The starting point for this book are the over 300 bath, shower and shampoo bottles that Peter Z. Herzog has manipulated with very fine, filigree paper cuts and textual interventions. The labels of the plastic bottles feature portraits of women with real and fantastic names, interwoven with text fragments of various origin. Peter Z. began collecting soap containers during his 1999-2001 studio residency at the Cité internationale des Arts in Paris. On the way to his studio, he often passed a popular hammam, whose rubbish bins were always filled with empty soap containers. Our book documents a unique artistic work in the context of the everyday and the transient. Using disposable items, the artist created a fragrant paradise of his very own critically alert imagination. The Sapphic Odenstrophes by Florian Vetsch were written in summer 2015 especially for this work. Just like the soap containers, the texts reflect the theme of Eros and all the temptations, dangers and enticements that life brings in our abysmally complex world in rhythmised language.
