CHRISTIAN BOLTANSKI: RECONSTITUTION

London, England: Whitechapel Art Gallery London, 1990. First Edition. First Printing.. Hardcover. Fine/No Dust Jacket, As Issued.. London, England: Whitechapel Art Gallery London, 1990. Hardcover. Fine/None, As Issued. First Edition/First Printing. 265 pages. Retrospective Monograph, presented as an Artist Book. One of the most original retrospective presentations of the 20th century. The first and only edition. Published in a small and limited print run as a boxed set only. There is no ISBN. The First Edition is now rare. A brilliant production by Christian Boltanski: Brown cardboard box with white label pasted on the lid cover, as issued. Eighteen individual pieces laid-in. Printed on various archival stock papers to the highest standards. Without DJ, as issued. Published on the occasion of the landmark retrospective exhibition of the same name held at the Whitechapel Art Gallery London in 1990, which travelled on to other major venues in Europe. Presents Christian Boltanski's "Reconstitution". His memorabilia of professional and personal papers, re-created - and elevated - as an engrossing personal archive by Boltanski, the archive being a form that no other modern artist has pursued with the same centrality, inventiveness, and originality as he has. His major works as well as "stray" items are gathered together as an "ongoing reconstruction of his identity". Five Artist Books are reproduced in their entirety, including two of his masterworks: "Inventaire des objets ayant appartenu a une femme des Bois-Colombes" and "Saynetes Comiques". Facsimiles of letters, photographs, postcards, and a large folded poster are mixed in with the Catalogs that the reader-viewer/collector can randomly peruse - and store in no particular order - because evidently for Boltanski, they all have the same "weight". Since his death on July 14, 2021, tributes to Christian Boltanski focussed exclusively on his site-specific installations, completely ignoring his two other incomparable achievements: First, the series of short films that he filmed, in each of which an "accident" takes place, and he dies. Boltanski stored the films in vintage biscuit tin cans, which he salvaged, accumulating endless rows of them, a "throwaway", quotidian artifact that he single-handedly elevated to an art object - therefore as something sacred - and now feverishly coveted as such by collectors. Second, Boltanski's large body of work in the Artist Book genre will remain unsurpassed, perhaps matched only by Ed Ruscha's, sort of, and in a totally different vein. Now that he is dead, the grief one feels for the vanished Life is somehow mitigated by the timeless beauty of the Art. An absolute "must-have" title for Christian Boltanski collectors. This copy is very boldly and beautifully signed in black ink-pen on the Cover's white label by Christian Boltanski. It is signed directly on the Cover itself, not on a tipped-in page. Boltanski's signature on this copy is fabulous. This title is one of Boltanski's greatest Artist Books. This is one of few such signed copies of the First Edition/First Printing still available online and is in especially fine condition: Clean, crisp, and bright. A rare signed copy thus. Lavishly illustrated with black-and-white and color plates. One of the greatest artists of the 20th century and our time. A fine collectible copy. (SEE ALSO OTHER CHRISTIAN BOLTANSKI TITLES IN OUR CATALOG) .