PIERRE ET GILLES: CORPS DIVIN by Pierre Et Gilles (Artist/Photographers) & Vallet, Odon (Contributor) - 2006

Paris, France: Editions Du Chene, 2006. First Edition. First Printing.. Hardcover. Fine/Fine Dust Jacket.. Paris, France: Editions Du Chene, 2006. Hardcover. Fine/Fine. First Edition/First Printing. 185 pages. Retrospective collection of photographs. One of the most beautiful books on the photographic art and achievement of Pierre et Gilles. The first and only edition. Published in a small and limited print run in conjunction with the artists' retrospective Paris exhibition. The First Edition is now scarce. A brilliant production by Pierre et Gilles and Nathalie Bailleux: Oversize-volume format. Brown hard boards with gilt titles on spine, as issued. Photographs by Pierre et Gilles. Text in French by Odon Vallet. Printed in photogravure on pristine-white, thick uncoated stock paper in Paris, France to the highest standards. The reproduction quality is exemplary in every respect. In pictorial DJ with titles on the cover and spine, as issued. Published on the occasion of the landmark retrospective exhibition held at the Galerie Jerome de Noirmont Paris in 2006. Presents Pierre et Gilles' "Corps Divin". Divine Bodies, The Sacred ("divine") and The Profane ("bodies") as One. One of the most beautifully produced - and most representative - overviews of the artists' ground-breaking work, it is presented around their lifelong reverence for beauty, sensuality, and spirituality. They see the spiritual as having an erotic dimension, the erotic as having a spiritual one. This juxtaposition of the sensual and the divine is transgressive yet somehow never offensive because of the sheer beauty of the subjects (both the model and his or her representation) and the elaborate design. Pierre et Gilles have appropriated their design from Western religious iconography, re-purposed as emblems of delirium, serving both sublime worship and voluptuous desire. In the now-iconic "The Temptation of Saint Anthony", they depict a nude Aiden Shaw as a saint sorely tempted, sporting a massive erection. Opulent and decadent, their fellow artists understand their point: The great (and grimly ascetic) Jewish artist Christian Boltanski appears in one of the more reverential images as Saint Vincent de Paul. Like him, the subjects are idealized amid fantastic sets and realized in heavily retouched, "photo-finished" images that achieve the deliberate flatness of religious icons. An absolute "must-have" title for Pierre et Gilles collectors. This copy is magnificently signed and inscribed in gold pen-marker, and in an elaborate original design, on the half-title page by the artists: "Pour Jamie et Marco, Pierre et Gilles". It is signed directly on the page itself, not on a tipped-in page. The design incorporates a bird unfurling a flag, three stars, and a huge heart between the artists' names. The recipients, who are named, are personally known to the artists. As far as we know, this is the only such signed and inscribed copy of the First Hardcover Edition/First Printing available online and is in especially fine condition: Clean, crisp, and bright. It is the single most beautiful signed copy we have ever seen. A rare signed copy thus. Lavishly illustrated with photogravure plates. Two of the most brilliant artist/photographers of our time. A fine collectible copy. . ISBN 284277650X.