Nothing Happens Victor Bockris Andy Warhol Muhammad Ali Incredibly Small Photobooks Kessels Kooiker Photography

Title	Nothing Happens
Author	Bockris, Victor; [Warhol, Andy]; [Ali, Muhammad]
Format	SOFTCOVER
ISBN
ISBN-13
Publisher	Nadada Editions
Yr. Published	1978
Attributes	First Edition, Limited Edition of 750 Copies Paperback
Description	Very Good Staple-bound b/w photo-illustrated wraps; 113x113mm; pp. [16], with b/w photo-illustrations showing Andy Warhol and Muhammad Ali together, printed on the recto only. Covers a little scuffed along spine and edges; rear cover dust-smudged. Inscription on inside front cover, otherwise internally clean and unmarked.

For several years, Paul Kooiker and Erik Kessels have organized evenings for friends in which they share the strangest photo books in their collections. The books shown are rarely available in regular shops, but are picked up in thrift stores and from antiquaries. The group’s fascination for these pictorial non-fiction books comes from the need to find images that exist on the fringe of regular commercial photo books. It’s only in this area that it’s possible to find images with an uncontrived quality. This constant tension makes the books interesting. It’s also worth noting that these tomes all fall within certain categories: the medical, instructional, scientific, sex, humour or propaganda. Paul Kooiker and Erik Kessels have made a selection of their finest books from within this questionable new genre. Incredibly small photobooks is the second volume (after Terribly awesome photobooks) showing this amazing collection.

PHOTOBOOKS CHALLENGING THE EDGES OF THE MEDIUM. A conversation with Paul Kooiker about two newsprint editions on photobooks, in cooperation with Erik Kessels and published by APE: Terrible Awesome Photobooks and Incredible Small Photobooks by Mirelle Thijsen (MT):

MT:
Then you also selected expensive antiquarian books, as Nothing Happens (1978) by Victor Bockris [Andy Warhol]. The sales price on Auction.fr is 300 euros. Is this booklet part of your collection?

PK:
No, that’s Erik’s…

MT:
I read a description on Abebooks.com – in fact, I am able to find there more bibliographic data on the selections than in your newspaper, Haha …Apparently Nothing Happens is a catalogue of the Whitney Museum containing portraits from the 1970s.

PK:
What you see is Andy Warhol standing next to Mohamed Ali! It is a meeting between those two icons and they look past each other. There are four to six pictures in that booklet. And that’s it. You look at two celebrities, standing awkwardly close to each other. It is a mysterious book, one of my favourites. And square booklets are often so ugly, but this one’s just right. You hardly find square books these days…