Books & Rivers

Alighiero Boetti
I Mille Fiumi Pi√π Lunghi del Mondo (Progetto) (Classifying the thousand longest rivers in the world), 1977
7371-BK

8 3/8 x 6 3/8 x 2 1/8 in. (21.5 x 16.5 x 5.5 cm)

Printed by Boetti in Ascoli Piceno, 1977. Text by Anne-Marie Sauzeau-Boetti. Edition with red cover, numbered; 1006 pages. Produced over seven years, Boetti collaborated on this book with art critic Anne-Marie Sauzeau. Boetti had a keen interest in the relationship between chance and order, numbers and the world in various means of organization and classification, and the ways in which cultural order is imposed on the complexities of nature. Known to many scientists as “Boetti List,” the thousand plus-page book categorizes a thousand waterways in order of their length according to the most reliable documentary sources at the time. Each page is devoted to one river with a factual list of its technical data. The book conveys metaphor, process, reality—at once poetic and scientific. Edition of 500 copies.

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Louise Bourgeois
ODE A LA BIEVRE, 2007
1669

Louise Bourgeois was born in Paris in 1911. In 1919, her family moved to the Parisian suburb of Antony where the Bièvre River "cut across the garden in a straight line". The river was key to their relocation as it was imperative to the family's business of tapestry restoration for the washing of the tapestries. In 2002, Bourgeois would distill her emotions and memories of the river and the garden in an important unique fabric book entitled ODE À LA BIÈVRE. In the book she reminisces through images and text, "With the soil from that river we planted geraniums, masses of peonies, and beds of asparagus ...and honeysuckle that smelled so sweet in the rain." Using her own garments as raw material to make sewn fabric collages, she evoked feelings and memories through lines, shapes and colors. Years later, Bourgeois was to go back to the house with her own family only to find the river to no longer exist, "only the trees that my father had planted along its edge remained as a witness". This 2007 book faithfully reproduces that original fabric work. Each book is signed and numbered on the colophon and includes two signed photographs digitally printed on Verona paper and mounted on 300 gram watercolor paper with the respective titles: "The garden in Antony, 1921" and "The Bièvre River, 1951." Housed in a blind embossed slip case each book is uniquely bound with hand dyed and distressed linen.

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Louise Bourgeois
Ode a La Bievre, 2007
2137

16 7/8 x 12 15/16 in. (43 x 33 cm)

Third version of the original book in fabric. Housed in a blind embossed cardboard slipcase, with a white Japanese linen embossed cover. Edition of 1800. 54 pages. Published by Matthew Zucker, New York.

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Susan Derges
Azure, 2006
1806

8 1/2 x 6 1/2 in. (21.5 x 16.5 cm)

A 32-page linen bound book with text by Christopher Bucklow to accompany the exhibition of the same name held in 2006 at the Ingleby Gallery, Edinburgh, Scotland, of photographs of the River Taw and sea shoreline. This book contains a unique photogram, a fragment from the first works that Derges made on the River Taw in 1996.

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Roni Horn
Still Water, 2000
1963

30 1/2 x 41 1/2 in. (77.5 x 105.4 cm)

Photographs and concept by Roni Horn. Text by Jan Avgikos and Kathleen Merrill Campagnolo. Designed by Jack Woody (Twin Palms Publishers) and Arlyn Eve Nathan. 48 pages with 15 four-color plates on heavy-stock uncoated paper. This edition is limited to 1000 hardbound copies. Published on the occasion of the 2000 exhibition Roni Horn at SITE Santa Fe. Signed by author in graphite pencil on the front loose endpaper. Hardcover. Photographically illustrated paper-covered boards, no dust jacket as issued.

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Jakuchu
On a Riverboat Journey: A Handscroll by Jakuchu with poems by Daiten, 1989
3147-BK

6 1/4 x 11 1/4 x 1 1/4 in. (15.9 x 28.6 x 3.2 cm)

Tall 8vo., folding album; 25 pages. Published by George Braziller, New York. With a wonderful 18 page introduction explaining The scroll shows a continuous unfolding view of one river bank during a journey from Kyoto to Osaka in the 18th century. The landscape by Jakuchu is combined with poetry by Daiten recording their impressions of the passing scenery and time. Reproduced from the Handscroll at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Poems and illustrations depict the impressions of an eighteenth century Japanese poet and artist as they traveled to Osaka by boat in 1767.

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Richard Long
River Avon Book, 1979
7361-BK

6 3/8 x 6 in. (16.3 x 15.2 cm)

Mud on handmade paper. Hard cover. Stitch bound. Hard slipcase. Text on slipcase is hand-written. Edition of 120 copies, only 106 produced. Unpaginated; 34 pages. This book is based around the River Avon in Bristol, Richard Long's home town. Long dipped hand-made paper into the source of the River Avon and then left the pages to dry with muddy watermarks. Reference: p. 237 RICHARD LONG. R.H. FUCHS. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY / Thames and Hudson, London, UK. 1986.

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Jun Morinaga
River:Its Shadow of Shadows, 1978
1970

12 3/8 x 10 5/8 in. (31.5 x 27 cm)

First edition, and only printing, of MorinagaÕs first photobook, signed by him in Japanese in silver felt pen, featuring over 90 photogravure plates (including numerous gatefolds) with essays by photographer W. Eugene Smith and others; texts in Japanese and English. Quarto, cloth covers with title stamped in white in English on the cover and in Japanese on the spine; photo pictorial slipcase. Designed by Kohei Sugiura and Hitoshi Suzuki. Published by Yugensha, Tokyo. 168 pages. This first and only printing of River reflects his long interest in waterscapes and especially in the vanishing rivers of Tokyo. Smith's essay praises Morinaga's work for its haunting beauty, charged with ""a very rare and personal"" vision, and critics have hailed Morinaga's evocative depiction of ""rippling water in dark, meditative images"" (New York Times). Essays by W. Eugene Smith and others; text in Japanese and English.

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Dieter Roth
Poeterei 3/4, 1967-68
4088-BK

5 5/8 x 9 13/16 in. (14.3 x 25 cm)

Double issue of the bi-annual review for poetry and poesy. No. 3, 24 pages letterpress with an Ôoriginal rheinÕ (original collage) signed. No. 4, 44 pages letterpress closed bolt with an Ôoriginal ramÕ (original object). Printed by G. Hohm Cologne. Published by edition Hansjšrg Mayer, Stuttgart. Approx. 40 copies bound in goat embryo skin, remainder in different kinds of leather. Deluxe edition (7 numbered and signed pieces. 1 authorÕs copy). Adhesive binding. Copy number 23 of 230, dated 68 and signed.

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George A. Tice
Goodbye, River, Goodbye, 1971
1601

10 5/8 x 8 1/4 in. (27.3 x 21 cm)

Black and white photographs, with poetry by George Mendoza. Doubleday, Garden City, New York, 32 pages. Inscribed, Ò6/1/71 For Lee Witkin, George A. TiceÓ.

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Christopher Wool
Cats in Bag Bags in River, 1991
4225-BK

8 1/4 x 11 3/4 in. (21 x 29.7 cm)

Artist's book published on the occasion of the exhibition Christopher Wool: Paintings 1986-1990 at the Museum BoymansÐvan Beuningen in Rotterdam and the Kunstverein in Kšln. 2 volumes; includes separate appendix with text in Dutch, German and English. Designed by Christopher Wool. Printed by Rosbeek bv, Nuth. Published by Museum Boymans-van Beuningen, Rotterdam. Unpaginated; 188 pages with 180 offset lithograph images; 16 pages in appendix, with text by Glenn OÕBrien and checklist of the exhibition. Edition 2500

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Yun - Fei - Ji
The Three Gorges Dam, 2009
3410-BK

13 3/4 x 120 3/8 in. (35 x 306 cm)

Ten-foot long woodblock print, hand printed with traditional Chinese watercolor inks from 500 hand carved blocks of pear wood, on mulberry paper and silk, in silk bound case. Collaboration between the Chinese publishing house Rongbaozhai, Beijing, and the Library Council of the Museum of Modern Art, New York.

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