The Book of Lies Project. Volumes I, II & III.
Fullerton, CA and Los Angeles: Fullerton College Art Gallery / The Artists' (Floating, Invisible) Museum of Actual Art / Public Access Press of the Southern California Institute of Architecture, (1996-2004). First editions of three (all published) of a projected series of four portfolios, the series cut short by Eugenia Butler’s untimely death of a brain hemorrhage in 2008. One of 80 numbered copies (the entire edition) produced, numbered and signed in the artist’s or poet’s studio. At the time of the exhibition of The Book of Lies at the 18 Arts Gallery in Santa Monica in 2007, Eugenia Butler wrote: “Sixteen years after the Book of Lies project began, the first three of its four volumes are finished. The entirety of the work has taken on form and content far beyond any original imaginings. It has become a rounded voice coming from many voices, a discourse about truth in the territory of the unknowable. Its power derives from the strength and integrity of the individual pieces, from the communal voice, and in single, intimate interactions. Each volume is a work of art unto itself that developed from the process of creating it, from the individual works themselves and from the relationships between the parts and the whole. At a certain point a bigger vision broke through – something beyond previous understandings – surpassing the initial ideas to become a singular artwork consisting of discrete and powerful works of art. Its subject matter is truth, lies, and the intimate power of a true work of art.” The works of art include pieces by artists and writers Georganne Deen, Kim Jones, Julia Lohmann, John O’Brien, Edgar Arceneaux, Sally Elesby, George Evans, Joan Jonas, Barry Sanders, Arthur Sze, Matthew Thomas, Kim Abeles, Lynn Aldrich, Carolee Campbell, Steve DeGroodt, Janet Fitch, Tom Marioni, Kim McCarty, Michael C. McMillen, John Outterbridge, Mary Rakow, and Madam X. Carolee Campbell of the Ninja Press designed the box, brass, and enclosures for Vol. III. Images and additional information on The Book of Lies may be found at: http://www.curatorial.com/exhibitions_current/exhib-BookofLies.html. Bookplate in two portfolios, with small adhesive shelf labels on each portfolio, otherwise the set is in fine condition. Complete sets are rare on the market. Quartos, three original portfolios of 81 works of art, (created out of incised & collaged lead, oil paint on vellum, original pencil drawings, a photograph on platinum paper, polaroid photographs, cyanotypes, ashes of love letters, hand-embroidery, and holograph and mechanically reproduced images and texts), with interleaved translucent sheets noting the artist, loose as issued, inserted in a paper chemise and cardboard folder,or in an individual folder and laid into a clamshell box, accompanied by a spiral bound commentary volume in original printed wrappers printed by Carolee Campbell of the Ninja Press.
Price: $7,500.00