(Christo) (b. 1935) - Calvin Tomkins & David Bourdon | Gianfranco Gorgoni (photographs): Christo: Running Fence. Sonoma and Marin Counties, California 1972-76.
 
New York, Harry N. Abrams, 1978. 27 x 29 cms. 694 pp, including 7 fold-outs, + colophon leaf. With a piece of the white nylon fabric from which the fence was made bound at p. 69. Richly illustrated throughout in colour.

Copy HC 518 of 841, signed by Christo. (Total edition 841 HC (Hors de Commerce) for the use of the artist and the publishers + 2159 copies.)

Publisher’s cloth, in a slipcase with panoramic aerial view of Running Fence. Small faded area to top of slipcase. Very fine.

Provenance: Jeanette Bonnier (1934-2016).

Running Fence was an installation art piece by Christo and Jeanne-Claude, which was completed on September 10, 1976. The builders removed it 14 days later, leaving no visible trace. It consisted of a veiled fence 39.4 km long extending across the hills of Sonoma and Marin counties in northern California. The 18-foot (5.5 m) high fence was composed of 2,050 panels of white nylon fabric hung from steel cables by means of 350,000 hooks. The cables were supported by 2,050 steel poles stuck into the ground and braced by steel guy wires anchored to the earth. The route of the fence began near U.S. Highway 101 and crossed 14 roads and the private property of 59 ranchers to reach the Pacific Ocean near Bodega Bay. The required environmental impact report for the piece was 450 pages long. The piece is said to have been partly inspired by fences demarcating the Continental Divide in Colorado.