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21st Editions Journal of Contemporary Photography Volume 4 (Four/IV): Cy DeCosse: The Gardens of DeCosse, Deluxe Limited Edition

Publisher: South Dennis, Massachusetts: 21st Editions / Steven Albahari, 2000
Edition: 1st Edition
Binding: Hardcover
ISBN: 1892733072
Condition: New / No dust jacket as issued
Item #: 102091

$4,000.00

Specifics

Price is net to all; promotional discounts do not apply.

First edition, first printing. Deluxe limited edition of 110 copies (of which 100 were for sale), this being copy number 47. Signed in black ink on the limitation page by Cy DeCosse, John Wood, Sheila Metzner, John Stevenson, Susan Ludvigson, Scott Ely, Morri Creech and Carol Wood. Hardcover. Fine green Italian cloth-covered boards with green quarter Moroccan goatskin binding and title stamped in black on spine, no dust jacket as issued. The book is contained in a handmade green Italian cloth-covered basswood clamshell box.

Photographs by Cy DeCosse. Essays by John Wood, Sheila Metzner, John Stevenson, Susan Ludvigson, Scott Ely, Morri Creech and Carol Wood. Includes notes on the contributors. Designed by Carolyn Eckert. 176 pp., with seven hand-pulled photogravures by Jon Goodman Photogravure and 43 tritone plates exquisitely printed by Trifolio, Verona, Italy from separations by Robert J. Hennessey. Book measures 15-3/4 x 13-3/4 inches, clamshell box is 17 x 14-7/8 inches.

Condition

New. A Mint flawless copy.

Description

From the essay by John Wood: "There is a long tradition of flower painters, and from the beginning of photography there have been photographers of vegetables and flowers, but no other artist has ever looked at either quite the way DeCosse does or arranged them with such baroque flamboyance. DeCosse is a master at making some frozen moment ambered in photography's fixing gaze seem to be alive and vital with movement. Even his single, simple Onion is balletic in the grace of its gestures. Has anyone ever seen so elegant a piece of dried onion skin! The very idea of such an onion surprises us with the freshness of DeCosse's eye and approach. Or look at his Onion Flowers bending and undulating like dancers. His Radicchio Trevisano seems to be completing a gesture-just as a dancer might with her arms gracefully curved in front of her, one twisting over the other; the Fritillaria bends into a bow; his Sweet Peas are popping open; Fireworks are going off; the Rose Bouquet looks like an exploding star; and those masterpieces, the Queen of the Night and the King of the Night have burst not just into bloom but into booming, wondrous activity."