Les Amazones, by Shirley Sharoff
(Shirley Sharoff) Les Amazones. [The Amazons.] Artist’s book by Shirley Sharoff. Text by Françoise Seloron. [Paris. 2005.] 16.375″ x 6.5″. Loose in portfolio with one illustrated sheet. The wraparound cover has a cut-out of an Amazon with a spear and shield. Wraparound fits into a black card cover with a slit allowing a portion of an Amazon in red to show on the front cover. The portfolio fits into the back folded cover which contains an English translation of the text “The Amazons are Amongst Us.” Typography by Jean-Jacques Sergent. Printed on Rives white. The engravings are on different sizes of paper with text on the reverse. Gray dropback box with red paper lining and black title on front inside cover. Four color engravings of different sizes and placed in descending order by Shirley Sharoff. Two in blue, one in orange and one in red. One in an edition of 25 copies, plus 3 H.C. copies, signed by Sharoff and Seloron. Fine. $700.00
Sharoff writes: “When breast cancer struck, Françoise Seloron, author of The Amazons, discovered that she too was an Amazon. In fact, through her lifestyle, she recounts, she had always been an Amazon, a clandestine Amazon. Françoise is an old friend who I met during my early days in Paris in the ’60s. Her combative attitude towards her illness so impressed me that when she told me that she was doing research on the Amazons, I decided that cooperating on an artist’s book would be my way of helping to keep up her morale and of pulling something positive out of the negative. The text, adapted from her book, “The Amazon of ‘48′” deals with the myth created by the ancient Greeks who celebrated the strength and independence of this tribe of women yet set them apart as being warlike and ‘unfeminine’. The four etchings in descending size give form to the book, and integrated the Amazons into our contemporary world where they - like all of us - are bombarded by labels, images, advertising, pictograms, tourist signs, warning, instructions and graffiti.”
“This book relates the legendary Amazons of the past - women who had a breast removed to that they could improve their archery and javeline throwing skills - to the women of the present who have a breast removed for medical reasons.”
Related items: Artists' Books, Shirley Sharoff