The Map

First Edition thus, 2005. Unpaginated. 

Book measures 6 x 9 inches. Black cloth with embossed lettering to spine and cover. Housed in illustrated paper-covered cloth slipcase. Includes a stapled booklet with the Kawada’s essay about this work titled The Illusion of the Stain, with text in Japanese and English translation. This is copy number 222 of a limited edition of 500 copies. SIGNED by Kawada on the final leaf.

Originally published in 1965 to mark the 20th anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing, this limited facsimile re-issue presents a powerful photographic chronicle of the devastating fallout of that tragic event. “Kikuji Kawada released this book exactly twenty years after the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima. In between his harrowing photographs of concrete munitions bunkers, Special Forces soldier portraits, and survivors with facial scars, Kawada included semiabstract views of the decaying interior ceiling of Hiroshima’s Prefectural Industry Exhibition Hall. For Kawada and the book’s designer, Sugiura Kohei, the blooming stains on what is now known as the Hiroshima Peace Memorial linked the devastation of nuclear war to larger themes such as the evils of nationalism.” (Met Museum). These photographs were taken between 1960–1965.

Fine in Fine slipcase. Bottom corner of pamphlet shows slight bump.