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Signed limited edition, signed by the artist and the editor and specially bound in yellow buckram. This work was a collaborative effort created to raise money for the AIDS Crisis Trust. Spender invited some of the greatest British and American writers to contribute an original text to accompany Hockney’s specially drawn alphabet. The written contributions are by Douglas Adams, Martin Amis, Julian Barnes, William Boyd, Margaret Drabble, Patrick Leigh Fermor, William Golding, Seamus Heaney, David Hockney, Kazuo Ishiguro, Erica Jong, Doris Lessing, Norman Mailer, Ian McEwan, Arthur Miller, Iris Murdoch, Nigel Nicolson, John Julius Norwich, Joyce Carol Oates, V. S. Pritchett, Craig Raine, Susan Sontag, Stephen Spender, John Updike, Anthony Burgess, Ted Hughes, Paul Theroux, Gore Vidal, and T. S. Eliot. Norman Mailer declined his invitation, but his “letter refusing seemed such a good model for Polite Rejection” that it was nonetheless published as his contribution (Preface). Folio. Original yellow buckram, spine lettered in gilt on a dark blue background, printed on Exhibition Fine art crtridge paper, cream endpapers. Housed in the original grey cloth slipcase. With 26 colour drawings, one for each letter of the alphabet, by Hockney. Fine in fine slipcase. £2,500 [155037]
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86 HIRST, Damien. The Empresses: Theodora. London: Heni Leviathan, 2022 Edition of 3,315, signed by Hirst with a printed number on a label to the verso. One of five prints named after five exceptionally influential female rulers: Wu Zetian, Nūr Jahān, Theodora, Suiko, and Taytu Betul. Theodora is named after the great Byzantine empress who used her intelligence and savvy to create lasting change in the empire. Born into the lowest class of Byzantine society, Theodora (497–548 ce) rose to power in 527 ce following her marriage to Emperor Justinian. She left a significant impact on the region, namely through implementing new religious and social policies. Theodora’s power
over the empire left many to wonder if it was she and not Justinian who ruled. Laminated giclée print on aluminium composite, screen printed with glitter. Sheet size 100 × 100 cm. With the original packing box. Excellent condition. £7,500 [154600] 87 HOCKNEY, David; Stephen Spender (ed.) Hockney’s Alphabet. London: Faber and Faber for the AIDS Crisis Trust, 1991 A MISCELLANY OF ESSAYS, POEMS, AND MICRO- MEMOIRS ACCOMPANYING THE ALPHABET DRAWN BY HOCKNEY
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SUMMER 2022
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