The artist’s book brings together 48 drawings printed on pink tissue paper, in which image and text intertwine inseparably. Executed in black ink and red glaze, textual elements and pictorial figures interlock, following a narrative that begins—lending the work its title—with the sentence “I died and spent 20 minutes in hell.” The influence of literary voices on painting is exemplified in 20 Minutes through references to the New Zealand writer Katherine Mansfield and in the way everyday observations are translated into light, colour, and text—or through a direct reference such as the recipe for a “Katherine Mansfield pudding.”

Jutta Koether lives and works in Berlin and New York. From 2010 to 2024, she was Professor of Painting at the HFBK Hamburg. Her work has been shown in numerous exhibitions at international art institutions, including Museum Brandhorst, Munich; Mudam Luxem- bourg; Museum Abteiberg, Mönchengladbach; Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Serralves, Porto; Moderna Museet, Stockholm; the Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven; and Kunsthalle Bern. In 2025, she was awarded the Lichtwark Prize of the City of Hamburg.