1234 Instagram recordings, volume 12

Published by French artist and publisher Sébastien Girard in 2019, this is the final volume (12 of 12) documenting Richard Prince's Instagram account 'richardprince1234.' Between 2015 and 2017, Prince posted reappropriated images from other Instagram users daily, deleting them after a few hours. Girard saved all 2,664 images and compiled them into a 12-volume set, each with 48 pages. The complete project comprises 2,664 album cover variants, with each volume packaged in a 12-inch (LP-format) record sleeve featuring one of the recorded images. Launched at the NY Art Book Fair 2019 at MoMA PS1 and Offprint Paris during Paris Photo 2019, the first edition of 150 sets sold out immediately. This bootleg appropriation of Prince's appropriations creates a meta-commentary on digital ephemera, ownership, and archival practice in the Instagram age.