LEIBER, Steven, bookseller.

[From upper wrappers]: Inventory of the Swedish Archive of Artist Books.

Black & white illus. throughout Vol. II. 78; [45] (incl. inside of lower wrapper) pp. Two vols. 8vo (216 x 140 mm.), orig. printed wrappers (spines sunned), staple-bound, housed in a slipcase. [San Francisco]: 1996.

An important catalogue (no. 21) issued by Leiber in association with Louisa Riley-Smith’s 20th Century Art Archives. The majority of items offered came from the collection of Leif Eriksson, the great Swedish collector and champion of artists’ books, who in 1978 created the Swedish Archive of Artists’ Books. The present set imitates Christian Boltanski’s artist’s book Inventaire des objets appartenant à un habitant d’Oxford… (1973).

The two volumes, the first with descriptions and the second with photocopied illustrations of the listings, present works by artists such as Kathy Acker, Armleder, Boltanski, Carrión, Helen Douglas, Felipe Ehrenberg, Filliou, Gibbs, Higgins, Hompson, Jacks, Knowles, Kostelanetz, Kruger, Messager, Nannucci, Ono, Rot, Joyce Cutler Shaw, Keith A. Smith, Buzz Spector, Spoerri, Stokes, Tuttle, Vautier, Warhol, Emmett Williams, Zweig, etc. There is a photocopied image of each book’s cover in the second volume, mimicking Boltanski’s clinical presentation.

Fine copies. The slipcase is a little worn.

❧ Steven Leiber Catalogs (2019), pp. 83-85.

Price: $950.00

Item ID: 7579