Roni Horn Give Me Paradox or Give Me Death

Pairs, doubles and contradictions take center stage in Horn's biographical projects

Working across sculpture, photography, drawing and artist's books, Roni Horn (born 1955) addresses identity, mutability and unease. The book's title is transposed from Patrick Henry's famous words: "Give me liberty, or give me death!" By replacing "liberty" with "paradox," Horn nods to her interest in the reconciliation of two contradictory answers, an important aspect in her work, which also relates to her use of doubling or pairs. A seminal example of this is This Is Me, This Is You (1997-2000), photographs of the artist's niece taken over a two-year period during her adolescence and presented on two opposite walls, or a.k.a. (2008-9), which captures the artist at different moments throughout her life. The catalog presents more than 100 works, including drawings from the late 1970s that have never been shown before, as well as a selection of pigment drawings made between 1983 and 2018.