L’image volée, published for an exhibition curated by Thomas Demand, explores the way we all rely on preexisting models, and how artists have always referred to existing imagery to make their own. Questioning the boundaries between originality, conceptual inventiveness and the culture of the copy, the project focuses on theft, authorship, annexation and the creative potential of such pursuits. The volume presents three possible investigations: the physical appropriation of the object; theft as related to the image per se rather than the concrete object itself; and the act of stealing through the making of an image. Artists include Maurizio Cattelan, Richard Artschwager, Martin Kippenberger, Elaine Sturtevant, Asger Jorn, Wangechi Mutu, Thomas Ruff, Elad Lassry, John Baldessari, Sophie Calle, and Christopher Williams. L’image volée includes newly commissioned short stories by Ian McEwan and Ali Smith, and essays by Russell Ferguson, Christy Lange, Jonathan Griffin, Rainer Erlinger and Daniel McClean.
