Paris, Jean Daviot et Bernard Marcadé, automne 1991,
35 x 30 cm (opens out to 70 x 60cm), 2pp. A single number of this artist's publications which is dedicated to a single artist - here, obviously, Boltanski who reproduces two pages from the Spanish "detective" magazine "El Caso Criminal".
This is one of 200 signed and numbered examples aside from the larger run of the magazine. Folded as issued else VG+.
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Frankfurt Am Main: Portikus, 1991
15 x 10.5cm, 2pp announcement card for a solo show of installation works. One such work in b/w on the front, verso gallery details. VG+.
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Hartford: Wadsworth Atheneum, 1991 25.4 x 20cm, b/w silver gelatine press photograph taken by John Ravenal in 1990 in Little Sparta and distributed for the exhibition Ian Hamilton Finlay Matrix 116. The gate behind him reads Julie et Saint Preux - a reference to Rousseau's 1761 novel "Julie, or the New Heloise" where the two protagonists are lovers at the behest of Julie's unknowing husband who invites St Preux to educate his wife. Information label verso else VG+. ...
Koln: Michael Werner, 1991
9.5 x 12.5cm, 1pp typographic invitation card for the exhibition opening. VG+.
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New York City: Marian Goodman Gallery 1991
20.3 × 22.8 × 5cm two part tin box and two photographs glued and mounted on the inside lid and bottom of the box. The bottom image is of a Jewish school from Hamberg in 1938 taken just before the war began. Obviously the crimes of the National Socialists led to the deliberate massacre of Jewish people throughout Germany. The photograph in the top of the box is an enlarged detail from the photograph of a girl. One does not know her fate - it could have been very tragic and more than likely so.The photograph on the lid is lined with lightly creased and glued paper - creating a frame that is somewhat like a shroud.BR>
There was a serial edition of 40 - with each box in the edition unique with a different face enlarged on the top. Signed and numbered on a label below the class photograph by Boltanski. The box is deliberately tarnished and the lid has a lot of oxidation which Boltanski deliberately encouraged by "watering" his stocks of the boxes which he kept for future use in such works.
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Hartford: Wadsworth Atheneum, 1991
22 x 13.5cm, 16pp accordion fold. Exhibition catalogue with 5 b/w illustrations and an essay by Johan Ravenal and Andrea Miller_Keller. The works mostly relate to Finlay's mid-career interest in the French Revolution. Die cut for storage (as are all of the institution's catalogues. VG+.
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Keil: Galerie Sfeir-Semler, 1991
15 x 21cm, 4pp (folded single sheet) announcement on paper for a solo show, internally gallery details and one b/w photograph of the poet sitting on "The Present Order...
Imschoot: Uitgevers for Antichambres, Affinités Electives, 1991
22.3 x 16cm. 28pp plus card wrappers. Second edition of this artist's book which reprints the images of children from 1955 which had been sent to the Mickey Mouse Club and reprinted in their magazine. There were 62 members who were about the same age as Boltanski in that year and the images here consist of 148 duotone rephotographed portraits as if in an album.
This book was originally published in 1990 bin 400 copies ut was so popular a second edition (as here) of 500 numbered copies was reprinted in 1991. This example is not numbered. VG+.
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Keil: Galerie Sfeir-Semler, 1991
11 x 15cm, 24pp plus card covers and green printed dust jacket. Exhibition catalogue which could also easily be seen as an artist's book (although the page contents were printed as a portfolio of large prints - presumably preventing a smaller book being issued by the Wild Hawthorn Press). There are seven "definition" works by Finlay reproduced one per page. VG+>
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Edinburgh: Graeme Murray Gallery, 1991
Red 100% cotton sweatshirt with an image of a boat called "Little Little Drummer Boy". Finlay was interested in this image from the 1970s because the reef knots on the sails reminded him of the pattern on the outside of the drums used by the French revolutionary army within which Bara the "little drummer boy" was martyred. XL. There were blue, grey and black variants of this clothing multiple. VG+
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Koln: Walther Konig, 1991
35 x 25.5 x 5.5cm, black cardboard clamshell box with tipped on label. The ornate reprinting of most of Boltanski's earlier and very hard to find artist's books including:
Jennifer Flay ed. C.B.: Catalogue: Books, Printed Matter ephemera 1966-1991: the first major catalogue raisonne of the artist's work up to 1991
The 45rpm vinyl record Reconstitution de Chansons
Ten ephemeral items such as manuscript letters, photos in envelopes and exhibition announcements and posters
and
reprints of 16 Boltanski artist books namely:
Recherche et presentation de tout ce qui reste de mon enfance 1969,
Reconstitution d'un accident. 1969,
Reconstitution de Gestes Effectues 1948-54 1970,
Cataogue: Essais de reconstitution d'objects.1948-54 1971,
Six Souvenirs de Jeunesse 1971,
10 Portrait Photographies 1946-64 1972,
L'appartement de a rue de Vaugirard 1973,
Les Histories 1973, Inventaire des Objects .Une Femme de Bois Colombes 1974,
20 Reges et Techniques utilisees en 1972. 1975,
Saynetes Comiques 1975,
Monuments 1986,
Le Lycee Chases 1987,
Geo Harly danseur parodiste 1988,
El Caso 1989,
Sans Souci 1991.
The re-printings make sense as part of Boltanski's reconstitution of his past - there is no reason why he should not make the rare books easier to find given the rarity of some of them (and the high prices) but book dealers curse this publication as sometimes these reprints are offered as first editions and it is hard to tell the difference.
This is one of 50 signed and numbered deluxe copies (on the front label) which has additional to all of the above an original photograph of Boltanski as a comic from the Saynetes Comiques series which is signed and numbered in white on the front and is presented in a card folder with tissue guard. These deluxe copies are very hard to find.
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20.5 x 25.5cm, duotone (brown and black) original photograph of a Boltanski installation of tin boxes with unknown photographs on each. The installation is probably "The Reserve of Dead Swiss" from 1991 which has been shown in different configurations of the various boxes in different exhibitions but we cannot be certain.
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