How to shoplift books by David Horvitz is a comprehensive guide on how to steal books. From the very practical, romantic and to the most imaginative, it gives 80 detailed instructions on how one can steal a book.

Since 2013, the book has been released in 26 languages with the artist giving translators the liberty to change sentences to culturally more appropriate ones. Take the original English instruction “Put the book inside a super sized soda cup and walk out pretending to drink the soda.” for example. In Portuguese, the super sized soda cup is changed to a giant bottle of guarana, while in Germany it is translated to a Döner(Kebab). Each language edition carries witty instructions that lets readers soak in the cultural and contemporary context rather than a dictionary definition. At einBuch.haus, readers are invited to view all different language editions of How to shoplift books and peek into other cultures. In the main exhibition space, the German edition Wie man Bücher klaut from Edition Taube will be in focus with instructions printed on colorful silkscreen sheets and selected objects from the book displayed that might tempt visitors to perform some of the micro-performances described within the book.
*The publication of How to shoplift books originated as a conversation Horvitz hosted at the 2011 New York Art Book Fair in David Senior’s Classroom series. Following the release of the first edition in 2013, the artist then collaborated with Jan Steinbach and Edition Taube to turn the book into a cultural translation pro¬ject, collaborating with translators and publishing houses all over the world.

* co-curated by Jan Steinbach
* funded by Stiftung Kunstfonds, das NEUSTART KULTUR-Programm and Senate Department for Culture and Europe.