Empty Heaven (*signé*)

.Copy sold.

Excerpt from a text by T.J. Proechel for Ahorn Magazine :

"Paul Graham’s work can hardly be connected by a single theme. [It] is somewhat elusive, often using the conventions of documentary to explore the hidden reality beyond the visible surface. Throughout his projects he attempts to establish an alternative iconography, to explore what is normally ignored or merely treated as fact by others who attempt to portray the same subjects. This approach is never more apparent than in Empty Heaven. Empty Heaven investigates the construction of a post-war Japanese sugar-pop capitalist identity as a way of covering up the atrocities perpetuated and suffered by the Japanese people during World War II.

In Empty Heaven, Graham employs a series of close cropped deadpan photos of objects, re-photographed images, portraits and scanned surfaces, to establish a series of clearly defined motifs. Graham uses the polemic of cultural wrapping, to investigate the masking of history and power in contemporary Japanese society. (...)"

The full text by T.J. Proechel is available on the Ahorn Magazine website.

Condition of the copy :

 - This book is overall in excellent condition, and complete with the 12-page pink booklet that includes a Paul Grahham interview (in English and German), a bibliography and a list of exhibitions.

 - The dustjacket is in very good condition (no fold or tear, corners sharp, edges sharp except for a rather discrete 2-centimeter fold along the top edge of the front cover), but unfotunately shows several imprint traces left by a thin object, mainly on the front cover (see image). These traces are better displayed when playing with light (hardly visible if you look straight at the book). In one place (lower right corner of the cover image), the rubbing has been worse, and the matter (white paper) underlying the printed layer is visible on a small surface of 1 cm x 2 mm (see image). Also, there is another defect where the gutter of the binding is (also on the front in the upper part); it is also an imprint left by an object pressed on the book (the cover is not perforated, but weakened, as seen when you look to the DJ by transparency).

- The book itself is in mint condition, both inside and outside.

This book is co-published with Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg.

The copy offered is signed by Paul Graham on the title page.

92 pages - Hardcover w/ DJ

Scalo, 1995

*Signed*

2nd hand - See condition above