When Georg Herold (born 1947 in Jena) presented his X. Baracke made of gray pumice stone and wood laths at documenta IX in 1992, the edifice occupied “such an awkward position in the context of this thrilling international exhibition of contemporary art that it became anchored in our memory”, as Gijs van Tuyl wrote in his catalog preface for Georg Herold’s exhibition in the Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg in 1995. This roofless building, deliberately left unfinished, stands for the contemporary ruin: no leftover from the past, but something that never became. Herold focuses on processuality and pits the consciously makeshift against the myth of perfection. At the same time, the X denotes the number 10; within the barrack, the artist has applied a photograph taken in a Belgian church: a cardboard sign explains that the tenth station of the cross has been removed for restoration.

In spring 2005, more than a decade later, this key work by Herold is on display in the Galerie Max Hetzler in Berlin and still proves relevant in its unabashed directness. This publication, X. Baracke, 1986, offers an extensive photographic documentation, including numerous illustrations and detail shots of the installation. In addition, the publication shows several brick and caviar paintings, and smaller works from the late 1980s.

This book contains very personal homages to the artist by Werner Büttner and Wilhelm Schürmann, an essay about Herold’s influence on contemporary British art by Matthew Collings, and a conversation about bricks and wood laths between Jörg Heiser and the artist.

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In collaboration with Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin