[From upper cover]: Printed Matter, Catalog 1981. Numerous text illustrations by PRINTED MATTER, Inc

155, [5] pp. including order form, list of board of directors & credits, & map of store location. Large 4to, color printed wrappers (lower cover slightly worn), staple bound, title on spine. [New York: Printed Matter, Inc., 1981].<br /> <P> The now rare 1981 Printed Matter catalogue, which is an invaluable resource for bibliographic information of early artists' books. It describes over 1600 books, audio works, and periodicals, by almost 1000 artists, with many illustrations. Upon the completion of the catalogue, Nan Becker, then a Printed Matter employee and soon after director, said in an interview: "It was an immense task and we did it within one year. It was stunning and it was the first of its kind - the most complete record of artists' books available...It was a good looking book."<br /> <P> In the preface, original board member and famous art critic Edit deAk (1950-2017), espouses the merits of Printed Matter's work and the necessity of artists' books: [They] make for the best coffee table (see front cover). Artists' books have the best pitch to popularism among the arts (see back cover). The catalog you hold indexes a broad selection, rich in quality, of book works that embody the thought of contemporary artists. It is the most comprehensive collection of available titles in print today, reflecting years of Printed Matter's work as the primary vendor and distributor of books made by artists. These books are the artifacts of the most vital cultural developments of the last fifteen years. Whatever one's taste in modern art, from pop to conceptual to new wave, all sensibilities are represented in the Printed Matter collection...<br /> <P> "Artists' books enchant libraries. Each shelf should have one hidden on it to surprise the sluggish researcher. Radiating an innocent aura, a cultivated enigma, they jolt the scholar out of the occasional misery of dusty shelves. Artists' books are the library vaccine, a healing agent formed from the very disease they cure...<br /> <P> "The dream of Artists' Books is to Circulate Democratically with Elite Fidelity. The ideas contained in these works will not show up on your television or computer screen. This art is conveyed to you in a form that is more personal per se than any other medium-as books-for your lap-to become part of your inward attention- for your private evaluation. No returns if you please."<br /> <P> The covers feature color photographs by Don Chiappinelli, the upper cover is a portrait of Jan and Don Reeder with their children and dog behind a table draped over with a cloth on which has been painted: "Artists' Books." The lower cover shows "Johnny Holman's basketball team."<br /> <P> Fine copy, paper slightly browned as always due to its quality.<br /> <P> ❧ Arnaud Desjardin, The Book on Books on Artists Books (2nd ed.: 2013) 434. Claire Dixon's thesis "Printed Matter, Inc., The First Decade: 1976-1986." It is available online at Virginia Commonwealth University's Scholars Compass website.