This gem of a book "Licht aus dem Dunkel Light from the Darkness" was first published in 1981
not long after the death of Peter Birkhäuser. It had originally been planned and designed by
the artist himself. At the time Marie-Louise von Franz had familiarized herself with the
paintings he had selected and some of his dream diaries and she formulated brief illuminating
commentaries which reveal the archetypal dimensions of what can be seen. They might be
described as poems. The book in both German and English has always generated keen interest.
It has now been expanded to include Marie-Louise von Franz's 1964 article: "Peter Birkhäuser -
A Modern Artist who Strikes a New Path" translated by Michaela Kopp-Marx and made available
for the first time in German. Michael Mitchell the translator of the 1981 edition has revised
all the texts and provided an index. Some of the titles may vary from those used in the
previous edition or in other books on Peter Birkhäuser's work the painter tended to use
different titles from time to time as he pointed out himself in an interview in 1975. He said
his understanding of them was continually evolving and that he did not intend the titles to be
explanations of what they expressed. Our thanks are due to the Research and Training Centre for
Depth Psychology according to C.¿G. Jung and Marie-Louise von Franz for their generous
financial support for the new edition. Kaspar Birkhäuser and Eva Wertenschlag-Birkhäuser
