[From upper wrapper]: #14 Artists’ Books…Winter 76/77

Many illus. 77 pp. & ads. 4to, orig. pictorial wrappers, upper wrapper by C. Andre, staple-bound. New York: 1977.

A celebrated issue of the intrepid New York newsprint art magazine, which ran from 1973 to 1978. This issue was devoted to the subject of “artists’ books” and introduced many to the then embryonic concept. It opens with an “Idea Poll” that solicited responses to the relevance and potential of artists’ books. Responses from Acker, Baldessari, Carrion, Buren, Denes, Hoffberg, Huebler, Kaprow, Kostelanetz, LeWitt, Lippard, Nannucci, Piper, Schneemann, Steir, Tuttle, Weiner, are recorded. They project a mix of optimism and fatalism about the future of such books. We also note articles by AA Bronson, Peter Frank, and Irena von Zahn, who writes about Jaap Rietman and his bookstore.

Very good copy; as with most issues of Art-Rite, the staples are beginning to tear through the outermost newsprint leaves at the spine.

❧ A. Desjardin, The Book on Books on Artists Books (2nd ed.: 2013) 328.