The main book of documenta 14 takes the form of a reader, evoking the various meanings associated with the term. The documenta 14 Reader explores—in essay, allegory, poem, historical legal document, and hybrid literary other—the discursive and practical concerns of the project, such as debt and gift, the coloniality of power, economies of the exhibition, and languages (and other currencies) without remainder. A critical anthology that reflects on history in order to better envision the present and reconceptualize the future, the Reader features both newly commissioned and foundational texts as well as image portfolios that illustrate the expansive scope—at once temporal and geographic—of historical artists and actors included in the documenta 14 project.
With contributions by Tony Bennett, Ross Birrell, Maria Boletsi, Jacques Derrida, Souleymane Bachir Diagne, W. E. B. Du Bois, Silvia Federici, Denise Ferreira da Silva, Yannis Hamilakis, Candice Hopkins, Quinn Latimer, Isabell Lorey, Sylvère Lotringer, Antonio Negri, Pauline Oliveros, Hiva Panahi, Paul B. Preciado, Adam Szymczyk, and others