Art Metropole

#04611

Copperheads

Artist

Moyra Davey

Date

2010

Publisher

Bywater Bros. Editions

Format

Artists' Books

Details

Softcover

ISBN

978-0-9780789-3-5

Size

15.2 × 19 cm

Length

104 

Description

“Copperheads” is an artist’s book which documents the most ubiquitous, although possibly least noticed, portrait in the United States: Abraham Lincoln’s visage adorning the American penny which was introduced by the US Mint in 1909 on the occasion of Lincoln’s centennial.

Although Lincoln’s reputation as one of the most respected and revered political leaders in US history remains intact, the Lincoln penny does not command the same respect — it suffers the indignity of adorning the coin most likely to be found under the cushion of a couch or left behind on the edge of a sidewalk.

In the early 90s, Moyra Davey began collecting pennies she found in the streets of New York and then focused her macro lens on Lincoln’s severely nicked, scarred and oxidized profile creating close up portraits (of the portrait) which challenged the ideas of history, value and legacy

This book is the only publication to feature the entire collection of 100 Copperheads photographs, other than the original suite which exits only in an edition of 3.

Includes a text by the artist.

Edition of 200, numbered.

1.