Birds of the West Indies and Field Guide to Birds of the West Indies (Volume 1 and 2) by Taryn Simon. First edition (2016). First impression. Edition of 300 copies. Medium format set of two hardback volumes in as new condition. Housed in a custom made slipcase. The first volume is with embossing on bookend paper, numbered and signed by Taryn Simon to front end page. 

There is a soft bump to the slipcase.

About Birds of the West Indies and Field guide to Birds of the West Indies

Content of Birds 1: in a meticulous and comprehensive dissection of the Bond films, artist Taryn Simon inventoried women, weapons and vehicles in Bond. Above all, the contents of these categories function as essential accessories to the narrative’s myth of the seductive, powerful, and invincible western male. In Birds of the West Indies, Simon presents a visual database of interchangeable variables used in the production of fantasy. Through which she examines the economic and emotional value generated by their repetition. Content of Birds 2: In 1936, an American ornithologist named James Bond published the definitive taxonomy Birds of the West Indies. After that, Ian Fleming, an active bird-watcher living in Jamaica, appropriated the name for his novel’s lead character. He found it “flat and colourless”. In other words, a fitting choice for a character intended to be “anonymous. . . a blunt instrument in the hands of the government.”

In Field Guide to Birds of the West Indies, Taryn Simon (*1975) casts herself as James Bond (1900–1989) the ornithologist. She identifies photographs, and classifies all the birds that appear within the twenty-four films of the James Bond franchise.