VERUSCHKA: TRANS-FIGURATIONS

Boston, MA: Little, Brown & Company, 1986. First Edition. First Printing.. Hardcover. Fine/Fine Dust Jacket.. Boston, MA: Little, Brown & Company, 1986. Hardcover. Fine/Fine. First Edition/First Printing. 160 pages. Artist Book. One of the most beautiful art photography books of the 20th century. The first appearance of the title in the United States. Precedes and should not be confused with all other subsequent editions. Published in a small and limited first print run as a hardcover original only. The First Edition is now rare. A brilliant production by Vera Lehndorff and Holger Trulzsch: Oversize-volume format. Cloth boards with black titles embossed on spine, as issued. Art by Veruschka/Vera Lehndorff. Photographs by Holger Trulzsch. Essay by Susan Sontag. Printed on pristine-white, thick coated stock paper in Japan to the highest standards. In pictorial DJ with titles on the cover and spine, as issued. Presents Veruschka's "Trans-figurations". Perhaps the single most brilliant realization of the body as artistic medium. One of the most valuable contributions of Modernist art/philosophy is its emphasis on the body (it is important to be reminded that for two thousand years, philosophy regarded the body as marginal and contingent rather than central and essential to who we are). The very first supermodel, Veruschka's personality is inseparable from her body. She (her real name is Vera Lehndorff) examines her body in relation to beauty, through transfigurations, the single most interesting idea of Modernist art. She wants us to see that there is a difference between "transform" and "transfigure": The latter goes much deeper, is more radical, and is ultimately about transcendence. Ravishingly beautiful when she produced this great book, Veruschka uses her body to create sublime works of art. In each of them, she is completely changed, often beyond recognition. She becomes the cinematic beauties Marilyn Monroe and Rita Hayworth. In other Ovidian images, she denies her humanity altogether and becomes an animal, a statue, a stone. The most haunting transfigurations of all are the Series called "Oxydation", in which her body appears to disintegrate before our eyes. "Not merely beautiful but 'about' the beautiful, as it is very much concerned with the testing of beauty, through artifice, through distortion, and through transfiguration" (Susan Sontag). An absolute "must-have" title for Veruschka collectors. This copy is very boldly and beautifully signed and inscribed in black ink-pen on the front free endpaper by the author: "To Michael, Veruschka". It is signed directly on the page itself, not on a tipped-in page. The recipient, who is named, is personally known to the author. This title is a great art photography book. As far as we know, this is the only such signed copy of the First Hardcover Edition/First Printing (American) available online and is in especially fine condition: Clean, crisp, and bright. Please note: Veruschka signed ALL other copies with her real name, Vera Lehndorff. This is the very first copy we have found where she signed with her iconic name. A rare signed copy thus. 163 plates. One of the most brilliant artists of the 20th century. A fine collectible copy. . ISBN 0821216376.