Ambulo ergo sum

The relationship between artists and nature underwent a fundamental change during the 1960s and 1970s: for the pioneers of contemporary art, nature was no longer an object to be representedbut to be experienced. Richard Long, Hamish Fulton and herman de vries, each in his own way, sought to establish a direct, lived connection with nature though walking. These walks, solitary and ephemeral as they were, resulted in numerous artists’ books, devoted to keep a record of them. But what kind of record? Paradoxically, this interest in nature led these artists to abandon the landscape as an artistic genre. Instead of representing nature, they sought means to pass on the meaning of this particular experience of the world made possible by travelling on foot. But these means differ, as is shown by a close comparison between their books.