..."Clarity abounds in the eloquently distilled vision of Ellsworth Kelly or the unitary world of Donald Judd-and then it's back to the fray. Dieter Roth's artist books and his Speedy Drawings deliver a visceral, pungent response to all that life offers...

..."Roth's approach takes nothing for granted. He takes a mordant look at the life of the artist in his book Gesammelte Werke, Band 17, 1962. Filled with comic sketches, cryptic messages, and confessional musings, the book calls to mind similar efforts by R. Crumb, Philip Guston, and more recently Sean Landers.

In his book, Roth writes:

The less you show the more I see The more you show the more I see The more you show the less I see The less you show the less I see…

I accept these words at face value. Like Lou Reed and John Cale's song about Warhol, they too are an ode to persuasive images; and contained within their contradictions are the chords of this artist/curator's unceasing infatuation with the nature of persuasive images, in and beyond this exhibit."

Excerpt from An Ode To Persuasive Images by Corinna Ripps