Brooke Alexander, Inc.
The Artist Book: A Look Inside
The Artist Book: A Look Inside
Peter Alexander, Eric Fischl and Jamaica Kincade, Gilbert & George, Jasper Johns and Wallace Stephens, Raymond Pettibon, Robert Mangold, Kenneth Price and Harvey Mudd, Claes Oldenburg, Richard Prince, Raymond Chandler and Lou Stoumen
Brooke Alexander Inc. is pleased to present our online viewing room The Artist Book: A Look Inside. Here we take an in depth look through our collection of artist books. The notion of the Artists’ Book as an art object in its own right is a relatively new phenomenon, starting in the early 20th century. This category is not books about art, but rather are books that ARE art.
Please visit https://viewingroom.baeditions.com/viewing-room to see more.
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The Artist Book: A Look Inside
“Artists' books are part of the palette of contemporary artists just like performance, prints, or video, etc. The book arts are a craft/guild movement and related to the folk, fine and commercial and mass publications industry, they have little relation to recent contemporary art practice.”
Artist Marshall Weber, interviewed by the Victoria & Albert Museum, London
Eric Fischl and Jamaica Kincade
Annie, Gwen, Lilly, Pam and Tulip
1968
20 3/8 x 15 1/2 x 3/4 in. / 51.8 x 39.4 x 1.9 cm
hardcover clothbound book with embossed Fischl vignette on cover, in cloth and paper slipcase. Text by Jamaica Kincaid. 14 pages, Illustrated with 9 original lithographs by Fischl
Edition of 145, Signed by Fischl and Kincade on colophon page, Published by: Library Fellows of the Whitney Museum of American Art
$3,000.
Raymond Pettibon, Plots on Loan, 2001
Dark Shadow
Gilbert & George
1974
7 3/4 x 5 1/4 x 1 1/8 in. / 19.7 x 13.3 x 2.9 cm
hardcover artist book with canvas red marbled cover and title in gold; 128 pages, 128 photographic illustrations printed offset in black & white
Edition of 2000, Signed by the artists, Published by: Nigel Greenwood Gallery, London, 1976
$1,250.
Jasper Johns and Wallace Stephens
Poems by Wallace Stephens (with print by Jasper Johns)
1985
12 1/8 x 9 1/4 x 1 1/4 in. / 34 x 23.5 x 3.2 cm
original half blue goatskin over linen boards volume with poems by Wallace Stephens and a Jasper Johns etching with aquatint on the frontispiece. printed on English mouldmade T. Edmons paper, introduction by Helen Vendler
#149 of 300 numbered copies from an edition of 326, the etching is signed by Johns, Printed by: ULAE, West Islip, New York, Published by: The Arion Press, San Francisco
$4,500.
Richard Prince, Inside World, 1989
Plots on Loan
Raymond Pettibon
2001
19 x 14 in. / 48.3 x 35.6 cm
hardbound artist's book with a collection of lithographs by the artist. 72 pages, printed in lithography on Somerset Mauve paper, and includes lithographed front/back covers, and colophon page
Edition of 250, Signed and numbered by the artist, Co Published by: Brooke Alexander, Inc. and David Zwirner Gallery, New York., Printed by: Derriere L’Etoile Studios, New York
$2,500.
Robert Mangold
The Nonconformist’s Memorial
1992
13 5/16 x 9 1/16 in. / 33 x 23 cm
hardcover artist book with six color woodcuts by the artist printed on handmade Gampi paper accompanying poem by Susan Howe printed letterpress on Somerset Satin paper; contained in a cloth-covered portfolio box
Edition of 65, Signed by Mangold and Howe on colophon, Published by: The Grenfell Press, New York
Kenneth Price and Harvey Mudd, Plain of Smokes, 1981
Plain of Smokes
Kenneth Price and Harvey Mudd
1981
16 x 13 1/4 x 2 1/2 in. / 40.6 x 33.7 x 6.4 cm (book) 12 1/4 x 14 7/8 inches each (prints)
a complete set of 20 serigraph prints, on Arches 88 paper, with accompanying text by Harvey Mudd, title page and colophon. the sheets are loose (as issued) and contained in the original printed portfolio and fabric-covered slipcase
Edition of 150, two sheets signed, dated `81' and numbered 25/150 in pencil, signed by the artist and author in black ink and numbered '25' in red ink on the colophon, Published by: Arabesque Books
$6,000.
Claes Oldenburg
Raw Notes
1974 reprinted in 2005
32 1/2 x 22 1/4 in. / 82.5 x 56.5 cm (print) 11 x 7 1/2 in. / 27.9 x 19.1 cm (book)
softcover artist book, 554 pages, 53 black & white plates, comes in black case with limited edition print signed and numbered by the artist
Edition of 50, Inscribed and numbered by the artist on back page, Published by: Press of the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design; New York
$1,500.
Inside World
Richard Price
1989
12 3/4 x 8 3/4 x 7/8 in. / 32.38 x 24.76 x 2.22 cm
hardcover, in red cloth boards in a fine matching cloth slipcase, 88 pages , unpaginated, color offset lithographs with handwritten joke by Richard Prince
Edition of 250, Inscribed by Prince on the limitation page, with a signed handwritten joke artwork laid in, Published by: Kent Fine Art and Thea Westreich, New York
$6,500.
Raymond Chandler and Lou Stoumen
The Big Sleep
1986
Raymond Chandler and Lou Stoumen
novel by Raymond Chandler bound in beveled plexiglass boards and curved plexiglass spine with silkscreened titling and decoration, illustrated with 41 photographs by Lou Stoumen, produced specifically for the publication, printed blue-black duotone with varnish, 252 numbered pages and introduction by Lawrence Clark Powell
Edition of 425, Signed by Lou Stoumen, Published by: Arion Press, San Francisco
$1,800.
The category is hard to precisely define because it inherently has the ability to incorporate almost all materials, techniques and formats available to contemporary artists. A small sampling would include offset printing, zerox, risograph, lithography, photography, collage, papermaking, stamp printing, drawing, and embroidery. In addition to a vastly democratic utilization of processes and materials, Artists’ Books are often hybrids of professional approaches; they can combine not only studio practices but graphic design, product design, etc. Artists’ Books can be made in an edition or single format. They can be bound or be a loose collection of papers. They can be books, scrolls, portfolios. The options are truly limitless, and this is the heart of their unique place in the art world.
Brooke Alexander has a long history of acquiring, producing and exhibiting artist’s books. In 1998 the Editions & Artists’ Book Fair was founded by Brooke Alexander, Susan Inglett and Printed Matter. In 1999, Brooke Alexander presented the exhibition Die Bücher der Künstler, a retrospective of 30 years of artists’ book production in Germany (with both German and international artists). As one of the major print publishers in the United States, Brooke Alexander has published projects with artists such as Annette Lemieux, Alex Katz, Sol LeWitt and Raymond Pettibon.
Brooke Alexander and David Zwirner co-published the Plots On Loan project with Raymond Pettibon in 2000. The project consisted of three parts: Plots On Loan, a bound artists’ book containing 72 original lithographs by Pettibon; Plots On Loan I, a print portfolio containing a selection of 10 images from the book; and Plots On Loan II, a print portfolio containing a selection of 6 larger images from the book.
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