Japan: A Self-Portrait

Japan: A Self-Portrait
Shoji Yamagishi
1979
International Center of Photography
144pp.

design by Arnold Skolnick
printed in New York

This book is based on the exhibition at the International Center of Photography, New York in April/May 1979. It presents works by Japanese photographers of the seventies that depict the realities of postwar Japan and beyond from their unique perspectives. With introduction by Taeko Tomioka and foreword by Shoji Yamagishi. Photographers’ biographies are provided.

One fascinating element of this book’s design which is immediately apparent is the distribution of the photographic plates throughout the book. Unlike traditional organizational structures where the plates are grouped in one section and the literature another, the “exhibition” of the various photographer’s works begins literally on the recto of the very first page and their haphazard distribution continues throughout, even on the title page and back cover. 

Jazz

Jazz
Henri Matisse
1947
George Brazier
facsimile edition (1983)
~160pp.

design by Henri Matisse
printed in Germany
 

"Henri Matisse (1869—1954) was known for his brilliant and expressive use of color and his bold innovations in a wide variety of media. In addition to painting and sculpture, he designed ballet sets, murals, a chapel, and a number of special-edition books. The most important of these books was Jazz, published in Paris in 1947 by Efstratios Tériade, which combined colored cutouts and a poetic essay on art in Matisse’s own photoengraved handwriting.

Matisse had first used cutout papers in 1937 to do layouts for a mural commissioned by the great American collector Dr. Albert C. Barnes. A decade later, following a cancer operation that left him unable to stand, Matisse returned to this technique as the only activity he could manage from his sickbed. His nurse and secretary, Lydia Delectorskaya, painted large sheets of paper with vibrant tempera colors, which Matisse then cut into shapes with scissors. He then directed Delectorskaya in creating compositions from these shapes by pinning them to the wall. After many rearrangements, the final composition would be pasted in place.

In order to scale these wall-sized compositions down for publication, Tériade’s printers hand-cut thin metal stencils that exactly followed the contours of Matisse’s cutouts. Inks calibrated to the exact hues of the tempera colors used in the original cutouts were painstakingly hand-brushed through the stencils, lending a freshness and directness to the prints not possible with any other technique. The decision to use Matisse’s own handwriting to present the text of the book permitted him to balance each page spread with a colorful image on one side and a formal black-and-white “drawing” on the other. The Johnson Museum’s edition of Jazz is one of only one hundred portfolio copies issued unbound and without the text, which makes it possible to re-create, on a smaller scale, the effect of Matisse’s mural compositions.

The dominant themes of the twenty works created for Jazz are the circus and the theater. It is thought that Matisse originally intended to call the book Circus, but was persuaded by Tériade to rename it. Whatever the reason for the name change, the experimental, improvisational nature of the Jazz compositions, with their exuberant colors, swooping arabesques, and staccato rhythms, are certainly worthy of the name."

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For Every Dog a Different Master

For Every Dog a Different Master
Kateřina Šedá
JRP Ringier
2008
200pp.

design by Radim Peško

"Based on Sedá’s work for Documenta 12, this book documents a complex and long-term project realized in Nova Lisen, Brno, Czech Republic, where the artist lives. In the guise of a kind of “mail art,” Sedá put in contact the inhabitants of a housing project undergoing renovation, breaking down the conventions of addressing an audience in the art context, as well as stimulating exchanges and relations between the involuntarily participants."

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The Shepherd

The Sheperd— A Documentary
from Paris 2002–2006
Yoshie Tominaga
Undercover
2008
190pp.

design by Koichi Hachiman
printed in Japan

"Photographer Yoshie Tominaga has captured what happens backstage and behind the scenes from the very beginning of Jun Takahashi’s adventure with the fashion label Under Cover. Her insightful photographs, dating back to October 2002, not only reflect a strong and trusting relationship with the designer, but also document the dynamic development of an internationally celebrated fashion house. Alongside the fashion highlights found in this far-ranging collection of colour and black and white photographs is a series of written exchanges between Patti Smith and Tominaga."

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