Andrea Tippel – Ich Und Sie

Between 1993 and 2009, the draughtswoman Andrea Tippel (1945–2012) worked on the highly idiosyncratic novel Ich Und Sie (‘I and She’), which consists solely of three-letter words. Despite, or precisely because of, this formal constraint, the result is a surprisingly playful work that fascinates because it constantly oscillates between nonsense and profundity. It is about love and being on the road, transience and death.

Throughout her life, Tippel self-published the manuscript in various versions and small editions – a method she also used for some of her artists’ books, as it gave her the freedom to publish beyond established publishing conventions. This edition is a facsimile of the last handwritten version of the novel, now available for the first time as a publisher’s edition. As with the editions the artist published herself, photocopying was chosen as the reproduction method, together with a simple perfect binding.