British contemporary artist David Hockney unveiled a 500-page art book at the Frankfurt fair on Wednesday that is so large it comes with its own stand - and a price tag of 2,000 euros ($2,200). The tome, "A Bigger Book", gives a visual overview of his decades-long career and includes everything from his earliest drawings to his famed swimming pool paintings and polaroid collages, to his more recent iPad drawings.
The 79-year-old, wearing a white flat cap and a yellow tie with a green cardigan, leafed through every page of the book in an hour-long presentation at the fair, but gave few comments beyond a brief description of the works. The book itself only contains a few lines of hand-written text, letting the art do the talking.
"A book like this doesn't need much text," Hockney told the audience. "You just need pictures." The book's title is a nod to one of Hockney's most well-known works, the 1967 painting "A Bigger Splash", which depicts a sun-soaked swimming pool right after someone dived into it.
The book weighs 35 kilogrammes (77 pounds) and measures 50 by 70 centimetres (20 by 27 inches). It comes with a three-legged, custom-made stand. Just 10,000 copies exist, all of them signed by the artist. The book's launch was one of the most eagerly awaited at the Frankfurt fair, which opened its doors to the public on Wednesday and runs until Sunday. The Frankfurt book fair is the world's largest publishing event. It is also the oldest, dating back to the Middle Ages.