KEVIN OSBORN, Real Lush, 1981
9,6 x 16,7 x 5 cm
artist’s book, two bolts binding
here signed and dedicated
edition 200
mint
Private collection, Amsterdam
€ 85,- plus € 18,- Track & Trace registered EU mail
inv.KOsb 668-pr

Usually the semi-hard cover of this out of shape book is molested due to trying to go through the pages. Indeed, technically it is a difficult book to read; therefore it is wise to unscrew the bolts at the back of the book and start reading while carefully putting the loose pages back on the bolts.
A copy is in the collection of Walker Art Center Library, Minneapolis, MN, USA.

“Real Lush is composed of 35 signatures, each of which is made up of nine leaves. The right-hand pages carry the narrative, the left-hand pages bear a sequence of nine related, apparently topographical images, repeated throughout the book with minor variations in a central episode. Every signature in the book carries a set of nine images, printed in a silvery gray, which give the book a recurring rhythm and over which are printed other images. The first page of every signature bears an outlined human figure simply drawn according to a system of proportion. In the bottom left corner of the first, third, fifth, seventh, and ninth pages of each signature are small drawings of male heads representing different racial types. In the bottom right corner of each page are two small figures, apparently ancient Egyptian and Nubian, wrestling. In each signature they start vertically and finish horizontally. If one flips the pages of Real Lush, the wrestling figures are constantly falling only to rise again, and they thus contribute to the overall rhythm. In addition, there is another sequence demonstrating the bandaging and unbandaging of a hand. All of these sequences literally underlie, signature by signature, the images subsequently printed over them, to generate the heartbeat of the book.”
Clive Phillpot
Director of The Museum of Modern Art Library, New York, USA

Ref. Artforum, Clive Phillpot, director of the Library, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA Real Lush May 1982