Archive Matrix Assembly: The Photography of Thomas Struth is the first comprehensive, systematic study of contemporary German artist Thomas Struth’s photography. The book presents a unique, evolutionary understanding of the work, proposing that beginning in the late 1970s, and continuing through the present, Struth’s work established three stages of production: archive, matrix, and assembly. Together the three stages form a developmental system that characterize the individual photographs, their relation to subject matter, and their formation into a series of significant collections of images. A comprehensive critical reading of the work is introduced, providing an extensive analysis of the photographs at all stages, including the most recent photography.

Nana Last is an architecture theorist and critic. She is associate professor of architecture at the University of Virginia School of Architecture. Her writing considers the inner workings between architecture, art, philosophy, and science in modern and contemporary society. Along with her book, Wittgenstein's House: Language, Space and Architecture (Fordham University Press, 2008), Last has published essays in journals including: Artforum, ANY, Assemblage, Harvard Design Magazine, Thresholds, PRAXIS, Art Journal, and Visual Resources. Her book Archive Matrix Assembly: The Photography of Thomas Struth is forthcoming from Applied Research + Design (2021). She is currently working on a book that considers Big Data’s epistemological implications for the practice and theory of architecture.