Lorenza Böttner: Requiem for the Norm is the first comprehensive publication on the work of artist Lorenza Böttner (1959–1994). It is based on the exhibition of the same name, which was co-produced by the Württembergischer Kunstverein Stuttgart and La Virreina Centre de la Imatge in Barcelona (2018–2019). Böttner painted with her feet and mouth and used photography, drawing, dance, installation, and performance as artistic tools. Her work is a celebration of life and sets itself against the processes that seek to desubjectify, desexualize, lock up, and “disappear” bodies that are transgender or function differently. The curator of the exhibition and editor of the catalogue, Paul B. Preciado, ponders Böttner’s life and work at length in two essays, in which he also reflects on his personal encounters with her. In addition to this, the book brings together different voices discussing the aesthetic and political power of her art.

Lorenza Böttner was born Ernst Lorenz Böttner in 1959 in Punta Arena, Chile. At the age of eight, s / he was electrocuted while climbing up an electricity pylon, as a result of which s / he had to have both arms amputated below the shoulder. S / he studied painting at the Kunsthochschule Kassel. Lorenza moved to Barcelona in 1988 and died of HIV-related complications in 1994.