This short monograph combines works by Hanne Darboven (1941-2009) and John Cage (1912-1992) from the stock of the Bayerische Staatsgalerie moderner Kunst in Munich. It shows the independent oeuvres of two highly individual artists whose works touch upon Minimal Art.

Joachim Kaak's substantial essay examines Hanne Darboven's 7 Tafeln, II from 1972/73, a geometric construction on squared millimetre paper based on prime numbers and the square. Corinna Thierolf analyses John Cage's Ryoanji, a loose series of drawings made between 1983 and 1992. The title refers to the rock garden of the Ryoanji monastery in the north-west of Kyoto. With the help of the I Ching, the ancient book of wisdom and truth which Cofucius re-edited. Cage established a number system by which he encircled 15 stones he had picked out himself with 17 different pencils. On the basis of a complex concept based on random operations, this created partly very delicate circular formations, partly a structure composed of a dense tissue of lines. These are reproduced in this book according to a rhythm predetermined by John Cage.