Versilles à Paris avec Patty
Freeport, ME: Rebecca Goodale, 2025. Hard Cover. Fine binding. Item #10166
8-14" x 12-1/4." 8 page-spreads. Limited edition, number 4 of 5 copies. Signed by Goodale at the colophon. Accordion-bound in case with scarlet velvet over boards and backed in cloth. Cover stamped in gilt with a fleur-de-lis; final leaf attached to a matching velvet-covered board so the accordion can fully expand outside of the case. All housed in drop-spine box with magnetic closures; the same cloths are used on the box as for the book, the lid of which bears a repeating pattern of fleur-de-lis in gilt. Prospectus and Goodale's English translation of her French poem are laid in.
A tribute to the artist's friend, Patty Olds (1955-2020), Goodale reflects on a journey the she and Olds took in 1993. While they took a train from Versailles instead of the half day walk, Goodale reimagines this journey but on foot and in the final years of the 18th century when the Royal Menagerie of Versailles was coming to an end during the French Revolution. In 1794 a woman rallied to save the last few animals, walking them to the Jardin des Plantes in Paris where these exotic creatures became the beginning of the first public zoo in Paris, and it is this walk, with these animals that Goodale depicts in this wonderful artist's book. Goodale's poem in French is foil stamped across her illustrations: a block print and a series of drypoints, à la poupée and chine collé. A beautiful, captivating story that can unfold a page at a time, or spread out, displaying the whole delightful caravan.
Price: $2,800.00