Self-portrait, 1969

Dieter Roth, also known as Dieter Rot and Diter Rot, was a German-born Icelandic artist most known for his artist’s books, sculptures, and installations, although he worked in drawing and painting as well. He worked with the Concrete, Fluxus, Op, and Maximalism art movements, though he was not fully committed to any specific movement. Much of Dieter Roth's early career was spent in Iceland, which was isolated from most of the European modernist movements, so Dieter Roth had the opportunity to develop a unique aesthetic. Dieter Roth’s work used a wide variety of unconventional mediums, including found material, biodegradable material, and food. Sculpture material included chocolate, banana, cheese, and rabbit excrement. Dieter Roth’s major contribution was creating the modern artist’s book. A key work is Literaturwurst (Literature Sausage, 1961 – 1964), which was made by processing and binding published text as sausage, and affixing the cover of the book to the sausage wrapper. These sausage books were the forerunner to later pieces that used food as the medium, often rotting food. The most well-known was the Staple Cheese (A Chase) exhibition, a series featuring suitcases filled with cheese along with cheese mounted on the gallery walls. The cheese would rot and degrade over time. Dieter Roth focused on large installations in the 1980s and 90s. His most famous work of this period was Gartenskulptor (Garden Sculpture), which was a constantly evolving installation featuring various diverse art pieces mounted on trellises. The installation was assembled and re-assembled in various gardens, and later indoors.