LETTER PORTFOLIO. By Susan King by King, Susan - [1978].

Los Angeles, California: Women's Graphic Center, circa [1978].. [1978].. Very good. WONDERFUL ASSOCIATION COPY OF THIS LIMITED EDITION ARTIST'S BOOK - sc Quarto, 11-3/4 inches high by 9 inches wide. A portfolio consisting of 20 letters, 6 postcards and 2 greeting cards, all reproduced in offset lithography, laid into a white portfolio with a silver ribbon and red wax seal with the author's monogram. Additional letters are reproduced on the inner panels of the portfolio. The white covers are bumped at the corners and slightly spotted. There are a couple of corner creases to the contents which are in otherwise near fine condition. <p>Limited edition of 200 copies. A wonderful association copy of this artist's book.<p>Susan King has gathered together letters and postcards written by her and to her, which she has here reproduced by offset lithography.<p>Laid in at the front is an Autograph Letter Signed by Susan King, penned in green ink on 10-1/2 inch high by 8 inch wide ruled paper. In her letter, dated January 30th 1978, Susan King thanks the poet & scholar Dick Higgins for ordering her books and comments on how she has admired his work. She mentions that she has a vague memory that Dick had performed at the University of Kentucky and regrets that she missed seeing him at that time. A mimeographed copy of Dick Higgins order form for the three books is stapled to Susan King's letter.<p>Additionally attached to the above is a retained copy of a typed letter by the poet Dick Higgins, dated February 13, 1978, signed in ink by Higgins. Replying to Susan King's letter, Dick Higgins comments on the handsome wax seal which he has carefully preserved: "It was with great pain that I raped the front of your LETTERPORTFOLIO-- much as I loathe virginity (especially the spiritual kind), neither am I a rapist, and the knowledge that the book could never again be discretely closed or private bothered me a good deal...."<p>Born in the American South, the artist Susan King started making books after moving to Southern California and joining the experimental Feminist Studio Workshop in the 1970's. She soon became the Studio Director of the Woman's Graphic Center in Los Angeles and was one of the founders of the Alliance for Contemporary Book Art. Her work is represented in major collections including the Getty Center, The Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris, New York's Museum of Modern Art Library and the Victoria and Albert Museum Library. Soon after spending time in medieval Europe looking at architecture and illuminated manuscripts, she was diagnosed with breast cancer while working on a book about her travels. This was in 1990, and her subsequent work "Treading the Maze: an artist's book of daze" uses the maze at Chartres Cathedral as the structure by which she explores her journey through the illness.