Customer Reviews

Cindy Sherman: Centerfolds

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Caveat emptor: Two books dated 2003 have the title "Cindy Sherman Centerfolds." Both contain 12 landscape-orientation self-portraits of the photographer made up and dressed up as adolescent girls that were originally shot in 1981. But the books' designs and contents are different.

The first one was produced as a limited edition of 1850 which was apparently recalled. It has an incorrect ISBN of 0970909039*, is 29.5cm wide and 15cm high, has a light blue cloth cover, is 44 pages in length, was designed by "Honest, NYC," and was printed in Iceland. The photos are presented full-bleed on the right-hand pages, with blank pages facing them. An essay by Lisa Phillips in a rather large font is interspersed among the photographs. The captions (untitled #92, #87, #85, #88, #86, #89, #95, #93, #94, #90, #96, and #91a) are at the end. The dust jacket features orangish Untitled #93 with Sherman as a "blond with red rimmed eyes and matted hair tucked under rumpled black sheets" (per the essay).

The later regular edition (ISBN 0970909020) is 22cm wide by 25cm high, has a black cloth cover, is 50 pages in length, was designed by "Stella Bugbee, Giampietro + Smith," and was printed in Germany. In this book the Phillips essay is found in normal-size font on pages 5-7. The twelve photographs (untitled #92, #87, #91, #85, #88, #95, #89, #86, #93, #94, #90, and #96) follow on two-page spreads with white around them. Pages 32-47 have 1981-1982 essays by Peter Schjeldahl, Roberta Smith, and Andy Grundberg. The dust jacket has a detail of bluish Untitled #92 with Sherman in a tartan skirt and white blouse.

Which is better? If you are a book collector, you'll want the wide-format limited edition due to its rarity and "artistic" presentation. But those interested in Sherman's art are better served by the regular edition for several reasons. For one, it has more text than the limited edition. For another, the presence of the book's gutter in each photo in the regular edition gives a more "centerfold-like" feeling (although I suppose fold-out photos would have been even more effective). Finally, when I compared the photos in the two editions, the ones in the limited edition were slightly cropped, the worst example being Untitled #86 on page 17 in which you cannot see Sherman's eyes at the far right.

If you're unsure which edition a bookseller has for sale, use the "Contact This Seller" feature in the "Used & New" section of Amazon.com!

* That ISBN belongs to "Laurie Simmons Photographs 1978/79."

Cindy Sherman is now an established household art figure, a photographer who spends her life costuming herself and arranging her settings to recreate or reinterpret other people both famous in art history and in other arenas. These works are no longer shocking or startling, but the twelve 'Centerfolds' in this fine little book show her at an early stage in a career that has since burgeoned.

As far as the Centerfolds themselves, each is a self portrait in different but drab dress and moods. While the concept of viewing the standard plain woman in the guise of what is usually associated as a Playboy etc venture of sizzling sensuality is a solid idea, the photographs themselves tend toward a sameness that makes them less interesting than her current work.

Still, this was a pioneering commission by Artforum magazine that never made it to print and we are fortunate to see the images that found no home until the museums sought them out due to her growing fame. It is another moment in history that bears observing. Grady Harp, May 05

Although the "Centerfolds" were shot back in the 1980's it took until now for them to be all collected in a book collection. They are some of Cindy Sherman's best work and they are presented beautifully in this very wide shaped book. The book was hard to get a hold of as it was specially produced by an art gallery, but as a fan it is a great addition to the "Complete Film Stills" book. Highly recommended.