Joseph Beuys, Coyote

This volume was the first attempt to capture a performance by Joseph Beuys in book form. Since its first appearance in 1976, it has become one of the most sought after documents of its kind, representing an important landmark in the way his art has been received. Beuys's most famous Action, I Like America and America Likes Me, took place in May 1974, when he spent seven days and nights in a room with a wild coyote. The artist's activities during his confinement with the coyote followed a repeated pattern. He employed a number of objects: felt, a walking stick, gloves, a flashlight and the Wall Street Journal - fifty copies were delivered daily, in two piles. Over the period of a week, man and beast developed a mode of wordless co-existence, a two sided performance that became rich with assumed meanings. Caroline Tisdall, a longstanding friend of the artist, who has written extensively on Beuys and has directed films about him, took most of the photographs and wrote the accompanying text.