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I.D. Press, Published 1979. Wraps, staple bound, [116] pp. (unpaginated); 21 cm; text in English with some French; illustrated with black-and-white photographs and reproductions throughout. Limited edition of 500 copies. Design and layout by R. Hambleton; production assistance by Ed Varney and Intermedia Press. Published with the assistance of the Canada Council.
In Very Good condition. Black and white pictorial paper covers with a photographic collage of mail-art envelopes and drawings on front; rear cover with a street photograph captioned with graffiti text; light bumping and creasing to edges and corners, and mild surface and edge wear with some color loss along edges and spine. Binding tight. Pages clean and unmarked. Rubber stamp of the artist's New York address (Richard A. Hambleton, Investigation Department, 200 W. 57th St., Suite 1004, N.Y.C.) on inside rear cover.Scarce artist's book by Richard Hambleton (1952-2017), documenting two related conceptual art projects. The first section recounts Hambleton's "Image Mass Murder" project (1976-1979), in which the artist painted 620 life-size crime scene body outlines on sidewalks across 15 North American cities (including New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal, and Chicago), creating realistic simulated murder scenes that startled passersby and attracted police attention. The second section documents "I.D.'s Mr. ReeeeSearch Communication," an international mail-art project in which Hambleton mailed 600 invitations to artists in 29 countries inviting them to complete the identity of the faceless "Mr. Reeee" (a line drawing of a man in suit and tie with a blank face); over 300 responses were received, with contributions reproduced in the book. Includes commentary by participating artists including Ulises Carrion, Ken Friedman, Anna Banana, Judith A. Hoffberg, and Ed Varney. Hambleton later became one of the most important figures in the New York street art movement of the 1980s.