Richard Prince: American Prayer

A look into Richard Prince´s private library and his influences, published on the occasion of an exhibition of the artist´s work at the Bibliotheque nationale de France, Paris. Artist Richard Prince is renowned for appropriating icons that capture the American cultural zeitgeist, such as Marlboro cowboys, femme-fatale nurses, and muscle cars. Prince is also a bibliophile, collecting rare volumes published from 1949 to 1984 which include Naked Lunch, Jack Kerouac´s rolled manuscript for Big Sur, and editions of Vladimir Nabokov´s Lolita in several languages. An exhibition at the Bibliotheque nationale de France, Paris, presents rare books selected by the artist from its collection alongside Prince´s artwork. Richard Prince: American Prayer is an accompanying volume that offers a rare glimpse into Prince´s intellectual explorations, revealing the source material for many of his well-known series through the pairing of literary excerpts and complementary illustrations of artwork.