SMITH, Keith A.

[From second leaf]: Masturbation Meditation [Book 65].

Offset illus. throughout. [8] leaves, printed on rectos only. Oblong 4to (218 x 287 mm.), self-bound with nuts & bolts. [Rochester, NY]: Visual Studies Workshop, 1976.

Keith A. Smith’s first artist’s book produced in what he considered a large edition (70 copies), printed at the Visual Studies Workshop, where he taught for several years. Much of the artist’s earlier books were unique or in very small editions. Starting in the late 70s and early 80s, Smith (b. 1938) created several works with edition sizes of 50 or more, including When I Was Two (Book 68, 1977), A Bee Sees (Book 71, 1978), Patterned Apart (Book 89, 1981-82), and his famous A String Book (Book 91, 1982).

The present work, Book 65, is now one of Smith’s rarest attainable books; we note only five North American institutions with copies. In his auto-bibliography 200 Books, Smith writes: “Moving back to Rochester in 1975 to teach at Visual Studies again, I took classes in yoga. The exercise was healthy, plus the practice helped my concentration to visualize.

“Joan Lyons encouraged me to think about offset. I had wanted to publish a book for some time. The print shop at VSW had an AB Dick duplication. Her assistant, David Chappen printed this book. Nuts and bolts were used as a stab binding…”

In excellent condition. Signed and dated in pencil on the first leaf: “5/70 Keith A. Smith 31 Oct. 1976.”

❧ Smith, 200 Books (2000), p. 112.