ARTIST BOOK, unpaginated 34 uncut leaves of handmade paper, all individually stained with light brown mud and water of the River Avon. In blue/grey covers to represent slate stone around the source of the river and in matching slipcase. MINT. Only 106 copies were actually made - they had intended to make 120 copies but the paper ran out.

One of the most beautiful of LONG's books. Rare important original work by Long and the first time he used mud on paper. The subject is the River Avon in Bristol, the artist's home town. Long walked to the source of the River Avon and then dipped hand-made paper into the silty wet mud source and left the pages to dry with muddy water marks on the banks of the river. The paper was then cut and bound in slate coloured paper covers (to represent the slate stone surrounding the source of the river) and with self endpapers put inside a slipcase. The book is un-signed but the words 'River Avon Book - Richard Long' have been written in white pencil by the artist on the front of the slipcase. The river has made this book aided by the artist.

Andrew Wilson (Tate Curator) has noted that : "in holding this book you literally hold the river... the pace of the turning pages akin to the shifting currents. Each page of the book is thus a unique and real image and each book is different from another as is each page, one from another" (Andrew Wilson in: Wallis 2009,PAGE 199).

Bibliography:
A Seymour, Richard Long: Old World, New World, London 1988, p 59; P Elliot, Richard Long: Walking and Marking, exhib. catalogue, National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh 2006, p.51; C. Wallis, Richard Long: Heaven and Earth, exhib. catalogue, Tate Britain, London 2009, p 199.