This Happened Yesterday.
[Manhattan, New York]: [self-published], [1993]. Ten side-stapled construction paper pamphlets measuring 8½” x 5½” in original paper sack, encased in original plastic “Handi-Loc” bag with title in sharpie to front label. Most pp. [12], two pp. [16] and one pp. [8] + most with text and illustrations to both sides of wrappers. Near fine: fresh, seemingly as issued, with just a touch of corner wear to last few books. All signed “B. Ess” in pencil to bottom corner of rear wrap.
This is a rare set of zines, filled with provocative illustrations and commentary, that were created by a woman noted for her contributions to the Manhattan art scene of the 1970s, '80s and beyond, Barbara Ess.
Barbara Ess was born Barbara Eileen Schwartz in Brooklyn in 1944. She graduated from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor with a degree in literature and philosophy and studied briefly at what is now the London Film School. Ess began her career as an experimental filmmaker and musician in Manhattan, playing in punk and “no wave” bands and using single-frame stop-motion cameras to create films and zines. She built her first pinhole camera in 1983 and showed her works widely around the world. Her book I Am Not This Body, a collection of large-scale pinhole photographs that she made over two decades, was published in 2001. Ess made waves in 2019 with a solo show that included images from surveillance cameras on the Texas-Mexico border; she had gained access to those cameras by enlisting as a deputy sheriff. Ess had served as associate professor of photography at Bard College since 1997, and died of cancer in 2021 at the age of 76. Her work is in the collections of the New York Museum of Modern Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, among others.
The present ten books have dates as cover titles, spanning August 20 to October 21, 1993. They are each filled with simple but evocative line drawing illustrations and small bits of commentary, overall creating quite the dramatic effect. The drawings include a man with a gun and nearby text reading “Never say never again,” a person crawling on hands and knees (“Under control all the way”) and men in gas masks carrying a sheet-covered stretcher: “We didn't really know what was going on.” Several of the images appear to have been culled from the news media of the day, including recognizable politicians, foreign emissaries and a few sports scenes. There was an image of three women dancing (“I don't want a job where I sit behind a desk”), an armed soldier near text reading “All is calm” and a woman grieving over a casket: “Emotion, stubbornness and rage do not solve problems.” Other commentary in the books suggested, “You won't survive by being neutral,” “He feared he would die if he slept,” “Enough was already more than enough” and “Nobody gets anything for nothing in this world.”
Rare and compelling art by an important woman in photography and the arts. OCLC shows only one holding, at the New York Public Library. Near fine. Item #6959
Price: $1,500.00