Until Death Do Us Part - Thomas Sauvin

SAUVIN, Thomas. 
Until Death Do Us Part. 
Fifth edition. Photobook [83 x 53 x 21mm]. Numerous colour plates presented inside a real cigarette box. Ningbo: Jiazazhi, 2020. 
This is an open copy with the cigarette box slightly torn at the opening. A lightly worn display copy of the now out-of-print book. 

Until Death Do Us Part focuses on the unexpected role cigarettes play in Chinese weddings. As a token of appreciation, it is customary for the bride to light a cigarette for each and every man invited. The bride and the groom are then invited to play some cigarette-smoking games of an unprecedented ingenuousness. This publication pays homage to a tradition in which love and death walk hand in hand. These photos come from the Beijing Silvermine project, an archive of half a million negatives salvaged over the years from a recycling plant on the edge of Beijing.