{"product_id":"mike-kelley-platos-cave-rothkos-chapel-lincolns-profile-new-city-editions-1986","title":"MIKE KELLEY, Plato's Cave, Rothko's Chapel, Lincoln's Profile, New City Editions \/ Artists Space, 1986","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eMike Kelley — Plato's Cave, Rothko's Chapel, Lincoln's Profile\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\nDesigned by Mike Kelley with Patti Podesta\u003cbr\u003e\nNew City Editions in association with Artists Space, 1986\u003cbr\u003e\nStrand Rare Book Room Copy\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eApprox. 14 × 20.4 cm\u003cbr\u003e\n98 pp.\u003cbr\u003e\nSewn softcover\u003cbr\u003e\nOffset printing\u003cbr\u003e\n32 black-and-white illustrations\u003cbr\u003e\nFirst edition\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAn important early artist's book by Mike Kelley, published in connection with the 1985–86 project \u003cem\u003ePlato's Cave, Rothko's Chapel, Lincoln's Profile\u003c\/em\u003e, a sprawling combination of performance, music, installation, drawing and writing.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eKelley brings together three apparently incompatible cultural forms: Plato's allegory of the cave, Rothko's modernist chapel and Abraham Lincoln's profile on the American penny. Philosophy, transcendence and mass reproduction become parts of the same unstable system.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe project included Kelley's fifty-five-minute performance poem at Artists Space, New York, on 5 December 1985, performed with Molly Cleator and accompanied by incidental music from Sonic Youth and Adam Rudolph. The publication translates that performance structure into prose and image, pairing Kelley's writing with black-and-white photographs ranging from caves and monuments to vernacular American historical material.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe reverse reproduces a 1982 photograph of Kelley with the Kensington Runestone in Alexandria, Minnesota — an archaeological object whose contested authenticity makes it an especially appropriate Kelley subject. Evidence, fiction, belief and historical authority remain difficult to separate.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis copy retains an original gold “FROM THE STRAND \/ RARE BOOK ROOM \/ EST. 1927” bookseller label to the front wrapper.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA subsequent classification has therefore become physically attached to the object.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAn artist's book about authenticity and representation enters another system and returns labelled RARE.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe mark confirms circulation.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eCondition:\u003c\/strong\u003e Good to very good. General rubbing and surface wear to wrappers, minor edge and corner wear and light creasing consistent with age and handling. Gold Strand Rare Book Room label retained to front cover as found.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"\/blogs\/journal\/the-new-rare-at-glue-book-fair-2026\"\u003eThe New Rare at Glue Book Fair 2026\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"New City Editions","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":54696463663442,"sku":null,"price":325.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0991\/5636\/1554\/files\/Kelley_Mike.Plato_sCave_Rothko_sChapel_Lincoln_sProfile.1986.jpg?v=1789197004","url":"https:\/\/thenewrare.com\/products\/mike-kelley-platos-cave-rothkos-chapel-lincolns-profile-new-city-editions-1986","provider":"The New Rare","version":"1.0","type":"link"}