58 - DEBORD (Guy) - JORN (Asger).

DEBORD (Guy) - JORN (Asger). The End of Copenhagen. Technical Advisor for the Appropriation. [Copenhagen]: Bauhus Imaginiste, [1957]. — In-8, 245 x 168: (18 ff.). Paperback, gray cardboard cover, embossed and produced using a printing plate. A. Coron, 50 Illustrated Books Since 1947, no. 19. First edition printed in a run of 200 copies in May 1957 on the presses of Permild and Rosengreen. “The End of Copenhagen is the result of a collaboration between Guy Debord and Asger Jorn, just before the founding of the Situationist International.”The book was printed in 24 hours, as an artistic experiment. No sooner had they arrived in Copenhagen than Jorn and Debord rushed into a newsstand, snatched an impressive number of magazines and newspapers, and spent an alcohol-fueled afternoon assembling elements through collage. The next day, they went to the printer with 32 collages, which were transferred onto lithographic plates. Jorn then sat on a platform above the zinc plates, pouring cup after cup of India ink onto them. The plates were then engraved and printed onto the black text and images.” (Bruun Rasmussen). The book was produced by the legendary avant-garde printer Permild & Rosengreen, to whom Jorn and other COBRA artists had entrusted several of their works” (website: Situationist Blog—Blog of a Collector of Situationist Books). The cover is the book’s most distinctive feature: cut from printer’s scraps (printing waste) bearing the imprint of a page from the Danish daily newspaper *Politiken*, each cover is different, and each copy is unique; the ink splatters applied by Jorn also vary from one copy to another. According to Antoine Coron: “Composed, in terms of text, of collages of newspaper clippings, this ‘attempt at détournement’ based on the mythologies conveyed by advertising and the press can also be seen as a painter’s book—undoubtedly the first to be printed entirely in offset. ” Artist’s copy, unnumbered and unsigned, in perfect condition—rare to find in such pristine condition.