German artist Wolfgang Laib uses elements of nature—beeswax, milk, rice, pollen, and stone—to create artworks whose power is derived from an extreme modesty. Born in 1950, Laib began working as an artist in 1972. Several iconic, almost mythic, identities define Laib: his training to be a doctor, his hermetic living and working practices, and his serious study of Eastern and pre–Modern religions including Buddhism, Jainism, and medieval Christianity. (Image is of title page)