Ohtake, Shinro

X + Y = Love

£950

Dimensions: 270 x 210mm
Medium: Etchings
Format: Unbound, in solander box
Edition size: 50
Date: 1995

X + Y = LOVE is a collection of ten etchings and lithographic prints by Japanese artist Shinro Ohtake.

Japanese popular music has fascinated Shinro Ohtake since childhood in the early 1960s, particularly the Made-in-Japan ‘American Pops’ which, as he says in his endnote, ‘let me know that the street outside our house somehow connected to other countries.’ This book contains artistic responses to ten such songs. The lyrics of the songs, in Japanese and English, are set on facing pages to his nostalgic and playful etchings. Furthermore, the pages are unbound – which makes each page easy to remove and frame as desired.

The edition comprises 50 signed, numbered copies, each containing ten sheets pairing one etching with one lithographed plate of text. The etchings and colour lithographic cover, all designed by the artist, have been printed on Japanese Gampi paper and pasted onto 270gsm Arches by Nobuhisa Otsuki. The texts have been typeset by Katsuhiro Kinoshita for Design Club and transferred onto lithographed plates. Each copy is contained in a hand-made solander box bound in black-and-red textured cloth, and housed in a slipcase.

Cover of X + Y = LOVE
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