Svetlana Kopystiansky

Svetlana Kopystiansky (born 1950 in Voronezh) is an American artist, active in New York City since 1988.^[1] She has a multimedia practice, including painting, photography, film, and video, with an investigation of language as her primary paradigm.^[2] On works in media of film and video, she collaborates with her husband Igor Kopystiansky. Her independent works and their joint works are shown internationally and held in museum and private collections around the world. Archives by Igor and Svetlana Kopystiansky are located at the Centre Pompidou.^[3]

From late Seventies until late Eighties Svetlana Kopystiansky was part of a second-generation of "Soviet non-conformist artists" w.^[2] In 1979, Svetlana Kopystiansky turned to the avant-garde tradition. Her Correct Figures/Incorrect Figures (1979) commented on the work of Malevich,^[4] while White Album (1979) was based on the concept of the “found object” introduced by Marcel Duchamp.^[5] The works on paper Plays mimicked Samuel Beckett's deadpan humor and meditations on life's banality and contained a reference to Alexander Rodchenko’s ideas. Kopystiansky started working on her two conceptually and formally related series- Landscapes and Seascapes- in 1980. Both series merge text with image: a closer look at either a landscape or seascape reveals a pattern of handwritten text filling the canvas,^[6] with excerpts borrowed from classic authors, such as Leo Tolstoy, Samuel Beckett and Paul Eluard.^[7][2][8] Starting in the early eighties, Svetlana began working on a series of paintings that incorporated found texts appropriated from international classical literature. In this particular series of works, she combined both visual and verbal languages, crafting the visual form from handwritten verbal texts. From a distance, these paintings may resemble seascapes or landscapes, but as the viewer approaches them and looks closely, they can discern the verbal text and read it. In the creation of another series of text-based works, Svetlana handwrote found texts, extracted from novels, onto oil-painted canvases. Then were used the specific physical properties of the fabric, such as its elasticity, which allowed an artist to shape them into folds at her will. This way, Svetlana produced paintings where simple geometrical forms were outlined, and the material was arranged freely in various large or small folds. This approach resulted in the deconstruction of the original form of the text, with the new form giving rise to a new sequence of letters and signs. Thus, the visual form takes precedence over the text, causing the viewer’s attention to spring back and forth between the visual form and the text, which, however, can no longer be read in its original form, since the words disintegrate and their fragments come together in unbelievable constructions. An interplay emerges between the text-reality and the words, or rather, the visual form of the words, as distinct from their semantic and phonetic aspects. The deconstructed text carries a reference to the ideas of international Avant-Garde and DADA movements. ^[9][10]

In 1988, she and her husband and collaborator Igor Kopystiansky left the Soviet Union and moved to New York City, which has been their home base since then.

In 1990 in New York Svetlana started a new series of large scale sculptures and installation works constructed from editions of books as found objects or readymades. In this group of works real books were placed in wooden boxes in a way that they become visual objects with pages open towards the viewer. For these works were used editions of novels in English.^[5]These new sculptures and installation works were produced and exhibited in New York. Since then, works from this series have been exhibited internationally and are now featured in important museum collections. In these works, real books are placed in wooden boxes, revealing the entire contents of the books except for their titles. These books are English-language editions of novels and are used as found objects, which is a reference to the ideas of Marcel Duchamp. In each case, the pages form a unique shape. Because of these differences in shape, the viewer is able to see different fragments of text from each book. One is led to wonder whether the various texts are connected to one another or not. The wooden boxes themselves represent a kind of taken-apart library. Reminiscent of construction, they might bring to mind classical building façades, columns or other architectural elements. The work titled Universal Space was created using real books (editions of novels) and gymnastic equipment. Each book is affixed inside an individual wooden box, concealing the title, but forming a distinct shape from its pages. Both the books and the sports equipment used in this work are found objects. The installation creates a dual-purpose space, combining functions that are not compatible in reality, thus referring to the artistic ideas of surrealism.^[11][12][13]

In 1990, being in New York Svetlana and Igor Kopystiansky received a DAAD artists-in-residency grant that brought them from the USA to Berlin, Germany, and resulted in their first solo museum exhibition with a catalogue, "In the Tradition," curated by René Block for the Berlinische Galerie, Museum of Modern Art, in the Martin Gropius-Bau, Berlin in 1991.^[1]

Igor and Svetlana Kopystiansky pursue individual careers, but also regularly work together. Her individual and joint practice were shown at museum venues, in important international presentations and are collected by major American, European and Australian museums.

In the collection of the Whitney Museum of American Art Igor and Svetlana are represented with a two screen slide projection installation The Day Before Tomorrow photographed on the streets of New York in 1999.^[14]

Increasingly the Kopystianskys make video. Their 1996-7 video Incidents,^[15]filmed on streets of Chelsea Manhattan was first shown by curator Harald Szeemann in the Lyon Biennale in 1997,^[16] meditates on the potential beauty and pathos of discarded objects, as they are balletically blown around by wind along a city street.^[17] The filming of Incidents was made during a period of two years 1996/1997 in Chelsea where has been located artists’ studio, what at that time was largely non-residential area. Artists made filming and editing instantly and continued to work in such way until the video was accomplished. A soundtrack of this work is based exclusively on original recording in the city, which consist from incidental sounds of street life: traffic, conversations, footsteps, etc. A fresh and very common wind from the Hudson River transformed streets into a kind of a stage with actors. Everyday objects: a cup, a newspaper, an umbrella, a cardboard box, plastic bags are blown across the sidewalk and street. Mass-produced discards become large sculptures always in their movement, with constant changes of their sculptural form. Hours of footage carefully collected on many windy days have been edited to capture these magical moments. The wind was playing with these objects, turning and twisting them, bringing them together, and then separating them once more. It looks that the wind was liberating them from a power of gravitation.

Incidents were produced in a limited editions which were acquired and become a part of collections of MoMA, Metropolitan, Centre Pompidou, Museum of Fine Arts Houston, TATE Modern London, Museum für Moderne Kunst Frankfurt, Germany, AGNSW Sydney and were exhibited as a part of collections by major museums and at important international exhibitions. ^[18] A complete exhibition history of the video work Incidents (1996/1997) is published in a reference to a purchase at the web site of the MFAH, Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Texas.^[19]

Later collaborations, such as 2005's Yellow Sound, represented in the collection of Smithsonian American Art Museum, takes its title from a Wassily Kandinsky theater production, and its silent structure and running time from John Cage's famous composition 4'33" (1952), in which a piano player sits at the keyboard, lift the lid and stay motionless and silent for the next four minutes and thirty-three seconds.^[20]As a source for Yellow Sound, (2005) artists used a found silent film footage with an image of a vinyl record. The original very short film was slowed down to increase it’s duration to 4:33. During the whole presentation a viewer does see an image, which looks like a still and only dust, scratches and other original damages of the film, which appear and disappear slowly indicate that the time is flowing.^[21]

In the video Portrait, 2006, represented in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum, Kopystiansky used a short excerpt from Masculin Feminin by Jean-Luc Godard. This selected clip has been played forward and backward at the same time. As the artists have described their process, "The effect is that most of the time the image is doubled, but in the middle of the program for 1/24th of a second the images merge in one single still. This moment has been determined by the movement of the film in the projection camera.” ^[22]

In a 2006 film work, Pink and White-A Play in Two Time Directions, artists superimpose the same footage playing forward and in reverse. The suggestive quality of these pieces is enhanced as the time/action moves forward and rewinds, creating a sense of time as both a found event and a lost memory. Pink and White is emphasizing their interest in early cinema, and the surrealist graphic intensity of photographer Man Ray.

Pink and White is related to two other film/video works by Igor and Svetlana Kopystiansky: Double Fiction (2008)^[23] and Fiction Double (2008).^{[24] [25]} In both works the entire movie – respectively, The Birds by Alfred Hitchcock and the Breathless by Jean-Luc Godard – have been played in two directions: forward and backward. Their soundtracks, in contradistinction to Pink and White, were appropriated from the original movies. Both movies were created almost at the same time within only a three year difference: 1960 Breathless and 1963 The Birds, both have a dramatic intensity and a fictional film narrative built in a classical way: a narrative time moves straightforward in one direction only. Both films represent an “author’s” cinematography and for artists was important to use classical films which every viewer is keeping in a memory. In Double Fiction and Fiction Double respectively, entire film footage of Alfred Hitchcock film The Birds and the entire film footage of Jean-Luc Godard’s Breathless are shown with sound, from beginning to end and over again in reverse, from the end to the beginning simultaneously and both flows of time are visible to the viewer in every moment of the presentation. In this way Kopystiansky incorporated the entire film as a found object and re-considered viewer’s reception of narrative time in the classical cinema. In a visual part early scenes are joined with later scenes. At the mid-point, each film becomes one as the superimposed films line up and become a single film. Both time flows heading in opposite directions join for a very brief moment which duration has been defined by a speed of a film presentation: 1/24th of the second. Deconstruction of an original narrative content worked at the same time as a constructive force by creating a new visual and audio quality of the work and producing a new visual object. In that new work relations between characters have changed and simultaneously new relations have been built, new interactions between them. Characters also interact with themselves being present at the screen in two times at once. Every next image is an unpredictable visual combination. All the music, all noises and each spoken word in the film always have been played twice: in a regular direction and in a reverse. An important part of these works is a verbal language. The sound has been bound to the image and has been played equally either in a regular direction or reversed. In that second case spoken words have been changed to a not recognition and by loosing their communication means gained new qualities and have been turned into abstract Sounds.^[26][27]

Video installation Crossroad (2009) was exhibited for the first time at the solo exhibition by Igor and Svetlana Kopystiansky in the Musée d'Art Moderne de Saint-Etienne Métropole, France in 2010. An unedited solid footage filmed at six different crossroads in the Lower Manhattan was a record of real time: of all events, which took place in a front of the camera with all sounds of an environment. From these 6 video records artists made 3 video programs using two footages for each screen by superimposing them and dissolving one of them very slowly into another one and back during the playback. In this way during a projection images slowly and gradually dissolve from a shot of one location to a shot of another location in the city. At the beginning of each program is only one single frame which represents a perfect image from one location and immediately after that begins a very long and graduate dissolve which ends up with a single frame of another “perfect image” from a second footage. After reaching that point begins equally slow dissolve back to the first footage again. In the rest of the time on each screen is projected a mixture of two different locations and two time pieces what creates a new fictional visual reality. The architecture becomes entirely unreal and a gradual transition between two different locations creates a dislocation of time and place.^[28][29]

Kopystiansky’s individual and collaborative works has been featured in exhibitions in such institutions as the MoMA, Metropolitan Museum in New York City; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Centre Pompidou Metz; Tate Modern, London; Tate Gellery Liverpool; Museo Reina Sofia, Madrid; Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.; Art Institute of Chicago; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, MFAH Texas; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago MCA Chicago; Whitechapel Art Gallery, London; Museum für Moderne Kunst, MMK Frankfurt am Main; Deichtorhallen Hamburg; Kunsthalle zu Kiel; Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst SMAK Gent; Art Gallery of New South Wales AGNSW, Sydney; Museum of Contemporary Art, Vigo,^[30] Spain; MUMOK, Vienna; Henry Art Gallery, Seattle. Among others, Igor and Svetlana Kopystiansky had solo exhibitions at the Musée d’Art Moderne de Saint-Etienne, France; Kunsthalle Düsseldorf; Sprengel Museum Hannover; Kunsthalle Fridericianum, Kassel; Martin-Gropius-Bau/Berlinische Galerie; Espoo Museum of Modern Art, Finland; Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art SMoCA Arizona; Fine Arts Center UMass, Amherst; GAMeC, Bergamo; Muzeum Sztuki in Łodz, Poland; Lithuanian National Museum in Vilnius, Lithuania.^[31]

Svetlana Kopystiansky’s individual works and joint works with Igor were shown at important international exhibitions including the 1992 Sydney Biennial,^[32] the 1994 Sao Paulo Biennial, the 1995 Istanbul Biennial,^[33] 1997 Lyon Biennial,^[16] 1997 Johannesburg Biennial^[34] Liverpool Biennial,^[35] 1997's Skulpture Projekt,^[36] Münster. and documenta 11 in 2002,^[37][38]

The first exhibition by Svetlana Kopystiansky in New York City and the US took place from 16th June-16th July 1988 at the Cable Gallery, 611 Broadway, NYC. At that exhibition participated Svetlana Kopystiansky, Brenda Miller and Collier Schorr. Svetlana exhibited her text based paintings including one of her very early works: Landscape, 1982 which at that time was purchased by American collectors and later donated to the MFAH, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.^[39]

Lisson Gallery represented Igor and Svetlana Kopystiansky from 2001 till 2011.^[40] A collaboration with the Lisson gallery started in 2000, when being in New York Igor and Svetlana received an invitation to participate in Video Work, exhibition by the Lisson Gallery in Covent Garden, at 9 Kean Street, April 28 - May 26, London which co-insided with the opening of the Tate Modern. At that exhibition Igor and Svetlana presented their video work Fog (2000) filmed from the Chelsea piers across Hudson River. In 2024 Fog (2000) was acquired by the Walker Art Center.^{[41][42][43][44]}

At the Armory Show New York in 2001 Lisson gallery presented a video program which included Incidents (1996/1997) by Igor and Svetlana Kopystiansky.

A major part of the first solo exhibition by Igor and Svetlana at the Lisson gallery London in 2002 were installation works filmed on streets of New York City including two screen slide projection installation The Day before Tomorrow (1999) which become a part of the Whitney Museum of American Art collection in 2009.^[45][46]

The Day before Tomorrow was exhibited as a part of the exhibition: Chronos & Kairos: Time in contemporary art. Curator René Block, 5 Sept.-7 Nov. 1999. Kunsthalle Fridericianum,, Kassel, Germany. ^[47]

In 2006 at their second Lisson gallery solo exhibition Igor and Svetlana presented video installation Yellow Sound (2005) which from 2009 is represented in the collection of the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C., two video projection installations (Sandglass) Establishing Shot commissioned by the Scottsdale Contemporary Art museum accompanied by a photographic project Fade also created in the desert of Arizona. Exhibition also included Pink and White presented as a multi screen video installation and paintings by Svetlana Kopystiansky: Landscapes and Seascapes shaped by handwritten text appropriated from poems by Samuel Beckett and works on paper.^[48][49][50]

• 2000 Käthe Kollwitz Prize.^[51]

• Museum of Modern Art^[52]
• Metropolitan Museum of Art^[53]
• Whitney Museum of American Art^[54]
• Art Institute of Chicago^[55]
• MFAH, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston^[56]
• Walker Art Center, Contemporary Art Museum, Minneapolis,^[57]
• Smithsonian American Art Museum^[58]
• Henry Art Gallery in Seattle.^[59]
• Centre Pompidou Paris^[60]
• Tate Modern, London^[61]
• Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney^[62]
• MUMOK Vienna, Austria^[63]
• Ludwig Forum for International Art, Aachen.^[64]
• Berlinische Galerie^[65]
• Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt am Main^[66]
• MOCAK, Museum of Contemporary Art Krakow, Poland^[67]
• Museum of Art, Łódź, Poland^[68]
• Tartu Art Museum, Tartu Kunstimuuseum Estonia.^[69]
• Center for Contemporary Art Luigi Pecci, Italy.^[70]

• "Igor & Svetlana Kopystiansky". The Lithuanian National Museum of Art. 2023. Foreword: Arūnas Gelūnas. Texts by Michel Gauthier, John G. Hanhardt. Quotations from texts about Kopystiansky’s by Kai-Uwe Hemken, Philippe-Alain Michaud, Anthony Spira, Adam D. Weinberg.(Lithuanian, English, French) ISBN 9786094261824
• ‘'Kopystiansky: Double Fiction/Fiction Double”. Published on the occasion of the solo exhibition at the Musée d"Art Moderne de Saint-Étienne. 2010. Texts by John G. Hanhardt, Philippe-Alain Michaud. Les Presses du Réel. ISBN 9782840663744
• "Igor & Svetlana Kopystiansky." Published on the occasion of the solo exhibition at the EMMA – Espoo Museum of Modern Art, Helsinki, 2007. Texts by Timo Valjakka, Anthony Spira, Barry Schwabsky, (English, Finnish, Swedish), EMMA – Espoo Museum of Modern Art, Helsinki. ISBN 9789525509007
• “Igor & Svetlana Kopystiansky: The Day before Tomorrow”. Published on the occasion of the solo exhibition at the Kunsthalle Fridericianum, Kassel and Fine Arts Centre of UMass, Amherst, Massachusetts, 2005. With introduction by René Block and Loretta Yarlow and texts by Adam D. Weinberg, Barry Schwabsky, Andreas Bee, Anthony Bond, Kai-Uwe Hemken. (English and German), ISBN 9780929597195
• “Igor & Svetlana Kopystiansky: Tracking Shot.” With texts by Barry Schwabsky, Andreas Bee, Anthony Bond. (English and Spanish), Distrito4, 2004. Madrid, Spain ISBN 9788493342265
• “Svetlana Kopystiansky: Käthe-Kollwitz-Preis 2000.” Akademie der Künste, Berlin. ISBN 3-88331-042-5
• “Svetlana Kopystiansky: El Jardî." With a text by Joseph M. Camarasa. Institut Botànic Barcelona, Institut de Cultura, Double Lives, Barcelona, 1999. ISBN 9788476098196
• “Igor & Svetlana Kopystiansky: Dialog,” Published on the occasion of the solo exhibition at the IFA Galerie Berlin, 1998. Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen Stuttgart/Berlin.
• “Svetlana Kopystiansky: Workers Library.” 2nd Johannesburg Biennale, 1997. ISBN 9783927869127
• “Svetlana Kopystiansky: The Library.” Published on the occasion of the solo exhibition at the Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, Germany. 1994.
• “Igor and Svetlana Kopystiansky” Published on the occasion of the solo exhibition at the Martin-Gropius-Bau Berlin, 1991. DAAD. Curator René Block. Texts by Dan Cameron, Joachim Sartorius, Christine Tacke. ISBN 9783893570317
• “Svetlana Kopystiansky: Shadow of Gravitation,” Published on the occasion of the solo exhibition at The Art Institute of Chicago, 1996. Publisher: Buro Orange Siemens AG Kulturstiftung Siemens. ISBN 3-9805007-1-3

• Thierry Davila, Heuristique des courants d’air. Les Cahiers du Musée national d’art moderne , #146, Winter issue 2018-2019 of the Centre Pompidou. "Of an art that does not lack air. From Leonardo da Vinci to Duchamp, Hans Haacke and beyond, a eulogy of drafts »Heuristique des courants d’air. Artists: Léonard de Vinci, Marcel Duchamp, Piero Manzoni, Giuseppe Penone, Hans Haacke, Marinus Boezem, Igor et Svetlana Kopystiansky, Ryan Gander, Gabriel Orozco, Pascale Marthine Tayou, Zilvinas Kempinas, Francis Alÿs, Didier Marcel. Les Cahiers du Musée national d’art moderne 2019/1 N° 146 EAN 9782844268372
• Philippe-Alain Michaud. Sur le film. Editions Macula, France. 464 pages index150 illustrations couleur, 185 illustrations noir et blanc, pp. 207-220. 2016 ISBN 978-2-86589-085-9, ISSN 2430-8943
• Michel Gauthier. Scenes from the life of palimpsests in Art Lovers. Stories of Art in the Pinault Collection at the Grimaldi Forum Monaco, from 12 July to 7 September 2014. Lien Art. Curator Martin Bethenod. Texts: Après by Martin Bethenod. ISBN 978-2-35906-112-3
• Adam D. Weinberg. The Binary Method, Some Thoughts on Two Projects: Incidents and The Day Before Tomorrow in: Artist, work, Lisson. Lisson Gallery London, England. "ARTIST WORK LISSON documents the history and legacy of Lisson Gallery over the past 50 years. Under the art direction of famed Dutch designer Irma Boom, the publication features an A-to-Z of every artist who has had a solo exhibition at the gallery. pp. 14, 340, 341, 464-465, 472-473474, 662-665. Distributed in North America by Artbook | D.A.P., 2017. ISBN 978-0-947830-63-2
• Adam D. Weinberg. “Das binäre Verfahren. Überlegungen zu zwei Arbeiten Incidents und The Day Before Tomorrow.” Das Fridericianum Magazin. Kunstverein und Kunsthalle, Nov. 2005, pp. 42–45.
• Hemken, Kai-Uwe: Die doppelte Documenta 11 - Die Videoinstallation "Flow" von Igor & Svetlana Kopystiansky als Sinnbild einer mediatisierten documenta. XXD11: Über Kunst und Künstler der Gegenwart. Ein Nachlesebuch zur Documenta 11. Kassel University Press ; Erscheinungstermin. 1. Mai 2003 ; ISBN 978-3-89958-506-3
• "Kunst der letzten 10 Jahre." Curated by Dieter Ronte and Wolfgang Drechsler. Museum of Modern Art, Vienna. 28 April bis 24.September 1989. pp. 14, 150-153. ISBN 978-3-900776-03-9
• "Documenta 11," Director Okwui Enwezor. Kassel, Germany. 2002. ISBN 978-3-7757-9088-8
• “Chronos & Kairos : die Zeit in der zeitgenössischen Kunst;” Museum Fridericianum Kassel, Curator René Block, Verlag: Documenta und Museum Fridericianum Kassel, 1999. Kunsthalle Fridericianum, 5 Sept.-7 Nov. Kassel, Germany. ISBN 978-3-927015-13-5
• "Trace," Liverpool Biennial of Contemporary Art, (Curator Anthony Bond). The Tate Gallery Liverpool, ISBN 978-0-9536761-0-1
•  "2nd Johannesburg Biennale," Curator Okwui Enwezor. Johannesburg, South Africa. ISBN 978-0-620-21522-0
• "L'Autre. 4e Biennale de Lyon, Art Contemporain," Curator Harald Szeemann, Lyon, France ISBN 978-2-7118-3574-4
• The 4th International Istanbul Biennial, ORIENT/ATION–The Vision of Art in a Paradoxical World Turkey. Director: René Block. Venue: Antrepo no. 1, Yerebatan Cistern, Hagia Eirene Museum, Atatürk Cultural Center Art Gallery. ISBN 978-2-87939-249-3
• “Caravanserraglio, Fuori Uso ‘95,” Curator Giacinto Di Pietrantonio. Ex Aurum, Pescara, Italy. ISBN 978-1-9993170-0-3
• "Cocido y Crudo," Museo National Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid, Spain. Curator Dan Cameron. 1994. pp. 50, 58, 118-121, 234 237, 324, 330. ISBN 978-84-8026-042-8
• “Ich will daß Du mir glaubst .9th Triennial of Small Sculpture,” Curator Jean-Christophe Ammann, Natalie de Ligt. Fellbach, Germany. Alte Kelter - 26.6. bis 26.9.2004. Participating artists: Nobuyoshi Araki, Stephan Balkenhol, Thomas Bayrle, Linda Benglis, Heiner Blum, Louise Bourgeois, Peter Fischli/David Weiss, Ceal Floyer, David Hammons, Martin Honert, Bethan Huws, Igor und Svetlana Kopystiansky, Zoe Leonard, Martin Liebscher, Cathy de Monchaux, Ron Mueck, Bruce Naumann, Markus Raetz, Martial Raysse, Andreas Slominski, Rosemarie Trockel, Erwin Wurm. Herausgebende Fellbach, Württ Stadt Fellbach Publikationsjahr 2004. ISBN 978-3-86984-147-2
• "The Boundary Rider," 9th Biennale of Sydney. Curator Anthony Bond. AGNSW, Sydney, Australia. ISBN 978-1-921034-84-8
• “Dialog im Bode museum.” Curators Klaus Biesenbach. Staatliche Museen Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Bodemuseum Berlin, 1992. ISBN 978-0-9841776-2-2
• Jörn Merkert. Kunst die in Berlin entstand : Meisterwerke der Berlinischen Galerie. Prestel, München 2004, ISBN 978-3-7913-3217-8
• “From Trash to Treasure. Vom Wert des Wertlosen in der Kunst.” Edited by Anette Hüsch. Kunsthalle zu Kiel. Participating artists: Arman, Joseph Beuys, George Brecht, Pavel Büchler, Christo, Tony Cragg, Jürgen Drescher, Marcel Duchamp, Sylvie Fleury, Gilbert & George, Asger Jorn, Arthur Køpcke, Igor und Svetlana Kopystiansky, Urs Lüthi, Gordon Matta Clark, Olaf Metzel, Robert Morris, Vik Muniz, Mimmo Rotella, Dieter Roth, Kurt Schwitters, Daniel Spoerri, Jacques de la Villeglé, Wolf Vostell. Published by Kerber, 2011. ISBN 978-3-86984-147-2
• “Erre, variations labyrinthiques.” Organized by Hélène Guenin and Guillaume Désanges. Préfaces d’Alain Seban et de Laurent Le Bon, Centre Pompidou-Metz, 2011. ISBN 978-2-35983-014-9
• “Tempo ao tempo/ Taking time.”Catalog of an exhibition held at MARCO, Museo de arte contemporánea de Vigo, Oct. 19, 2007-Feb. 17, 2008. Texts by Isabel Carlos, Félix Duque, and Iñaki Martínez Antelo. In Galician, Spanish, and English. ISBN 978-84-935505-4-7
• "Sculpture projects in Münster 1997," Curators Kasper König and Klaus Bussmann. Münster, Germany. pp. 264–267. ISBN 978-3-7757-0667-4
• "Time Capsule. A Concise Encyclopedia by Women Artists." Edited by Robin Kahn, introductions by Kathy Acker and Avital Ronell. Artists including: April Gornik, the Guerilla Girls, Lynda Benglis, Vivienne Koorland, Svetlana Kopystiansky, Joan Jonas, Alison Knowles, Barbara Kruger, Carolee Schneemann, Rosemarie Castoro, Yayoi Kusama, May Stevens. Creative Time in cooperation with SOS Int’l, New York, 1995, pp. 326, 683. ISBN 978-1-881616-33-7
• "Art and Text," Black Dog Publishing Will Hill, Charles Harrison, Dave Beech. London. Edited by Aimee Selby. 279 p. 2019. This volume covers the development of the textual medium in art from the early combinations of text, lettering and image in the work of seminal artists such as El Lissitzky and Kurt Schwitters right up to the present day. The use of written language has been one of the most defining developments in visual art of the twentieth century. The use of text can be seen in some of the most avant-garde artwork of the twentieth century; René Magritte and dadaist artists used it to describe anti-art and anti-aesthetic sentiment. The work of some of the most famous conceptual artists of the 1960s began to use written language as an artwork in itself. Artists such as John Baldessari, Lawrence Weiner and Bruce Nauman, who are still today some of the world's most respected artists, helped push the boundaries of what constitutes art at the time and it has continued to develop since that period. The expansive Art & Language group of artists and theorists, including Joseph Kosuth, also reconsidered the possibilities of "linguistic art."Evans -- Textuality : Vito Acconci ; Fiona Banner ; Robert Barry ; Mark Bijl ; Xu Bing ; Mel Bochner ; Claus Carstensen ; Adam Chodzko ; Hanne Darboven ; Jeremy Deller ; Douglas Gordon ; Jens Haaning ; Gary Hill ; Roni Horn ; Svetlana Kopystiansky ; Simon Lewty ; Glenn Ligon ; Hayley Newman ; Simon Patterson ; Daniel Pflumm ; Tom Phillips ; Olivia Plender ; Jaume Plensa ; Simon Popper ; Richard Prince ; Ugo Rondinone ; Allen Ruppersberg ; Carolee Schneemann ; Jeffrey Shaw ; Catherine Street ; Joanne Tatham & Tom O'Sullivan ; Cy Twombly ; Cerith Wyn Evans ; Carey Young. ISBN 978-1-906155-65-0 OCLC 339957164 https://archive.org/details/arttext0000unse/page/n295/mode/2up
• "Allegorie de la Richesse, Baroque et art contemporain.” Chapelle St. Louis de la Salpêtrière, Paris, France. Artists: Elisabeth Ballet, Daniel Buren, Anne-Katrine Dolven, Roland Eckelt, Svetlana Kopystiansky, Johan Lorbeet, Inge Mahn, Eliseo Mattiacci, Marcel Odenbach, Gundula Schulze, Jacques Vieille. ISBN 978-3-89322-621-4
• "Di Carta e d'Altro, Libri d'Artista," Center for Contemporary Art Luigi Pecci, Prato, Introduction by Ida Panicelli, text by Antonella Soldaini and Silvana Barni, ISBN 978-88-85191-08-2
• "Future Perfect," Curated by Dan Cameron. Hochschule für Angewandte Kunst, Vienna, pp. 42–45
• "Jetztzeit," Curator Saskia Bos: Kunsthalle Vienna, traveled to De Appel, Amsterdam, Netherlands. 1995. Bizhan Bassiri, Kim Fowley, Franz Graf, Peter Kogler, Elke Krystufek, Thomas Locher, Tatsuo Miyajima, Svetlana Kopystiansky, Albert Oehlen, Gerwald Rockenschaub, Lincoln Tobier, Matta Wagnest, Franz West, Heimo Zobernig, Kunsthalle Vienna, traveled to De Appel, Amsterdam, Netherlands. ISBN 978-3-89322-666-5

• Fonds Igor et Svetlana Kopystiansky. Bibliothèque Kandinsky, Centre Pompidou.

• Igor and Svetlana Kopystiansky: Projects
• The Metropolitan Museum of Art Thomas J. Watson Library Catalog
• Skulptur Projekte Archiv
• documenta archiv
• Whitney Archives
• GND Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
• Getty record
• Harald Szeemann Archive Getty Research Institute