Koln: Galerie Holtmann, 1980
26 x 21cm, 2pp announcement card for a gallery exhibition with one watercolour reproduced on the cover and internally a b/w reproduction of "Beuys by Warhol". This card is signed in red ink on the front of the card. VG+.
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Paris: Art Press, 1988
21 x 21cm, 80pp plus card covers. one of he first monographs on the range of work by Boltanski 15 full colour full page images of works and a text in French by Didier Semin illustrated in b/w. Bibliography. VG+.
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Koln: Galerie Jollenbeck, n.d. (1980) 21 x 10, 1pp typographic announcement card for the edition jointly released by James Lee Byars and Joseph Beuys (silkscreen white text on black card) - each artist supplying five images in their facsimile hands. VG+. ...
3,5 x 1.7cm, gold-coloured metal fishing hook - a gift from the artist to the collector and art historian Marianne Büchler. We estimate this work to have been made around 1980. The gold colour was often used by Byars to symbolise perfection and beauty. The metaphor of a fishing hook can only be guessed at....
6 x 4.5cm, hand-made paper envelope which has been painted gold (possibly using spray paint) and is content of five different small cards (each 5.6 x 4.2cm) which have also been spray-painted gold. Under the gold it appears there are five scenes of alpine houses and landscapes which are only visible because the gold has never dried and comes off with any disturbance or handling. A curious small unique work by Byars which was a gift from him to the collector and art historian Marianne Büchler. We estimate this work to have been made around 1980. Fragile and very unusual. ...
6 x 4.5 x 3.5cm (approx) found stone upon which Byars has written "KOWALSKI 1969 - 1972" in black ink. Piotr Kowalksi was an artist friend of Byars (And who owned several works by the latter) and this appears to be a homage to the former, although we do not know the meaning of the dates chosen other than it appears Byars first met Kowalski in 1969 at the studio of Sara Holt and both Byars and Kowalksi had shows at the Kunsthalle Bern. A small unique work owned by the Swiss collector and art historian Marianne Büchler. We estimate the date of origin of this work as c. 1980....
N.p. (Bern?):n.p., n.d. (c. 1980) 0.75 plastic sphere overprinted with the artist's name. One of an unknown edition issued by the artist - here from the collection of Marianne Büchler, an art historian and a friend of Byars. VG+. Rare....
Konig: Postkartenverlag, n.d. (c. 1980)
10.5 x 15cm, 2pp. artist's postcard with the title vitrine/installation from 1969 in colour on the front (with Beuys standing in front of the piano which is covered in roses), verso standard postcard design. This example is signed in red felt tipped pen on the front by Beuys. VG+.
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Konig: Postkartenverlag, n.d. (c. 1980)
10.5 x 15cm, 2pp. artist's postcard with the title vitrine/installation from 1966 in colour on the front, verso standard postcard design. This example is signed in red felt tipped pen on the front by Beuys. VG+.
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Dunsyre, Lanark: Wild Hawthorn Press, n.d. (1980)
6 x9.2cm, 8pp plus card wrappers and printed dust jacket. The four printed pages has one word each:
5. Baroque
6. Barque
7. Bark
8. Baroque
and there is a reference to W. Lee Rensselaer's Names on Trees on the inner cover. That book is a literary and artistic analysis of the story of Angelica and Medoro in Ariosto's Orlando Furioso. One aspect of Angelica's love for Medoro is that she carved the lovers' names on trees. Hence once can read the book as a visual poem of boats (Barque/Bark) and woods (Bark/Baroque) with the reference to baroque also referring to the art style of the 17th century. VG+
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Dunsyre, Lanark: Wild Hawthorn Press, n.d. (1980)
13.6 x 8cm, 4pp plus blue wrappers. Artist's book where Finlay has only two different paper types bound together in the wrappers - one is blue and the other is white. There is a reference to Henty Vaughan's "The Timber. Silex Scintillans" on the back fold.
Vaughan was a metaphysical poet of the 17th century and Silex Scintillans published in 1650 was a major religious text which was published in two volumes with a significant gap in time between them (possibly due to illness) . The Two Billows of the title refers to the two volumes and the change in colour of the two pages reflects the differences in the two books. A visual poem with a literary and religious meaning although the boat vignette on the cover may suggest the more literal meaning of two billows - two pushes of air helping the vessel steer a true course. VG+.
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Aisbach: Verlaggaleria Leaman, 1980
31 x 27cm, printed plastic and card folder with metal ring binder. Content of individual contributions and multiples by a wide range of artists (many from the fields of conceptual art, visual poetry and some of the Fluxus- affiliated artists) including Filliou Monnier, SAito, Armleder and others as well as Boltanski.
Boltanski includes two sheets of "composition" images not shown elsewhere - stalk white on black outlines of objects which might be roughly painted or processed photographically (it is not clear which). Palms trees, a woman carrying a basket, fleeing couple, a man cutting wheat. The title Composition Feeriques suggests these are images of a "fairy world" and perhaps one can read a rough narrative into the eight images. Fine in like folder. Scarce. Not mentioned in any catalogue raisonne.
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