The artist and photographer Hanna Schimek has called her new book “Ohrenzeugen” [“Ear-witnesses”]. In it she has compiled images of dogs from different periods of art history and contrasted them by association with her own photographs and snapshot photographs. One of my earliest and most important teachers was Waldi, my dachshund. He was always there for me during those key formative years between the ages of 12 and 23, writes the author in the preface. The discovery of the company of dogs in painting was the starting point for this publication; indeed, across the ages and styles of painting, dogs can be seen running, sitting, standing and frolicking about in scenes portrayed in paintings. The indivi-dual images have been combined with fictional human interest stories from everyday life. Bernhard Kathan and Wolfgang Pircher contribute essays to the book – they examine the many different aspects of the relationship between human beings and dogs from a philosophical as well as a cultural-historical perspective.

Hanna Schimek, lives and works in Vienna.