Trans. by Xuanzang in 650 CE. 70 pages, six columns per page, 30 columns per sheet, 17 characters per column. 14 sheets (average sheet length: 570 mm.), five pages per sheet. Accordion format (305 x 7980 mm., print surface from top border to bottom border: 245–250 mm.). Single woodcut borders at top & bottom of text. Orig. sutra binding of semi-stiff paper wrappers. Woodblocks carved by Ge Fang & Ma Qing (& others) in Sixi (present day Huzhou), printed between 1110s/40s–1276.

This fascicle, in its original sutra binding, was printed in the 12th or 13th century in northern Zhejiang, China... More

Some full-page woodcut illus. of scenes from the plays. 48 vols. Small 8vo, orig. wrappers, orig. title-labels on upper covers, orig. stitching. Shanghai: Shang wu yin shu guan, 1918.

Lithographic reprint of the 1615-16 first edition. “Yuanquxuan is a collection of the greatest part of surviving Yuan-period (1279-1368) theatre plays. It includes 100 plays and is therefore also called Yuanren baizhong qu ‘One Hundred theatre plays by authors of the Yuan period’…

“The collection Yuanquxuan was compiled during the Ming period (1368-1644) by Zang Maoxun (1550-1620)…who hailed from Changxing, Zhejiang. He belonged to the so-called four masters (sizi), famous writers... More

[28] pp. & ads. Square 4to (198 x 204 mm.), printed wrappers, staple-bound. Aachen: Zentrum für aktuelle Kunst, 1971.

Scarce Stanley Brouwn (1935-2017) exhibition catalogue/artist’s book. It lists 245 countries and regions preceded by the phrase “the total number of my steps in.” According to Ruhé, the exhibition consisted of “small cards with the text the total number of my steps in…, followed by the name of one of the 245 countries existing in the world early 1971.”

The curator Klaus Honnef (b. 1939) established the Zentrum für aktuelle Kunst – Gegenverkehr in 1968 with Will Kranenpohl, and artists Rune... More

[25] leaves, written on rectos only. Small 4to (207 x 160 mm.), patterned softcover (extremities a little sunned), manuscript title on upper cover, exposed sewing. Amsterdam: 1973.

A most exciting discovery: the manuscript, in the hand of Ulises Carrión (1941-89), for an early bookwork. Amor, la palabra was one of no fewer than six books that he published in 1973, it is also among his rarest. As in the final printed version, this manuscript is dedicated to Carrión’s partner, Aart van Barneveld (1951-90), who co-founded Other Books and So, Stempelplaats, and Timed Based Arts: “para aart, / que estudia filología.”... More

One sheet of paper (318 x 465 mm.), woodblock printed on both sides. [Japan]: ca. 1764-85.

In Edo-period Japan, bansho (small buildings or huts for security and surveillance guards) were placed in central locations. There were several types of bansho, and the present document was printed as an instructional legal guide for security men in tsuji-bansho (neighborhood guard stations), located in the streets of samurai residences, especially in Edo.

The guards needed to know what to do and how to proceed in the unusual situations they might confront: deserted children (a child under three is “deserted” but an older child... More

Two scrolls (284 x 10,460 mm.; 10,950 mm., including front endpapers), speckled gold inner endpapers, outer endpapers covered in green silk with gold patterns. [Japan]: at the end of the second scroll (in trans.): “copied in 1830 by Chuwa Matsumura, having borrowed it from the family of Yahata” [?, our reading is uncertain, perhaps the family that lived in Awa Province, today’s Tokushima Prefecture].

These fine and handsome scrolls depict and describe the imperial procession and visit of Emperor Gomizunoo (1596–1680) to Nijo Castle in Kyoto in October 1626. Nijo Castle was the Kyoto residence of Shogun Tokugawa Iemitsu (1604–1651)... More

Details on recto. Postcard. Düsseldorf: Konrad Fischer, 1972.

Postcard invitation to Konrad Fischer’s second presentation of Ian Wilson (1940-2020). The resulting Discussion is in the collection of Gian Enzo Sperone. Near fine copy.

❧ D. Fischer, ed., Ausstellungen bei Konrad Fischer: Düsseldorf Oktober 1967-Oktober 1992 (Edition Marzona: 1993) 61.

Ian Wilson: The Discussions (2008), p. 58. More

Printed on both sides. Postcard, mailed. Eindhoven: Van Abbemuseum, 1986.

“This was the last public discussion for thirteen years. Wilson wrote to Rudi Fuchs in 1987: ‘I no longer do discussions.’ During the next eight years Ian Wilson lived in an ashram in upstate New York where he practised yoga.”

In fine condition. Mailed to Kurt J. Von Bersuder of Kerpen.

❧ Ian Wilson: The Discussions (2008), p. 138. More

Printed on both sides. Postcard. Eindhoven: Van Abbemuseum, 1981.

Postcard invitation for Wilson’s 1981 Discussion at the Van Abbemuseum. Fine.

❧ Ian Wilson: The Discussions (2008), p. 124. More

[42] pp. 8vo, yellow printed softcover. London: Nigel Greenwood Inc Ltd, [1970].

Scarce and important artist’s book by Argentine conceptual artist David Lamelas (b. 1946), printed in an edition of 1000 copies, with the first 100 numbered and signed. The book was published by the savvy London art dealer Nigel Greenwood (1941-2004).

Lamelas solicited responses from other conceptual artists to three statements: 1. Use of oral and written language as an Art Form. 2. Language can be considered as an Art Form. 3. Language cannot be considered as an Art Form. The answers of the following artists were featured... More

Graphite drawings on thin triangular paper, laminated. [8] leaves, ms. title & signature on first leaf, metal spiral-bound. [From verso of final leaf]: Amsterdam: Self-published, 1988.

One of Carrión’s last bookworks, Opening Lotus, a unique triangular book, was made the year before the artist’s death from complications caused by HIV/AIDS. In the last decade of his life, Carrión (1941-89) created a small group of hand-drawn books, several of which are recorded in the catalogue raisonné compiled by Agius and Ocampo and the 2016 exhibition Dear reader. Don’t read. The present bookwork is not recorded in either. It comes from Guy... More

Graphite drawings throughout on triangular paper, laminated. [6] leaves, laminated covers with ms. title, signature, and date written in blue marker, metal spiral-bound. [Amsterdam?]: Self-published, 1984.

A unique hand-drawn bookwork by Ulises Carrión (1941-89), unrecorded by Ocampo and Agius in their catalogue raisonné. In the final decade of his life, Carrión created a group of geometric and minimalist books about which very little is known. This one depicts two rectangles that are initially nearly touching but, as one turns the pages, become increasingly distanced while the rectangle on the right shrinks. The book is signed by Carrión in blue marker... More