Rochelle Iris Lash The GAZETTE Montreal, Saturday, November 21, 1981

Limited Edition art books scorned by print purists

Limited edition art books at almost any price are not only the current rage among collectors: they are also the cause for rage by print purists who believe in original prints only.
These purists have nothing but scorn for publishers' fancy print titles that obscure the fact they are not original prints but jazzed-up color reproductions in many instances, of little or no commercial; value.
King of the de luxe market that is booming with costly coffee-table books and portfolios ranging up to $6,000, is Jean Paul Lemieux , the towering dean of Quebec artists.
He made 10 original oil paintings and wrote a short, introductory text for a portfolio of prints entitled, Jean Paul Lemieux retrouve Maria Chapdelaine, based on Louis Hemon's classic novel, Maria Chapdaine
Announced in October, all 125 '.grande luxe" edition portfolios were sold within a week, some at a pre publication price of $5,000, others at $6,000.Some copies have since changed hands at prices of up to $10,000.
Lemieux has signed photolithos before.
In 1973, a Montreal gallery printed 20 "original lithos" for Gabrielle Roy's book, La petite poule d’eau, which Lemieux then signed.
The book sold for around $250. Today these lithos am fetching up to $1,200 each.
So when it comes to Lemieux-mania, perhaps one should neither look for rational explanations nor count on the ordinary rules of market caution.
On another level and different in perspective entirely, is the just published "limited gallery edition" of 150 signed and numbered books by Editions France-Amerique of Rio-pelle chaswur damages.
For $1,500 the buyer gets a leather-bound book by Guy Robert with 350 illustrations including 100 in color, a complete retrospective of Jean-Paul Riopelle's work to date and two genuine, original prints by him.
Another example of an elegant and carefully crafted de luxe edition containing genuine prints is The Lines of the Poet, recently on display at the Saidye Bronfman Centre.
For $2,500 (until Jan. 1) a buyer gets 14 black-and-white lithographs numbered and signed by artist Morton Rosengarten, of Canadian poets, each beside a signed poem., sit set down on individual sheets of handmade paper, with a text by Poet-editor D.G. Jones and a preface by the artist.