“Photography, It Is Absence”–Boltanski

BOLTANSKI, Christian.

Inventaire des Objets ayant appartenu à une Femme de Bois-Colombes.

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 belonging to a woman from Bois-Colombes is the fifth project of this type that I have created. In its formulation it follows the same rule as the previous projects: to present, without any selection on my part, every item belonging to a randomly chosen person in the city or town where an event is taking place.”

In fine condition.

❧ J. Flay, ed., Christian Boltanski, Catalogue: Books, Printed Matter, Ephemera, 1966-1991 (1992), pp. 106-9. A. Moeglin-Delcroix, Esthétique du Livre d’artiste: Introduction à l’art contemporain (2nd ed.: 2012), p. 213.

Price: $550.00

Item ID: 7357