FORTY FOUND FAKES

First edition, first printing of the Austrian conceptual artist's breakthrough artists book. Publisher's original white card covers printed in black. Large 4to (28 x 43 cm). Illustrated in black and white throughout. An excellent near fine copy, the binding square and firm with mild toning to the extremities. The contents are clean throughout and without previous owner's marks. Scarce.

Issued in a limited edition of 1000 copies, of which this is numbered 440. According to one of his guiding principles "Art is a fake", Caramelle presents photographs collected from magazines and newspapers as works by forty important contemporary artists. Accompanied by a brief statement, the artist presents one illustration per page with the corresponding name – Palermo, Klaus Rinke, Trisha Brown, Joseph Beuys, Hanne Darboven etc. His book plays with our perception and takes an ironic look at the discourses on the often arbitrary reproducibility of art and the constant debate between the original and the fake.