‘Que sais-je?’ is the world's most famous pocket encyclopaedia. Founded in 1941, this collection of books is designed to introduce the general public into a wide variety of different areas. Since it was founded in 1941 it has published 3,800 titles by 2,500 authors. 

The artists featured in this exhibition, all of whom have works included in the Serralves Collection of Artist’s Publications and Books, question the relationship between their activities and different models of knowledge transfer, as shown by their use of parody of dictionaries, encyclopaedias, teaching methods, and a deliberate destruction of the information conveyed by magazines and newspapers. They produce publications but are not concerned whether or not they are immediately understood. They are motivated by a form of generating ideas and thinking differently about the intellectual territories with which we are familiar. In these works, an ironic allusion to systems of order reminds us that, in art, confusion may be a truly wonderful fact.

This exhibition is part of a programme of exhibitions and sited presentations of works from the Serralves Collection that furthers the Museum’s aim of making the Collection visible and accessible to a broader public around the country.

Production: Fundação de Serralves — Museu de Arte Contemporânea, Porto