If I paint a study of Van Gogh’s Starry Night, even though I painted it it’s NOT my art. Trying to sell a reproduction without acknowledgment that I’m not the original artist is forgery and fraud.

you’re still looking at art through the lens (window, frame) of today, my comment was to remind that this proprietary way of seeing art wasn’t always the norm. “Original artist” is itself a product of the market. There were no fraudsters, only artisans making images.

Van Gogh is an interesting example, whose paintings wasn’t worth a cent during his life. Others, later on, profited from his work.

Art world itself is full of absurd examples working on these ideas. (Latest must be the Comedian.

So the images in the book were intentional recreations of existing, discrete pieces of art?