Bernd & Hilla Becher: Tipologie, Typologien, Typologies

This seminal volume served as the official catalog for the Bechers’ exhibition at the 1990 Venice Biennale (before it was at Harvard’s Carpenter Center in 1991), where they made history by winning the Golden Lion for Sculpture. The book perfectly encapsulates their “Düsseldorf School” methodology, presenting industrial structures—water towers, blast furnaces, and cooling towers—in rigid, objective typological grids. By stripping away environmental context and utilizing flat lighting, the Bechers transform functional, “anonymous” industrial architecture into high-concept art. It is an essential primary document for understanding how their systematic photography redefined the relationship between documentation, industrial archaeology, and minimalist sculpture. And it’s just a nice thing to spend time with. A weird and beautiful book from the library of Toshi Katayama.