This artist-designed publication documents "Isolated Rooms," a 2003 exhibition by Mark Manders at the Art Institute of Chicago and the Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago. These installations marked the American museum debut for the 35-year-old Dutch artist, who has been exhibiting in Europe since the early 1990s. For "Isolated Rooms" Manders created fifteen new major pieces in a variety of media, including handmade and found objects, drawings, and sculptures. Manders used both traditional gallery settings and non-traditional spaces, such as a stairwell, an exterior wall of the museum, and a non-functioning bathroom.
The book comprises two parts: Isolated Rooms Reference Book surveys the artist's oeuvre to date and features essays by James Rondeau and Dieter Roelstraet; the second fully documents the Chicago exhibitions and includes a checklist with discussions of each exhibited piece.