TWO PIPES, FOURTEEN LOCATIONS

6 5/8 x 4 3/4 inches (16.8 x 12 cm)

80 pages / Unpaginated / Perfect bound / Softcover

63 plates (photographs)

Offset (black and white)

Publisher: Norman Fisher, New York

Printer: Perez Printing, New York

Print run: not noted (1,000)

ISBN: 0-8150-0732-9

LCCC: 74-12907

CATALOGUE RAISONNÉ NUMBER: 05

This is the first book in which Peter Downsbrough uses photographs. The sixty-four photographs show fourteen different locations of the Two Pipes. Made of two black gas pipes, and placed in the ground with a fixed distance between them, this series of sculptures constitute a key work. In the late 1960s, Peter Downsbrough had abandoned making large steel sculptures in order to look for a more intimate form; this research had already led to the first manuscript, Notes on Location, and, in 1970, to the Two Pipes exterior pieces that he photographed from various angles. At the same time, he also started Two Poles, which were interior pieces, as well as the drawings with the Two Lines, which he still uses today both in his books and in his works on paper. The table of contents at the beginning of the book lists all titles – the exact dimensions – and the various “temporary” locations of the Two Pipes. The two lines added on the spine of the book, with its monochrome grey cover, could be considered the first appearance of an illustration on a cover.