• Cover of Christian Marclay, Phaidon Contemporary Artists Series, Phaidon Press, London, 2005, showing a grid of twelve colour stills from film and television, each depicting a person speaking on a telephone handset, arranged in four rows of three against a black ground, with the title CHRISTIAN MARCLAY in large white sans-serif type at centre and the Phaidon logo at lower left.
  • Interior spread from Christian Marclay, Phaidon Contemporary Artists Series, Phaidon Press, 2005, pages 132–133, showing the Artist's Writings section with the text of Extended Play, 1988, on the left page alongside a colour photograph of three small cube sculptures assembled from compressed and folded vinyl records, and on the right page a colour photograph of a large dark cube sculpture made from compressed vinyl records with visible record labels and edges protruding from its surface.
  • Interior spread from Christian Marclay, Phaidon Contemporary Artists Series, Phaidon Press, 2005, showing a full-bleed colour photograph across both pages of a large floor-based installation comprising hundreds of cassette tapes woven together with wire or thread into a long, wide, undulating ribbon that coils and loops across a wooden gallery floor, the cassette labels visible in white, red, blue, and multicolour against the pale tape bodies.
  • Reverse of Christian Marclay, Phaidon Contemporary Artists Series, Phaidon Press, 2005, showing the back cover with contributor biographies for Kim Gordon, Jennifer González, Matthew Higgs, Blaise Cendrars, and Christian Marclay printed in black sans-serif type over a colour photograph of a wall covered in overlapping paper notes and torn fragments, with the ISBN barcode and price at lower left and the Phaidon logo at lower right.
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Phaidon Press

Christian Marclay — Phaidon Contemporary Artists Series, 2005

Christian Marclay — Phaidon Contemporary Artists Series, 2005

£115.00 GBP
£115.00 GBP
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Flexibound (integral binding) with illustrated boards, 25 × 29 cm, 160 pages, extensively illustrated throughout in colour and black-and-white. Condition as photographed.

A substantial survey published during a pivotal period in Christian Marclay’s career, bringing together sculpture, photography, installation, video, performance, and sound works produced before his international breakthrough with The Clock. Includes an extended interview with Kim Gordon alongside an essay by Jennifer González, a survey by Matthew Higgs, an artist’s choice on Blaise Cendrars, and Marclay’s own writings.

The publication reflects the interdisciplinary world from which Marclay emerged, where contemporary art, experimental music, punk culture, and conceptual practice continuously overlapped. Richly illustrated with installations assembled from cassette tapes, altered vinyl records, photographic works, and sculptural interventions, it remains one of the strongest single-volume introductions to his practice.

Published in 2005, the volume captures an important midpoint in Marclay’s career, documenting works from the late 1970s through the early 2000s — including his manipulated vinyl records, cassette tape installations, photographic collages, and early video pieces — before The Clock (2010) brought him widespread institutional recognition. Kim Gordon’s interview is particularly significant: coming from one of experimental music’s most influential figures, it situates Marclay within a shared cultural landscape of punk, improvisation, appropriation, and visual art.

Produced as part of Phaidon’s celebrated Contemporary Artists series, the book has become increasingly sought after by collectors of contemporary art publications and artists’ monographs. It records an important stage in Marclay’s development before his work entered the mainstream institutional canon, preserving the analogue concerns that continue to define his influence on subsequent generations of artists.

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