Gino De Dominicis - Sicinimod Ed - 1998

Modena, Emilio Mazzoli Contemporary Art Gallery Publisher (NuovaLitoEffe in Castelvetro Piacentino), 1998 (April), original edition. Good copy. Second work by the brilliant De Dominicis, who died a few months after this publication and the related exhibition at Mazzoli Gallery in Modena. It features 88 digital print reproductions (a technique that was just emerging in 1998) of color Polaroid photocopies, arranged in minimal format, 27 mm squares in regular grids of 3 x 4 alternating with 3 x 3 (in the first and last of the 12 image pages, the 3 x 4 grid has a blank cell), with the precise intent of sabotaging from within the photographic reproduction process and the creation of an art catalog. Of the 500 copies, non-numbered as stated in the colophon, very few remain today: 'On the evening of the exhibition opening, De Dominicis began collecting and destroying the catalogs,' as attested by Tomassoni in the artist's comprehensive catalog (Skira 2011). 'As usual, as soon as Mazzoli hinted at a photographic catalog that would indicate and display the works in the exhibition, De Dominicis refused. The gallery owner and the artist engaged in an endless standoff, and until De Dominicis agreed, on the condition that he design and oversee the publication in every detail. A catalog? Not at all. It resulted in a small rectangular booklet of a few pages, with a white cover perfectly blank, on which 'De Dominicis' is written vertically and backwards on the left. Inside, on each right page, a constellation of nine to twelve very small Polaroids, all printed very tiny. Usually nine to twelve images, mostly of girls, studio corners of De Dominicis, some of his works but reproduced as minuscule as if thrown there randomly. The eight girls who modeled are all thanked on the frontispiece [...]. And yet, from such a seemingly casual scattering of images, you understand more about De Dominicis's poetics than you would from a typical catalog [...]. A De Dominicis true to himself, who said: 'I think that things do not exist. A glass, a man, a chicken are not truly a glass, a man, a chicken, but only the verification of the possibility of the existence of a glass, a man, a chicken.' (Mughini, 'The 51 most beautiful Italian books of the last hundred years,' in Una casa romana racconta, p. 251s.) in quarto, double metal spiral binding with uncoated softcover, printed dust jacket in black on the front only, pages [16] recto only, color illustrations; coated paper. Original edition.

Slight yellowing on the front cover (visible in the photo), internal pages are excellent.