19 Sep

Posted at 20:48h in ARTIST’S BOOKS

Paris: Editions Pierre Jean Oswald, 1973
18 x 11.4cm, 96pp plus card covers. This novel cum auto-biography was written under pseudonym by the artist's mother (this was not known if suspected until the mid-80s) and Boltanski provided the frontispiece for the book with 6 b/w images of him attempting to act out various facial expressions associated with sadness. The photographs were taken in a photo-booth.
This copy of the book is an ex-library copy with various stampings and labels inside and on spine but copies are extremely hard to find in any condition.

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18 Sep

Posted at 19:24h in Joseph Beuys Postcards

Chicago: Allan Frumkin Gallery, n.d. (1973)
25.5 x 15.2cm, 1pp announcement card with a colour image of a felt suit (a multiple by Beuys) on the front above gallery details. A mailed example whihch has become somewhat creased in the experience of the US postal service. Hand addressed and franked Sept 15 1973 on the reverse, else VG.

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16 Sep

Posted at 09:36h in Photographs

Sutherland: George A. Oliver, 1973 25.5 x 20.5cm, b/w silver gelatine photographic print showing a sculptural installation at Little Sparta (next to the lake known as Loch Echen) of a nuclear submarine fin which Finla compares to a boat's sail. The photo was taken by George Oliver and sent by Finlay to an Italian Collector. Label on reverse and photographer's stamp in red....

07 Sep

Posted at 19:04h in Artist's Books

Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1973
14 x 9.5cm, 24pp plus card covers and printed dust jacket. Artist's book where Finlay has listed a number of scenarios where an X might be created - each slightly different. The pages being drawn by George L. Thomson.
From a letter to Robin Crozier in 1970 - Finlay explained the idea: "Finlay says "I must stress that I don't consider this booklet profound. Everyone knows that nuance exists. On the other hand, I get pleasure from showing how much one can change a thing while scarcely from the spot , as it were. If we make dramatic (moving) differences between the visual representations of the Xs, we will undermine the whole point. If, for instance, "Two" and "Duet" are just noticeably not the same 2 crossing lines, we can rely on the words to complete the distinction, without taking it further than that. Likewise, "Duck-pond" needn't really try to depict the wakes left by 2 swimming ducks, but just by the merest alteration in the lines, allows the words to modify the image. Though obviously, if we had a blue rectangle on white one, there, and could have the lines white instead of black that would be pleasing.".
Finlay initially intended printing the book in 1970 with Crozier but changed his mind later for some unknown reason. VG+ although the cheap staples are showing some rust.

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04 Sep

Posted at 09:16h in ARTIST’S BOOKS

Jerusalem: Musse d'Israel, 1973
20.5 x 18cm, 48pp plus 12 transparent overlays on some pages and card covers. Exhibition catalogue for the first Boltanski exhibition in Israel and also the first time that the artist visited the Jewish state.
This catalogue is notable for a Inventory of an inhabitant of Jerusalem displaying 300 items in the form of photographic contact strips (a slightly different format from previous Inventories).
There is an interview in French with Boltanski and other texts in Hebrew. B/w illustrations throughout. ...

20 Aug

Posted at 10:52h in Joseph Beuys Postcards

Edinburgh: Demarco Gallery, 1973
9 x 14.2cm, 1pp black on yellow typographic card for the twelve hour lecture by Beuys during the Edinburgh International Festival. The full title of the lecture was "The Twelve Hour Lecture: A Homage to Anacharsis Cloots" and it took place at Melville College. Edinburgh - a public school for the rich (which really is inappropriate for Beuys's message but then not surprising or unusual for the Demarco Gallery to use such places of privilege as venues). VG+ Rare....

19 Aug

Posted at 20:19h in ARTIST’S BOOKS

Munster: Westfalischer Kunstverein, 1973
21 x 14.8cm, 80pp plus card covers. Artist's book which coincided with the title museum exhibition. The belongings of a person from Oxford are shown in 344 b/w small photographs as displayed in the museum. This is an archiving of someone's life through their ownership of things - allowing the viewer to make an interpretation of character despite the anonymity of the person.
This exhibition had been previously shown in the UK at Oxford and a similar publication made.
Boltanski's widely circulated proposal letter sent to various institutions to create the exhibition is reproduced as foreword in three languages and it is clearly important to the artist to have this text on view. One is tempted to assume out of revenge for those institutions that turned down his idea but it is hard to see the amiable artist as having such motives. When one realises that the rejection letters from a number of institutions are also reproduced at the back of the book thus making the artist's point a second time one can gleam a different motive: the lack of response to the idea becomes part of the project - the rejection of such a cataloguing of someone's life as perhaps being uninteresting by the Museum boards is an important marker to how society discards citizens who are deemed "unimportant". Texts in German, French and English. VG+.

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05 Aug

Posted at 16:11h in Joseph Beuys Postcards

Tokyo: Lufthansa, 1973.
9.6 x 16.4cm, printed and embossed envelope signed by Beuys on front content of a card. First day cover with stamps commemorating a flight from Germany to Tokyo via Moscow on 6 August 1973. Presumably Beuys was on that flight as a guest or saw it as significant in some way. A second person has signed the envelope also in red felt pen (if you recognise the signature please do inform us). Unique thus and with no known reference in the literature. VG+>

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04 Aug

Posted at 10:17h in ARTIST’S BOOKS

Edinburgh: Richard Demarco Gallery, 1973
30 x 21cm exhibition catalogue consisting of outer 4pp folded cover and 5 sheets of insets. Boltanki had intended to create a transparent front step for the Demarco gallery thus freezing the ground underneath in a state of unchanging stasis for at least ten years however the, then, parochial right wing local authority refused him permission and the correspondence between artist, gallery and council and a reproduced photograph of the prototype step in situ are reproduced herein. Very rare and unknown early exhibition catalogue and work (or rather non-work).
When we gave Boltanski a copy of this catalogue in 2018 he had forgotten about the installation and had no idea that Demarco had published this catalogue (and without Boltanski's permission - although the artist did not seem to mind). VG+.

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24 Jul

Posted at 17:25h in ARTIST’S BOOKS

N.p. (Paris): s.p. (Boltanski), 1973.
21.7 x 16cm, 12pp plus card covers. Artist's book which displays found illustrations from a children's history book but with altered (slightly humorous) legends. First published in "Boltanski Les Modeles - CInq relations entre texte et Image" in 1979 (Nr 33 in Flay Catalogue) which incorrectly notes that only the maquette having been produced but the booklet was later published in Livres 1991 and also as a separate booklet. This example is signed by Boltanski on the first inner page. Slight rust to staples else VG+.

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