Purple Book

Birds. The Carsten Höller Purple Book is Höller's contribution to Purple's Purple Books series, produced by Purple Institute as Purple Book #26 alongside Purple Fashion Magazine issue 27, Spring/Summer 2017.

Like the other entries in the series, it takes the form of a small saddle-stitched booklet issued with the magazine rather than as a standalone monograph, giving one artist a dedicated space apart from Purple's regular pages. It was edited, as much of the series was, by Purple's founding editor Olivier Zahm.

Höller trained as an agricultural scientist studying insect communication before turning to art in the late 1980s, and animal behavior and perception have run through his work since, from the reindeer and flies of his installations to the slides and mirrored rooms that test viewers' own bodies the same way. Birds continues that interest inside the compact, single-issue format Purple used across its artist series.