
Thomas Demand’s The Stove (Joseph Beuys) investigates memory, historical artifact, and the act of artistic reconstruction through the artist's signature photographic process. Based on a historical event or site associated with Joseph Beuys, Demand meticulously reconstructs the subject entirely out of paper and cardboard in his studio before photographing the model and immediately destroying it.
The resulting image captures an uncanny space where the ordinary object, in this case, the stove, is rendered simultaneously hyper-detailed and artificial. By stripping away organic weathering and replacing it with flat, colored paper surfaces, Demand forces the viewer to confront the precariousness of historical preservation and the way photography mediates our relationship to the past.

Thomas Demand’s The Stove (Joseph Beuys) investigates memory, historical artifact, and the act of artistic reconstruction through the artist's signature photographic process. Based on a historical event or site associated with Joseph Beuys, Demand meticulously reconstructs the subject entirely out of paper and cardboard in his studio before photographing the model and immediately destroying it.
The resulting image captures an uncanny space where the ordinary object, in this case, the stove, is rendered simultaneously hyper-detailed and artificial. By stripping away organic weathering and replacing it with flat, colored paper surfaces, Demand forces the viewer to confront the precariousness of historical preservation and the way photography mediates our relationship to the past.