Swimming

New York: The Library Fellows at the Whitney Museum of American Art [by Michael and Winifred Bixler Press and Letter Foundry], 1991. Spine faded as often with this book, a few scuffs to cloth, some minor soiling to slipcase. Oblong folio (32.9x42 cm; 13x16½ inches). Beautifully printed in letterpress. [16] pages With 9 mounted chromogenic photographic prints by Tina Barney: 27.7 x3 5.9 cm (11x14¼"). Original turquoise three quarter morocco over cloth; endpapers designed by Sage Reynolds; slipcase. One of an edition limited to 175 copies signed by Barney and Howe. An artist book collaboration between American playwright Tina Howe and American photographer Tina Barney produced as a benefit for the library of the Whitney Museum. An edition in the Artists and Writers Series. The text is a four-person dialogue written by Tina Howe, set on an Atlantic Coast beach in late August. The large-format images manipulate depth of field, and capture people on or around the beach, making the series a vibrant, though haunting, counterpoint to Howe's clipped dialogue. It also delights in capturing late 1980s style and fashion, from young children through the elderly. A beautiful, tactilely rich book.