Hans de Vries — 't Noore beestenboek

Amsterdam: Uitgeverij De Harmonie. First edition, first printing. 88 pp., 33 x24. Condition: Very Good (VG). Some toning and light wear to covers, name on titlepage (Stamp FRITS B.). Black-and-white photographs of animals killed by traffic on a single road in the northern Netherlands, the stretch from Beerta (Hoofdstraat 45) to Winschoten in Groningen, formerly the E 35. Hans de Vries and his wife Emmy recorded the animals they found there after moving to Beerta in May 1971. Each photograph is paired with a handwritten note and a small sketch of the place, time and state in which the animal was found. An introductory text by the artist explains the project. He describes neighbours' warnings about the road, the local pets lost to traffic, and the death of the family's own cat in July 1971. The book belongs to de Vries's practice of recording small, overlooked natural phenomena in his everyday surroundings, which he called micro-emotive art. It is an artist's book in Dutch, issued in softcover. It appears in some sources and catalogues as 't Dooie beestenboek (The Dead Animal Book), and sources give the publication year as 1972, 1973 or 1974.