Lot 69: JINDRICH STYRSKY

JINDRICH STYRSKY
Na jehlách techto dni -- On the Needles of These Days. Text by Jindrich Heisler, design by Karel Teige. Prague: F.R. Borovy, 1945.

Octavo (210 x 150 mm). 28 black and white photographs. Original pictorial wrappers; black cloth folding case.

Gelatin silver print (88 x 85 mm), verso annotated "Styrsky" and dated 1934 by Toyen, matted, framed and glazed, Provenance: Ubu Gallery.
FIRST TRADE EDITION, following the very rare clandestine edition of 1941, WITH A GELATIN SILVER PRINT of the untitled image reproduced on p.49 of the book. "This remains a haunting photobook, 50 years after the war. It is a prime example of one of the photobook's great truths -- it's not necessarily the individual pictures that count, but what you do with them" (The Photobook). 101 Books, pp.116-17 ("hallucinatory in the best Surrealist tradition... Heisler's prose text weaves a spell around Styrsky's photos"); The Open Book, pp.140-41; The Photobook, vol. I, p.197. (2)