Sas Colby ~ California

Color Xerox Erotic Books by Sas Colby
Fabric bookworks by Sas Colby

Repairs
By Sas Colby
Berkeley, California: Sas Colby, 1995. One-of-a-Kind.

15 x 13"; 10 leaves. Pages of newsprint applied with gesso, pencil, and shellac. Other material includes cotton gauze. Production methods: Xerox transfer on cloth, hand-drawn lines, and cut-outs. Housed in an acrylic hinged box.

Sas Colby: "The book has the feel of age, of something lost for a long time and entombed in a clear box, like an old artifact. Hand-drawn pencil lines, cut-outs, and shellac form abstract patterns on pages. The page edges are bound with a bandage-like cloth."

An indirect but powerful antiwar book, this book has the feel of old bandages and suppurating wounds.
$1,200

Sas Colby: "collecting & recycling - the pack rat syndrome - your grandmother's attic – fetishes & totems – parking lots & family photograph albums - the streets of New York & the thrift shops of Florida – the thrill of the hunt."

Inspira
By Sas Colby
Berkeley, California: Sas Colby, 1980. One-of-a-Kind.

7.75 x 14" open; 22 pages. Silk organza pages with typed text. Padded silk covers with stitched drawing. Zipper closure. Hand stitched additions of glass beads and findings. Signed in stitching on outside of back cover.

This inventive riff on inspiration is the last in a series of textile books made by the artist in the 1970s. The translucency of the thin organza pages offers a layering of meaning, which beclouds and enriches any single narrative line.
$1,600

Life Book 1939 - 76
(facsimile)
By Sas Colby
Berkeley, California: Sas Colby, 1978-79. Edition of 10.

12 x 10"; 14 pages. Color Xerox facsimile of the original unique fabric photographic album. Covers have textile backing. Text pages sewn back-to-back, some enhanced with stitching, fabric, and buttons. Hand typed label. Signed by artist in ink on the inside back cover.
$575 (Last Copy)

Life Book 1939 - 76
By Sas Colby
Berkeley, California: Sas Colby, 1976-77. One-of-a-Kind.

12 x 14"; 14 pages including covers. Textile pages using black and white fabrics. Xerox photo transfers. Stitching and found objects. Artist's name stitched on front cover with monogram on the back cover. Bound with two brass rings through brass grommets.

Sas Colby: "A fabric photograph album depicting childhood, family life, and beyond....Lifebook [sic] was exhibited in Livre d'Artistes at the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, in 1985."
$3,600

Color Xerox Erotic Books: Produced 1979-85

Sas Colby: "Stitched textile drawings were copied on the color Xerox machine and combined with various papers and transparencies to make these editions."

Am I a Good Lover?
By Sas Colby
Berkeley, California: Sas Colby, 1982-85. One-of-a-Kind.

8.5 x 8"; 6 leaves. Black-and-white Xerox images of stitched erotica. Materials: rice paper, photo stamps, button, fabric, thread. Processes: stitching, collage, copying. Housed in a vellum stitched envelope with stenciled X. Slipped into plastic sleeve. Signed in pencil on back cover with circular rubber stamp.

One of the collage components is a small advertisement of the book Am I a Good Lover? which is, it says, about your love and your hands. Scattered through the naked bodies are images of candles and plump juicy tomatoes, pansies, and lace.
$160

X #1
By Sas Colby
Berkeley, California: Sas Colby, 1980-81. One-of-a-Kind.

8.5 x 11"; 11 pages. Suitcase image on transparent cover. Color Xerox of stitched drawings, some with flowers. Includes rice papers, gold paper, flower Xeroxes and transparencies, button, and photograph. Enhanced with embroidered textile detail. Pages stitched back to back. Spiral perforated edge bound together with ribbons. Signed in pencil on back cover with circular rubber stamp. Housed in vellum envelope with stenciled red X on cover.

"X #1" begins with a suitcase — symbolic of our baggage about erotic images or of Pandora's box (no Freudian slip that)?
$400

Erotica #5
By Sas Colby
Berkeley, California: Sas Colby, 1979. One-of-a-Kind.

8.5 x 11"; 8 pages. Color Xeroxes of stitched male and female nudes. Pages stitched back to back. Black spiral binding. Signed in ink on inside back cover with artist's rubber stamp. In plastic sleeve with tag "Erotica."

Let the games begin.
$250