Bernhard Cella

Cella studied at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna with Erich Wonder, the University of Arts and Industrial Design Linz with Herbert Lachmayer and the Hochschule für bildende Künste Hamburg. Cella was a researcher in the Center of Art and Knowledge Transfer at the University of Applied Arts Vienna and led the project 'NO ISBN' which investigated Austrian art publications with and without ISBN. In 2015 he left the university to continue his research with the project 'Behind No-ISBN' at the independent Research Institute for Arts and Technology.

In his project "and. learning English has no use" he used reproductions of his artworks to overcome language barriers that he encountered during a stay in Nanjing, where he used the aesthetics to create modes of communication to make it possible for him and the Chinese students to work together. The students reproduced his artworks, and by this a direct form of communication was developed between them. In 2012, he was invited by artist AA Bronson and Printed Matter Inc. for the New York Art Book Fair, where he showed Austrian art books and publications in the MoMa/PS1. His lectures were held in institutions like the University of Arts and Industrial Design Linz, the print room in Amsterdam, the Galerie für Zeitgenössische Kunst Leipzig, and the Ö1 of the Castle Sigharting. He collaborates with many curators and artists, including Diana Baldon and Franz West.

In 2007 Cella founded the Salon für Kunstbuch (Salon for Artbooks), a work of art that appears to be a bookstore, but is actually a 1:1 scale model of a bookstore. It is dedicated to showing the work of international practitioners from the sphere of artist's books. Books are exhibited and only sometimes sold there, as some of the books are only part of the current exhibition. The project shifts the viewing habits of the visitors, by using performative and sculptural actions. The printed matter is presented using a cumulative method that uses formats like rotating exhibitions, performative readings and lectures that are organized together with other artists, curators and philosophers. The Salon für Kunstbuch has hosted talks by Sabeth Buchmann, Elisabeth Samsonov, Bureau for Open Culture and the Grazer Autorenversammlung. In 2011 the Austrian Gallery Belvedere, a public institution, bought the work for the newly opened venue 21er Haus. Since then the Salon für Kunstbuch operates as the museum's shop and as a steadily changing sculptural and performative intervention in the foyer of the 21er Haus. With the "Salon für Kunstbuch im 21er Haus" questions about the status of museum shops since the '80s and the representation of the museum through the range of a shop are stated.

Bernhard Cella (born 1969 in Salzburg) is an Austrian artist and curator.