Art Basel Qatar 2026: Matt Mullican. New Edinburgh Encyclopedia, 1825, 1991

Matt Mullican’s work is concerned with systems of knowledge, meaning, language, and signification, as well as the relationship between perception and reality—the ability to see and to represent.
This focus explains Mullican’s interest in encyclopedic models as a recurring theme in his oeuvre and why he turned to one of the great encyclopedias of the 19th century—The Edinburgh Encyclopædia (1825 edition)—as the source for one of his most significant works, New Edinburgh Encyclopedia, 1825 (1991). Drawing from an encyclopedia that took 22 years to complete, the piece reflects the development of human knowledge and the simultaneous attempt to categorize and contain it, and to make sense of the world.
At Art Basel Qatar 2026, Galerie Thomas Schulte presents the essence of this impressive artwork as an installation comprising over 400 large magnesium printing plates that carry the encyclopedia’s illustrations in alphabetical order. Displayed on a pedestal or arranged on narrow shelves in long, parallel, grid-like rows that weave alphabetically up and down, the installation introduces a clear organizing principle. Within this framework, illustrations, plans, and diagrams on engineering, architecture, anatomy, horticulture, and other fields of practical knowledge appear, offering a condensed portrait of human understanding in the early 19th century.
The engraved magnesium plates—capable of producing continuous prints—serve as a point of origin from which reproductions can endlessly emerge. Mullican has used them to create an edition of rubbings that evokes the blurred and shifting nature of human understanding.
Printed and published between 1808 and 1830, during the Scottish Enlightenment’s great publishing boom, The Edinburgh Encyclopædia positioned the city as a new force in global publishing and challenged the dominance of Paris and London. As seen in the more than 20-year gap between the first and eighteenth volumes of the original encyclopedia, Mullican’s installation also points to the rapid evolution of meaning over time. Furthermore, New Edinburgh Encyclopedia, 1825 traces an origin and continuity of images across centuries: from their creation to their reproductions, transformations, and the frameworks they construct—while leaving space for alternative models.

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