David Weiss: up and down town / Regenbüchlein

The rain pours, drenches and pisses down in this brilliantly drawn book by David Weiss which offers new discoveries and details every time one returns to it.

Imagine: a small, white booklet with around 150 ink drawings and no text other than the title on the front: "up and down town" by David Weiss, written on a cover page that is, quite literally, rain-soaked. But it gets even worse. In all the drawings, it keeps raining, and it never stops. The wet asphalt glistens, neon signs reflect in reverse on car roofs, a tram splashes water from the tracks onto the hunched figures beneath umbrellas. But if you look more closely at this ever-changing urban setting, odd characters begin to flicker into view. A booklet to return to again and again, always discovering new things, events, constellations.

up and down town was was first published in 1975 in an edition of 1,000 copies by Edition Galerie Stähli in Zürich. In 2014, up and down town was published – as Regenbüchlein – in the collection Nine Books 1973-1979 initiated by David Weiss (1946-2012), by Edition Patrick Frey. This new edition was published in summer 2025 on the occasion of the exhibition David Weiss Il sogno di Casa Aprile – Carona 1968-1978 at MASI in Lugano.

Pages: 80
Dimensions: 117 x 182 mm
Format: Softcover
Year: 2025 (1975)
Publisher: Walther König