Joseph Kosuth. The exchange value of language has fallen to zero

On the occasion of the monographic exhibition The-exchange-value-of-language-has-fallen-to-zero, dedicated to the American conceptual artist Joseph Kosuth and hosted at the Casa dei Tre Oci in Venice (March 28 - November 22, 2026), the homonymous catalogue edited by Mario Codognato and Adriana Rispoli accompanies and documents the entire exhibition project.

Joseph Kosuth is widely recognized as one of the foremost theorists and pioneers of Conceptualism. Since the mid-1960s, his research has radically transformed the way of understanding the artwork, interpreting it not as an object to be observed but rather as an idea to be questioned. Deeply influenced by the philosophy of Ludwig Wittgenstein and the lesson of Marcel Duchamp, Kosuth shifts the focus of art from image to language, juxtaposing everyday objects, photography, and texts to challenge the very meaning of things, since "An artwork is a linguistic proposition presented within the context of art as a comment on art".

The volume opens with the critical essay Reading Art, Looking at Language signed by the curators Codognato and Rispoli, which reconstructs the theoretical evolution of the artist, precisely explaining the transition from art as representation to the pure form of presentation of thought. An unpublished conversation with Hans-Ulrich Obrist brings back Joseph Kosuth's voice, offering itself as a valuable tool for insight into understanding the premises of his conceptual radicalism. To enrich the publication, the section focused on the Exhibition Views accompanies the reader through the rooms of the Casa dei Tre Oci. The iconographic material opens with the neon installation A Chain of Resemblance, specifically commissioned on the occasion of the exhibition, and then presents the artist's historical works, starting from the famous Proto-Investigations series.

The catalogue concludes with the biographical section, which retraces the artist's international exhibition career in chronological order.