James Wedge

The James Wedge Book [signed and numbered]

London: Countdown Publications with Idea Books London, 1972. Oblong 4to. 15 ¼ x 10 ¾ in. [3], [21], [1] pp. Illustrated with 21 plates tipped onto black paper, with black tissue interleaves. Bound in black boards with title blindstamped at spine, with a photographically illustrated band to fore edge of both boards. One of an edition of 500 copies numbered and signed by the artist. Boards lightly bowed, with some rubbing to covers, and a very faint and dissipating musty smell within, else very good. Item #4588

The first and only edition of this groundbreaking photobook, one of only two published by the fashion designer and proprietor of the legendary London boutiques Top Gear and Countdown. The book was influential at the confluence of fashion and punk in the UK in the 1970s, and one image, “Peaches and Dreams” was used for the cover of the Strangler’s “Peaches” single.
The foreward explains: “The twenty-one images of this book are the personal fantasies of James Wedge, released by his interest in the medium of photography and what is capable of expressing. Glimpses of the mysterious, the suggestive, the erotic, the absurd are given form by photographic techniques.”.

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