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Denny, Frances F. (Photographer) & Locascio, Lisa (Contributor) : Let Virtue Be Your Guide: Photographs By Frances F. Denny

Radius Books, Sante Fe, New Mexico, 2016

ISBN 1942185006

First Edition / First Printing. As New in As New Dust Jacket. 108 pages. Debut collection of color photographs. One of the most beautiful art photography books of our time. The First Hardcover Edition. Precedes and should not be confused with all other subsequent editions. Published in a small and limited first print run as a hardcover original only. A brilliant production by David Chickey: Oversize-volume format. Pink cloth boards, as issued. Photographs by Frances F. Denny. Original piece, "Primer", by Lisa Locascio. The latter beautifully complements the evocative portraits of contemporary descendants of the original Mayflower/Puritan settlers of America. Printed on pristine-white, thick coated stock paper in Verona, Italy to the highest standards. In integral protective plastic covers with white titles printed in front and on the spine, as issued. Presents Frances F. Denny's "Let Virtue Be Your Guide". Her award-winning sequence of portraits of women-descendants, and their surroundings, of the very first white settlers of America. "Examines the author's family and their deeply-rooted history as early settlers of New England (one ancestor, John Howland, was a deckhand aboard The Mayflower). Unearthing the idea of feminine virtue from the confines of its historical meaning, Denny's photographs of the women in her family have a watchful quality, as if she is defining for herself what it means to be a woman. Her subjects, and the domestic spaces they inhabit, together evoke a distinct and well-worn privilege. But Denny finds the places where seams pull apart, exposing the shifts occurring across generations of women. A search for meaning in heritage, a challenge to the notion of legacy, and the artist's reckoning with a traditional version of American femininity" (Publisher's blurb). The title is a nod to The Past, the modernized version of "Let Virtue Be A Guide To Thee" (1730), a series of books published during the Colonial Period, instruction manuals for women on needlepoint and other crafts. The work speaks for itself: Its luminous, understated palette draws you in, making you (somehow) feel at home. Even if you will always be an outsider to this self-contained world, Denny does not make you feel like an unwelcome tourist. An absolute "must-have" title for Frances F. Denny collectors. This copy is very boldly and beautifully signed, placed, and dated (two months before publication) in black ink-pen on the title page by the photographer: "April 1, 2016 Chicago Frances F. Denny". It is also very prominently, neatly, and beautifully signed in black ink-pen on her Contribution by Lisa Locascio. It is signed directly on the pages themselves, not on a tipped-in page. Laid-in is a pristine copy of the Souvenir Exhibition Material of the event during which their signatures were obtained. This title is a contemporary photography classic. As far as we know, this is the only such double-signed, placed, and pre-publication dated copy of the First Hardcover Edition/First Printing available online and is in especially fine condition: Clean, crisp, and bright, a pristine beauty. Please note: This is an Advance Signed Copy, obtained in person. The book was not released to the public until end-May 2016. A rare signed copy thus. 36 color plates, 1 fold-out photographic insert. One of the most brilliant American photographers of our time. A fine collectible copy. . ISBN 1942185006.

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