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French Fries. A New Play, written by.. by Bernstein, Dennis & Warren Lehrer - 1984

by Bernstein, Dennis & Warren Lehrer

French Fries. A New Play, written by.. by Bernstein, Dennis & Warren Lehrer - 1984

French Fries. A New Play, written by..

by Bernstein, Dennis & Warren Lehrer

  • Used
  • Hardcover
  • Signed
Purchase; Rochester: Ear/Say, Visual Studies Workshop, 1984. Quarto (27.5 x 21 cm.), 104 pages. Three colors on acid-free Mohawk Superfine. Hardcover [ketchup-resistant faux-leather cloth, die-cut over boards]. Color separation by Phil Zimmermann. Subtitle from second title page following copyright page. ~ FIRST EDITION, review copy. One of 700 copies, though not - as called for - numbered or signed, as this is a review copy. Laid-in are the printed Order-Coupon indicating, "review", and a tri-fold prospectus, printed in color offset like the book text. An artist's book often considered to be a masterpiece of offset lithography. Described by Johanna Drucker in The Century of Artists' Books as, "a carnivalesque-pop-art amusement- motel-and-theme-park of visual and typographic devices." The authors state "French Fries is a quick service circus of culinary discourse, argument, dream, loss and twisted aspiration" (introduction). The project statement describes the work, "This book/play presents a day in the life of the original DREAM QUEEN restaurant (a restaurant that grew to become the third largest burger chain in the western hemisphere). Before the book/play begins, 83-year-old Gertie Greenbaum is found dead in a pool of blood and ketchup. Four customers and three employees (each set in his or her own typographic voice and color) give testimony to how Gerite died, and continue their day discussing food, money, religion, politics, love, loss, dreams, memories, and fading aspirations. The text is illuminated with icons and images that evoke the fast food tableau, and the internal projections of the characters." And others have commented, "Lehrer pioneered what might be best termed 'typographic performance' in his 1984 book/play French Fries, a hot type cacophony of word and image that is today considered by historians one of the lynchpins of the deconstructionist era..." (Steve Heller, Eye Magazine); "Without a discernable grid, the typography [in French Fries] flows freely across the pages, interspersed with images and marks evoking the ambiance and mood of the situation. Except for the work of the famous French designer Robert Massin, I had never seen an approach to typography quite like this before... I could experience the relationship between the text and its visualization, and I saw how effective it could be. Somewhere between seeing the books of Edward Rusha and Warren Lehrer's French Fries, I discovered that my options as a graphic designer had expanded by tenfold" (Rudy Vandlans, Emigre Magazine, The Last Issue). Clean and bright; small bump and light soiling to head of spine. Still, near fine. With the color prospectus and order coupon laid-in. Scarce.
  • Bookseller Rabelais - Fine Books on Food & Drink US (US)
  • Book Condition Used
  • Quantity Available 1
  • Binding Hardcover
  • Publisher Ear/Say, Visual Studies Workshop
  • Place of Publication Purchase; Rochester
  • Date Published 1984
  • Keywords ABAA-NY, artist book, signed, eighties, food art
  • Product_type
GRRRHHHH A STUDY OF SOCIAL PATTERNS...

GRRRHHHH A STUDY OF SOCIAL PATTERNS...

by Lehrer, Warren; Sandra Brownlee-Ramsdale, and Dennis Bernstein

  • Used
  • Hardcover
Condition
Used
Binding
Hardcover
Quantity Available
1
Seller
New Haven, Connecticut, United States
Seller rating:
This seller has earned a 5 of 5 Stars rating from Biblio customers.
Item Price
$1,250.00

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Description:
Purchase, NY: Ear / Say, 1987.. [462]pp. Thick oblong octavo. Woven decorative cloth and decorated boards, paper spine label, ribbon tie. Illustrated in color throughout. Minute trace of rubbing to lower fore-tips, otherwise fine. First edition. With illustrative matter based on art weavings by Sandra Brownlee-Ramsdale, and with chants and stories by Dennis Bernstein. Copy #2 of fifteen numbered copies, specially bound with an original woven spine, signed by Lehrer, and with a swatch of weaving depicting an animal tipped to the front pastedown. There was also a trade issue of 635 ordinary copies in wrappers. "An extended visual fugue based on the long-forgotten but important [imaginary] animals of the earth ... this volume attempts to document the evolutionary and social patterns of these mytho-hysterical creatures." The book was printed via offset in a manner that "allowed for experimentation with translucent, opaque, and iridescent inks, split fountains, overprinting techniques and multiple plate… Read More
Item Price
$1,250.00