Fake: A Meditation on Authenticity. 1987; 50 pages; paperback; 46 b/w illustrations. Since the mid-1970’s, contemporary artists have often focused on the issues of the counterfeit in order to explore, paradoxically, the subject of the original. Fake brings together Nancy Burson, Annette Lemieux, Peter Nagy, Andres Serrano, and twenty seven other artists who question the value of authenticity, the ethics of appropriation, and the significance of a commodity. An essay by William Olander, with entertaining contributions from Lynne Tillman and Phil Mariani, exposes the ways in which work can be highly “original” yet appear to be patently “fake”. “Two women rushed the mirror and smiled at Madame Realism, whose reverie was interrupted as she quickly hid her notebook. ‘Are you really Madame Realism?’ one asked. ‘Not really,’ she answered, continuing to smile. ‘Why do I look like her?’ All three women looked at themselves and each other in the mirror, and Madame Realism made a face she never made unless she was looking at herself in a mirror.” - Lynne Tillman, “Madame Realism’s Imitation of Life,” p.46. Artists: Dennis Balk, Nancy Burson, David Cabrera, Laurel Chiten and Cheryl Qamar, Clegg & Guttmann, Mark Dion and Jason Simon, Duvet Brothers, Tim Ebner, John Glascock, Gorilla Tapes, Day Gleeson/Dennis Thomas, Fariba Hudlin, Joan Jubela and Stanton Davis, Annette Lemieux, MICA-TV, Paul McMahon, Branda Miller, Peter Nagy, David Robbins, John Scarlett-Davis, Andres Serrano, Shelly Silver, Michael Smith, Sarah Tuft. Forward by Marcia Tucker. Exhibition Catalogue. 8 in. x10 in.

Funding: The New Museum