Artist Book. The artist/photographer's third collection of art photographs. Deluxe Edition of 100 numbered and signed copies. A magnificent production by Masao Yamamoto and Reiko Nakajima: An accordion-format foldout book, popularly known in Japan as the "pillow book", which is 14 feet long when fully opened. Photographs by Masao Yamamoto. There is no text. Handbound between two lacquered hardwood covers. Encased in a custom-made Japanese wooden box with titles stamped on the wooden front and lid of box. The box has a compartment under the book where the accompanying loose print can be kept. Printed on uncoated fine Japanese paper to the very highest standards. Without DJ, as issued. Presents the artist/photographer's collection of landscapes, flowers and female nudes. The artist has used the accordion format to create an installation which can either be enjoyed as one complete and breathtakingly beautiful sequence or as 45 individual spreads, in keeping with the whole concept of the "pillow book". Many of the images were made specifically for this book, were never presented in an exhibition and are shown here for the first time. Yamamoto's practice of printing exactly the same size for a particular print, whether for a museum exhibition or reproduction in a book, displays a rigor and austerity that could only come from the unique Japanese aesthetics of miniaturization, of treating every object as unique and individual, and of utilizing a popular medium like photography as a full-fledged art form. Masao Yamamoto's work is internationally recognized and is in major public and private collections throughout the United States, Europe and Asia. His previous Artist Books, "A Box of Ku" and "Nakazora" sold out upon publication. "Yamamoto's images show how wondrous photography can be and are a refreshing throwback to a time when photographs were not treated as commodities" (The New York Times). Another masterwork from Japan's artist/photographer whose genius lies in his complete understanding that great art is a marriage between the Old and the New. © 2006, ModernRare.com