"EVERY PAGE IS A NEW DISCOVERY OF BRILLIANT JEWEL TONES"

RINGGOLD, Faith. The Invisible Princess. New York: Crown, (1999). Tall quarto, original pictorial laminated paper boards, original dust jacket. $350.

First edition of the award-winning African American artist's original children's book about a mythical Invisible Princess who frees the enslaved—"ranks among her best creations"—boldly inscribed on the title page by her, "To B— Faith Ringgold," with nearly 20 full- and double-page illustrations by Ringgold, a splendid copy in the original dust jacket.

The art of "Harlem-born painter/sculptor/writer and performance artist Faith Ringgold… is vivid and far-ranging… it captures the soul of the U.S." (BBC). While Ringgold's unique artworks, her acclaimed story quilts, "have garnered her popular acclaim, the extent of her achievement remains too little known" (Art News). Here Ringgold's original fairy tale, an "African American tale of freedom," speaks of an enslaved child, an "Invisible Princess," who is protected by a magical cloak that hides her from the brutal slaveowner. Visible to the blind slave-owner's white daughter, the Invisible Princess unites with the "Powers of Nature" to free the enslaved as she also inspires the vision of an "Invisible Village of Peace, Freedom and Love." The book's nearly 20 full- and double-page color illustrations by Ringgold are as "rich and expressive as her story… every page is a new discovery of brilliant jewel tones and a whole spectrum of emotions" (Atlanta Journal-Constitution). Ringgold's African American heroine, the beautiful Invisible Princess, "ranks among her best creations" (Denver Post). With laid-in art museum color catalog featuring Ringgold on the cover.

A fine inscribed copy.