Phasen | 1960 | Edition: 60 signed and numbered. First artist's book by VOSTELL

WOLF VOSTELL

Published by Gallery Der Spiegel, Cologne 1960, 1960

About this Item

WOLF VOSTELL
PHASEN 1960
First book by Wolf Vostell.

This artist?s book is particularly rare for two main reasons:
- Its excellent condition ? most surviving copies show significant wear.
- The uncertainty surrounding the edition size. Although it is officially stated as 60 copies, René Block (in the Wolf Vostell catalogue raisonné) suggests that only 36 were actually produced. The Bibliothèque nationale de France lists 36 copies plus 5 trial proofs, while the University of Amsterdam Library records 60 copies.

The present copy is numbered 31/60.

"Modern aesthetics, for which art depends on the character of the message, confirms that creation is based solely on selection. No creation out of nothing, but creation out of repertoire. Every discovery of an aesthetics of repertoire is the prerequisite for the formulation of new aesthetic messages. Typograms and letter collages have developed a new repertoire. That this repertoire is a field of correlated realities of thought substance and non-thought substance makes the beauty discovered appear at once more sensual, more accidental, and more unavoidable." From the foreword to Max Bense?s text

With texts by Jürgen Becker
Typogramms by Wolf Vostell and a foreword by Max Bense. Signed and numbered by Vostell and Jürgen Becker on the front inner cover. Edition: 60.
7 serigraphs by Wolf Vostell in yellow, black, white and grey on printing paper and bound in leaflet folded like an accordion. Title in intaglio on the back cover. Print: Werkkunstschule Wuppertal Publisher: Gallery " Der Spiegel ", Cologne 1960
Wrapped in its original Celophan sheet and protected by a cardboard bag
Closed: 34 x 41,5 cm.
Opened: 60,8 x 41,5 cm

Below is one of the 9?10 poems by Jürgen Becker scattered throughout the book, this one translated into English.

in the snow
storm
mute
since Jonah and now
frozen
in the ice
binding then tearing
its skin
in the leaping snow
searching
in the alternation of drums and hail
the twitching hill
the bridge
of lead.

Seller Inventory # ABE-1720542722814

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Phasen | 1960 | Edition: 60 signed and numbered. First artist's book by VOSTELL
• Publisher: Gallery Der Spiegel, Cologne 1960
• Publication Date: 1960
• Binding: Softcover
• Edition: 1. Auflage
• Condition: Wie neu
• Signed: Signatur des Verfassers