Peter Fischli and David Weiss were both born in Zurich, Switzerland--Fischli in 1952 and Weiss in 1946. They began to work collaboratively in 1979, and had their first solo exhibition in 1981 at the Galerie Balkon in Geneva. Solo exhibitions of their work have been organized by the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris and the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, among others. They represented Switzerland in both the 1995 and 2003 Venice Biennales, winning the Golden Lion award in 2003, and were included in the 1987 and 1997 Documentas. They live and work in Zurich.

Tracey Emin was born in London in 1963. She has become one of the most important British contemporary artists, renowned for her deeply autobiographical artworks. In her solo exhibition I Need Art Like I Need God at the South London Gallery, 1997, Emin proved her ability to challenge what art is and presented an intimate insight to her life with the work 'Everyone I Have Ever Slept With'. Since then, Emin has had group and solo shows worldwide, including at the Tate Gallery, London; Lehmann Maupin, New York; Modern Art Oxford; Ferragmo Gallery, New York, and White Cube, London. Emin lives and works in London.

Eija-Liisa Ahtila was born in 1959 in Hameenlinna, Finland. She started working with audio-visual media in the late 1980s, exploring experimental narrative storytelling techniques, including the connection between short films and commercials, and the possibilities of narration in splitscreens and multiscreen installations. Her films have been successfully screened in over 50 international film festivals and on television, while her installations of the films have been mounted at such venues as Documenta11 and at the Tate Modern in London.

Doug Aitken (b. 1968) has created a body of work that explores the evolving ways people experience memory and narrative and relate to fast-paced urban environments. During the past decade, the artist has created innovative contemporary video art by fracturing the narrative structures of his films across multi-screen environments. His work has been exhibited in museums around the world, including The Museum of Modern Art, New York (which commissioned a large-scale outdoor video installation--the first of its kind at the venerable institution), and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, and the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris. In 1999 he was awarded the International Prize at the Venice Biennale, and in 2000 he won the Aldrich Award.

Francis Alys was born in Antwerp, Belgium, in 1959. Trained as an architect, Alys moved to Mexico in 1986 and within a few years began to work as a visual artist. Known initially for his paintings, Alys has also become a highly regarded video artist, interventionist and performance artist. His work received a great deal of attention in 2002, when he staged a ceremonial procession commemorating The Museum of Modern Art's move from midtown Manhattan to its temporary home in Long Island City, Queens. Alys has also exhibited work in group exhibitions at The Hayward Gallery, London, the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis and P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, New York.

Emmanuelle Antille is an up-and-coming video artist born in 1972 in Lausanne, Switzerland. Solo exhibitions of her work have been mounted in her home country at the Kunsthaus Baselland and the Extra Muros Fri-Art in Freiburg; in the United States, her work has been seen in such group shows as Lite at Roebling Hall in Brooklyn.

Rodney Graham was born in 1949 in Vancouver, a majestic city that sits at the foot of the Rocky Mountains. One of the country's wittiest conceptual artists, he has been recognized worldwide for his work. Graham, a member of the Vancouver School, has enjoyed exhibitions at the Milwaukee Art Museum, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Kunstmuseum Bern, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney, Australia, the Wexner Center for the Arts in Columbus, Ohio and elsewhere. Graham represented Canada at the 47th Venice Biennale in 1997, and is currently the subject of a travelling retrospective that opens at the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto and continues on to the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles and the Vancouver Art Gallery.

Gabriel Orozco was born in Veracruz, Mexico, in 1962, and currently lives in Mexico City, New York and Paris. He has been the subject of one-person exhibitions at The Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, the Art Gallery of Ontario and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. His work was included in Documenta X (1997) and the 2003 Venice Biennale; he is represented in New York by Marian Goodman Gallery.

Tony Oursler was born in 1957 in upstate New York, and he received his BFA from the California Institute of the Arts. Oursler's videos and installations have been widely exhibited internationally, including in solo shows at The Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; and Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions. He was recently the subject of a traveling retrospective that appeared at the Williams College Museum of Art; the Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; and the Des Moines Art Center. He has participated in the 2007 Whitney Biennial and Documentas 9 and 10. He currently lives and works in New York.

Pipilotti Rist was born in Switzerland in 1962. She has been exhibiting her work since the mid-80s and has had solo exhibitions at many museums in North America, including the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; SITE Santa Fe; Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Connecticut; and the Museum of Fine Arts, Montreal. Her work is represented in all important collections of contemporary art. One of her most recent projects that garnered international renown was a public video installation in New York City's Times Square during spring 2000. She is represented in New York by Luhring Augustine Gallery.

Rosemarie Trockel was born in 1952 in Schwerte, Germany. She studied painting in Cologne in the mid-70s, and had her debut show at Galerie Philomene Magers in Bonn, in 1983; since then, she has exhibited widely in Europe and North America, including in such major shows as the 1996 and 1999 Venice Biennales, the 1995 and 1999 Istanbul Biennials, and Documenta X. Recent solo exhibitions were presented at the Sammlung Goetz, Munich and the Kunsthalle, Hamburg. Trockel lives and works in Cologne.

Peter Fischli and David Weiss were both born in Zurich, Switzerland--Fischli in 1952 and Weiss in 1946. They began to work collaboratively in 1979, and had their first solo exhibition in 1981 at the Galerie Balkon in Geneva. Solo exhibitions of their work have been organized by the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris and the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, among others. They represented Switzerland in both the 1995 and 2003 Venice Biennales, winning the Golden Lion award in 2003, and were included in the 1987 and 1997 Documentas. They live and work in Zurich.

"Rineke Dijkstra was born in 1959 in Sittard, the Netherlands, and lives and works in Amsterdam. She has been the subject of numerous solo and group exhibitions at museums and galleries including The Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Venice Biennale; the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; and the Photographers Gallery, London."

Sam Taylor-Wood graduated from Goldsmiths College in 1990. Since her first solo exhibition at White Cube in 1995, she has had numerous solo shows at venues including the Hirshhorn Museum, Washington, D.C., Fondazione Prada, Milan, the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam and the Hayward Gallery, London. In 1997 she received the Illy CafE Prize for Most Promising Young Artist at the Venice Biennale and was nominated for the Turner Prize.

Pierre Huyghe was born in 1962 in Paris, where he currently lives and works. In 2000 he was a DAAD artist in residence in Berlin. Huyghe's videos and installations, which often use film as a departure for investigating a contemporary society saturated with representation, have been presented in numerous solo exhibitions, including shows at Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; the Renaissance Society, Chicago; Musee de l'Art Contemporain, Montreal; Musee d'Art Moderne et Contemporain, Geneva; and the Tate Modern, London.

Wolfgang Tillmans is one of the most influential artists of his generation. Born in Germany and based in London, he was the winner of the Turner Prize in 2000. He is represented in New York by Andrea Rosen Gallery. He has had recent solo exhibitions at P.S. 1 in New York, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles and the Hirshhorn Museum, Washington, D.C. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.