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Mar. 23--In the future, everyone will be famous for 15 pounds.
A certain pop artist might have said that were he alive now for the publication of a book of that weight about him.
"Andy Warhol 'Giant' Size" is a hernia in hardback, a 624-page "visual biography," list-priced at $125, that packs images, documents and essays inside a wide-body 16 1/2-by-12 5/8-inch frame.
Like the artist's long-gone Factory, a corner of the publishing industry keeps stamping out large-scale Warhol studies, keeping his proverbial 15 minutes of fame in a continuous loop.
With the approach next February of the 20th anniversary of his death, other media are jumping in: This fall, a PBS documentary on him is to be aired and a movie about Edie Sedgwick, a star of his films, is to be released.
Museum shows of his work are frequent, including a new one at Chicago's Museum of Contemporary Art. And he is a fixture on the auction circuit: The data service Artprice.com said Warhol last year supplanted Claude Monet as the world's second most actively traded artist, behind Pablo Picasso, with owners of Warhol images realizing $86.7 million from sales.
"The interest in Warhol is increasing rather than diminishing," said Joel Wachs, president of the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.
As is the size of Warhol books.
"SuperWarhol," a formidable 2003 entry from publisher Skira, has been dwarfed by "Giant" from Phaidon Press. Phaidon editorial director Karen Stein dismisses the earlier tome as "baby-size."
Phaidon also produced the first two volumes of "The Andy Warhol Catalogue Raisonne" -- books more directed at scholars and collectors than "Giant," noted Stein. Another six to eight volumes may be produced.
Among other Warhol books published this year is the first of a planned two-volume catalogue raisonne on Warhol films.
Stein said the size of "Giant" was dictated by Warhol's prominence and a decision to reproduce to scale many rare documents and other ephemera.
Yet "Giant" is a lightweight compared with some other recent publishing extravaganzas. The 66-pound "Helmut Newton's Sumo" comes with a table stand designed by Philippe Starck, all for $6,500.
"GOAT: A Tribute to Muhammad Ali" is a 75-pounder that lists at $4,000.
And the $10,000 limited-edition "Bhutan: A Visual Odyssey Across the Last Himalayan Kingdom" weighs 130 pounds and is nearly as big as a Ping-Pong table.
cstorch@tribune.com
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