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Snow Job

Item date(s): January 1986

Keith A. Smith


Pages: unpaged
Size: 160mm
Inscription: Signed by the artist.
Edition: #80/300


Place publication: Rochester, NY
Publisher: Visual Studies Workshop
Book No. 115

Additional notes:
Created on a Macintosh computer with colophon in Helvetica Light. Set by Joan Lyons. Boards covered with Ingres Antique laid paper. Printed offset on Mohawk Superfine 65 lb. cover by Tom Sullivan.

Accordion fold.

Extract from Catalogue 234. Jonathan A. Hill, 2021. Art Books, Artists’ Books Book Arts and Bookworks.

84. Smith, Keith A. [From upper cover]: Snow Job, Book 115.

One of Smith’s works in leporello format, featuring a poem by the artist; printed offset in an edition of 300 and signed by the artist on the title-page. This work is dedicated to the book artist Philip Zimmerman.

In his auto-bibliography 200 Books, Smith (b. 1938) explains the origin of this piece, “I was not speaking of snow, but the snow job of governments spouting the safety of nuclear power plants. I was driven by the Three Mile Island incident. The poem was written in January 1986, shortly before the Chernobyl melt down. Books 114 and 115 went to press on March 26th, the day of the Challenger disaster.” the text of the poem is reproduced in 200 Books. In excellent condition; Smith’s books are now very scarce on the market. Signed by the artist.

* K. Smith, 200 Books (2000), p. 200– “For printing economy, Books 114 and 115 were printed on two sheets of paper, cut into three equal horizontal pieces and then glued into strips. The two sheets were printed on only one side. The first book required four strips and the second only two. To fill out Book 115, a strip of black Fabriano paper was added at each end to make the books the same width when fully extended. I also like the extent of black considering the subject matter.” See also J. Drucker, the Century of Artists’ Books (2004 ed.), pp. 247-48.

Ref: GB/11111







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