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PUBLISHER
Hatje Cantz

BOOK FORMAT
Clth, 7.75 x 11.5 in. / 440 pgs / 196 color.

PUBLISHING STATUS
Pub Date
Active

DISTRIBUTION
D.A.P. Exclusive
Catalog: FALL 2013 p. 15   

PRODUCT DETAILS
ISBN 9783775736633 TRADE
List Price: $55.00 CAD $75.00

AVAILABILITY
Out of stock

TERRITORY
NA LA

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HATJE CANTZ

Taryn Simon: Birds of the West Indies

Text by Daniel Baumann, et al.

All the birds from the 24 films of the James Bond franchise, photographed and classified by Taryn Simon

In 1936, an ornithologist called James Bond released the definitive taxonomy of birds found in the Caribbean, titled Birds of the West Indies. Ian Fleming, an active bird watcher living in Jamaica, subsequently appropriated the name for his novel’s lead character. This co-opting of names was the first in a series of substitutions that would become central to the construction of the James Bond narrative. In a meticulous and comprehensive dissection of the Bond films, artist Taryn Simon inventoried women, weapons and vehicles, constant elements in the films between 1962 and 2012. The contents of these categories function as essential accessories to the narrative’s myth of the seductive, powerful and invincible western male. Maintaining the illusion the narrative relies upon––an ageless Bond, state-of-the-art weaponry, herculean vehicles and desirable women––requires constant replacements, and a contract exists between Bond and the viewer, which binds the narrative to that set of expectations. Continually satisfying those obligations allowed Bond to become a ubiquitous brand, a signifier to be activated with each subsequent novel and film. In Birds of the West Indies, Simon presents a visual database of interchangeable variables used in the production of fantasy, through which she examines the economic and emotional value generated by their repetition.

Taryn Simon was born in New York in 1975. She is a graduate of Brown University and a Guggenheim Fellow. Her photographs and writing have been the subject of solo exhibitions at institutions including The Museum of Modern Art, New York (2012), Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (2012); Tate Modern, London (2011); Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin (2011); Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2007) and P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, New York (2003). In 2011 her work was included in the 54th Venice Biennale.
PRAISE AND REVIEWS

WSJ Magazine

Jen Renzi

American artist Taryn Simon has won acclaim by using photography to document scenes usually kept hidden from the public eye, like confiscated items at JFK Airport or the CIA's art collection. Her latest book, Birds of the West Indies (Hatje Cantz Verlag), takes on a much more familiar subject: the women, weapons and cars of the James Bond film franchise. " I wanted to look at the accessories that helped construct the powerful Western male fantasy in these films," says Simon.

TIME

Aaron Schuman

Taryn Simon's Birds of the West Indies serves as a meticulous and mesmerizing meditation on materialism, masculinity and geopolitical movements over the course of the last fifty years, via the vehicles, weapons, and women that have featured in Bond films during the same period of time.

Taryn Simon: Birds of the West Indies

STATUS: Out of stock

Temporarily out of stock pending additional inventory.

TARYN SIMON MONOGRAPHS + ARTIST'S BOOKS

Taryn Simon: The Innocents

TARYN SIMON: THE INNOCENTS

The Museum of Modern Art, New York

ISBN: 9781633450837
USD $85.00
| CAD $119

Pub Date: 4/5/2022
Active | In stock


Taryn Simon: The Color of a Flea’s Eye

TARYN SIMON: THE COLOR OF A FLEA’S EYE

Cahiers d'Art

ISBN: 9782851173140
USD $150.00
| CAD $210

Pub Date: 12/1/2020
Active | In stock


Taryn Simon: An Occupation of Loss

TARYN SIMON: AN OCCUPATION OF LOSS

Hatje Cantz

ISBN: 9783775743198
USD $75.00
| CAD $99

Pub Date: 2/27/2018
Active | Out of stock


Taryn Simon: Field Guide to Birds of the West Indies

TARYN SIMON: FIELD GUIDE TO BIRDS OF THE WEST INDIES

Hatje Cantz

ISBN: 9783775740920
USD $65.00
| CAD $90

Pub Date: 6/28/2016
Active | Out of stock


Taryn Simon: Contraband

TARYN SIMON: CONTRABAND

Hatje Cantz

ISBN: 9783775739719
USD $45.00
| CAD $62

Pub Date: 9/29/2015
Active | Out of stock


Taryn Simon: Birds of the West Indies

TARYN SIMON: BIRDS OF THE WEST INDIES

Hatje Cantz

ISBN: 9783775736633
USD $55.00
| CAD $75

Pub Date: 12/31/2013
Active | Out of stock