PHILOSOPHIE

PHILOSOPHIE uses all of the illustrations in dtv-Atlas Philosophie. Bai was initially drawn to their visual structures: the way arrows, frames, classifications, figures, and objects organize complex thought into visible relationships. He scanned the entire book, removed the illustrations from their chapters and original logic, and cut them into modules that could be rearranged.

The modules were then collaged without designing a replacement philosophical system or new logical order. Bai allowed the separated images to meet in a more unconscious process of assembly, turning the finite contents of a book into a wall structure that could potentially keep extending like wallpaper. Existing relations are dismantled while new connections remain open.

After recombination, arrows still point and frames still appear to classify, so the image retains the visual authority of a knowledge diagram while no longer leading to the book’s conclusions. An appearance of rigour coexists with uncertainty of meaning. The work also makes visible Bai’s recurring early method of dismantling, modularizing, and reassembling material.