Daniel Bosser

Daniel Bosser is a French collector and the named author of Philippe Thomas décline son identité (1987), one of the key documents produced within Philippe Thomas’s practice of transferred authorship. Under Thomas’s agency readymades belong to everyone®, collectors who acquired works became their official authors — their names replacing Thomas’s on the work’s surface, documentation, and public record. Bosser’s acquisition of the lecture-text made him, by the logic of Thomas’s system, its author.

The publication was first issued by Galerie Claire Burrus, Paris, in 1987, and later translated into English by Occasional Papers, London, in 2015 — the first authorised English-language edition. In both versions, Bosser’s name appears as author. Thomas’s name recedes into the apparatus: the gallery, the publisher, the translator’s note.

The New Rare holds publications attributed to Daniel Bosser within Philippe Thomas’s system of displaced authorship.

  • Original 2015 Daniel Bosser, Philippe Thomas Declines His Identity, Occasional Papers, London. Cream textured softcover with 'DANIEL BOSSER' in small spaced serif capitals at top, 'PHILIPPE THOMAS / DECLINES HIS IDENTITY' in larger spaced serif type at centre, and a black-and-white photograph below showing Philippe Thomas seated at a table, holding up a document, wearing a black top, expression direct and slightly confrontational. 'Occasional Papers' in italic type at foot. Reverse of 2015 Daniel Bosser, Philippe Thomas Declines His Identity, Occasional Papers. Plain cream textured back cover, entirely unprinted except for ISBN barcode and number 978-0-9929039-0-9 and the URL www.occasionalpapers.org at foot. Book shown in protective polypropylene sleeve.

    DANIEL BOSSER / PHILIPPE THOMAS — Philippe Thomas Declines His Identity, Occasional Papers, London, 2015

    DANIEL BOSSER / PHILIPPE THOMAS — Philippe Thomas Declines His Identity, Occasional Papers, London, 2015