A rare, first edition, first impression, signed limited edition book containing twenty-six colour offset lithographs by David Hockney on individual pages, with title-page, text and justification page signed by David Hockney and the editor, Stephen Spender. The book is from the special edition aside the edition of 250. It has the original yellow buckram cover, the book spine with the artwork title in gilt, and grey slipcase.
 
The editor, Stephen Spender, approached writers for written contributions to the book which are paired with Hockney's individual alphabet illustrations. Contributors are David Hockney, T.S. Eliot, Ian McEwan, Erica Jong, Arthur Miller, Ted Hughes, Joyce Carol Oates, Iris Murdoch, Kazuo Ishiguro, Julian Barnes, William Golding, Margaret Drabble, Susan Sontag, Anthony Burgess, Gore Vidal, Norman Mailer, John Updike, Seamus Heaney, Martin Amis, Patrick Fermor, V.S. Pritchett, Doris Lessing, Nigel Nicolson, Craig Raine, William Boyd, Paul Theroux and Douglas Adams.
 
Hardback book with 26 full-page drawings in colour by David Hockney, in its slipcase.
Published by Faber and Faber for the AIDS Crisis Trust, London.
1991.
From the special edition aside the edition of 250.
35.5 x 25.5 cm.
Signed in ink by David Hockney and Stephen Spender.
 
David Hockney (born 1937) is one of the most influential 20th century British artists. He has explored a diverse range of techniques over the years including painting, printmaking, drawing, set design, videography, photography and digital art. He was an innovative printmaker with technology early in his career which has gained recent traction again drawing on his iPhone and iPad. Hockney explores everything from still life and domestic scenes to portraits and landscapes, whilst also addressing themes in his own life such as sexuality. Hockney’s style is iconic and recognisable with its warm feeling and lively, colourful palette. In 2018, Hockney’s Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures) became the most expensive artwork by a living artist to be sold at auction when it sold in New York for $90 million. Hockney’s work is held in countless international collections and museums.