If we view the body as a measuring tool for boundaries, distinguishing "catastrophes" as two scenarios—internal and external—the former can encompass diseases, drives of death, and the wasteful legacies of biological evolution, while the latter includes geological plate misalignments, climate anomalies, social turmoil, and wars. At certain special moments, catastrophes both internal and external to the body may forcibly overlap.

A Few Exercises in Mourning is an artist book collaboratively created by Hsu Che-Yu and Chen Wan-Yin, designed and edited by dmp editions. Within its pages, the visual components concentrate on three artworks that delve into themes of death, commemoration, and bodily hallucination: Blank Photograph, in which a former bomber reenacts the suicide of his brother; Grey Room, a VR experience that takes the viewer into childhood memories shaped by diplopia; and Zoo Hypothesis, a reconstruction of an animal memorial ceremony from World War II. Through various 3D scanning techniques, Hsu and Chen navigate a desaturated digital terrain of grayscale models, embarking on an exploration of “mourning techniques,” a passage through sensory catastrophe and neural residue.

The publication also features two essays: One is a lecture-performance script co-written with dramaturg Betty Yi-Chun Chen, first presented at Theater der Welt in Germany in 2023. The other is a conceptual essay “A Few Exercises in Mourning and Notes on Catastrophism,” co-authored by the artists as a reflection on the philosophical underpinnings of their recent works.

《A Few Exercises in Mourning》是許哲瑜與陳琬尹共同創作，由dmp editions操刀編排的藝術家書。書中的視覺材料聚焦三件關於死亡、紀念與身體幻覺的影像作品：炸彈客重演其兄之死的〈空白相片〉、VR帶領觀眾走進雙視症患者童年記憶的〈白屋〉，以及二戰時動物行跪儀式重構的〈動物園假說〉。透過不同的3D掃描工具，許哲瑜和陳琬尹在一片褪去色彩的灰白數位模型中，探索穿越災難感知與神經殘影的「哀悼技術」。書中亦收錄兩篇文字創作：一篇為許哲瑜、陳琬尹與戲劇構作陳佾均合作，於2023年發表於德國世界劇場藝術節的講述表演講稿。一篇為許哲瑜、陳琬尹針對近年創作概念延伸書寫的〈幾次哀悼練習與災變論筆記〉。