RUPPERSBERG, ALLEN. Remainders: Novel, Sculpture, Film. Original oak table (approximately 45 x 47 1/2 x 30 inches; 115 x 120 x 75 cm). Comprising 128 books in 17 separate titles. 8vo, original full cloth, front covers gilt-lettered; dust jackets. Displayed atop the table as intended; includes the original six boxes designed to house the entirety of the above (also a further non-utilized identical six flat boxes, as well as approximately 120 additional duplicate dust jackets). The heyday of the remainder trade was roughly from the mid-1980s through the late 90s, regularly offered in bulk via 'skids' comprising hundreds of titles declared out-of-print and removed from the publishers backlist culled from any number of their imprints, then purchased by various remainder houses operating as middlemen and offered back to the trade at a pittance, though smaller publisher's who enjoyed large enough print runs employed this method as well, in order to clear warehouse inventory, presumably as a budgetary last resort by an overly optimistic mid-level sales manager dreading a looming pink slip. Though the assemblage presents as a remainder table at a bookstore, the 17 titles on display—each multiplied to create an impression of stacks of identical books—were never published. The interior images reproduce film frames culled from Ruppersberg's extensive collection of American educational and instructional films from the 1930s to the 1960s. Each volume repeats a different image over and over again to simulate the multiple frames of a film. Complete assemblage in fine condition; Artists Proof, number 3 of 4 examples, signed and numbered by the artist on laid in publisher's bookmark, from a total edition of 12. No other examples traced at auction. New York: C. Editions, 1991