The end of the world

Abstract

"The End of the World is an artist book in literary format about Robert Walser's final walks and silences. It transports the reader to the last 23 years of Robert Walser's life, which were spent at a psychiatric institution in Herisau, Switzerland. From his arrival there in 1933 to his death in the snow on Christmas Day 1956, Walser ceased writing. On Sundays he would take long walks, a contrast to the weekdays filled with sorting tin foil at the institution's workshop and making crossword puzzles in the common room. The book draws on excerpts from Walser's asylum file and on photographs that I took at the graveyard in Herisau where Walser is buried. The photographs show scenes depicted on the gravestones surrounding Walser's grave. The dreamy landscapes and paths encountered there seemed like a continuance of Robert Walser's walk to me" -- Artist's website.