Sébastien Girard

Black Book Twice (2024) is a conceptual photobook functioning as a deliberate bootleg and critical reappropriation, the book directly mimics Christopher Wool's iconic 1989 Black Book.

Girard’s version reproduces Wool's 17 original word paintings, but with a crucial alteration: every image is printed twice (recto and verso). This intervention intentionally scrambles the original sequencing, generating new, unintended double-page word combinations that render Wool's original narrative unreadable. The title "Twice" functions dually as a descriptor of this double-printing method and a nod to the fact that this is essentially a second version of Wool’s highly sought-after edition. Through this process, Girard uses the book as a vehicle to question and challenge the boundaries of authorship and copyright.

The book is an oversized softcover matching the exact dimensions of Wool’s 1989 original. It is risograph printed and sewn bound. It also comes housed in a black fabric bag, referencing the blank black covers of the original Wool book.

The edition is limited to 75 copies with a signed riso print.

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Sébastien Girard’s reappropriation of Wolfgang Tillmans’ Concorde operates as a brilliant intersection of homage, institutional critique, and guerrilla publishing. Executed during Tillmans’ 2025 retrospective at the Centre Pompidou, Girard utilized the exhibition’s own interactive elements, a public Xerox machine and an official exhibition stamp, to physically duplicate and mutate the iconic photobook sold in the museum's library. By producing a literal bootleg within the walls of the institution celebrating the original artist, Girard subverts traditional boundaries of authorship and copyright, transforming a simple act of mechanical copying into a profound conceptual gesture.

Aesthetically, this intervention radically alters the visual register of Tillmans' original work. Translated into an oversized, black-and-white format, the nuanced tonality of the original photographs is stripped away and replaced by the stark, high-contrast degradation inherent to the xerographic process. This deliberate mechanical distortion renders the images of the supersonic jet far more graphic and dramatic, reducing a sleek symbol of late-twentieth-century technological optimism to gritty, noise-heavy silhouettes. The repetitive application of the Pompidou’s exhibition stamp on each page further complicates the object, imposing a permanent aura of institutional authentication onto an otherwise illicit reproduction.

Within the Bushwick sur Seine archive, this unique volume stands as a meditation on the limits and possibilities of mechanical reproducibility. Girard’s Concorde provides a reconsideration of the photobook as a democratic multiple, highlighting how the physical means of production can entirely shift the structural meaning of an image. As an artifact of printed matter, it bridges the polished legacy of contemporary photography with the raw ethos of zine culture, proving that the physical book remains a highly active, volatile space for conceptual interpretation.

Richard Prince 1234 / Instagram Recordings (2019) is a multi-volume conceptual project by Sébastien Girard that functions as a deliberate act of "meta-appropriation," targeting the digital footprint of American appropriation artist Richard Prince.

In 2015, Richard Prince, infamous for his "New Portraits" series where he appropriated and sold other people's Instagram posts, started his own Instagram account under the handle "@richardprince1234".

Recognizing the ephemeral nature of the platform, Sébastien Girard set up an automated script to silently record and archive every single post Prince made to the account. Two years later, Prince's account was shut down. Girard took his digital archive of 2,664 deleted posts and decided to create an "analog restitution" of what he called a two-year "free concert" played by Richard Prince himself. By systematically archiving and physically publishing the personal feed of the art world's most famous appropriator, Girard created a perfect, critical loop of reappropriation.

The complete archive is divided chronologically into 12 staple-bound softcover volumes, totaling roughly 560 pages. Leaning into the "live concert" metaphor, Girard packaged each volume inside a 12-inch (33 rpm) vinyl record sleeve, complete with a protective transparent outer sleeve and sticker.

Girard used the 2,664 recorded Instagram posts to generate the album artwork. Because of the vast number of images, the covers across the edition are highly randomized and unique.

The project was entirely self-published, printed, and hand-bound by Girard in his studio in a strict limited edition of 150 copies.

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