Small Victories

This is an illustrated adventure through American prints, illuminated by the victories, defeats and discoveries of two intrepid collectors. For more than four decades, Dave Williams and his wife Reba White formed what is certainly the most comprehensive and adventurous treasury of American prints ever assembled by private collectors. In the 6,000 prints they personally selected, they cover both familiar and totally unknown ground. What stands out about their collection is not the expected holdings of iconic images by artists known to anyone even remotely familiar with the field, but their sustained effort to break new ground, to include artists and entire schools of art that have been unknown to - or routinely ignored by - both academics and fellow collectors. But the real value is the light shed on lesser known connections, venues, personalities, and visionaries. By structuring the book as a memoir, a personal story, the Williams' collection is presented as an adventure, a unique look into this populist corner of the duplicated image, of its reflection of, and impact on popular culture, and into the nature of collecting in general. Generously illustrated in full colour, with extensive indices and bibliography, this will be judged among the indispensable and totally original print reference books for years to come.