Rules of Repetition
photobooks exhibition

Pusta Gallery
(adress: Katowice, Plac Sejmu Śląskiego 2)
curator: Jakub Dziewit
opening: October 24, 2025, 5:00 p.m.
the exhibition will run until February 1, 2026

The gallery is open Tuesday through Sunday from 11:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.

curator’s tour:
■ October 26, 2025, 12:00 p.m.
■ November 21, 2025, 11:30 a.m.
■ November 28, 2025, 7:00 p.m.
■ December 11, 2025, 6:00 p.m.
(additional guided tours for groups can be arranged—please contact kuba@paperphoto.pl)

The exhibition presents photographic books based on the repetition of motifs. The starting point is the legendary project by Bernd and Hilla Becher, who, with “German precision,” taking care to correctly reproduce perspective, prepared typologies of industrial spatial forms – juxtaposing, among others, water towers, mine shafts, factories, and gas tanks, thus enabling the viewer to see their similarities and at the same time highlighting their differences. This was an endeavor that not only introduced elements of consistent and coherent research thinking into photography, but also placed photography at the forefront of art (the Bechers received an award in the “sculpture” category at the Venice Biennale for their work). No wonder that this resulted in perhaps the most influential and most frequently reproduced photographic visual motif in history.

Looking at the Bechers’ work, it is very easy to think of them as taking photographs out of reality, creating visual images that are almost abstract. However, the premise of their project was to make a strong statement about the changing economic and social reality: documenting the transformation of industrial areas, attempting to preserve a disappearing heritage, easier in form—as they themselves said—than painting. The exhibition presents photobooks that more or less directly refer to the repetitiveness of the motif, but often use it to make the message resonate more strongly: stories about propaganda and totalitarianism, tools of discipline, criticism of consumerism, mourning and trauma, but also about posthumanism or mindfulness in looking at others and oneself.

Photobooks are ideal for presenting visual projects focused on the theme of repetition—they make it possible to transfer them into a form that is accessible to the viewer, albeit without the possibility of seeing the entire project at once, but thus forcing the viewer to focus more on individual works and their sequence. Each of the photobooks is a separate statement, but all of them are connected by a curatorial narrative, the main theme of which is presented on a map accompanying the exhibition.

The photobooks presented at the exhibition are divided into 11 “chapters” of the curatorial narrative:

I. Anonymous sculptures ■ Anonimowe rzeźby
1) Bernd & Hilla Becher: Bergwerke und Hütten
2) Bernd & Hilla Becher: Gasbehälter
3) Bernd & Hilla Becher: Getreidesilos
4) Bernd & Hilla Becher: Hochöfen
5) Bernd & Hilla Becher: Kühltürme
6) Bernd & Hilla Becher: Steinwerke
7) Bernd & Hilla Becher: Wassertürme
8) Bernd & Hilla Becher: Zeche Hannover

II. Sequences of cultural forms ■ Sekwencje form kulturowych
9) Mark Ruwedel: Message from the Exterior
10) Jeffrey Ladd: A Field Measure Survey of American Architecture 
11) Alejandro Merizalde: 100 Churches of Venice and the Lagoon
12) Łukasz Siewiorek: Śląskie kina studyjne

III. Dictionary of native words ■ Słownik języka naszego
13) Zupagrafika: Kiosk
14) Wojciech Wilczyk: Słownik polsko-polski
15) Wojciech Wilczyk: Święta wojna
16) Łukasz Skąpski: Machines
17) Wojciech Wilczyk: (Nie)widzialne pomniki wolności

IV. Near and far ■ Blisko i daleko
18) Richard Renaldi: Touching Strangers
19) Karolina Jonderko: Rozmowa z Matką
20) Hayahisa Tomiyasu: TTP
21) Joel Sternfeld: Our Loss

V. Landscapes of innocence ■ Krajobrazy niewinności
22) Hiroshi Sugimoto: Seascapes
23) Bart Michiels: The Course of History
24) Indrė Šerpytytė: 1944–1991
25) Taryn Simon: The Innocents

VI. There’s no such thing as innocent I ■ Niewinny ja nie istnieję
26) Wojciech Wilczyk: Niewinne oko nie istnieje
27) Adam Broomberg: Anchor in the Landscape

VII. Posthuman ■ Pozaludzkie
28) Ewa Ciechanowska, Artur Urbański: Phobos ex machina
29) Takashi Homma: Symphony – mushrooms from the forest
30) Stephen Gill: The Pillar
31) Stephen Gill: Pigeons

VIII. Far and near ■ Daleko i blisko
32) Zofia Rydet: Zapis
33) Rafał Milach: The Winners
34) Joel Meyerowitz: Redheads
35) Marina Rosso: The Beautiful Gene

IX. Dictionary of foreign words ■ Słownik wyrazów obcych
36) Eiji Ohashi: Roadside Lights Seasons: Winter (C)
37) Martin Parr: Remote Scottish Postboxes
38) Martin Parr: Real Food
39) Christopher Herwig: Trucks and Tuks
40) Philip Butler, London Tube Stations: 1924–1961
41) Stephen Gill: A series of disappointments

X. Patterns (of cultures) ■ Wzory (kultury)
42) Nastasiia Leliuk & Natalia Wiernik: Once a year the stick shoots
43) John Divola: Vandalism
44) Ahn Jun: One Life
45) Matthieu Nicol: Fashion Army
46) Michal Chelbin: How to Dance the Waltz

XI. Discipline and punish ■ Nadzorować i karać
47) Christopher Herwig: Soviet Bus Stops I
48) Zupagrafika: Soviet playgrounds
49) Christopher Herwig: Soviet Bus Stops II
50) Dmytro Soloviov: Ukrainiam Modernism
51) Niels Ackermann & Sébastien Gobert: Looking for Lenin
52) Donovan Wylie: North Warning System
53) Donovan Wylie: Outposts. Kandahar Province
54) Donovan Wylie: Maze I
55) Donovan Wylie: Maze II

Photobooks presented at the exhibition [IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER]:

1. Niels Ackermann & Sébastien Gobert: Looking for Lenin
2. Ahn Jun: One Life
3. Bernd & Hilla Becher: Bergwerke und Hütten
4. Bernd & Hilla Becher: Gasbehälter
5. Bernd & Hilla Becher: Getreidesilos
6. Bernd & Hilla Becher: Hochöfen
7. Bernd & Hilla Becher: Kühltürme
8. Bernd & Hilla Becher: Steinwerke
9. Bernd & Hilla Becher: Wassertürme
10. Bernd & Hilla Becher: Zeche Hannover
11. Adam Broomberg: Anchor in the Landscape
12. Philip Butler: London Tube Stations: 1924–1961
13. Michal Chelbin: How to Dance the Waltz
14. Ewa Ciechanowska, Artur Urbański: Phobos ex machina
15. John Divola: Vandalism
16. Stephen Gill: A series of disappointments
17. Stephen Gill: Pigeons
18. Stephen Gill: The Pillar
19. Christopher Herwig: Soviet Bus Stops I
20. Christopher Herwig: Soviet Bus Stops II
21. Christopher Herwig: Trucks and Tuks
22. Takashi Homma: Symphony – mushrooms from the forest
23. Karolina Jonderko: Rozmowa z Matką
24. Jeffrey Ladd: A Field Measure Survey of American Architecture 
25. Nastasiia Leliuk & Natalia Wiernik: Once a year the stick shoots
26. Alejandro Merizalde: 100 Churches of Venice and the Lagoon
27. Joel Meyerowitz: Redheads
28. Bart Michiels: The Course of History
29. Rafał Milach: The Winners
30. Matthieu Nicol: Fashion Army
31. Eiji Ohashi: Roadside Lights Seasons: Winter (C)
32. Martin Parr: Real Food
33. Martin Parr: Remote Scottish Postboxes
34. Richard Renaldi: Touching Strangers
35. Marina Rosso: The Beautiful Gene,
36. Mark Ruwedel: Message from the Exterior
37. Zofia Rydet: Zapis
38. Łukasz Siewiorek: Śląskie kina studyjne
39. Indrė Šerpytytė: 1944–1991
40. Taryn Simon: The Innocents
41. Łukasz Skąpski: Machines
42. Dmytro Soloviov: Ukrainiam Modernism
43. Joel Sternfeld: Our Loss
44. Hiroshi Sugimoto: Seascapes
45. Hayahisa Tomiyasu: TTP
46. Wojciech Wilczyk: (Nie)widzialne pomniki wolności
47. Wojciech Wilczyk: Niewinne oko nie istnieje
48. Wojciech Wilczyk: Słownik polsko-polski
49. Wojciech Wilczyk: Święta wojna
50. Donovan Wylie: Maze I
51. Donovan Wylie: Maze II
52. Donovan Wylie: North Warning System
53. Donovan Wylie: Outposts. Kandahar Province
54. Zupagrafika: Kiosk
55. Zupagrafika: Soviet playgrounds