Signed Artist Proof of David LaChapelle's Artists & Prostitutes

David LaChapelle. ARTISTS & PROSTITUTES. Cologne: Taschen, 2005. Limited edition; artist proof 179/200 (of 2500 total copies). Signed by LaChapelle in blue on limitation page, as issued. Hardcover. Pink and black cloth-covered boards, with pictorial endpapers and white ribbon bookmark; in matching black and pink clamshell box; retains original publisher's styrofoam and box packaging (marked with limitation number). "Baby Sumo" folio; unpaginated [698pp.]; with color illustrations throughout. With list of photographs bound in stapled, pictorial wrappers and laid in loose.

Clamshell box 21 5/8 x 15 1/2 in.; Book 20 x 13 3/4 in.

Private Raleigh, North Carolina Collection

From the publisher: this extra large volume "includes the artist's most memorable work, from portraits of Paris Hilton and Pamela Anderson to Tupac Shakur and Elizabeth Taylor.... Artists & Prostitutes is a contemporary sensation with all the grandeur of a Renaissance masterpiece."

"Celebrating the visionary LaChapelle's truly extraordinary photography, this...book is packed cover-to-cover with vibrant full-bleed images; the best of his entire career to date. Bursting at the seams with spectacle and drama, and saturated with colors only LaChapelle can realize, this limited edition pays tribute to the most daring and ambitious photographer in the history of portraiture." (https://www.taschen.com/en/limited-editions/photography/02606/david-lachapelle-artists-and-prostitutes/)

A near fine or better copy of this oversize work. Boards with a couple of very minor marks, mostly due to movement in the clamshell; and as is typical, due to the size of the volume, the clamshell has mild scuffing to interior with light wear to two joints; packaging with expected light handling wear.