The Paper Snake
New York: Something Else Press, 1964. Oblong 4to (22 x 27 cm). Original cloth; pictorial dust jacket. Jacket tanned with a small chip to the top of the front panel. Boards a bit bowed. Else near fine. Item #404864
FIRST EDITION, INSCRIBED by Johnson to friend and art critic Suzi Gablik with a small drawing of an arrow piercing a heart that has the word "Love" written inside.
AN EXCEPTIONAL BLACK MOUNTAIN COLLEGE ASSOCIATION: friends since their time together at the school, Gablik was largely responsible for first exposing Johnson's work to a wider audience. In the autumn of 1955, she brought Elisabeth Novick to photograph the installation of dozens of Johnson's moticos, photographs that appeared in the inaugural issue of THE VILLAGE VOICE that October. In Gablik's seminal book POP ART REDEFINED (1969), she recalled that event: "The random arrangement [...] on a dilapidated cellar door in Lower Manhattan may even have been the first informal Happening." Gablik continued to champion Johnson's work throughout her career and they remained close until the artist's untimely death in 1995. We have located no other inscribed copies of this book, especially to an important association.
Price: $5,000.00