Richard Prince
Inside World

Inside World is a limited edition artist’s book created by Richard Prince on the occasion of an exhibition by the same name curated by Thea Westreich Wagner at Kent Fine Art in 1989.  Prince’s unmistakable “authorship” is discernible in the appropriation of quotes and images from disparate sources such as biker and pornography magazines, and the arrangement and presentation of theses images juxtaposed with reproductions of the artworks by artists included in the exhibition: Richard Artschwager, Troy Brauntuch, Francis Picabia, Sigmar Polke, Man Ray, Gerhard Richter, Cindy Sherman and Andy Warhol.

Each book comes with one of three handwritten jokes on paper:

Edition no.’s 1-86

“What a kid I was. I remember practicing the violin in front of the roaring fire.  My old man walked in. He was furious. We didn’t have a fireplace.”

Edition no.’s 87-172

“‘ If I refuse to go to bed with you,’ she whispered, ‘will you really commit suicide?’ ‘That’s been my normal procedure.’”

Edition no.’s 173-250

“With all I’ve heard about A-bombs that’ll destroy a city and H-bombs that’ll destroy a state and chain reactions that’ll destroy the world – you know I just don’t have the incentive to buy a two pants suit.”