Roger Boltshauser’s artistic work cannot be explained without referencing his architectural work, equally it is hardly possible to fully understand  his architecture without considering his artistic work. Our task was to illustrate this and, at the same time, to depict his method of responding to design questions and the consistently practiced interference of architecture and art.

Roger Boltshauser entrusted Atelier Andrea Gassner with the graphic-scenographic design of his exhibitions and prints. In its work, the studio spins this interplay between architecture and art further. For example, the cover of the 500-page monograph “Roger Boltshauser” is not decorated with a striking architectural image, but with one of his dominant sketches.

This sketch connects to the exhibitions of Roger Boltshauser’s work: In 2021, the monograph – edited by Martin Tschanz and already out of print – was presented at the Architektur Galerie in Berlin, as were various other sketches. In the exhibition at the Galerie d’Architecture in Paris in 2022, this sketch in turn transformed the entrance into a room-sized, walk-in drawing. Architectural models stood like sculptures on mighty black pedestals. Sketches and plans were connected to each other by the same deep wooden frames, as well as by a hanging that spanned the wall. On a filigree metal shelf, selected material samples created the link between the depicted and the material.

The Paris show is now moving on, if you will, to the Architekturgalerie am Weissenhof in Stuttgart. But the photographs will not simply be taken down here and hung up there again, the models and the earth samples will be reined in. No, the construction continues. Layer by layer, Stuttgart on Paris on Berlin, the places themselves become part of the history and the development of “RESPONSE”. In Stuttgart, the large-format picture panels show photographs of the photographs from the Galerie d’Architecture in Paris.
But it is not just that the photographs document the previous exhibitions, but the models, sketches, and plans also expand and enrich each subsequent exhibition layer by layer with new content and perspectives. And of course the texts.

A catalog about the longstanding friendship between Wilhelm Otten and Gottfried Honegger and his artistic work. A catalog in two parts, with no beginning or end, the transition between which reveals the turning point of this friendship – the death of Honegger. Numerous discussion throughout the friendly relationship led Wilhelm Otten to create a platform for encounters with people interested in art. In 2005 he opened up his art collection, entering it into a public dialogue. As a representative of Concrete Art, Gottfried Honegger is one of the most important Swiss artists of the 20th century. In his long and – to the very end – highly creative life, he created an extensive oeuvre. For Honneger art was more than just jewelry for the elite, he saw it as an existential necessity for all. He brought it back to the primal forces: form, color and material. His geometric art contrasted the smooth and rough / glossy and matt / radical and forgiving. The design of the book encompasses this dichotomy in its concept. The photographic language of museum representation complements that one of art in context. The interplay of smooth and rough paper follows the glossy and matt screen print finishes of the cover. The two parts of the book are linked together into an endless loop of content, reflecting Honegger’s artistic work.

There are a few consistent symbols used for visual identification of pharmacies. We often see the serpent’s staff, originally the attribute of the god of medicine (Aesculapius) – sometimes used in relation to a stylized apothecary’s scale or twisted into the capital letter „A“ for the Austrian Chamber of Pharmacists. Internationally however, a green cross is commonly used to signify pharmacies and medical areas. This symbol serves Atelier Andrea Gassner as a visual building block for the appearance of the new pharmacy in Feldkirch-Tosters. Formal elements of the green cross are interwoven in the lettering „Apotheke Tosters“ itself, forming a striking word and picture mark, which is skillfully continued on the wall-high glass facade and in the interior of the pharmacy. Light effects that change in shades of green on the back of the shelving units give the shop window its luminous power at dusk and in the dark. The intertwining of shop and corporate design, of lighting concept and line of sight thus develops into the attractive overall appearance of the new specialist shop for pharmaceuticals and medical products.

There are a few consistent symbols used for visual identification of pharmacies. We often see the serpent’s staff, originally the attribute of the god of medicine (Aesculapius) – sometimes used in relation to a stylized apothecary’s scale or twisted into the capital letter „A“ for the Austrian Chamber of Pharmacists. Internationally however, a green cross is commonly used to signify pharmacies and medical areas. This symbol serves Atelier Andrea Gassner as a visual building block for the appearance of the new pharmacy in Feldkirch-Tosters. Formal elements of the green cross are interwoven in the lettering „Apotheke Tosters“ itself, forming a striking word and picture mark.

For many years now “Magazin 4” has been a hotspot in Bregenz that provides impulses and is well known for its cultural events. Magazin 4 functions as an urban facility with a large programmatic open area and, in terms of its profile, has always been able to follow an independent line. Ten years ago, Atelier Andrea Gassner revitalised the Bregenz city trademark, at the same time giving the city’s profile a new direction. Now the outdated brand “Magazin 4” has been operated upon using a sharp knife. These days, evolutionary corrections to existing logos often prove more effective and better equipped for the future than severe cuts and novel solutions, which in the competition for attention have to start from zero and, in order to strike a positive balance, must first of all reach their original level again. The visual interventions: modernisation of the monospaced versal typography as well as the omission of the underlining and the black field for the number 4. Instead, a “pipe” (vertical line) is used. As a result, the brand is more flexible to use and more open. Subtitles and the accompanying typography are borrowed from the design program used for the city’s profile, which awakens the intended secondary association with the corporate identity of Bregenz. The first application of the basic system – the name on the facade and the graphics in the interior – demonstrates functionality and a contemporary habitus.

In the framework of the summer exhibition by Karl-Heinz Ströhle Atelier Andrea Gassner designed a 132-page magazine and a scenographic presentation about the artist’s art-in-building projects, which has held on the upper floor of the Palais Thurn und Taxis, Bregenz. On the side walls a series of project titles and unbound collated sheets of original printed pages from the magazine documented the most important works. The spatially dynamic structure was formed by plots on textile showing wall-high project illustrations and using initial typography that were positioned centrally in the space, where they were hung from the exposed roof trusses. In the bibliophile magazine design Atelier Andrea Gassner used design qualities like those found in Karl-Heinz Ströhle’s work; white space, clear lines, reduction, materiality, translucence, and movement. The text pages are consistently separated from the image pages and yet woven together by the transparent paper. The overlapping of the generous image pages and the typography on the text pages creates an entirely new dynamism and spatiality. When one turns the page to an image the large project title blends behind it, like a glazed underprint.

To mark an exhibition of the work of Karl-Heinz Ströhle Atelier Andrea Gassner designed a 132-page “Art-in-Building Magazine”, employing design qualities that relate to those found in Karl-Heinz Ströhle’s work: white space, clear lines, reduction, materiality, translucence, and movement. The pages of text are consistently separated from the image pages and are yet woven together using a transparent paper. The way in which the generous image pages and the typography of the text pages overlap creates an entirely new dynamism and spatiality. After turning the page to an image, the project title in large print blends behind it, like a glazed underprint.

Although Roger Boltshauser is known for his work as architect, for a long time it seemed uncertain whether his path would take him to architecture or to art. Impressed by Joseph Beuys, Anselm Kiefer, Arnulf Rainer, but also by Swiss representatives of neo-expressionism, parallel to his study of architecture he also embarked on creating an oeuvre of art and exhibited his work. He has remained loyal to both disciplines, with the result that his artworks cannot be explained without his architecture and, vice versa, his architecture cannot be fully understood without a knowledge of his artwork. This architect’s work is as diverse as it is independent. From the sketch design phase onward, climate-conscious building is a central theme that is expressed in his projects in a contemporary way. The present monograph brings together the buildings and the artworks in a single publication for the first time. The design concept is based on the architect’s work process and places sketches and plans before the photographs of the process and the architecture. The low opacity paper and the softness with which the pages open in the core gives the publication and its dense content the requisite lightness and makes the visual order perceptible.

The artistic intervention made by Andrea Gassner to mark the anniversary year quotes fragments from Wolf Huber’s most important visual work. Alone the choice of the first name “Wolf“ as the initial typographical visual medium refers semantically to an ambivalent narrative. In the cycle of images for billboards in the James Joyce Passage iconographical quotations from Huber’s visual work are integrated in the capital letters W O L F. Huber liked to make dramatic use of light, shadow, and space. He preferred garish colours and exaggerated facial expressions. The work for the glass cube on Jahnplatz continues the game played with the capital letters of the name W O L F but in three dimensions. Through Gassner’s interpretation of Gothic windows as a frieze of pointed arches the cube mutates into a kind of sacred showcase. The large punched-out letters and the yellow-coloured glass that backs them develop an unusual translucency and an interaction of light and space.

The artistic intervention made by Andrea Gassner to mark the anniversary year quotes fragments from Wolf Huber’s most important visual work. Alone the choice of the first name “Wolf“ as the initial typographical visual medium refers semantically to an ambivalent narrative. In the cycle of images for billboards in the James Joyce Passage iconographical quotations from Huber’s visual work are integrated in the capital letters W O L F. Huber liked to make dramatic use of light, shadow, and space. He preferred garish colours and exaggerated facial expressions. The work for the glass cube on Jahnplatz continues the game played with the capital letters of the name W O L F but in three dimensions. Through Gassner’s interpretation of Gothic windows as a frieze of pointed arches the cube mutates into a kind of sacred showcase. The large punched-out letters and the yellow-coloured glass that backs them develop an unusual translucency and an interaction of light and space. *WOLF HUBER* was an important Austrian-German Renaissance painter, printmaker, and architect. Born in Feldkirch in 1485, he worked in Passau from around 1510. In 1540 he became court painter at the bishop’s see there, and in 1541 was appointed Passau town architect. He died on 3 June 1553. *ORNAMENT AND RENAISSANCE* Wolf Huber was one of the most important masters of the Danube School – a Renaissance stylistic movement. It began in the Danube valley area in Austria and Bavaria at the end of the 15th century and extended across a large part of the alpine countries *LIGHT AND SPATIALITY* In terms of content and form light, colour, and space are taken beyond their natural function. Poetry or drama shape the pictures in which nature and human beings blend to create a single entity. Instead of noble restraint, there is strong emotion, instead of harmony distorted proportions. *COLOUR AND EMOTION* Wolf Huber liked to use garish colours and exaggerated facial expressions. Human beings are depicted as vulnerable creatures; not composed but furious or fearful, they do not simply accept but suffer. Even the faces of the animals express deep feelings.