Customer Reviews

Kurt Schwitters Merzbau: The Cathedral of Erotic Misery (Building Studies, 5)

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I had high hopes for this book, and what I think it's trying to do is admirable, ranging and probing. I had wanted to use a chapter from it for a college course. But upon close reading, I became more and more disappointed with the writing, and convinced that I couldn't put this in front of students. There are key ideas - exciting insights into Schwitters' total program, and difficulty of elucidating his particular mysticism - woven together in prose that's alternately clear and convoluted. It's not simply that it's "scholarly" - that doesn't put me off - but that it sets out to elucidate a difficult subject, one that needs attention, and still doesn't seem quite clear to itself. Maybe this impression is encouraged by the many editing mistakes in this book - it cries out for a copy editor ( - words are missing, phrases transposed, spelling, etc.). Again, I admire the effort - can we send it back for a re-write? I really want this book to succeed.

This study of Kurt Schwitters's Merzbau is very disappointing, particularly coming from a Professor of Architecture, as the largely unexplored architectural aspects of the Merzbau have in general been ignored. The first part of the book is interesting insofar as it provides an introduction to the post-modernist aspects of Schwitters's work, but when it comes to more detail about Schwitters and the Merzbau, there are far too many inaccuracies. For instance, Professor Gamard is unsure about the exact location of the main sections of the Merzbau (placing it both on the ground and second floor of Schwitters' home) and is vague on Weimar history, stating that Weimar was the capital of the Weimar Republic. In all, there is far too much in this book which is plain theorising and which has no substantial factual basis.