Between December 2022 and March 2023, Vivian Suter shared hundreds of photos, all taken with her mobile phone, with the designer and editor of this book. A selection of these snapshots, condensed, juxtaposed, complementing each other, now forms a kind of photographic journal. It offers insights into Suter’s work on her art and everyday life, which are inextricably interwoven: Photos of canvases and paint pots in the thicket of her jungle-like garden and in the studio, of her dogs, of the house with its characteristic aquamarine green and purplish-red walls, of family pictures, of the play of light and shadow in nature and architecture. Among the many photos, one occasionally finds images of watercolours on (coloured) paper, which the artist made especially for the book. Designed by Sabo day.

Produced on the occasion of Vivian Suter’s 2004 exhibition at the Kunstmuseum Olten.

More than thirty years ago the Swiss-Argentine artist Vivian Suter moved to the rain forest in Panajachel, Guatemala, to live on a former coffee plantation. Since then she has worked on her impressive paintings in her wooden-hut studio, as well as outdoors. Her canvases lie on the sandy ground or hang in trees; dust, mud, leaves, mangos, and insects leave their traces on them. Her painting is influenced by organic processes and coincidence—even natural disasters are her material, when flood waters make their mark on canvases, becoming part of her large, colourful paintings.

Produced on the occasion of Vivian Suter’s exhibition at Kunstmuseum des Kantons Thurgau, Kartause Ittingen, 1983.

Produced on the occasion of Situation Schweiz a series of exhibitions at Galerie nächst St. Stephan, Wien, Galerie Krinzinger, Vienna, Forum für aktuelle Kunst, Innsbruck, and the Stiftung Pro Helvetia, 17 March–3 October, 1981.

This comprehensive monograph ventures a look at Vivian Suter’s complete works, bringing together early drawings, painterly wall reliefs from the 1980s, and her latest work from her studio in the tropical rainforest of Guatemala: loose canvases hanging lightly from the ceiling in atmospherically dense installations. The richly illustrated catalog illuminates the interplay between unpredictable natural influences as the paintings are left outside open to the elements and purposeful artistic work in Suter’s practice. Designed by Julia Born.

More than thirty years ago the Swiss-Argentine artist Vivian Suter (*1949) moved to the rain forest in Panajachel, Guatemala, to live on a former coffee plantation. Since then she has worked on her impressive paintings in her wooden-hut studio, as well as outdoors. Her canvases lie on the sandy ground or hang in trees; dust, mud, leaves, mangos, and insects leave their traces on them. Her painting is influenced by organic processes and coincidence—even natural disasters are her material, when flood waters make their mark on canvases, becoming part of her large, colorful paintings. With texts by Adam Szymczyk, contributions by R.H. Quaytman, Moyra Davey, Hendrik Folkerts. Designed by Studio Manuel Raeder.

You can see Rosalind Nashashibi’s film Vivian’s Garden here.