What Michael Buthe experienced can be recounted. But how he was affected by it can only be appreciated in these diaries.

— Udo Kier

Buthe’s artist’s books – the so-called “diaries” – trace his entire artistic and biographical development in an almost seismographic manner: These books, which Buthe never parted with throughout his lifetime, are among the most personal works of the maverick artist. On the occasion of the artist’s 75th birthday and the 25th anniversary of his death, one of the most intriguing of these diaries, created between 1989 and 1991, was produced as a facsimile. The title of the book alludes to the exposure of baby Moses in a wicker basket – a theme the artist repeatedly reverts to.