Surplus Value Books: Catalogue Number 13 [deluxe edition] [together with] Surplus Value Books [Limited Edition] [Artist Book]

Moody, Rick; Schilling, Wilber H. [design]; Kelm, Dan [binder]

Published by Danger! Books & Indulgence Press, Santa Monica & Minneapolis, 2004

About this Item

Deluxe/Limited Editions. Various. Moody's short story, Surplus Value Books #13 is a comic parody of a bookseller's modern rare book catalogue. The story unfolds as the galley proofs of the involved book catalogue, where the prices accorded the items for sale are contrasted with the personal and idiosyncratic values assigned to them by the bookseller. "This intricate collaboration is an expanded treatment of a text originally published by Rick Moody and David Ford as an artist s book in 1999. Taking the form of a bookseller s catalogue, Moody s novella (which is also reprinted in his 2000 collection Demonology) lays bare the fragile psyche of its narrator, whose fractured and overwrought book descriptions often veer into personal territory, returning particularly to his obsession with a college classmate, Anna Feldman. The deluxe edition includes corrected page proofs of the text, complete with "hand corrections" by the author (reproduced typographically by Wilbur "Chip" Schilling) and sections that appear to have been manually "whited out." Each item in the portfolio supports the text of the story from the straightjacket that holds the book and the narrator s "release papers" from a private mental hospital, to the a collection of objects that relate directly to the entries (including a Star Wars action figure, Scrabble tiles, and a baseball card.) The text is aptly described by Hadley-based bookseller Ken Lopez: "Moody has created a hilarious and touching self-contained world where the values accorded to the items for sale (dollars) and the values inherent in them (significance, artistry, passion) are in running comic contrast." [Exhibition statement, Smith College] The overall design and printing was undertaken by Wilbur "Chip" Schilling, Daniel Kelm, and David Ford Kelm, with assistance from "other mechanics" at the Wide Awake Garage. In creating the OCD-adjacent box, Kelm created a void, filled with a blank, because, "any obsessive would want to have the regular edition, too." He then noted, laughing, that would leave no place for the blank, and wondered what would be done with that. While not called for, a standard issue of the limited first edition (one of 700 copies) is included. Tight, bright, and unmarred. Folio resin coated cloth box, mixed media, including vinyl, plastic, cloth, metal, paper, wood, leather, etc. fo [49x23x10cm]. Numbered limited editions.

Seller Inventory # 11222

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Surplus Value Books: Catalogue Number 13 [deluxe edition] [together with] Surplus Value Books [Limited Edition] [Artist Book]
• Publisher: Danger! Books & Indulgence Press, Santa Monica & Minneapolis
• Publication Date: 2004
• Binding: Various
• Edition: Deluxe/Limited Editions.
• Condition: Fine
• Seller catalogs:
  • Artists' Books