Literaturen, die zwischen Recherche und fiktionaler Improvisation oszillieren und beschreibt die Arbeitskonstellationen, die er initiiert, um Autoren, Gestalter und Verlage in die Produktion einzubeziehen und das Buchobjekt sowie seine Distribution, sein Auftauchen in der Welt, zu konkretisieren. Olaf Nicolai (geb. 1962 Halle/Saale) ist bildender Künstler und arbeitet in Berlin. Seit 2011 lehrt er als Professor für Bildhauerei an der Akademie der Bildenden Künste München. Olaf Nicolai's first publication, LECTION: Materialien, fundstücke, was brought out in 1990. Since then, his publishing work, extending from artist's books and catalogues to printed ephemera-such as postcards, stickers, and posters-has been an essential aspect of his artistic practice. This publication provides the first comprehensive survey of his artist's books and printed matter, taking as its starting point an exhibition at the Institut Mathildenhöhe in Darmstadt in which Nicolai translated seventeen publications into installations, generating a richly textured interaction between the space of the book page and the exhibition environment. It presents the various ways in which the book medium is used in Nicolai's work and examines his handling of notational and presentational forms in scientific, musical, and experimental literature as he switches back and forth between research and fictional improvisation. The book also delineates the constellations he sets up in order to involve authors, designers, and publishers in the production process, not only giving the printed work concrete expression as a physical object but also specifying its mode of distribution and its manifestation in the world. Olaf Nicolai (b. 1962 Halle/Saale) is a visual artist based in Berlin. Since 2011 he has been a professor of sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts (AdBK) in Munich.