About this Item
1st Printing. Signed. Unpaginated. Published in 1993. Artist Books. The artist/photographer's "Totem" Complete Set. One of the most brilliant art photography projects of our time. Each book is published in a Limited Edition of 500 copies. The first and only edition. Published as softcover originals only that sold out after publication. They are all, individually and collectively, now rare. An austerely elegant production by Lewis Koch: Accordion-foldout format. Photographs, concept, design, and text by Lewis Koch. Each book is encased in its own slim slipcase. Souvenir Postcard laid-in. Printed on thick card-stock paper in the United States to the highest standards. Without DJ, as issued. Presents, in Limited Edition formats, Lewis Koch's complete, three-volume "Totem" Artist Books: "Double Caution Totem", "Surplus Koan Totem", and "Slender Thread Totem". Three of the most austerely and quirkily beautiful Artist Books one will ever see: Ed Ruscha, as it were, with a genuinely inquisitive, probing, and intellectual bent. "The photographic assemblages presented here reconfigure the idea of totems in a contemporary context. Offers sincere respect to the mysteries of our existence in its many manifestations. It also becomes a tool of critical discourse by suggesting the connectedness we all implicitly have to the pressing issues of our time" (Lewis Koch). Koch is an artist's artist who makes photographic works, site-specific installations, and sculptural assemblage. He has exhibited extensively throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe, in which countries his work is in the Permanent Collections of major museums. He isn't as well-known as Ed Ruscha - although he deserves to be. But as these Artist Books will immediately show, he knows how to make elegant books, has a dry wit, and is an American original. An absolute "must-have" title for Lewis Koch collectors. These are copies of the Limited Edition of 500 copies each. Each copy of the "Totem" Complete Set is very prominently, neatly, and beautifully signed in black ink-pen on the Limitation Page by Lewis Koch. They are all signed directly on the page itself, not on a tipped-in page. In addition, he presented the set with a Souvenir Postcard (which reproduces "Garage Interiors", one of his most beautiful images) that is also very prominently, neatly, and beautifully signed and inscribed on verso by him. These titles are Artist Book classics. As far as we know, this is the only such signed set (with Souvenir Postcard) available online and is in especially fine condition: Clean, crisp, and bright. Please note: As far as we know, Lewis Koch did NOT sign any other copies of the Artist Books. A rare signed set thus. One of the most brilliant artists of our time. A fine collectible set. (SEE ALSO OTHER LEWIS KOCH AND ED RUSCHA TITLES IN OUR CATALOG).
Seller Inventory # 19359
Contact seller
Report this item
