“I don't see any difference now between what I collect and what I make.”
—Richard Prince
In Untitled (original) Richard Prince expands upon his signature practice of “re-photography” by pairing an original painted illustration with the resultant paperback book. Part of the artist’s series of the same name, Untitled (original) draws attention to the subtle shifts undergone by the image as it is translated into a book cover. The present example humorously utilizes the cover art for the 1969 adult novel Here’s Your O.R.G.Y.!, which comes from a series centering on an investigator named Steve Victor who works for the fictional Organization for the Rational Guidance of Youth (O.R.G.Y.). The shrink-wrapped book is paired with the original illustration by Stanley Borack, a prolific illustrator who created images for paperback covers and men’s magazines, in an astute investigation of the relationship between image and text. Embracing readymade images, Prince breathes new life into the illustration and forgotten pulp fiction novel by revealing the handmade “original” behind the mass-reproduced novel.