The Bone House, Joel-Peter Witkin, SIGNED Lt ed., Original lithograph, Rare

 Limited edition #153/250 Fine, SIGNED by the artist, with original lithograph and ephemera. Please be advised this volume contains explicit content. Olive cloth with black titling in a Fine dark gray clamshell, pristine, JPW image affixed to front in rectangular recess, black title to spine. Square 4to, 10 1/4" x 10 1/4," features ~90 images of Witkin's photographs, paintings, and collages spanning 40 years, Witkin's signature in pen opposite colophon. Laid in back is tissue-guarded lithograph of a line drawing, 6" x 8" in the style of Picasso, #153/250, SIGNED and numbered in pencil by the artist, printed on rag paper measuring 8" x 10", backed on black thick stock, secured with plastic photo corners. Loosely laid in are two pieces of ephemera: the publisher's slip stating accession number, and a Booksmith Author Trading card featuring an image of Witkin wearing a mask. Joel Peter-Witkin (1939-) is a master fine art photographer whose work blends extremes: grotesque and the sublime. This volume spans 40 years, a self-curated collection including his Coney Island sideshow performers, transgender models, and his Mexico series of cadavers and skeletons. Witkin reinvents classic tableaus from Goya, Velasquez, and Giotto using a large-format camera, often distressing his negatives to give images an aged, dreamy quality. His art challenges ideas of normalcy, beauty, and freedom of expression. Overall, an exquisite collector's item by the first press to publish his work. Unpaginated.