The best surprise is no surprise

Over the past several years, electronic communications have had a transformative effect on the public discourse on contemporary art by removing temporal and geographical barriers to the flow of information and, for the first time, putting local exhibition makers and institutions in contact with an international art public unmediated by the univocal perspective perpetuated by the few leading art journals. Using an archive of electronic announcements distributed by e-flux, The Best Surprise is No Surprise documents significant recent developments in art-related media releases, which are now global, instantaneous and linked coming and going. Readers can track the dissemination of information about exhibitions, publications, events and symposia organized and selected by some of the most active international curators, artists, critics and art historians of our time. That information is accompanied by brilliant color images of the events themselves, so that the book becomes a resource documenting recent contemporary exhibitions as well as the evolution of their self-portrayal and promotion. With an introductory essay by Daniel Birnbaum, an interview by Hans Ulrich Obrist, and 250 e-flux