49 three-part variations using three different kinds of cubes / 1967-68 / Sol LeWitt

12 black & white illus. [24] pp. Very tall 8vo (169 x 356 mm.), orig. printed wrappers (some sunning), staple-bound. Zurich: Bruno Bischofberger, 1969.


LeWitt’s second “autonomous” artist’s book – i.e., not connected to an exhibition or part of another publication. This is one of 1000 copies printed, all of which were numbered (ours is no. 924), there were also 500 copies signed by LeWitt.


49 three-part variations… was published by the Zurich gallerist Bruno Bischofberger, with whom LeWitt had his first solo presentation in February-March 1968. Bischofberger, along with Konrad Fischer and Heiner Friedrich, was one (truncated) of the earliest European gallerists to engage and collaborate with LeWitt and other Conceptual artists.


“Following Serial Project #1, ‘The Xerox Book’ and Set II A I-24, Sol LeWitt’s fourth book is 49 Three-Part Variations…, which was published in 1969 and is large and oblong in shape, its proportions being two squares wide by one square high. This doubling of the square format is approximately repeated with other books such as Schematic Drawings for Muybridge II, 1964 of 1970, Open Geometric Structures… of 1979 and All Four Part Combinations of Six Geometric Figures of 1980. In each case the horizontal format is dictated by the content. 49 Three-Part Variations… is the second of LeWitt’s autonomous artist's books, and, again, is not an exhibition catalogue but more a catalogue of forms.”–Clive Phillpot, “Sol LeWitt’s Books: Complete & Incomplete,” in Booktrek: Selected Essays on Artists’ Books (1972-2010) (2013), p. 261.


A near fine copy; some discoloration from sunning to the upper wrapper and a few inoffensive marks to the spine, internally pristine.


❧ Maffei & de Donno, Sol LeWitt: Artists’ Books (2009), p. 31.


Sol LeWitt: Libros, El concepto como arte (2014) 4 (pictured p. 57). (Inventory #: 8277)