Lynne Cohen, William Ewing [Designer], David Bryne [foreword]: OCCUPIED TERRITORY. New York: Apeture, 1987. First edition. Slim oblong quarto. White paper covered boards titled in black. Photo illustrated dust jacket. 112 pp. 87 full-page duotone plates. Spine tips faintly bruised, otherwise a fine copy in a fine dust jacket.
11.5 x 9.25 hardcover book with 112 pages and 87 full-page duotone plates. Edited and designed by William A. Ewing, with texts by David Byrne and David Mellor. Cohen's first monograph, an exploration of space as simulated experience--a sham reality, idealized and standardized.
In 1987 Aperture published Lynne Cohen’s first monograph, Occupied Territory, an exploration of space as simulated experience — idealized and standardized. Cohen’s pioneering work situated her within the lineage of Lewis Baltz, Stephen Shore, and other widely celebrated Topographic photographers.
"The aesthetic evidence in these rooms has also brought us to the brink of World War III. It's beautiful, it's efficient, it's terrifying, it's funny."--David Byrne. These science-fiction like, strangely disquieting "modern" interiors mirror our time and the world in which we live. Cohen has photographed with a keen eye "the spaces in which we live, work, play, wait, grow up, fight, and die."--the publisher.
During the ’70s and ’80s, Cohen turned her view-camera toward classrooms, science laboratories, testing facilities, waiting rooms, and other interior spaces where function triumphs over aesthetics. In cool, functional offices, futuristic reception areas, lifeless party rooms, and escapist motel rooms, Cohen surveys a society of surface, contradiction, and social engineering. The occasional decoration added in attempts at individualism only serve to amplify their uniformity. In her hands, clouds peel off walls and forest glades invade indoor tennis courts. Cohen records the world’s ready-made sculptures, waiting to be framed by the photograph.
Lynne Cohen’s (born in Racine, Wisconsin, 1944) work has been exhibited at the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Barbican Art Gallery, London; and National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa. Cohen is represented by Art 45, Montreal; Stephen Daiter Gallery, Chicago; James Hyman Gallery, London; and Galerie Rodolphe Janssen, Brussels; among others. In 2011, she was awarded the inaugural Scotiabank Photography Award. She lives in Montreal and teaches at the University of Ottawa.
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