Dieter Roth | Kinderbuch

Dieter Roth
Kinderbuch
Reykjavik, Iceland: Forlag Ed, 1957
28 pp., 32 x 32 cm., spiral bound
Edition of 25 signed copies, with cut-outs, and 75 unsigned copies, without.


Dieter Roth's first book, Kinderbuch (Children’s Book) was initially produced as a unique work, made in 1954 for the German dramatist and concrete poet Claus Bremer’s son. Bremer returned the book to the artist and suggested that Roth try to have it published. Publishing houses showed no interest, and the first copy of Kinderbuch was eventually lost or thrown out.

In 1957 Roth moved to Reykjavik to join his future wife Sigríður Björnsdóttir, and, still unsuccessful in finding a publisher, founded “forlag ed”, the first of many ventures he would create to self-publish his work.

Kinderbuch would later be republished in 1976 in an edition of 1000 as Collected Works, Volume 1 by Edition Hansjörg Mayer.

"It's so easy, children can't protest. You push it over to them and they say 'aaah, circles and squares"
- Dieter Roth.