FIRSTBOOKS

Noboyoshi Araki
Oo Nippon (Oh Japan!), 1971
1754

10 5/8 x 8 1/8 in. (27 x 20.5 cm)

Paperback with printed cover. 225 photographs printed using the heliogravure method. Text by Uchida Eiichi. The strong erotic element of this work would become a characteristic of Araki's style. Female models are photographed nude in front of plain background and organised in sequence. Pubic hair is, in conformity with censorship laws, covered with dark marker pen. It was not allowed to show intercourse however when three pages are put together in s specific order Araki makes these scenes visable. *This was his FIRST published book, before this he did make a series of 25 hand made photocopy books in very small editions.

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John James Audubon
The Birds of America, from Drawings Made in the US and their Territories, 1840-1844
283

Philadelphia: J. B. Chevalier, [1839-] 1840-1844., 1844. 7 volumes. 8vo., (10 1/8 x 6 4/8 inches). Half-titles, subscribers' lists at end of each volume. 500 hand-colored lithographed plates after Audubon by W.E. Hitchcock, R. Trembly and others, printed and colored by J.T. Bowen, wood-engraved anatomical diagrams in text (intermittent offsetting and spotting, particularly to the tissue guards and corresponding text leaves at the beginning and end of each volume). Bound in full red morocco gilt, elaborately decorated in gilt (extremities a bit rubbed). The first octavo edition of John James Audubon's masterpiece, a tall copy with colors very clean and fresh. The resulting series of 500 plates constitutes the most extensive American color-plate book produced up to that time.

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Bernd and Hilla Becher
Anonyme Skulpturen : A Typology of Technical Constructions, 1970
1694

Düsseldorf ART-PRESS Verlag, in association with Wittenborn and Co., New York. Bechers' FIRST major book containing 194 black and white photogravure plates and measuring approximately 11” x 9”, the book is bound in navy blue cloth-covered boards with title stamped in white on the cover and spine and is covered with a photographically illustrated dust jacket.
The German husband and wife team of Bernd and Hilla Becher have spent 40 years documenting the relics of the receding industrial age, classifying these near –obsolete structures according to function: lime kilns, cooling towers, blast furnaces winding towers, water towers, gas holders and silos. In this, their groundbreaking first book, the Bechers established the disciplined approach they would follow throughout their career, objective, centered views made with large-format cameras and finely grained black and white film, working under overcast skies early in the morning during spring and fall only to insure a diffuse light with minimal shadows.

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Victor Brauner
Frappe de l’Echo, 1940
4471-BK

7 1/2 x 5 1/2 in. (19.1 x 14 cm)

Baruner’s first artist’s book. Includes one signed etching and aquatint. Text by Robert Rius.

Published by Éditions Surréalistes, Paris.

One of the author’s copies with an inscription by the surrealist poet Rius to his friend and artist, Wolfgang Paalen "Who went stealing one night all the remaining sculptures on Easter Island."

Edition of 70 copies

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Robert Gober
HEAT, 1989
5381-BK

13 1/4 x 9 1/4 in. (33.7 x 23.5 cm)

set of two bound books in white leather binding
with printed title, gold embossing and metal closure,
with text by Joyce Carol Oates,
printed from text hand-written by Robert Gober and lithographic end papers, on Saunders paper131⁄4x91⁄4inches(33.7x23.5cm) signed in pencil, contained in original purple linen covered box. Edition os 145

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Andreas Gursky
Montparnasse, 1995
3668-BK

19 1/2 x 11 in. (49.5 x 28 cm)

Two square quarto vols., and oblong folio photo-reproduction. Original silver coated wrappers, printed in black, original silver coated portfolio, printed in black, all laid into the original silver papered box. A fine copy, with the print in fine condition. First edition, offset lithograph in color, on wove paper, with text book and book of reproduction of blown up images. Andreas Gursky is a German photographer best known for his vast color architectural landscapes. His point of view is often so far from the object that it is difficult to tell what it is. In this photograph, hundreds of windows simply become tiny squares and lose their meaning as architecture.

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Andreas Gursky
Andreas Gursky, 1989
4395-BK

First Edition. Small oblong quarto. A catalogue for Andreas Gursky's first exhibition, held at Museum Haus Lange in Krefeld, Germany, November 5 - December 12, 1989. Gursky's first and rarest book, featuring 18 color images shot between 1984 and 1989, prior to digital alteration. Although not widely known (most likely due to the restrained edition size), this catalogue marks the high point of Dusseldorf School color photography. Fine in plain stapled wrappers in a fine card jacket with French flaps.

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Paula Hayes
Lucid Green, 2013
5391-BK

Book with 100 pages, printed on 80lb Mohawk Superfine on an HP Indigo; Text by the artist, typeset in Fedra Mono Smythe sewn signatures, with hand cut neoprene wrap Housed in a sage clothbound clamshell case.
Printed and bound at Conveyor Studio, NJ.
Limited Edition of 45 with 12 AP.
Signed, numbered, dated Arabic numbered exemplars. Published by Carolina Nitsch, New York

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Anish Kapoor
Turning the World, 2005
3162-BK

15 x 11 1/2 x 1 1/4 in. (38.1 x 29.2 x 3.2 cm)

A world atlas is open to a two-page spread. A circle and a square shape are cut out of the left and right pages, respectively. Incrementally smaller shapes are cut out of each page behind the spread, creating two painted volumes into the depths of the entire atlas. The front, spine and back cover of the atlas is also painted. Each edition is boxed, signed and numbered.
Edition of 26 with 10 Artist proofs
Open book dimensions: 14 1⁄2 x 23 3⁄4 x 3⁄4 inches (37.6 x 59.2 x 2.7 cm) Slip case dimensions: 15 1⁄2 x 11 1⁄2 x 2 inches (39 x 29.2 x 5 cm) Published by Carolina Nitsch, New York, for the
New Museum of Contemporary Art

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Amedeo Modigliani
Les nymphes, 1921
5122-BK

8 1/16 x 5 1/2 in. (20.5 x 14 cm)

Author: Roger Frene. Publisher Ronald Davis and Co, Paris. Copy n 46 of 130 on Ancient Japon Paper. With 5 reproductions of nude line drawings by the Artist. *First Artist Book.

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Pablo Picasso
Exposition de dessins et aquarelles par Picasso chez Paul Rosenberg, 1919
5082-BK

6 11/16 x 8 1/4 in. (17 x 21 cm)

Catalogue of the exhibition at Paul Rosenberg Gallery in Paris. With an introduction by Andre Salmon. Book with 1 transfer lithograph, portrait of Olga, on Canson et Mongolfier laid paper."This great artist will not live long enough to cover the entire length of road lightened up by his Oeuvre." FIRST ILLUSTRATED CATALOGUE OF PICASSO. Cramer no. 6. Edition of 600, very rare,

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Richard Prince
Menthol Pictures, 1980
5371-BK

First Edition. Octavo. Staple-bound pamphlet with a single photographic image on the front cover. The FIRST of three titles in Prince's 1980 Menthol Trilogy, consisting of his first three published artist books. Menthol Wars was published in conjunction with a window installation at Printed Matter. Near fine in photo-illustrated wrappers. Each book in the Menthol Trilogy is extremely scarce.

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Taryn Simon
An American Index of the Hidden and Unfamiliar, 2007
3666-BK

10 1/4 x 13 3/8 in. (26 x 34 cm)

Taryn Simon compiles an inventory of what lies hidden and out-of-view within the borders of the United States. She examines a culture through documentation of subjects from domains including: science, government, medicine, entertainment, nature, security, and religion. Confronting the divide between those with and without the privilege of access, Simon's collection reflects and reveals that which is integral to America's foundation, mythology and daily functioning.

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Jack Smith
The Beautiful Book, 1962
773

FIRST PUBLISHED BOOK- The Beautiful Book comprises 19 hand-tipped black-and-white contact prints (2 1/4 x 2 1/4 inches), originally published in an edition of 200 copies. The photographs were produced mainly during the course of extended shooting sessions in Smith's Lower East Side apartment. Most date from the winter of 1962, although a few are earlier - including the final 'signature' photograph, a portrait of the artist on the steps beneath the Brooklyn Bridge taken by filmmaker Ken Jacobs. Nearly half the photographs feature the artist Marian Zazeela, who provided the design for the book's silk-screened cover. *This copy is signed by her. Smith and his associates assembled the books during the late spring and early summer of 1962, before shooting began on Flaming Creatures. Published and distributed by Piero Heliczer's press, the dead language. The only autonomous collection of Jack Smith's photographs to appear during his lifetime.

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Toyokuni, Utamaro, Kunimasa
Yakusha Gakuya Tsu, Picture-book of Portraits: Actors behind the Scenes, 1799
3298-BK

10 7/8 x 7 3/8 in. (27.7 x 18.8 cm)

Thirty-six full color actor portraits are in Edo style accompanied by poems and a delightful double page print by Utamaro. "The large head and the half length type of actor print had been among the great innovations of the 1780s and 1790s and these two artists excelled in these striking forms of portraiture, which recalled Western prints from the time of Durer onward, focusing on the features of the person portrayed with close-up intensity."Hiller. pg. 573.

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JMW Turner
Liber Studiorum, 1810
3054-BK

10 7/8 x 16 1/8 in. (27.6 x 41 cm)

Etchings with mezzotint printed in sepia, circa 1809-1817. This book is exlibris of F. Hurlbutt. Etched by the artist, engraved by C. Turner(Brother), W. Say, R. Dunkarton, G. Clint, T. Lupton and the artist, frontispiece and 70 pages, fine impressions, the majority early states (1 proof, 2 first states, 7 second states, 42 third states, 13 fourth states, 4 fifth states, and 2 sixth states), on laid paper with T. Richard watermarks, with margins,, bound in contemporary calf, richly gilt, for a Duke or person of importance.

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Christopher Wool
Black Book, 1989
4027-BK

First published artist book by Wool. The complete set of 17 prints, 1989, on smooth wove paper, with title page and justification, signed on the justification and numbered 345/350, published by Thea Westreich, New York, bound (as issued), in very good condition, with original black paper covers with no faults. *This was his FIRST published book, before this he did make a few self published photocopy books in very small editions.

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