Buy this book on-line

Gibson, Ralph (Artist/Photographer) & Cohen, Alan (Recipient/Photographer) : Syntax: Photographs By Ralph Gibson

Lustrum Press, New York City, NY, 1983

ISBN 0912810394

First Edition / First Printing. Fine in Fine Dust Jacket. 80 pages. Artist Book. One of Ralph Gibson's finest achievements. The First Hardcover Edition. Precedes and should not be confused with all other subsequent editions. Published in a small and limited first print run by the legendary Lustrum Press as a hardcover original only. The First Edition is now rare. An austerely elegant production by Ralph Gibson and Arne Lewis: Oversize-volume format. Black linen cloth boards with black titles embossed on cover and spine, as issued. Photographs by Ralph Gibson. Except for the opening line, there is no text. Printed on pristine-white, thick coated stock paper in the United States to the highest standards. The reproduction quality is exemplary in every respect. In pictorial DJ with titles on the cover and spine, as issued. Presents Ralph Gibson's "Syntax". The artist/photographer's fourth Lustrum Press collection, prefaced with an inconspicuous opening line, "Neither figure nor ground. Music is blind". Which is a poetic re-statement of his oft-quoted line: "Add to the photograph with light and then subtract with shadow", the distillation of his aesthetics and body of work. His intention (as expressed in his iconic "The Somnambulist") is also pertinent: "A Dream Sequence in which all things are real. While sleeping, a dreamer reappears elsewhere on the planet, becoming at least two men. His sleeping dreams provide the substance of that Reality while his waking dreams become what he thought was his Life. Clarity is all any man seeks, this Somnambulist merely finds his on the Other Side" (Ralph Gibson). An absolute "must-have" title for Ralph Gibson collectors. This copy is very prominently, neatly, and beautifully signed and inscribed/presented to a fellow artist in black ink-pen on the title page by the artist/photographer: "Ralph Gibson Alan Cohen". It is signed directly on the page itself, not on a tipped-in page. Alan Cohen, the recipient, is the Chicago-based Conceptual artist/photographer, who is closely identified with the Institute of Design (ID). This title is a late-modern art photography classic. As far as we know, this is the only presentation copy (from one photographer to another) of the First Hardcover Edition/First Printing available online and is in especially fine condition: Clean, crisp, and bright, a beauty. A rare signed copy thus. 75 duotone plates. One of the most brilliant American artist/photographers of the 20th century. A fine collectible copy. . ISBN 0912810394.

1
1

Bibliophile Bookbase for antiquarian books, maps and prints.