30 Aug

Posted at 10:12h in ARTIST’S BOOKS

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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19 May

Posted at 11:02h in ARTIST’S BOOKS

Berlin: AQ Verlag, 1980
20 x 20.7cm, 80pp plus pictorial wrappers. A single number of this photographic and art journal - here with 143 original contributions from artists mixed up into the booklet and shown in b/w. There are a wide range of artists from Warhol, Le Gac, Feldmann, Polke, Gilbert & George to name just a few.
Boltanski was given the cover and has three other small images in the book (nrs 101 - 103). The cover is a photograph of a jumping hare but taken from a model not an actual animal. VG+. Scare publication. Not in any catalogue raisonne.

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18 Oct

Posted at 14:34h in ARTIST’S BOOKS

Saint Pierre des Corps: J. & J., Centre Saint Pierre des Corps, 1979
19 x 13cm, 24pp plus original wrappers. Artist's book unusually created from a nine minute b/w film of the same name by Jacques Parart based on the artist's life as a young man. The book has original texts by Boltanski which are printed in poetic structures on the left of each double page and, on the opposite page, deliberately childlike drawings by Jennifer Gough-Cooper and Jacques Caumont. The stories are reminiscences of early childhood life with some rather important events (such as over-hearing that his grandfather had died while pretending to be asleep in bed).
VG+ condition. A scarce publication released at the same time as an exhibition "Boltanski, ouevres de 1974 - 1975". This was the last (for a period of years) of the artist's books based on recreations of his early life - after this exhibition a period of creating large photographic works from posed items dominated the artist's output.

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15 Jun

Posted at 14:36h in ARTIST’S BOOKS

Paris: Limage, 1979.
26 x 18.5cm, 144pp plus original card covers. Artist's book created y Pierre Tilman which has original contributions by Annette Messager, Pascal Doury, Peter Klassen, Urs Luthi, Jacques Monory, Arnulf Rainer and Bruno Richard as well as Boltanski.
Boltanski's contribution is 6pp and is Les Jardins Japonais which is a pair of photographs of a model garden in black and white with the lighting creating a strong polarisation of the images.
This is the first known printing of such an image from a model - similar works were later the main subjects of photographic works and artist's books such as Lanterne Magique in 1982. The style of the photographs showing a "trail" of light which bends over the pages is similar to later works also.
This book is not referenced in any catalogue raisonne. Very rare. VG+.

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19 Mar

Posted at 19:55h in ARTIST’S BOOKS

Warsaw: Galerie Foksal PSP, 1978
15 x 21cm, 16pp (self cover) exhibition catalogue but also artist's book displaying the 14 b/w large photographs of everyday objects which could have been from the artist's past such as a toy cowboy or a jigsaw.
An important exhibition which is on the cusp of Boltanski's change of direction - thereafter for a number of years much of his publicly shown artworks were posed photographs of model or meals or diaoramas. This show both relates to the earlier archiving of his past life (truthful or not) and the future deliberately forged pictures. VG+ although some rusting to the staples.
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16 Sep

Posted at 19:27h in ARTIST’S BOOKS

Vaduz: Roberto Altmann, 1977
28.3 x 20.9cm, 40pp and card covers. A single number (and the last in the series) of an artist’s periodical that was produced unusually in Liechtenstein, This themed number is a collection of postcards by Roberto Altmann, Christian Boltanski, H.P. Gassner, Paul-Armand Gette, Norbert Haas, Gilbert Lascaux, Annette Messager and Maria Nevelson which are bound in and serrated to allow removal and use if desired. Boltanski shows appropriated images of a goat, children playing, a girl posing, a yacht amongst other things. The images used here were also released as a stand alone artist’s portfolio also by Altmann also entitled Les Vacances but in a cardboard folder. Flay in her Catalogue of Boltanski books notes that but does not reference this periodical presumably not knowing of it. VG+. Very scarce publication.

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06 Jun

Posted at 16:59h in ARTIST’S BOOKS

Paris : Christian Bourgeois, 1976. 32.5 x 23cm, 40pp plus wrappers. The first number (3 = all) of this art journal which was edited by Boltanski on behalf of the publisher Roman Cieslewicz. The large format allowed single images as contributions from various artists including Roland Topor and occasional texts.
Boltanski's contribution as well as being editor is a full page image "Photographie de Christian Boltanski mort.". VG+.
There were two later numbers of Kamizake - one in 1991 and another in 1997, both without Boltanski's involvement (Agnes b having a major role in these later numbers.

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25 Nov

Posted at 09:56h in ARTIST’S BOOKS

Devon: Beau Geste Press, Nov. 1975. 30 x 21cm, 98pp. + pasted in booklet by Ben Vautier "Me Ben I Sign". 133 illustrations. Flip-flop perfect bound wrappers with pasted-on pictorial design (front and back - as is the pagination - creating the illusion of two back-to-back books). An especially noteworthy issue with pagework contributions by Filliou, Vautier (beyond the booklet), J.C. Lambert, Marcel Broodthaers, et. al. Issued in an edition of only 550 examples.
Christian Boltanski's contribution is a reprint of the pages from his second artist's second published book Description de Mon Accident from 1969.

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31 Oct

Posted at 19:57h in ARTIST’S BOOKS

Bruxelles: Palais des Beaux Arts, 1975
21 x 29cm, 32pp plus card covers. First edition, with black tape spine, of this artist's book which displays the various comic performances by Boltanski where he pretended to be various parental and authority figures in a child's life and common scenes relating to those figures - additionally the artist had painted various backgrounds for each scene. Twenty-two b/w images reproduced in the book, two per page. The performances were Le baiser honteux, La premiere communion, La visite du docteur, L'anniversaire, La toilete du matin. Two b/w images of the artist on every page. The book was published on the occasion of the exhibition "12 x 1, Une certaine actualite de l'art contemporain en France," held at Europalia 75, France, October - November 1975. Slight damage to the black spine tape else VG+.

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04 Oct

Posted at 20:12h in ARTIST’S BOOKS

Copenhague: Bergs Verlag, 1975
17 x 11.2cm, 48pp plus blue wrappers. First edition of this artist's book that M. Berg (see previous letters) commissioned from his friend Boltanski. The many b/w images show in short sequences games and adventures that a young nine year old boy might undertake (climbing a tree, playing tops, spinning a knife, completing a jigsaw puzzle). As ever these are recreations of childhood memories with the boy in the images (whose face is never shown so standing for all young boys) clearly a model. This is one of 600 pencil numbered copies. text in Danish and French. VG+.

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12 Jun

Posted at 17:57h in ARTIST’S BOOKS

Zagreb: GalerieSuvremene Umjetnosti, 1975 21 x 20cm, 18pp plus white card covers. Artist's book issued during a show in Croatia where the "4 Saynetes Comiques Interpretees par Christian Boltansi" are reproduced in b/w and a short forward in Croatian. VG+. Very hard to find. ...

06 Feb

Posted at 14:22h in ARTIST’S BOOKS

Geneva: Edition Adelina Cuberyan, 1975
22.5 x 13cm, 22pp plus card covers. Artist's book released at the same time as an exhibition by Boltanski in the Centre d'Art Contemporain, Geneva.
The book is another produced during a period where Boltanski performed in public dressed slightly formally in suit and hat (bit looking vaguely dishevelled) with a ventriloquist's dummy of a young child which was meant to represent the young artist (with wild hair). The performances were comic re-inactions of parental (and grand- parental) activities from the earliest days - but, of course, only remembered through the eyes of a child - so the events are sometimes extreme - punishment, birthday gifts - or routine (the artist's mother cleaning the house).
In VG+ condition. Scarce.

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