the Table of Power Jacqueline Hassink Iconography of Work Mirelle Thijsen's Choice of Company Photobooks Photography

First edition, first printing. Signed in black ink on the rear paste-down endpaper by Hassink, stamp-numbered on the front cover, and housed in a custom-made wooden box. A small number of wooden boxes were made to accompany the first edition of the book. These were not for sale. In 1996, they were given as a special gift to the minister of foreign affairs who arranged a conference and gave this special boxed first edition of book to a select group of people. Very few boxed copies have been sold on the secondary book market. Soft cover. Sage green cloth-covered flexible boards with title stamped in gold on spine and copy # stamped in black on a debossed gold panel on cover; no dust jacket as issued. Photographs and text by Jacqueline Hassink. Essays by Henri Peretz and Raoul Bunschoten. Designed by Melle Hammer, Plus X. 148 pp., with 21 four-color plates and additional black and white illustrations. 5-1/8 x 3-3/4 inches. Out of print. Scarce. [Cited in Martin Parr and Gerry Badger, The Photobook: A History, Volume II. (London and New York: Phaidon, 2006).] 


From the Gallery of Photography: "Dutch artist Jacqueline Hassink explores the upper echelons of corporate culture. Her photographs of the boardroom tables of multinational companies bring us into the heart of those spaces where nameless and faceless individuals make decisions that affect us all. Using the 'Fortune 500' list, Hassink approached Europe's top forty companies. Only 21 allowed a photograph to be taken of their boardroom. Those that denied access are included as black photographs, prompting us to pose the question: what have they got to hide? Accompanied by the artist's notes made during the process of negotiation, the exhibition combines the rigour of investigative photojournalism with the conceptual flair of fine art practice. The formal clarity of the work lets the viewer's own experience of 'tables of power' -- the family dining table, the teacher's desk -- inform the work."

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