Monday, November 7, 2011

Size (Actually Weight) Matters




I finally found over the weekend a copy of Dennis Hopper Photographs 1961-1967 at the Urban Outfitters in Rancho Cucamonga discounted at $30 (normally $70).  What's striking about this book, besides the photographic works of one of LA's own is it weight.  At 9.8 lbs, it's easily the heaviest book (art books or otherwise) I have in my library.  Which brings me to my little exercise.  Out of the hundreds of art books I have, I picked out several that looked like heavyweights (literally) and listed the ones that are equal to or greater than 6 lbs.  Here the empirical data:


1) Dennis Hopper Photographs 1961-1967 (9.8 lbs)
2) Picasso (8.2lbs)
3) Annie Leibovitz: A Photographer's Life 1990-2005 (8.2 lbs)
4) Cream 3 (7.2 lbs)
5) Chuck Close - Work (6.8 lbs)
6) Anthony Quinn's Eye (6.0 lbs)

I don't think there's any positive correlation between the weight of these books to the impact to the art world of the artist(s) represented in their respective pages. I don't think there's any positive correlation to anything other than where they sit on my bookshelf, i.e. at the bottom.  Otherwise, these 6 books alone, weighing in a combined 46 lbs could sag any non-reinforced shelving.  I don't think I will ever appreciate any artbook in electronic format viewed through these readers.  I'm old school when it comes to printed media.

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