KATHY ACKER & PAUL BUCK — Spread Wide, Dis Voir, Paris, 2004

Encounters series, published by Dis Voir, Paris, 2004. With Rebecca Stephens and John Cussans. Illustrated paperback with printed wraparound paper band; 160 numbered pages (172 listed by the publisher); 17 × 21.5 cm. ISBN 978-2-914563-17-8.

Condition: good, visibly handled; rubbing, surface marks, creasing and edge wear throughout, with pronounced tearing and lifting around the central bird motif on the front band. Small losses and softened corners. Binding appears intact.

Produced after Acker’s death, Spread Wide uses her early-1980s correspondence with writer and artist Paul Buck as source material. The letters date from the period in which Acker was writing Great Expectations and attempting to relocate from America to London. Buck converts this archival exchange into a new fiction concerned with appropriation, sampling and plagiarism, with an essay by Rebecca Stephens and artwork by John Cussans.

The letter is retained but no longer remains simply correspondence. Handwriting becomes cover, document becomes narrative, and a private exchange returns through another publishing structure. The damaged white band now produces a second interruption: the image and surface have continued to separate through handling.

Securely packed; tracked UK and international shipping available.