SOUND FROM THE THINKING STRINGS

162pp. Quarter leather over paper covered boards.

In slightly soiled cloth slipcase, otherwise fine.

Hand numbered (46/50) and signed by the authors in pencil on the colophon page. Contains 3 original colour etchings and 17 original black and white etchings by Pippa Skotnes, each signed and numbered by the artist. The pictorial, paper coverings of the boards are taken from Lucy Lloyd's manuscript notebooks.

This spectacular volume became the subject of a major court case - widely publicised in the press - in which the National Library sued Pippa Skotnes for free copies of the book under the Legal Deposit Act, maintaining that a book could not be an artwork.

Sound from the Thinking Strings was the inaugural publication of Axeage Private Press and was launched with an exhibition at the Iziko South African Museum that included various related objects, manuscripts, photographs and the records of the Breakwater Prison. The edition is limited to 50 copies, some of which are included in the collections of the Iziko South African National Gallery, public libraries and several European and American collections, including Yale’s Centre for the Book and the Smithsonian’s African art collection. The book was widely reviewed and was the recipient of the University of Cape Town Book Award in 1992.