Stephen Willats: How the world is and how it could be

Stephen Willats (born 1943) is a pioneer of conceptual art. Since the early 1960s he has created work concerned with extending the territory in which art functions. His work has involved interdisciplinary processes and theory from sociology, systems analysis, cybernetics, semiotics and philosophy. His multi-media projects often engage visitors to participate in creative social processes.

With more than fifty works this catalogue presents the most comprehensive survey of the artist's work to date. Starting with the early phenomenological observations, the manifestos on the role of the artist between philosopher, architekt and designer and the early cybernetic experiments the texts trace the development of the playful and communicative strategies in serial foto- and textworks and in larger projects over the course of four decades.