Books

Infamous The Beautiful Book facsimile made from the original negatives, somehow obtained via the inheritors though endless court case between Jack s sister who understandably legally inherited and a (they shall remain nameless) gang of others who in the end didn t. Don t get involved in legalities, lawyer wins, you lose. Beautiful production all round, even the Zazeela silkscreened cover here offset lithography looks great, taken from one in the collection of Zazeela. There were others with far more yellow and orange inking, Heliczer having ingeniously thought of making each one different when his Dead Language Press put the books together with Kate Heliczer and Jack in the latter s flat (down the hall from Angus MacLise) in Ludlow Street. The colofon alludes to another obscure edition (from 1971, utilizing the original vintage prints and the original Zazeela covers, having not been collated at the time the original edition was made), containing only 12 of the photos rather than 19 as Piero and Jack had run out of those; on black rather than yellow paper (well, Ryman s in London was bereft of yellow card sheets that day and we didn t have the patience to hang about! We had to go back to the London Film Co-op and put the mattresses down, clean the floors, lace up the films, take the money and show the work! There was much ado).

An iconic work, 'The Beautiful Book' is known for its eloquent prose and historical significance.