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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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. ...

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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20 Jul

Posted at 16:52h in Prints + Posters

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1973
30 x 21cm, 4pp with silver and black on white lithograph on the front, content of two sheets - one light blue typing paper and the other a lined "STATIONERY" page much as used by children to line up their handwriting on a blank page (such as the blue sheet). The work plays in part on the homonym "stationery" (stationary). The lined paper visually is also much like a channel or a canal with parallel banks. Button's front cover drawing is minimal and of a boat in outline cutting through the water with an ever-widening wake behind it. This is one of 300 signed and numbered copies in green ink by Finlay. VG+.

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26 Jun

Posted at 09:06h in ARTIST’S BOOKS

Dusseldorf: Stadtische Kunsthalle, 1973
31.5 x 22cm, b/w folder illustrated with images from the exhibition catalogue content of a further black on pink folder and 13 loose 30 x 21cm, 2pp sheets with contributions from each of the exhibiting artists - Enrico Baj, Michael Sandle, Edward Kieholz amongst others.
Boltanski has a 2pp original contribution - 9 appropriated b/w images of members of the Club Mickey (a Walt Disney fan club) taken from the larger installation of 62 photographs exhibited. A short explanatory text in German by the artist:
"I was eleven years old in 1955 and I was like these 62 children whose photo was featured in Club Mickey magazine that year. They had sent in the picture they thought best represented them: smiling and well coiffed, or with their favourite toy or animal. They had the same desires and interests as me.Today they must all be about my age, but I cannot find out what became of them. The image that has remained of them no longer corresponds to reality, and all these children's faces have disappeared, (...

02 Jun

Posted at 14:55h in EXHIBITION CATALOGUES

DIjon: Musee Rude, 1973
30 x 21cm, 76pp plus card covers. Exhibition catalogue that should be regarded as a joint artist's book - with original contributions by Boltanski, Le Gac and Annette Messager.
Boltanski's part is "5 BROUILLONS DE CHRISTIAN BOLTANSKI MARS - MAI 1973" - five hand-written texts in facsimile of the artist's handwriting which discuss various projects undertaken in the past year.
Le Gac has "L'ENQUETE" - a quasi thriller short story with one b/w image. Messager has "SUR LES TRAVAUX DE L'ATELIER" - again texts in reproduction of her originals although typed. ` VG+ condition. Scarce.

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02 Jun

Posted at 10:20h in ARTIST’S BOOKS

Oxford: Museum of Modern Art. 1973
18 x 11cm, 8pp (self cover). An early artist's book which shows 52 small b/w images of what is claimed to be the belongings of a woman (it is not clear if she is dead or alive) from "hankerchiefs to cupboards". This is one of the artist's first "arxhive projects" where a life is displayed through the things owned by an individual.
In a note at the end Boltanski explains that he had written to a number of museums to initiate such a project - to show the things owned by an anonymous person with "concerning themselves with such things as classification and labelling" - most refused however Peter Ibsen at the Museum of Modern Art in Oxford agreed to the show and this book both is the documentation, catalogue and artist's publication from that event. VG+.

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07 May

Posted at 19:29h in Artist's Postcards

Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1973
7.9 x 11.3cm, 6pp single folding card which opens to 11.2 x 34.3ccm. The front of the card has the word COPYRIGHT and once the card is opened the drawing by Costley of a steamer has a red C on the funnel - a symbol that means "copyright". A company brand symbol used to indicate others had copied the boat. This is one of only 300 such card printed - each is numbered and signed by Finlay in ink.VG+ example

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10 Apr

Posted at 18:57h in ARTIST’S BOOKS

Frankfurt: AQ Photos supplement, 1973
22.5 x 14cm, 6pp (single folded sheet). A supplement to the AQ artist's journal entirely dedicated to five b/w images of Boltanski playing the role of his parents in posed photographs. The supplement was a publicity brochure for the journal but it is effectively a Boltanski artist's book. To our knowledge this is not referenced in any catalogue raisonne. VG+. Scarce.

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