Piotr Uklański - The Nazis - 1999

Piotr Uklański: The Nazis is one of the most provocative and widely discussed art books of the early 2000s. Built around Uklański’s controversial photographic series, the volume collects hundreds of film stills depicting actors—famous and obscure—portrayed as Nazis in cinema. By assembling these images without commentary, Uklański invites readers to confront the strange tension between historical atrocity and its stylized representation in popular culture. The book raises difficult questions about the aesthetics of evil, the seductive power of the cinematic image, and the way history is mythologized through entertainment. Published in a relatively small print run, the book was never widely distributed, and many copies were quickly absorbed into private collections or institutional archives. As a result, copies have become increasingly scarce, especially those in good condition with intact dust jackets and clean interiors. Over time, The Nazis has gained a reputation not only as a significant piece of conceptual art publishing but also as a high-value collector’s item, sought after by enthusiasts of contemporary art, photography, and charged visual culture. For collectors, the book represents a fascinating and provocative artifact—one that is as challenging in its content as it is desirable for its rarity.