Six Decades grants us a privileged look behind the normally closed door of Nobel Laureate Gunter Grass’ studio. For well over half a cen- tury Grass worked unceasingly as a writer, sculptor and graphic artist. While capturing the pulse of each decade of his long life in his novels, Grass also produced theatre pieces, poems, short stories, essays, etchings, lithographs, drawings and sculptures. He was furthermore politically active in his native Germany, set up several foundations, and was passionately dedicated to issues he saw of artistic, social and humanitarian importance.

Combining Grass’ writings with over 800 reproductions of his visual art, documents and photographs, Six Decades allows us to follow his working processes from book to book, from year to year. He shares with us moments of private happiness and crises through texts and images, many of which were not originally intended for publication, including preparatory sketches, draft manuscripts, book cover designs and work plans.