Paul Chan: Drawings for Word Book by Ludwig Wittgenstein

It is self promotion. Attaching one’s name to a big name is quite a frequent strategy

It doesn't have to be related to his philosophical output to be interesting, and we don't have to reduce Wittgenstein to his philosophical output (though this blurb in the exhibit tries to relate it to his philosophy, it doesn't specify details of what the effect of his teaching experience on it was).

I do find it interesting to see the contents of an old dictionary designed to be relevant to children in rural Austria transposed to a modern American setting, though I don't know how much that's played up. The dictionary IIRC contained a lot of dialect words also (though other than Eichkätzchen I didn't see so many in the photographs). I also kinda like the drawings. I think this direction would've been better than trying to relate it to his philosophical output, but ah well.

Another missed opportunity seemingly absent from the art is that he was not the world's kindest teacher: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haidbauer_incident

> The Haidbauer incident, known in Austria as Der Vorfall Haidbauer, took place in April 1926 when Josef Haidbauer, an 11-year-old schoolboy in Otterthal, Austria, reportedly collapsed unconscious after being hit on the head during class by the Austrian philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein.[1]

I guess the more I think about it the more I come around to your assessment that the engagement isn't so deep as it could be...

(Though, all that said, I do actually kinda like the drawings!)

This is like saying Python should not be called Python because it has nothing to do with Monty Python; rather it should be called "Interpreted Programming Language #456", or whatever.