Richard Prince: Girlfriends [first edition]

First edition, first printing. Soft cover. Photographically illustrated laminated French-fold wrappers; no dust jacket as issued. Photographs and design by Richard Prince. Unpaginated (56 pp.), with 54 four-color plates printed (mostly full-bleed) on coated paper in Singapore by Daiichi Process PTE. 10-1/4 x 7 inches. This first edition was limited to 1500 copies. Published on the occasion of an exhibition at the Boymans-van Beuningen Museum, Rotterdam. Fine. Girlfriends features Prince's array of rephotographed vernacular snapshots, (culled from motorcycle culture magazines and newsletters), which depict "biker chicks" (and their boyfriends) cavorting, drinking, undressing and suggestively posing on motorcycles at events like the famed Harley-Davidson rally in Sturgis, South Dakota. From the Guggenheim Museum: "Prince's work has been among the most innovative art produced in the United States during the past 30 years. His deceptively simple act in 1977 of rephotographing advertising images and presenting them as his own ushered in an entirely new, critical approach to art-making -- one that questioned notions of originality and the privileged status of the unique aesthetic object. Prince's technique involves appropriation; he pilfers freely from the vast image bank of popular culture to create works that simultaneously embrace and critique a quintessentially American sensibility."