100 Pisama / 100 Letters; 1965-1979
- SIGNED
- Paris: Onestar Press, 2008
Paris: Onestar Press, 2008. First, Limited Edition. Quarto. 30cm. Publisher's original pink paper wraps, titled in black to spine and front cover. 197pp. Some sunning and fading to the pale pink paper of the covers, with some very minor shelfwear and soiling, clean and bright; internally clean and fresh, signed by Abramović to the title page. A very good, attractive copy.
Abramović's record, in both Serbian and English, of the correspondence she received across a 14 year period, recorded here in the form of the first line of every single letter. Published in a limitation of 1000 copies only, signed or inscribed examples are very scarce.
"Since I was very young, until my early thirties, I had serious problems in opening and reading any letters I received. Letters would stay on my table for weeks before I found the courage to open them, and during this time my sense of guilt would grow and grow. Most of the time, when I finally opened the letters, it was too late to answer them and my sense of guilt was worse than ever. I kept every single letter, from the first notes received from my mother, in 1965, up to the time I left Belgrade for ever in 1979. I decided to chronologically write down the first sentence from all of these letters, without noting the name of the senders. When finished, I was astonished to see how it was possible to trace all my life just by reading the text created by all these first lines. Later I heard that Marcel Duchamp, on receiving a letter, opened, answered, and immediately burnt the letter he'd received. Jean Tinguely never opened or answered any letter, and every Christmas he made a ritual of burning unopened envelopes, which sometimes included important information and even checks. M.A."
Around a dozen examples recorded in US institutions.
Abramović's record, in both Serbian and English, of the correspondence she received across a 14 year period, recorded here in the form of the first line of every single letter. Published in a limitation of 1000 copies only, signed or inscribed examples are very scarce.
"Since I was very young, until my early thirties, I had serious problems in opening and reading any letters I received. Letters would stay on my table for weeks before I found the courage to open them, and during this time my sense of guilt would grow and grow. Most of the time, when I finally opened the letters, it was too late to answer them and my sense of guilt was worse than ever. I kept every single letter, from the first notes received from my mother, in 1965, up to the time I left Belgrade for ever in 1979. I decided to chronologically write down the first sentence from all of these letters, without noting the name of the senders. When finished, I was astonished to see how it was possible to trace all my life just by reading the text created by all these first lines. Later I heard that Marcel Duchamp, on receiving a letter, opened, answered, and immediately burnt the letter he'd received. Jean Tinguely never opened or answered any letter, and every Christmas he made a ritual of burning unopened envelopes, which sometimes included important information and even checks. M.A."
Around a dozen examples recorded in US institutions.