[Diogenes
Subtitle: defictions
By: design and printing, Peter Rutledge Koch]
Contributors: Diogenes, -approximately 323 B.C.; Stinehour, Christopher; Braun, Stephen (Sculptor); Peter Koch, Printers; Press Collection (Library of Congress)
Edition: Lead edition.
Publisher: Peter Koch, Printer
Published: 1994
Place of publication: Berkeley, Calif
Language: eng
Number of pages: 11
Subjects: Boxes in art; American Ceramic sculpture; Ancient Philosophy; Performance art; Artists' books; Lead in art
Other titles: Defictions of Diogenes : a text transmission object
Notes: "This 'text transmission object' is a collaborative sculpture designed as a 'forgery' of a hypothetical object discovered by archeologists in the dump of ancient Corinth. Mixed media, ceramic and lead multiple. Designed by Peter Koch and hand-lettered by Christopher Stinehour. Printed letterpress from zinc engravings onto soft lead plates by Koch. Housed loose in a glazed ceramic box created by the sculptor Stephen Braun, each box unique in color and shape. Contains a selection of twenty-one selected short, philosophical performance pieces by Thomas McEvilley composed from the lore surrounding Diogenes of Sinope. As the plates are loose and unpaginated, they can be read in a random order"--"Peter Koch, Printers" web site.

Issued without a title page. No title or other text on box.

Title and edition statement from "Peter Koch, Printers" web site. Alternative title from printer's marketing flyer.

LC copy has unglazed, dark-earth-colored ceramic box.

Braun, J. Peter Koch, Printer, p. 43

"Diogenes of Sinope (c. 404-323 bc). Most of that we know of the arch-cynic Diogenes was written by Diogenes Laertius (ad 200-250), the author of Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers. At the same time lead was a common medium for writing curses, and a number of these lead tablets, known as defixiones, have survived. Since Diogenes was essentially cursing the entire human race, it somehow seems appropriate to render his thought onto lead"--Printer's marketing flyer.