Black & white illus. throughout. [24] pp. Tall 8vo, printed wrappers. Arles: Le Méjan/Actes Sud, 1989.

Scarce Christian Boltanski (1944-2021) artist’s book published on the occasion of his exhibition at the Eglise Saint-Martin du Méjan d’Arles (3 July-3 September 1989). From the preface (in trans.): “These images were cut out from a 1972 weekly specialized in criminal news stories; they inexorably present the mixed faces, murderers or victims, of these forgotten dramas."

Fine.

❧ Jennifer Flay, ed., Christian Boltanski — Catalogue: Books, Printed Matter, Ephemera 1966-1991 (1992), pp. 186-87.

Bob Calle, ed., Christian Boltanski: Livres d’Artiste, 1969-2007 (2008), p. 61. More

310 black & white illus., on rectos only. [24] leaves. 8vo (210 x 141 mm.), orig. semi-stiff printed wrappers, perfect-bound. Paris: CNAC, 1974.

First edition, an excellent copy of Boltanski’s fifth inventory, documenting all the earthly possessions of a randomly selected person, this time a resident from Bois-Colombes, a suburb of Paris. This book was published for an exhibition (15 October to 2 December 1974) at the Centre national d’art contemporain. Earlier versions of this piece took place in Baden-Baden, Jerusalem, Oxford, and Copenhagen.

Boltanski explains the intention of this work in the Avant-Propos (in trans.): “The inventory of objects... More