of his works. The book also includes a unique visual rejoinder by artist Hans-Peter Feldmann
