Beautifully designed by Three Legged Dog, Larissa Fassler: Viewshed is a 344-page full-colour monograph that surveys Fassler’s works from the past 15 years. The publication contextualizes the artist’s contemporary art practice through discussions about urban geography, feminism, and geospatial politics. It includes a preface and an artist interview by editor Diana Sherlock and texts by an international roster of writers, Nicole Burisch, Chris Blache and Pascale Lapalud, Shauna Janssen, Fiona Shipwright, and Karen Till. The texts are translated into three languages (English, German, French) and the book is published by DISTANZ (Berlin, August 2022).
Larissa Fassler’s art practice is dedicated to understanding the complex relationships between human beings and their environments. Fassler repurposes analytical tools from urban sociology and urban planning to amass research and data about urban sites that she then transforms into large-format pencil drawings, paintings, sculptures, and expansive installations. Born in Vancouver but living in Berlin for the past two decades, Fassler has mapped significant urban places such as the the Gare du Nord, Les Halles, and the Place de la Concorde in Paris, New York City’s Columbus Circle, Istanbul’s Taksim Square, and Berlin’s Kottbusser Tor. Her multilayered works illustrate how urban environments impact the psychological and physical well-being of people and how, conversely, the built environment reflects people’s perception, understanding, and use of these places.