More than any of their contemporaries, Swiss architects Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron are challenging the boundaries between architecture and art. This publication explores that challenge, examining how the work of the pair has drawn upon the art of both past and present, and brought architecture into dialogue with the art of our time. Echoing an encyclopedia, this publication reflects the natural history museum structure of the exhibition which it accompanies, organised by the Canadian Centre for Architecture in 2002.

Models and projects by Herzog & de Meuron, as well as by other artists, are structured around six thematic portfolios that suggest an evolutionary history of the architects' work: Transformation and Alienation, Appropriation and Modification, Stacking and Compression, Imprints and Moulds, Interlocking Spaces, Beauty and Atmosphere. Each portfolio is introduced with an interview between the book’s editor, Philip Ursprung, and Herzog & de Meuron; more than 20 artists, scholars, and architects have contributed essays.