Arcana:

(HOWARD HODGKIN). Sontag, Susan & Howard Hodgkin. London: Karsten Schubert Ltd., 1991. First Edition #26/200. Small Folio. Cloth in Dust Jacket. Artists' Book. As New/As New. 34pp, six hand-painted gatefold intaglio color etchings, plus a hand-painted dust jacket. Designed by Gordon House. This extraordinary artistic collaboration grew out of Sontag's text (first printed in 1986 as a short story in the "New Yorker") concerning the responses of a group of Manhattanites upon discovering that a close friend has AIDS. Hodgkin has contributed a series of somber, colorful graphics that have been overpainted with tempera by Jack Shirreff. The resulting artist's book is a moving paean to the plague years. A bright, most handsome example of this exquisite production in the publisher's rice-paper protective dustwrapper NUMBERED (26/200) AND BOLDLY SIGNED BY HODGKIN AND SONTAG in pencil on the colophon in the publisher's slightly creased and age-toned cardboard slipcase, as issued. Inventory Number: 027727