Application formée is an artist’s book that brings together Joseph Kosuth and Olivier Kaeppelin, with a preface written by Dominique Perrrault.. The starting point of this project is the installation of a work by the artist at 4 Place des Victoires in Paris: Forme appliquée (2025), for which he created a floor paving that connects the external space of the square to the interior of the building's ground floor.

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In a mirrored response to this inaugural work, and thanks to the expertise of the Atelier du Livre d’Art et de l’Estampe of the Imprimerie Nationale, Joseph Kosuth chose to faithfully reproduce a book by Reverend Father Sébastien Truchet (Méthode pour faire une infinité de desseins différens, avec des carreaux mi-partis de deux, 1722), making it the site of his intervention. Contemporary texts, phrases, and photographs are thus inserted within an original mémoire that elaborates the principles and concepts behind floor design, through a system of combinatorics—an ancestor of the algorithm—which inspired the black-and-white tiling of many 18th-century buildings.

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Olivier Kaeppelin’s text takes root in the dialogue between Joseph Kosuth and the work of Reverend Father Sébastien Truchet. Recalling the walks of Restif de la Bretonne, the author situates the historical urban context that now hosts Kosuth’s work. Above all, he emphasizes what is essential: the visitor’s experience—the physical dimension of thought.