CHRISTIAN JANKOWSKI — The Holy Artwork, Revolver / Künstlerhaus Bethanien, 2002

Artist book. Approx. 17 × 12 cm. 59 pages. Softcover. Colour throughout. English. Revolver, Frankfurt am Main, with Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin, 2002.

A compact publication centred on Jankowski’s The Holy Artwork (2001), a video work filmed at Harvest Fellowship Church in San Antonio, Texas, in collaboration with Pastor Peter Spencer. In the video, Jankowski collapses at the pastor’s podium; Spencer interprets the action for the congregation and television audience as a form of holy art — merging sermon, performance, and broadcast into a single gesture.

What makes the book especially strong is the way it preserves that transfer between institutions. Rather than simply documenting a video, it reorganises the project as a portable sequence of stills, text, sermon fragments, and mediated images — moving between televangelism, performance, video art, and printed matter. This is very much in keeping with Jankowski’s broader practice of outsourcing authorship and rerouting art through existing public formats.

A sharp early-2000s title where the artist’s book functions less as support material than as a secondary site for the work itself.

Condition: very good. Visible rubbing, light wear and surface marks to the red covers; a few creases to the wrappers; internally clean and bright.