Die bessere Halfte book
Die bessere Hälfte - eine Ahnengalerie
[The better half - a gallery of ancestral portraits]

By Ines von Ketelhodt
Flörsheim, Main, Germany: Ines von Ketelhodt, 2010. Edition of 50.

20.3 x 29.6 cm (8 x 11.7"); 112 pages. Photographs edited digitally. Printed on parchment paper. Design, handset, letterpress by Ines von Ketelhodt. Bound in printed paper over boards. Signed and numbered by the artist.

Ines von Ketelhodt: "Pictorial history of the artist's ancestry dating back to the 13th century, starting with her maternal ancestors leading in direct line to herself together with her husband Peter Malutzki. The following pages show her paternal ancestors. The portrait photographs were taken from paintings, drawings, etchings, and epitaphs or out of family photo-albums. The individual portraits were divided in the center and set together with their spouse to let the 'better halves' form a 'new person'. If a portrait is missing, the personal information ghosts through in reverse, as the respective names and dates of birth and death are printed in letterpress on the back of the portraits. Forming a further layer, historic dates from the 13th to the 21st century are set in relation to this data. The historic dates from all over the world are vertically printed in letterpress in a smaller font."
$450