“I SEE THEM ALL AS PART OF THE SAME VISUAL LANGUAGE”: EX LIBRIS, INSCRIBED BY PHOTOGRAPHER RALPH GIBSON

GIBSON, Ralph. Ex Libris. Photographs and Constructs. New York: PowerHouse, (2001). Quarto, original black paper boards, original photographic dust jacket. $500.

First trade edition, inscribed in French on the half title by Gibson, “a Brigitte Bernleritter—par Gibson,” containing over 100 handsome duotones, most full page, with laid-in photographic poster (16 by 23 inches) from the French bookstore signing.

Award-winning photographer and pioneering founder of Lustrum Press, Ralph Gibson developed Ex Libris in response to a lifelong fascination with books and typography. In describing this handsome photobook, his 30th monograph, Gibson said in an interview, “I don’t really separate photographs from words, or photographs from type and shapes. I see them all as part of the same visual language… What is also interesting is that when photography was invented, during the industrial revolution, it was right on the heels of the influence of Didot and Roman du Roi and some of these early typographical models. They’re all part of the same Enlightenment mentality of the time, mid-17th century to early 1800s. And photography’s invention was paralleled by lithography’s invention (1798), and so these three bedfellows have cuddled from the very start. And here we are” (Graphis). Issued the same year as a limited edition, no priority established. Published in conjunction with the traveling exhibit also titled Ex Libris, organized by the Center for Creative Photography. With laid-in photographic poster (16 by 23 inches) from a French bookstore signing.

Light edge-wear to laid-in poster. A fine copy, scarce inscribed.