CINDY SHERMAN — Specimens, Art Random 65, Kyoto Shoin, 1991

Cindy Sherman, Specimens. Art Random 65. Kyoto Shoin, Kyoto, 1991. Large-format hardcover with clear plastic jacket; 48 pages, 23 × 31 cm; colour reproductions throughout. Ex-library copy.

A concentrated, image-led Sherman publication from Kyoto Shoin’s Art Random series, built around bodies, masks, insects, prosthetic forms and artificial surfaces treated almost literally as specimens: isolated, enlarged, classified and placed under observation.

The title is unusually precise for Sherman. Her photographs penetrate the apparent surface of the image and expose the machinery underneath it: performance, classification, desire, disgust, costume and the unstable boundary between body and representation. What initially appears to be a person becomes prop, type, surface and construction.

This particular copy has undergone its own process of classification. Ex-library. Catalogued. Shelved. Handled. Withdrawn. Returned to circulation. The markings, adhesive traces and erased labels are not simply defects but evidence of that previous institutional identity.

Sherman exposes the construction of the subject. The ex-library copy exposes the construction of the object. A book enters a library and temporarily becomes something else: accession number, shelf position, institutional property, circulating copy. Once withdrawn, the system disappears but its physical evidence remains.

That secondary history feels especially appropriate here. Specimens already presents bodies and objects as things to be staged, isolated, examined and classified. The library subsequently subjected the publication itself to another system of classification.

The large 23 × 31 cm format makes that transformation more physical. This is a substantial photographic object, not a discreet paperback with a stamp tucked away inside. Its scale gives Sherman’s images an almost exhibition-like presence, while the library markings interrupt the neutrality normally expected of an artist monograph and make this particular copy materially distinct from the edition around it.

The clean copy preserves the publication. This one preserves its passage through another system. Its flaws are therefore part of what makes the object specific: handling becomes provenance, markings become evidence, and condition becomes biography.

Condition: Good, ex-library. General rubbing, scratching and handling wear to clear plastic jacket and boards, with edge and corner wear consistent with age and institutional use. Former library markings, removed labels, adhesive residue and related traces to rear endpaper/inside board as shown. Interior remains sound. The institutional markings have been retained as part of the history and character of this individual copy.

Securely packed; tracked UK and international shipping available.