“This indispensable collection follows Schwitters’ swiftly changing thought on a diverse range of subjects from architecture and painting to graphic art and poetry. In each case Schwitters delivers his canny diagnosis with rigor, humor, and unflinching belligerence. No figure was able to reconcile Dadaist nihilism with constructivist optimism quite like Schwitters, and his striking insights about the hollow metaphysics of consumer society will not fail to resonate with anyone torn between the positions of critique and complicity today.”
— Devin Fore, Princeton University
"The first anthology in English of the critical and theoretical writings of the influential artist best known for his Merz assemblages, demonstrating the range of his creative thinking."
— The Bookseller
"The collages Kurt Schwitters made may be instantly recognisable but less well known is his writing, from artistic credos to children’s stories—collected in an anthology in English for the first time."
— Apollo, "Off the Shelf" Column
"Kurt Schwitters (1887-1948) is a well-known name in the area of early 20th-century collage, though it must be admitted that his contributions to Dada art and its development are somewhat overshadowed by Marcel Duchamp, Tristan Tzara, Man Ray, and Francis Picabia. This anthology of his compelling writings goes a long way toward encouraging a reexamination of the German artist’s contributions to the inroads and sea-changes in art-making."
— The Arts Fuse
"Schwitters was a one-person Gesamtkunstwerk, who both concentrated and dispersed the old Wagnerian ideal. On the one hand, his practice was private, even domestic: his chief laboratory was his home in Hanover, which was gradually consumed by the first obsessive construction to be called ‘Merzbau’, a 3-D assemblage that eventually took up eight rooms. On the other hand, his activity involved multiple, often manic collaborations, the range of which is evident in the edition of his writings, expertly selected by Megan Luke and translated by Timothy Grundy."
— Hal Foster, London Review of Books