The Collectible Book

George Rodrigue and I spent the past few days in Las Vegas, Nevada. We trekked to and through the City Center, wanting to see the much-touted series of structures firsthand. Although the architecture is over the top and the occasional art piece of interest, ironically it was a bookstore that occupied our afternoon.

In this day of Kindles, iPads and eBooks, however, the publishing world is changing (some say down the same dubious path as the music industry). Book signings no longer draw mobs; fewer newspapers review books; and that special place called a bookstore is transformed into a destination for ‘collectors.’

Books, it seems, are headed the same direction as the typewriter. (pictured, George Rodrigue with Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen’s Typewriter Eraser, Scale X, 1999)

Shocked to find a new bookstore, the likes of which we’d never seen, we stumbled open-mouthed into Assouline, a New York City publisher of gift and fine art books.

If not the store, George and I both are familiar with the product. Their publications include boxed sets spotlighting fashion and other lofty interests, offered for a serious price through the catalogues of high-end department stores. In addition to these collections, they specialize in large-scale tomes featuring artists such as Magritte or the history of Penthouse Magazine or their latest project, a tribute to Barbie.

These heavy, beautiful paper objects run anywhere from $300 to $1500. They are limited in number and, when possible, include the appropriate signatures. The store, its presentation, and its titles are stunning and, for now anyway, impossible to reproduce on a laptop.

“This is where it’s all going,” commented George. “Books are pieces of art.”

Driving home the point, 16^th century large-scale original paintings (portraits of royalty and nobility) take up any space not devoted to books, so that the bookstore ends up a cross between the slick of the contemporary and the idolized of the old world.

We couldn’t help but relate our bookstore adventure to George’s gallery and art books.

In George’s galleries we avoid selling books, preferring to focus on the paintings and silkscreens. However, it seems obvious that books aren’t just books anymore. Perhaps it’s time we take a second look at these titles, books that in most cases took years to produce and include beautiful reproductions of George’s paintings, many of which are unavailable in print form.

This holiday season we will issue, for the first time, several boxed collections of signed, out-of-print first editions.* ‘The Art of the Art Book,’ I guess one could say.

Unlike the constant publishing projects of the old days, today we tiptoe when it comes to new books. We still meet with publishers and toss around ideas, as though nothing has changed. However, we all see the Kindles throughout the airport. Even George couldn’t resist the i-Pad and wrote a children’s book application using his paintings (due out next spring).

These days he’s more likely to contribute to outside projects, such as his recent cover art for Ken Wells’ story for young adults, Rascal, and his painting and text contributions for Debra Shriver’s tribute to New Orleans, Stealing Magnolias (both of which I’ll cover in future posts).