Traditionally, all legends are conveyed through fables and stories based on secrets, lies, manipulations, and exaggerations of historical and popular truths. Legend is archaic speech that circulates in close connection with images. As such, it comes close to the imaginary. Lodged in a distant past, legend seems initially to have nothing in common with this era’s perpetual present. And yet, the present produces its narratives too. Today’s stories are digital carriers of information, strung out on “dot-com hysteria” and fifteen seconds of fame. But because this present only exists through the hypothetical future we grant it, and because we can barely process the records it incessantly extrudes, its history is becoming increasingly impossible to write: we walk on the edge of legend.

This book accompanies the eponymous exhibition at the castle of Chamarande in France (May 25–September 28, 2008) which assembles the recent work of fifty international artists who interrogate the artificiality of the current world and render up intensified visions of it. Artists include David Altmejd, Peter Coffin, Anne Collier, Michaela Eichwald, Jason Fox, Karl Holmqvist, Uwe Henneken, Jason Meadows, Pae White, Lisa Yuskavage, et al.