Bettina Sefkow presents the Hilka Nordhausen archive

In 1976, Hilka Nordhausen (1949-1993) founded the legendary "Buch Handlung Welt" bookshop in Hamburg’s Karoviertel neighbourhood, where the likes of Dieter Roth, Martin Kippenberger, Norbert Schwontkowski and Albert Oehlen painted murals every month, greatly increasing the little shop’s claim to national fame. It became a regular scene of literary readings, film screenings and performances, allowing Nordhausen to realise her desire to create a place where art and life could freely intermingle. A student of Franz Erhard Walther and Gerhard Rühm, she produced drawings, painted-over newspaper cuttings, photographs, poems and prose.

Hamburg-based artist Bettina Sefkow, a friend of Hilka Nordhausen’s for many years, has sorted the full contents of the archive, which is now available for viewing by the general public on a website.