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Lost volume : a catalogue of disasters

Artist's Book
1993 (published)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

A number of unlikely objects appear to have been pressed between the pages of this book: a bugle, a starfish, a light bulb, toy soldiers, a paint-tube that oozes a dark stain across the paper. These random items have left their imprints on the book's pages, inviting the reader to touch the apparently embossed paper, but there is nothing to feel: the objects and their imprints are trompe-l’oeil photographs.

Parker crushed each item in a press between sheets of paper and then had the results photographed, inviting the reader to share her fascination with the acts of destruction and transformation. The objects are shown pre-crushed in a table of contents, but confusingly not all of the items in the contents actually appear in the book.

A squashed spoon is attached to the cover by wire, like a bookmark, and has been pressed onto the book's covering boards to create a blind relief print.

NAL copy is no. 10 in a special edition of 30 signed and numbered copies.

Object details

Categories
Object type
TitleLost volume : a catalogue of disasters
Brief description
Artist's book, 'Lost volume: a catalogue of disasters', by Cornelia Parker, Bookworks, London, 1993
Physical description
Artist's book consisting of black and white photographs of crushed objects and the impressions made by them on paper pressed onto them.

Crushed silver spoon attached to back cover. The spoon has been pressed onto the covers in order to obtain a blind relief print.

Issued in a fold-out box and sealed with a magnetic strip.
Illustrated endpapers.
Published by Book Works in an edition of 500 copies, with a special edition of 30 signed and numbered copies

36 pages
Dimensions
  • Height: 25cm
Summary
A number of unlikely objects appear to have been pressed between the pages of this book: a bugle, a starfish, a light bulb, toy soldiers, a paint-tube that oozes a dark stain across the paper. These random items have left their imprints on the book's pages, inviting the reader to touch the apparently embossed paper, but there is nothing to feel: the objects and their imprints are trompe-l’oeil photographs.

Parker crushed each item in a press between sheets of paper and then had the results photographed, inviting the reader to share her fascination with the acts of destruction and transformation. The objects are shown pre-crushed in a table of contents, but confusingly not all of the items in the contents actually appear in the book.

A squashed spoon is attached to the cover by wire, like a bookmark, and has been pressed onto the book's covering boards to create a blind relief print.

NAL copy is no. 10 in a special edition of 30 signed and numbered copies.
Other number
X930121 - NAL Pressmark
Collection
Library number
38041993108117

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Record createdMarch 4, 2014
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