Vincent Borrelli, Bookseller

Roni Horn: Bluff Life, Special Limited Edition (with Bound-In Folded "Map" Print) (Ísland (Iceland): To Place 1) [SIGNED]

HORN, Roni

Publisher: New York: Roni Horn (self-published), 1990
Edition: 1st Edition
Binding: Hardcover
ISBN: 0935875093
Condition: As New / No dust jacket as issued
Item #: 101101

$4,000.00

Specifics

First edition, first and only printing. Hardcover. Special limited edition of 150 copies, with an original print (10 1/4 x 12 1/2 inches), numbered and signed in graphite by Horn (this being #128/150), folded and attached at the spine verso the first sheet of the book. The image of the print is of a topological map of Iceland, with red printed hand-written text by Horn forming a circular pattern over the map. The print is vertically folded twice to fit within the book's dimensions. Black linen cloth with blind-stamped title, in a matching black linen cloth slipcase, no dust jacket as issued. Out of print. Very scarce.

Watercolor and/or graphite drawings by Roni Horn (reproduced actual size). Designed by Roni Horn in consultation with Klaus Baumgärtner. 36 pp., with 14 four-color plates, beautifully printed on heavy fine matte art paper by Drukkerij Rosbeek bv, in Nuth, the Netherlands. 10-1/2 x 8-3/8 inches. This first edition was limited to 1150 hardbound copies.

[Cited in Andrew Roth, ed., The Open Book. (Göteborg, Sweden: Hasselblad Center in association with Steidl Verlag, Göttingen, Germany, 2004), and in Martin Parr and Gerry Badger, The Photobook: A History, Volume II. (London and New York: Phaidon, 2006).]

Condition

As New in publisher's original packaging (book and print in flawless, pristine condition).

Description

These watercolor and graphite drawings were produced in 1982 during a two-month stay in a lighthouse off the southern coast of Iceland. This is the first volume in the series of the work, To Place. To Place is an ongoing series of publications. Each volume is a unique dialogue addressing the relationship between identity and place. The books take as their starting point Iceland and the evolving experiences of the artist in this country.

From Roni Horn (in a 1995 interview with Claudia Spinelli): "The entrance to all my work is the idea of an encyclopedia of identity. It is best represented by the books, the series called To Place, which is extremely important to me. I have been working on this since 1988. It's really the heart. It is a series of books, each one of which adds to the whole in a way that alters the identity of it retroactively. So the first volume appears to be a book of drawings. The second book was about a completely different subject but in the same format. With the third volume people start to realize something: 'Well, this looks like a series, so there must be some relationship. But I haven't a clue as to what it is.' Then there was the fourth volume, with texts and photographs. The books are this very slow process of accumulation in the period of a life, my life."