Vincent Borrelli, Bookseller

NZ Library #1: Bevan Davies: Los Angeles 1976, Limited Edition (NZ Library - Set One, Volume One) [SIGNED]

DAVIES, Bevan

Publisher: Portland, Oregon: Nazraeli Press, 2014
Edition: 1st Edition
Binding: Hardcover
ISBN: 9781590053836
Condition: New / New
Item #: 110436

$250.00

Specifics

First edition, first printing. Limited edition of 350 copies, signed by the artist on a label tipped in to the back cover, and numbered on the colophon page. Hardcover. Silk cloth-covered boards with title debossed on cover and spine; with photographically illustrated dust jacket and silk cloth-covered slipcase with tipped-in duotone plate. 48 pp., with 32 duotone plates. 15 x 12 inches.

Condition

New in publisher's packaging.

Description

From the publisher: "Bevan Davies's meticulously printed photographs suggest an appreciation of this form of residential architecture with respect both to the facades on which their identities hinge and to the built spaces between those facades. Preferring to photograph during early morning hours on weekends, Davies positioned the film plane of his 8x10-inch camera parallel to the buildings' fronts, to capture the nuanced play of shadows. The resulting images lend depth to structural and decorative elements that are simultaneously utilitarian and aesthetic.

Born in 1941 and educated at the University of Chicago during the 1960s, Bevan Davies hit his intellectual and artistic stride in the 1970s, dovetailing perfectly with the uniquely fertile grounds that Los Angeles was becoming during that decade. The immediate impact of the work Davies produced at this time is reflected in the list of solo and group exhibitions in which his photographs were shown, including such venues as Sonnabend Gallery, New York; International Museum of Photography at George Eastman House, Rochester; The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; and Palais de Beaux Arts, Brussels. Photographs by Bevan Davies are included in the permanent collections of many important collections, including The Getty Museum, Los Angeles; The Art Institute of Chicago; The Metropolitan Museum, New York; and The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston."

From "Ed Ruscha and Some Los Angeles Apartments" by Virginia Heckert: "Los Angeles 1976 is an exquisitely-produced collection of Bevan Davies's photographs of residential Los Angeles architecture, a subject perfectly suited to his working methods at that time."

From the publisher (about the NZ Library Series): "We are excited to announce the NZ Library, a new series of limited edition, highly collectible artist's books. Printed on Japanese art paper using our exclusive 'Daido black' inks, all books in the NZ Library have certain aspects in common: each title is produced using the highest material and production values; each is limited to 350 numbered and signed copies; each is bound in silk cloth and individually slipcased."

The NZ Library will be built six titles at a time, with groupings curated to balance and play off of past, present and future titles in the series. While copies--such as this item--will be available to purchase individually, a generous discount is extended for orders of all six titles in any given set. ($150 per book compared to $250 per book.)

Set 1 highlights work by some of the most creative and influential photographic artists active in Los Angeles during the 1970s; re-presents the long-overdue "wayward piece of the puzzle"-- John Schott's entire "Route 66 Motels" portfolio -- to the available literature relating to the groundbreaking New Topographics exhibition shown in 1975 at the George Eastman House in Rochester; offers new insight into Daido Moriyama's working methodology; and provides an ideal forum for the first international publication on the work of superstar contemporary artist Idris Khan."