Publications
Books + Publications
INK
Ink showcases an unusual body of work by Tanya Marcuse which came about serendipitously after her young son insisted on trying nocturnal squid fishing one summer in Maine. Unlike the majority of Marcuse’s large-scale, elaborate works, these images were made with an iPhone camera, a more spontaneous and versatile tool.
The early broadside from which the textual and graphics elements of Ink are drawn shows a giant squid which washed up in Holland in 1566, along with the warning “As thou this formed fishe doest see / Changed from his state / So many men in eche degree / From kynd degenerate.” Marcuse’s uncanny images, in which the bodies of squid spread acrobatically across newspaper headlines, fashion advertisements, and marriage announcements, echo the broadside's sense of moral warning and impending apocalypse. As the squid ink obscures the printer’s ink, the photographs explore the materiality of the newspaper and the dynamic interplay between its sense of fact and order and the abstract, primordial chaos of the tangled tentacles. Both in their physical presence and the inky marks they leave behind, the bodies of the squid both obscure and transform the apparently objective narratives of the newspaper.
60 pages / 11 x 14 in, softcover, 22 color photographs, 2021
This publication traces the arc of Hudson Valley–based artist Tanya Marcuse’s (born 1964) work over a 15-year period. Fueled by the Biblical narrative of the fall from Eden, these projects use fantastical imagery to explore cycles of growth and decay and the dynamic tension between the passage of time and the photographic medium. The first volume, Fruitless (2005–10), features serial photographs of fruit trees near Marcuse’s home in the Hudson Valley. Repeatedly photographing particular trees from the same vantage point, Marcuse catalogs seasonal transformations; the fallen apples become more prominent as the work progresses. In the second volume, Fallen (2010–15), Marcuse imagines the landscape of ruin in Eden after the exile of Adam and Eve. Using fruit collected from beneath the trees of Fruitless, Marcuse depicts an ordered paradise becoming wild and untended. Volume three, Woven (2015–19), takes Fallen’s dense arrangements of flora and fauna to a newly immersive scale, with 5-by-10-foot tableaux that converse with medieval millefleur tapestries. These exquisitely detailed photographs evoke a Boschian world of allegory and fable. Essay by Francine Prose. Published by Radius Books.
Entries on Eden
Entries on Eden imagines the state of the Garden after the Fall of Adam and Eve, and surveys the rampant growth of human knowledge, from the first bite of the forbidden fruit to the encyclopedias and Wikipedias of today. Entries on Eden intermingles lush photographs by Tanya Marcuse with text by her daughter, writer Eve Romm. The text is excerpted from the Encyclopedia Britannica, an emblem of exhaustive, objective knowledge, but whose language contains religious allusions and rich symbolism as it is transformed into concrete poetry. The photographs too, function as both evidence and allegory.
7”x10” hand-bound hardcover with slipcase, by Culpeck and Clark Limited
112 pages
46 images, original photographs by Tanya Marcuse, printed by the artist on Hahnemühle Rice Paper
40 poems by Eve Romm, printed on Mohawk Superfine
1 central foldout image
Containing a separate exhibition-quality original foldout print, numbered and signed by the artist and writer
Limited edition of nine numbered and signed copies, and two artist’s proofs.
10 Decompositions
Ten Decompositions is a twelve-page softcover publication that measures 15 x 21 cm and is fastened with two omega points. 100 numbered copies, available for sale through 0-100 Editions at the link below.
Click here to purchase Ten Decompositions.
0_100 Editions is an independent publishing project dedicated to produce strictly limited edition photographic wordless stories. Believing in the photo book as a form of art, 0_100 Editions is characterized by a minimal typographic approach. By using different formats and techniques, 0_100 Editions gives the utmost importance to the picture itself.
The whole 0_100 Editions collection has been acquired by the MoMA Library.
Roman Nvmerals
Woven Nº 4 and Woven Nº 9
by Tanya Marcuse
ROMAN NVMERALS VOL. XIV and XV
Each book features full-bleed details from a single 5 x 10’ densely constructed photograph inspired by medieval hunting and falconry tapestries. Printed on Mohawk Superfine on the Indigo Press at Meridian.
16 pages / 6 x 8.5 in, saddle-stitched softcover, published by ROMAN NVMERALS, 2016
Undergarments and Armor
Undergarments and Armor is a monograph by Tanya Marcuse, presented as three hardcover cloth-bound volumes within a slipcase. With an essay by Valarie Steele, published by Nazraeli Press, 2005.
112 pp., 53 duotone illustrations, 6½x10½"
First edition copies are sold out, but used and new volumes can be found on Amazon and Ebay, or contact the artist.
Fruitless
Fruitless is a hardcover monograph by Tanya Marcuse published by Nazraeli Press as #42 of the One Picture Book series.
16 pages, 9 duotone plates, 1 original prints. 5 1/2 x 7 1/4".
Wax Bodies
Six by Six comprises 36 books and 36 original signed photographs. Each title in the series is limited to 100 hand-numbered copies, printed on our exclusive heavyweight Japanese paper and bound in Japanese cloth. Each book contains a separate exhibition-quality original print, numbered and signed by the artist, on 11 x 14 inch paper.
Set 2 was published by Nazraeli Press in 2011, and includes the following titles:
Joe Deal, Karst / Pseudokarst | Tanya Marcuse, Wax Bodies | Joseph Mills, Psycho Path | Stephen Shore, Ashkelon | Alec Soth, Mostly Women | Risaku Suzuki, Atelier of Cezanne
Click here for more information and to purchase.
Catalogues
Tanya Marcuse: Fallen
Published as part of the 2014 exhibition of Fallen at the Julie Saul Gallery, this exhibition catalogue includes 18 pages and 10 plates with text by Tim Davis.