Zos-Kia: An Introductory Essay on the Art and Sorcery of Austin Osman Spare.
London: Fulgur Ltd., 1995. First edition. Hardcover. Octavo. 52pp. Original brown cloth with gilt titling etc. to spine. Stiff printed paper dustjacket and plain paper-covered slipcase. Eight pages of colour photographs of artwork by Spare, along with numerous black and white photographs and reproductions of his pictures. Edition limited to 39 copies, hand numbered and signed by the author, this being copy No. 11. This copy is neatly INSCRIBED by the author to his friend, the British artist, writer and musician DAVID TIBET (founder of the music group Current 93) on the half-title page. Also with David Tibet's ownership SIGNATURE on the copyright page. The book is described as "A personal and lucid view of Spare's systems of sorcery, and the most authoritative critical work in recent years to utilize original unpublished material in presenting the philosophy of one of the most sought-after sorcerers of today." The book has a complex bibliographic history. It was originally intended that it would issued in four variants: (a) 3 copies for private distribution, quarter bound in morocco; (b) 7 hardcover copies in full buckram, etc. in slipcase, personally sigilised, for private distribution; (c) 70 hardcover copies as per (b) but signed rather than sigilised (d) 515 softcovers bound in paper wrappers. Due to problems with the gilding the 70 copies of issue (c) were not offered for sale, but instead were passed to the author for private distribution. Of these 31 copies were came with the slip case and 39 were without slipcase. In place of the original issue (c) the publisher released a separate issue of 39 copies, with slipcase, but without gilt edges, of which this is an example. Confused? Not surprising. So to be clear, this is copy number 11 of the 39 copies in slip case, of what might be termed the "publisher's issue." As noted it is in slipcase, the edges are not gilded, and in addition to being inscribed it is signed and numbered on the limitation page at the rear. Just a few light signs of handling else book, dust jacket and slipcase are in near Fine condition. Wonderful provenance. Item #68343
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