CHRIS BURDEN (1946-2015)
Chris Burden Deluxe Photo Book: 1971 - 1973
signed, numbered and dated '8/50 Chris Burden 1/1/74' (on a sheet inserted in a plastic leaf); signed 'Chris Burden' (on the reverse of each print)
loose leaf binder with hand painted cover containing 53 gelatin silver and color coupler prints in plastic slips and 27 sheets of typewritten ink on paper
binder: 11¹⁄₂ x 11 x 2³⁄₄ in. (29.2 x 27.9 x 7 cm.)
Executed in 1974. This work is number eight from an edition of fifty plus ten artist's proofs.

The Estate of Michael Brewster, California, gift of the artist, 1974
Gift of the above to the present owner, 2016

R. Horvitz, "Chris Burden," Artforum, May 1976, p. 28.

Los Angeles County Museum of Art, New Selections: New Talent Award Winners, September-October 1976 (another example exhibited).
London, Marc Jancou Gallery, Chris Burden: Noah's Ark and New Improved Spaceport, September-October 1996 (another example exhibited).
Rotterdam, Nederlands Foto Instituut, Airport, February-March 1998 (another example exhibited).
New York, Zwirner & Wirth, Chris Burden: Early Work, September-October 2004, n.p. (another example exhibited and illustrated).
New York, Lehmann Maupin, L’Art de Vivre, April-May 2005 (another example exhibited).
New York, Gagosian Gallery, Retrospective, June-August 2008 (another example exhibited).
New York, Nyehaus Gallery, California Maximalism, November 2009-January 2010 (another example exhibited).
London, Gagosian Gallery, Crash: Homage to JG Ballard, February- April 2010 (another example exhibited).
Kunstmuseum Bonn and Kunstmuseum St. Gallen, Through the Looking Brain: A Swiss Collection of Conceptual Photography, June 2011-January 2012, pp. 206-207 (another example exhibited and illustrated).
New York, Cristin Tierney Gallery, Post Movement, June-August 2012 (another example exhibited).
New York, New Museum, Chris Burden: Extreme Measures, October 2013-January 2014, n.p. (another example exhibited and illustrated).

“Limits” is a relative term. Like beauty, it is often in the eye of the beholder.
- Chris Burden

Burden’s Deluxe Photo Book 1971–73 stands as a vital record of the artist’s radical and uncompromising action-based works of the 1970s. The project was published independently in 1974 amid a wave of sensational media coverage fixated on the extremity of the artist’s performances. Rather than reinforcing the media’s narrative that Burden’s work perpetuated gratuitous violence or self-harm, Photo Book reframes his early performances within a broader conceptual and artistic framework. The book brings together fifty-three black-and-white photographs, documenting twenty-three early performances and intertwining these images with concise written accounts authored by Burden himself. Functioning as a self-published record and statement of intent, the volume becomes an essential archive for preserving the integrity of the performances that were inherently fleeting and often witnessed by few, if any, viewers. Beyond recording some of the most notorious and exploratory years of his output, Deluxe Photo Book deepens understanding of Burden’s philosophy and practice through its multi-media record of individual works. TV Hijack (1972), for instance, sees the aftermath of when Burden demonstrated a live “TV Hijack” by pulling a knife on a reporter and threatening to kill her if the cameraman stopped transmission, by documenting the subsequent destruction of the station’s film tape as Burden douses the unwound reel with acetone. In other works, such as the famed Shoot (1971)—a performance which became sensationalized by a 1973 New York Times article—the photographs capture moments after Burden is shot in the left arm by a studio assistant, who intervenes when the artist sustained injury more severe than anticipated. Through this carefully curated visual companion, Photo Book offers a holistic and previously unseen view into the conceptual rigor and groundbreaking intentions underlying Burden's pioneering work.