Marcel Dzama’s 2011 films A Game of Chess and Death Disco Dance revealed fascinating new developments in the artist’s iconography and range of media—perhaps most notably in his use of puppets and dioramas, which added more playful qualities to his imagery of conflict and terror, and underscored his dialogue with modernist artists such as Duchamp, Man Ray and Oskar Schlemmer. This volume, published for Dzama’s exhibitions at Sies + Höke and Kunstverein Braunschweig, reproduces a wealth of new work, including images, stage sets, puppets, dioramas and sculptures from the films; a suite of ten drawings called Forgotten Terrorists (2008–2011), that draw on a photograph of the Palestinian terrorist and hijacker Leila Khaled; and other recent drawings, such as “Pepper Spray Saturday” (2011), an interpretation of the already iconic image of policeman John Pike pepper spraying Occupy protesters at University of California Davis.

Dzama's work has been used on the covers of numerous record albums, notably The Else by They Might Be Giants, Guero by Beck and Reconstruction Site by The Weakerthans. He also provided the cover art for literary critic Sianne Ngai's 2005 book Ugly Feelings, published by Harvard University Press. His costume designs can be seen in music videos for the Bob Dylan song, When the Deal Goes Down, the N.A.S.A. song, The People Tree, and the Department of Eagles song, No One Does It Like You, which he also co-directed. McSweeney's has published two collections of his work, The Berlin Years in 2003 (reprinted in 2006) and a follow-up, The Berliner Ensemble Thanks You All, in 2008. In 2016, Dzama created the costume and stage design for the New York City Ballet's The Most Incredible Thing, a performance based on Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale.