Walls paper

New York: Buffallo Press. 1973.

First Edition. Unpaginated with reproductions of wall papers from a tenement under demolition. All pages are cut in half horizontally. Coloured prints on paper from black and white photographs. Original publisher's printed card covers with photographic reproductions, protected by a plastic transparent wrapper. Presented in a black slip-case with maroon leather label with title and author stamped in gilt.

Wallspaper was an installation created from photographs and newsprint. Matta-Clark presented it at the artist-run space 112 Greene Street in New York in 1972. The project began with a series of black and white photographs of derelict houses in New York City. Where the facades of the buildings had been taken down, the photographs revealed the interiors the walls of which were covered in flaking paint or wallpaper. Matta-Clark’s work was constructed from these photographs. The images were printed on strips of newspaper and hung on the wall at Greene Street. The installation was presented only once during Matta-Clark’s lifetime, but, in 1973 Matta-Clark published this artist’s book in which he reproduced the coloured prints that he had made from the original black and white photographs. This is an exceptionally good copy of a scarce book.