228

Francesca Woodman

1958-1981

Some Disordered Interior Geometries. 1981.

Limited facsimile edition artist's book published just before the photographer's untimely death. Featuring reproductions of Woodman's original collages in which she embellished a vintage Italian geometry school exercise book with her own handwritten notes and original photographs. Exceedingly rare, some copies were distributed by her family at her funeral.
4to, printed lavender wrappers; stapled binding. LIMITED EDITION OF 500 COPIES.
Pittsburgh: Synapse Visual Arts Press.

  • Provenance:
    A Private Collector; to the Present Owner

    Notes:
    As a student at the Rhode Island School of Design, Woodman spent a year abroad in Rome as part of the school's European Honors Program (1977-78). There she discovered the Libreria Maldoror, a counter-cultural bookshop focused on Dada, Surrealism, and the avant-garde; in March of 1978 the Maldoror would hold her first European exhibition. She also began looking for old Italian mathematics exercise notebooks at the bookstore. Woodman wrote: "Last year while I was in Italy I started collecting old school notebooks and handwritten diaries from the 19th century an started putting pairing photographs w/ them. I've always printed small but the photos seemed less precious and more personal when in the books… The books started to influence the work—I made my own geometries for the geometry book…"

    The artist's book we offer here began with a notebook from the 1930s called "Graduated Exercises in Geometry." Woodman's photographs are layered with the original text and geometries, in addition to the artist's own notes and translations. Her images, many of them posed self-portraits, are evocative and elusive, offering suggestions on form, self, and narrative.
  • Condition: For condition reports, email Deborah Rogal at [email protected]

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April 30, 2026 12:00 PM EDT
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