Simon Wachsmuth’s installation presents a group of slender steles, each bearing a square plate inscribed with words such as “evil,” “stupid,” “time,” or “God.” These terms are frottages taken from gravestones at the Minster Church in Herford, Germany — remnants of lives lost during the Thirty Years’ War. By transferring these epitaphs into the context of his work, Wachsmuth creates a presence of absence, confronting viewers with personal traces of historical violence. The network of words, fragmentary yet resonant, invites reflection on how conflict has been an enduring force shaping societies across centuries. The Thirty Years’ War, as a historical reference point, symbolizes not only the devastation caused by prolonged military conflict but also the political and societal transformations that emerged from it — particularly the establishment of sovereign nation-states and the foundations for modern concepts of peace agreements, ultimately leading toward ideas like the European Union. Photo credit: Exhibition view at the Lentos Museum in Linz; photo: Reinhard Haider.