2016/2020

PERSPECTIVA PRACTICA is a sgraffito for the 500 qm cantilever of the extension to the University library in Graz. The motif is an enlargement of a copper engraving from the perspective drawing textbook with the same title. The book was printed in the early 17th century and summarises and illustrates the knowledge about the construction of representations following the rules of central perspective. It thus represents the knowledge of the historical epoch of the founding of the University of Graz at the end of the 16th century. The emergence of central perspective has repeatedly been linked to the development of the modern natural sciences. The use of a book illustration – which through the enlargement into architectonical dimensions optically creates an additional space – is a concrete reference to the medium of the book, which is what the library archives and makes accessible to its users.