World Food Books

Broken Music

1989, English / German / French
Softcover (w. flexi-disc), 280 pages, 26 x 21 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by Daadgalerie / Berlin Gelbe Musik / Berlin

$280.00 - In stock -

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Rare first 1989 edition of Broken Music, an essential compendium for records created by visual artists. Complete with original flexi-disc. The publication was edited by Ursula Block and Michael Glasmeier and published in 1989 by DAAD and Gelbe Musik, Berlin. Broken Music focuses on recordings, record-objects, artwork for records, and record installations made by thousands of artists between WWII and 1989.

It also includes essays by both editors as well as Theodor W. Adorno, René Block, Jean Dubuffet, Milan Knizak, László Moholy-Nagy, Christiane Seiffert, and Hans Rudolf Zeller, as well as a flexi disc of the Arditti Quartet performing Knizak’s “Broken Music.” The centerpiece of the publication is a nearly 200-page bibliography of artists’ records.

Works chosen for the publication revolved around four criteria: (1) record covers created as original work by visual artists; (2) record or sound-producing objects (multiples/editions/sculptures); (3) books and publications that contain a record or recorded-media object; and (4) records or recorded media that have sound by visual artists.

Artists documented in the volume include Vito Acconci, albrecht/d., Laurie Anderson, Guillaume Apollinaire, Karel Appel, Arman, Hans Arp, Antonin Artaud, John Baldessari, Hugo Ball, Claus van Bebber, John Bender, Harry Bertoia, Jean-Pierre Bertrand, Joseph Beuys, Mel Bochner, Claus Böhmler, Christian Boltanski, KP Brehmer, William Burroughs, John Cage, Henri Chopin, Henning Christiansen, Jean Cocteau, William Copley, Philip Corner, Merce Cunningham, Hanne Darboven, Jim Dine, Marcel Duchamp, Max Ernst, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Fischli and Weiss, R. Buckminster Fuller, Allen Ginsberg, Philip Glass, Jack Goldstein, Peter Gordon, Hans Haacke, Richard Hamilton, Bernard Heidsieck, Holger Hiller, Richard Huelsenbeck, Isidore Isou, Marcel Janco, Servie Janssen, Jasper Johns, Joe Jones, Thomas Kapielski, Allan Kaprow, Martin Kippenberger, Per Kirkeby, Cheri Knight, Milan Knizak, Richard Kriesche, Christina Kubisch, Laibach, John Lennon, Sol Lewitt, Roy Lichtenstein, Annea Lockwood, Paul McCarthy, Meredith Monk, Josef Felix Müller, Piotr Nathan, Hermann Nitsch, Albert Oehlen, Frank O’Hara, Claes Oldenburg, Yoko Ono, Dennis Oppenheim, Nam June Paik, Charlemagne Palestine, A.R. Penck, Tom Phillips, Robert Rauschenberg, The Red Crayola, Ursula Reuter Christiansen, Gerhard Richter, Jim Rosenquist, Dieter Roth, Gerhard Rühm, Robert Rutman, Sarkis, Thomas Schmit, Conrad Schnitzler, Kurt Schwitters, Selten Gehörte Musik, Richard Serra, Robert Smithson, Michael Snow, Keith Sonnier, Strafe für Rebellion, Jean Tinguely, Moniek Toebosch, Tristan Tzara, Ben Vautier, Yoshi Wada, Emmett Walsh, Andy Warhol, William Wegman, and Lawrence Weiner.

Ursula Block is a curator living in Berlin, Germany. From 1981 until 2014, she ran gelbe Musik, a gallery and record shop in Berlin that featured work by artists at the crossroads between music and art. She was married to curator René Block.

Michael Glasmeier is a professor, writer, and editor living in Berlin, Germany. Since the early 1980s, he has curated dozens of shows that explore the intersection between the visual arts, music, film, and language.

Very Good copy all-round, light cover/corner wear.

File under: ×Vito Acconci albrecht/d. Laurie Anderson Karel Appel Arman Antonin Artaud John Baldessari Hugo Ball Claus van Bebber John Bender Harry Bertoia Jean-Pierre Bertrand Joseph Beuys Mel Bochner Claus Böhmler Christian Boltanski John Cage Henri Chopin Henning Christiansen Jean Cocteau William Copley Philip Corner Merce Cunningham Hanne Darboven Jim Dine Marcel Duchamp Max Ernst Lawrence Ferlinghetti Buckminster Fuller Fischli & Weiss Peter Fischli Peter Fischli & David Weiss David Weiss Allen Ginsberg Philip Glass Jack Goldstein Peter Gordon Hans Haacke Richard Hamilton Bernard Heidsieck Holger Hiller Richard Huelsenbeck Isidore Isou Marcel Janco Servie Janssen Jasper Johns Joe Jones Thomas Kapielski Allan Kaprow Martin Kippenberger Per Kirkeby Cheri Knight Milan Knizak Richard Kriesche Christina Kubisch Laibach John Lennon Sol Lewitt Roy Lichtenstein Annea Lockwood Paul McCarthy Meredith Monk Josef Felix Müller Piotr Nathan Hermann Nitsch Albert Oehlen Frank O’Hara Claes Oldenburg Yoko Ono Dennis Oppenheim Nam June Paik Charlemagne Palestine A.R. Penck Tom Phillips Robert Rauschenberg The Red Crayola Ursula Reuter Christiansen Gerhard Richter Jim Rosenquist Dieter Roth Gerhard Rühm Robert Rutman Sarkis Thomas Schmit Conrad Schnitzler Kurt Schwitters Selten Gehörte Musik Richard Serra Robert Smithson Michael Snow Keith Sonnier Strafe für Rebellion Jean Tinguely Moniek Toebosch Tristan Tzara Ben Vautier Yoshi Wada Emmett Walsh Andy Warhol William Wegman Lawrence Weiner Jean Arp (Hans Arp) K. P. Brehmer William S. Burroughs Theodor W. Adorno René Block Jean Dubuffet Milan Knizak László Moholy-Nagy Christiane Seiffert Hans Rudolf Zeller Ursula Block Michael Glasmeier Daadgalerie / Berlin Gelbe Musik / Berlin Art Conceptual Art Performance / Dance / Theater Art Brut / Folk / Visionary / Fantastic Counterculture Out-of-print / Rare Group Shows / Collections Curatorial Theory / Essay Fluxus Arte Povera Pop Art Sound / Music Dada Minimal Art Nouveau Réalisme / Zero / Kinetic Bauhaus Objects / Ephemera / A/V

No Manifesto (Rosa Johanna, Wjm Kok, John Nixon)
22nd of February, 2018 Amsterdam

2018, English / Dutch
Staple bound, 4 pages, 15 x 10.5 cm
Ed. of 300,
Published by Stedelijk Museum / Amsterdam

$20.00 $5.00 - In stock -

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"No Manifesto" from artists Rosa Johanna, Wjm Kok, and John Nixon, published by the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, 22nd of February, 2018. This wonderful staple-bound publication takes the form of a Stedelijk Museum visitor's feedback form, asking "What Do You Think?", accompanied by the artist's "No Manifesto".

Limited edition of 300 copies.

File under: John Nixon Rosa Johanna Wjm Kok Stedelijk Museum / Amsterdam Art Painting Objects / Ephemera / A/V Australian Art Minimal Art SALE

$OUL — DÉCADA DEL 70 — INTERCÂMBIO ENTRE MAC E CAYC
Organised by Jorge Glusberg

1976, Portuguese
Double-sided fold-out, 4 panels, 47 x 30 cm (unfolded)
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by Museu de Arte Contemporânea da Universidade de São Paulo / São Paulo

$45.00 - In stock -

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Very rare fold-out catalogue for the important international art exhibition surveying conceptual art, concrete poetry, experimental art, performance art, mail art ("activity with a critical view of society") in the 1970s organized by Argentine author, publisher, curator, professor, and conceptual artist, Jorge Glusberg, who was director of the Center for Art and Communication of Buenos Aires (CAYC). With text by Brazilian professor, historian, art critic and curator by Walter Zanini, director of the Museu de Arte Contemporânea da Universidade de Sao Paulo (MAC). With a number of the exhibited heliographic documents from the exhibition illustrated throughout, the brochure catalogues the exhibited works by participants including: Dan Graham, Lawrence Weiner, Genesis P-Orridge, Ian Burn and Mel Ramsden, Öyvind Fahlström, Július Koller, Tim Ullrichs, Luis Fernando Benedit, Jaime Davidovich, Jorge Glusberg, Víctor Grippo, Lea Lublin, Luis Pazos, Julio Plaza, Jonier Marin, Jiří Valoch, Guillermo Deisler, Juan Navarro Baldeweg, Manuel Barbadillo, MH de Ossorno, Valcárcel Medina, Felipe Ehrenberg, César Bolaños, Pawel Petasz, José Urbach, Lydia Okumura, Haroldo González, Les Levine, and many others.

Very Good copy with light wear.

File under: Dan Graham Lawrence Weiner Genesis P-Orridge Ian Burn Mel Ramsden Öyvind Fahlström Július Koller Walter Zanini Jorge Glusberg Museu de Arte Contemporânea da Universidade de São Paulo / São Paulo Out-of-print / Rare Conceptual Art Concrete Poetry Art Group Shows / Collections Pop Art Collage / Mail Art / Xerox Art Performance / Dance / Theater Curatorial Film / Video Fluxus Minimal Art Nouveau Réalisme / Zero / Kinetic Painting Photography Poetry Protest / Revolt Sound / Music

Ran Akiyoshi
Illusion

2000, Japanese
Hardcover (w. dust jacket and obi strip), 48 pages, 31 x 22 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / fine
Published by Bungeisha / Tokyo

$150.00 - In stock -

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The one and only hardcover monograph dedicated to the fantastic world of artist Ran Akiyoshi (1922—1982), now rare and out-of-print. Virtually unknown and undocumented outside of Japan, Akiyoshi never held an exhibition nor sold any of his drawings in his lifetime. Much like the work of Toshio Saeki or Namio Harukawa, Akiyoshi's creations proliferated throughout the bountiful pages of Tokyo's underground, particularly SM / kinbaku, publishing scene in the 1960s—1970s. Yet Akiyoshi's phantasmagoric world of erotic fantasy is like no other, building sado-masochistic themes within unique, somewhat Lovecraftian and Bosch-esque dreamscapes populated by mythological goddesses and grotesque creatures. His peculiar fantasy drawings were highly praised by Japanese novelist and art critic, Tatsuhiko Shibusawa, an instrumental figure in the Japanese avant-garde who translated de Sade and Bataille to Japanese, and specialised in the study of medieval demonology. This lavishly illustrated hardcover volume collects Akiyoshi's many works together for the first time, surveying his entire career.

Born in Kyongsong (present Seoul), Korea in 1922, Akiyoshi was publicly schooled and self-taught in drawing. After WWII, he moved to Japan, traveled around Kyushu area and finally settled in Tokyo in 1946. Akiyoshi started working for adult entertainment magazines such as "Decameron","Fuzoku Soushi", and "Uramado" in 1950. Around 1958, he began focusing on original drawings while continuing to draw illustrations for various magazines. In the 1970s, Akiyoshi provided iconic cover and insert illustrations to a number of prominent SM magazines, including "SM King", "SM Kitan", and "SM Club". He never held an exhibition nor sold any of his drawings in his lifetime. Akiyoshi died from heart failure in 1982 at the age of 58.

Very Good—Fine copy.

File under: Ran Akiyoshi Bungeisha / Tokyo Surrealism Art Brut / Folk / Visionary / Fantastic Illustration / Graphic Art / Bandes Dessinées Ero Guro / Erotic / Grotesque Eros Drawing Painting Out-of-print / Rare Weird / Speculative / Science Fiction

Alex Selenitsch
four 4-colour books

2008/2015, English
4 hand-sewn books in a plastic file (softcover books w. cut/folded coloured papers, white photocopy title sheet), each book 16 pages, 21 x 21 cm
Ed. of 32, numbered,
Published by Self-Published / Melbourne

$320.00 - In stock -

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Artist book edition published in an edition of 32 hand-numbered copies. Each edition is made up of 4 hand-sewn books in a plastic file. Each book comprises 16 pages of cut/folded coloured papers presenting a colour narrative: four pastel ‘primaries’ making colour tableaux, introduced and closed off by black and white covers.

The coloured pages are assembled from A3 sheets which have been halved: accurately in two cases (straight line orthogonal and straight line incline) or approximately (sinusoidal and horizontal tear). The cut-outs on the cover hint at the kind of division or halving that the coloured sheets have been subjected to. Both halves are used in the edition of each book, so that each edition of 32 copies with 4 folded sheets (giving 16 pages) uses 64 sheets. For the approximate cuts (sinusoidal and horizontal tear), there is some variation inside the edition.

File under: Alex Selenitsch Self-Published / Melbourne Art Australian Art Fiction / Poetry Objects / Ephemera / A/V Poetry

Rogério Duarte
MARGINÁLIA 1

2013, English / Portugese
Softcover, 224 pages, 23 x 18.5 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / as new
Published by Bom Dia Boa Tarde Boa Noite / Berlin

$120.00 $50.00 - In stock -

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The first in-depth survey of Brazilian designer, poet, musician, artist and author, Rogério Duarte's practice, and the first time that a selection of his poems and texts have been translated into English. Now long out-of-print and collectible resource.

Arguably, Rogério Duarte (* 1939, Ubaíra) is “the genius behind the geniuses” (Narlan Mattos) of Brazil's 1960–70s counter-cultural and avant-garde efforts. Thus, it comes as no surprise that key figures in the fields of design, music, art, and cinema, such as Glauber Rocha, Hélio Oiticica, Gilberto Gil, and Caetano Veloso, have provided the posterity with a vast catalogue of testimonies that leave no doubt as to the crucial role that Rogério played in the emergence of what is known today as the Tropicália movement, or Tropicalism. Yet, despite the growing interest that the Brazilian counter-culture of that time encountered on the international stage during the past two decades, Rogério's work has remained almost unknown to a broader public.

Marginália 1 was developed by the designer Manuel Raeder and the artist Mariana Castillo Deball over a period of four years and published by BOM DIA BOA TARDE BOA NOITE. Profusely illustrated in colour and b/w with texts by Rogério Duarte, Narlan Matos Teixeira, Max Jorge Hinderer Cruz, Mariana Castillo Deball, Manuel Raeder. Published in both English and Portuguese.

Fine copy.

File under: Rogério Duarte Manuel Raeder Mariana Castillo Deball Max Jorge Hinderer Cruz Narlan Matos Teixeira Rogério Duarte Bom Dia Boa Tarde Boa Noite / Berlin Graphic Design / Typography Sound / Music Film / Video Art Fiction / Poetry Out-of-print / Rare SALE

Francis Picabia
1999/2000 & 391

1999, English / French / Japanese
Two-volume softcover bookset in curregated cardboard slip-case, 120 pages & 220 pages (colour and b&w ill. throughout), 18 x 25 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by APT International / Tokyo Isetan Museum of Art / Tokyo

$250.00 $160.00 - Out of stock

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First Edition of this comprehensive, beautifully produced Japanese two-volume publication on the life and work of the great French avant-garde painter, poet and typographist, Francis Picabia.

Published by APT International in 1999 for a major Japanese travelling exhibition on Francis Picabia, starting at the Isetan Museum of Art in Tokyo in 1999, then to Fukushima and Osaka throughout 1999-2000.

Two Volumes bound in french-fold wraps, beautifully kept fine volumes, both housed in protective corrugated cardboard slip-case with scarlet label wrapped around spine. Slipcase itself is now protected under plastic sleeve.

First volume (226 page) forms a comprehensive retrospective of Picabia's life and prolific and defying work across painting, drawing, printing, poetry and film. Extensive colour and b&w reproductions of a vast collection of his painting, illustration and publishing projects are presented alongside a folio of his poems and drawings, plus photo documentation of his studio and private/social life. Also includes a biography and bibliography, as well as an insightful conversation between Olga Picabia (Francis Picabia's widow), Pierre Calté (director of Comité Picabia), Hans Ulrich Obrist (independent curator) and Stefan Banz (independent curator), about Picabia's life (text in English and Japanese). Introductory essays in Japanese and French by Beverley Calte and Arnauld Pierre.

Second volume (120 pages) "391" is a very special book made up of collated facsimiles of the 19 issues of Picabia's famous Dada periodical, "391", dating 1917-1924.
391 first appeared in January 1917 in Barcelona, published and edited by Picabia, assisted in assembling by Olga Sacharoff, a Georgian emigre residing in Barcelona. The title of the magazine derives from Alfred Stieglitz's New York periodical 291 (to which Picabia had contributed), and bore no relation to its contents. Despite Picabia's renown as an artist, it was mostly literary in content, with a wide-ranging aggressive tone, possibly influenced by Alfred Jarry and Apollinaire. There were contributions by two men new to Dada: Man Ray and Marcel Duchamp. However 391 remained essentially the expression of the inventive, energetic and wealthy Picabia, who stated of it: "Every page must explode, whether through seriousness, profundity, turbulence, nausea, the new, the eternal, annihilating nonsense, enthusiasm for principles, or the way it is printed. Art must be unaesthetic in the extreme, useless and impossible to justify."

Francis Picabia (22 January 1879 – 30 November 1953) was a French avant-garde painter, poet and typographist. After experimenting with Impressionism and pointillism, Picabia became associated with Cubism. His highly abstract planar compositions were colourful and rich in contrasts. He was one of the early major figures of the Dada movement in the United States and in France. His was later briefly associated with Surrealism, but would soon turn his back on the art establishment.

Very Good copy.

File under: Francis Picabia Man Ray Marcel Duchamp Arnauld Pierre Beverley Calte Francis Picabia Hans Ulrich Obrist Stefan Banz APT International / Tokyo Isetan Museum of Art / Tokyo Art Dada Out-of-print / Rare Painting Drawing Surrealism Fiction / Poetry SALE

Keizo Kitajima
1975—1991

2009, English / Japanese
Softcover, 214 pages, 21 x 25.5 cm
Flat signed by artist,
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography / Tokyo

$250.00 - In stock -

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Signed, first edition of this great out of print monograph on the work of Japanese photographer Keizo Kitajima, published by the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography. Contains 189 works from 1975 to 1991, beautifully reproduced, introducing and surveying all of Keizo's incredible major bodies of work : KOZA, TOKYO, NEW YORK, EASTERN EUROPE, USSR, alongside biography, and great texts in English and Japanese. A terrific overview of a great artist.

Keizo Kitajima (b .1954, Suzaka, Nagano) is a leading figure in the rise of Japanese photography in the 1970s and 1980s, first coming to be known for his grainy black-and-white shots of people on the streets of Tokyo, at an American military base in Okinawa after the end of the Vietnam War, and in New York. Daido Moriyama, with whom Kitajima first studied photography, praised his talent as a gifted snapshooter by calling him ‘a street killer in broad daylight.’ Kitajima’s image Shop CAMP, set up in the bustling Shinjuku area in 1976 in collaboration with Moriyama, was a pioneering experimental space for photographers before the gallery system was established. In his legendary experimental series Photo Express (1979), Kitajima photographed people at bars and on the streets in Shinjuku at night right outside the CAMP, converted the gallery into a darkroom to make wallsized prints as a public performance event, and even published the images as an instant booklet. Through these processes of delivering images immediately, the artist explored the ways that time affects photography in terms of documentation, record and memory. Kitajima spent six months in New York roaming its gritty streets and hanging out in its clubs, resulting in the book New York (1982) . He presents a vision of the 1980s New York, full of energy, decadence and moments of quiet desperation. Like the city the publication is full of stark juxtapositions, flamboyant displays of outrageous behaviour are shown next to pictures of desolation and dejection. For this photo book Kitajima received the important Kimura Ihei Award in 1983. Kitajima’s work has been shown in many Japanese and international exhibitions and his publications are popular among collectors of photo books and the importance of his work has been recognised by numerous Japanese photographic awards.

Very Good copy.

File under: Keizo Kitajima Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography / Tokyo Japanese Photography Photography Out-of-print / Rare Art Signed Books

Keizo Kitajima
EUROPEAN DIARY 1983-1984

2019, English
Softcover in slipcase, 363 pages, 17.4 x 27 cm
Edition of 500,
Published by Little Big Man / Los Angeles

$110.00 - Out of stock

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Long-forgotten views of 1980s Europe.

Japanese photographer Keizo Kitajima traveled through Europe between 1983 and 1984, visiting both Western countries and states in the Eastern bloc—from West Germany to East Germany, Austria, Romania, Switzerland, Italy, Poland, Czech Republic, Turkey, and more. Kitajima visited Europe not as a tourist but as a photographer; the mission was to photograph what he encountered. For some reason, the photos he took during this trip have never been published—until now. After all this time, Kitajima’s black-and-white images of course take on meaning as historical documents. They are records of a time long gone by, after all. But Kitajima’s photos work on more than this one layer; he did not visit Europe to fix a historical moment for the future, after all, but to document life in places that were strange to him. His street photographs from both sides of the Iron Curtain capture local idiosyncrasies in architecture as well as fashion, but they also take a look at that chaotic universal force of daily life.

A strictly limited edition of 500 copies.

Keizo Kitajima was born in 1954 in Suzaka (Nagano Prefecture), Japan. He began photography at an early age; his discovery of the precursory works of Nobuyoshi Araki and Daidō Moriyama marked his teenage years. He was an original member of the Workshop Photo School. Like Moriyama, Kitajima developed an interest in the creative potential of photography’s reproducibility, but he took the notion of transformation in a very different direction, focusing on the layers of reproduction in his own work rather than the degeneration of cultural media. Kitajima’s photography is haunted by an obsession: identity, or rather the opposite; what Kitajima himself calls un-identity.

File under: Keizo Kitajima Little Big Man / Los Angeles Art Japanese Photography Photography

Self Service 1994-2022, The Ads

2022, English
Softcover, 376 pages, 30.1 x 23 cm
Ed. of 500,
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / fine
Published by IDEA / London

$200.00 - In stock -

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Expanded 2022 edition of IDEA London's Self Service 1994-2022, The Ads, the quickly out-of-print heavy visual compendium of more than 300 fashion ads from 25 years of Self Service magazine, featuring iconic contemporary advertising imagery from brands such as Raf Simons, Comme des Garçons, A.P.C., Alexander McQueen, Hussein Chalayan, Prada, Miu Miu, Issey Miyake, Chloé, Balenciaga, Yohji Yamamoto, Jacquemus, Hermès, Celine, Eckhaus Latta, Jil Sander, Calvin Klein, Viktor & Rolf, Yves Saint Laurent, Susan Cianciolo, Marc Jacobs, BLESS, Fendi, Koji Tatsuno, Gucci, Botetega Veneta, Zucca, Helmut Lang, to name a few, all packed into one exceptional reference volume.

Edition of 500 copies.

"This book is a gathering of more than two and a half decades* of fashion advertising campaigns as they have appeared on our printed pages, providing a fascinating testament to and a subjective barometer of fashion's evolving aesthetic and cultural norms."—Ezra Petronio, art director and founder of Self Service

*28 years, 112 seasons, 56 issues, 18,431 pages, 3,397 advertising pages, 314 brands.

Near Fine copy with light wear and light spine crease.

File under: Raf Simons Comme des Garçons A.P.C. Prada Miu Miu Issey Miyake Chloé Balenciaga Jacquemus Ezra Petronio Hussein Chalayan Alexander McQueen Hermés Céline Yohji Yamamoto Eckhaus Latta Jil Sander Calvin Klein Viktor & Rolf Yves Saint Laurent Susan Cianciolo Marc Jacobs BLESS Fendi Koji Tatsuno Gucci Botetega Veneta Zucca Helmut Lang IDEA / London Fashion Graphic Design / Typography Out-of-print / Rare Photography

Brenner
by Hermann Burger

2022, English
Softcover, 400 pages, ‎18 x 15.62 cm
Published by Archipelago Books / New York

$42.00 - Out of stock

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"Hermann Burger was an artist who went the whole hog every time, didn't conserve himself. He was a man with a big longing for happiness."—Marcel Reich-Ranicki

Appearing in English for the very first time, Brenner is a delightfully unusual novel full of dark humor tracing the childhood memories of the book's eponymous narrator, a scion of an ancient cigar dynasty.

Perpetually shrouded in a thick cloud of cigar smoke, Herman Arbogast Brenner, scion of an old and famous cigar dynasty, has decided to kill himself--but not until he has written down his forty-six years of life, in a Proustian attempt to conjure the wounds, joys, and sensations of his childhood in the rolling countryside of the Aargau region of Switzerland.

Estranged from his wife and two children, he decides there is no point in squirrelling away his fortune, so he buys himself a Ferrari 328 GTS, and drives around sharing cigars with his few remaining friends.

In this roman clef, writing and smoking become intertwined through the act of remembering, as Brenner, a fallible, wounded, yet lovable antihero, searches for epiphany, attempting to unearth memories just out of reach- the glimmer of a red toy car, the sound of a particular chord played on the piano, the smell of the cigars themselves.

Brenner is the final work from Hermann Burger, who died by suicide in 1989. The book comes out just days before what would have been the author's 80th birthday.

Hermann Burger (1942—1989) was a Swiss author, critic, and professor. Author of four novels and several volumes of essays, short fiction and poetry, he first achieved fame with his novel Schilten, the story of a mad village schoolteacher who teaches his students to prepare for death. He died by suicide days after the publication of Brenner.

Adrian Nathan West is the author of The Aesthetics of Degradation as well as the translator of numerous works of contemporary European literature, including Pere Gimferrer's Fortuny, Josef Winkler's Graveyard of Bitter Oranges, and Marianne Fritz's The Weight of Things.

File under: Hermann Burger Archipelago Books / New York Fiction / Poetry

Selected Prose Of Heinrich Von Kleist
by Heinrich Von Kleist

2010 / 2022, English
Softcover, 283 pages, ‎18 x 15.24 cm
Published by Archipelago Books / New York

$32.00 - In stock -

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In this extraordinary and unpredictable cross-section of the work of one of the most influential free spirits of German letters, Peter Wortsman captures the breathlessness and power of Heinrich von Kleist's transcendent prose. These tales, essays, and fragments move across inner landscapes, exploring the shaky bridges between reason and feeling and the frontiers between the human psyche and the divine. From the "The Earthquake in Chile," his damning invective against moral tyranny; to "Michael Kohlhaas," an exploration of the extreme price of justice; to "The Marquise of O . . . ," his twist on the mythic triumph of love story; to his essay "On the Gradual Formulation of Thoughts While Speaking," which tracks the movements of the unconscious decades before Freud; Kleist unrelentingly confronts the dangers of self-deception and the ultimate impossibility of existence in a world of absolutes. Wortsman's illuminating afterword demystifies Kleist's vexed history, explaining how the century after his death saw Kleist's legacy transformed from that of a largely derided playwright into a literary giant who would inspire Thomas Mann and Franz Kafka. The concerns of Heinrich von Kleist are timeless. The mysteries in his fiction and visionary essays still breathe.

“Kleist’s narrative language is something completely unique. It is not enough to read it as historical – even in his day nobody wrote as he did. . . . An impetus squeezed out with iron, absolutely un-lyrical detachment brings forth tangled, knotted, overloaded sentences painfully soldered together . . . and driven by a breathless tempo.”–Thomas Mann

“Kleist was one of the first of a line of German writers whose inwardness is so intense it seems to dissolve the weak bonds of his society. . . . Even as order and paternalism struggled to assert themselves in the private and public life of the nineteenth century, Kleist was introducing scenes of mob violence, cannibalism, and less than benevolent fathers.”–Times Literary Supplement

File under: Heinrich von Kleist Peter Wortsman Archipelago Books / New York Fiction / Poetry Poetry Performance / Dance / Theater Theory / Essay Eros

Guy Bourdin
67 POLAROIDS

2004, English
Softcover, 96 pages, 12 x 17 cm
Ed. of 1000 (mostly destroyed),
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / fine
Published by Star Publishing / Paris

$600.00 - In stock -

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First edition of this exceptionally rare Guy Bourdin title. Due to a copyright restriction almost the entire print run of only 1000 copies of the book were destroyed immediately upon release, leaving only a few copies out in the wild. This is one of those few. 67 Polaroids is the most personal and behind-the-scenes of any of Bourdin's books, presenting a stunning selection of his personal polaroids, most of which were taken during the production of some of his most familiar photo shoots. Captures an intimate and moody glimpse into the creativity of Bourdin not seen elsewhere. Beautifully compiled. "These images step outside the safety of the fashion shoot, conjuring a real-life realm steeped in an ominous sexuality."

Guy Bourdin (1928 – 1991), was a French artist and fashion photographer known for his provocative images. From 1955, Bourdin worked mostly with Vogue as well as other publications including Harper's Bazaar. He shot ad campaigns for Chanel, Charles Jourdan, Pentax and Bloomingdale's. He is considered as one of the best known photographers of fashion and advertising of the second half of the 20th century, setting the stage for a new kind of fashion photography. A protégé of Man Ray, Bourdin like his teacher often brought an edge of menace or discomfort to his eroticism. "While conventional fashion images make beauty and clothing their central elements, Bourdin’s photographs offer a radical alternative." The first retrospective exhibition of his work was held at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London in 2003, and then toured the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne, Australia, and the Galerie nationale du Jeu de Paume in Paris. The Tate is permanently exhibiting a part of its collection (one of the largest) with works made between 1950 and 1955.

Fine copy.

File under: Guy Bourdin Star Publishing / Paris Eros Photography Out-of-print / Rare Fashion

The Demon of the Absurd
by Rachilde; Preface by Marcel Schwob

2024, English
Softcover, 142 pages, 20.4 x 12.7 cm
Published by Snuggly Books / UK

$42.00 - Out of stock

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There is no other reality than things invented by an inimitable imagination. Everything else is foolishness or error... If Rachilde is the only one to be frightened by mirrors, to contemplate in the glory of the sunset or the hermetic castle where she will never enter, to experience the pangs of death for a pulled tooth, it is because she sees further than we. The master of the absurd has entered our bodies, according to Jesus’ permission, and our sight has become obscured. If Rachilde’ s tales seem absurd to the demon named “Legion,” we can be sure that they contain an invaluable part of the truth.

Thus wrote Marcel Schwob in his introduction to Rachilde’ s classic collection of Decadent stories, The Demon of the Absurd, first published in 1894 and here presented for the first time in English, in a translation by Shawn Garrett.

These tales and pièces de théâtre, uniting tragedy and comedy, horror and deep mystery, in their sum total, represent a major work by the Queen of Decadence.

“Rachilde” was the pen name of Marguerite Vallette-Eymery (1860–1953), one of the most important writers of the Decadent Movement. Her works include the novels Monsieur Vénus (1884), and The Princess of Darkness (1895), the latter book being written under the pseudonym Jean de Chilra. She also wrote a 1928 monograph on gender identity, Pourquoi je ne suis pas féministe (“Why I am not a Feminist”).

About the Translator: Shawn Garrett is a freelance editor, critic and short fiction aficionado. He currently co-edits the horror fiction podcast Pseudopod and posts weekly columns with Rue Morgue. His translations include Robert Scheffer’ s Prince Narcissus and Other Stories (Snuggly Books, 2019), and Gabriel Mourey’ s Monada (Snuggly Books, 2021).

File under: Rachilde Marcel Schwob Shawn Garrett Snuggly Books / UK Symbolism / Decadence / Fin de siècle Weird / Speculative / Science Fiction Fiction / Poetry

Death: Photography 1994—2011
by Kiyotaka Tsurisaki

2012, English
Softcover, 120 pages, 28 x 21.59 cm
Published by Creation Books / London

$65.00 - Out of stock

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DEATH is the first major retrospective of the work of Japanese photographer Tsurisaki Kiyotaka, whose images of death and conflict from global "hot-spots" have earned him a reputation as a leading underground photographer. This deluxe, full-sized book contains over 100 full-colour images shot between 1994 and 2011, culminating with poignant scenes of death and destruction from the recent Fukushima disaster in Japan. Also included is a new introduction by Tsurisaki, in which he provides an overview of the philosophy behind his unusual career.

Self-styled "corpse photographer", film director and writer Tsurisaki Kiyotaka was born 1966 in Toyama Prefecture, Japan. He graduated from the Faculty of Letters, Keio University and became a photographer after a brief career as a porno director in 1994. His first solo exhibition was held at NG Gallery (Ikejiri, Tokyo) in 1995. He has shot over 1,000 scenes of death in some of the world's most unregulated and lawless areas and conflict zones, including Thailand, Colombia, Mexico, Russia, and Palestine. He is also known for his autopsy documentary OROZCO THE EMBALMER.

File under: Kiyotaka Tsurisaki Kiyotaka Tsurisaki Creation Books / London Crime / Violence Photography Japanese Photography Transgressive / Visceral / Abject

Penny Slinger
An Exorcism: A Photo Romance

2024, English
Hardcover, 192 pages, 30.5 x 22.9 cm
Published by Fulgur Press / UK

$110.00 - Out of stock

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Sultry and gothic, Slinger’s legendary 1970s photomontage project returns to print with unpublished archival photos and text from the artist.

First published in 1977 and long out of print, Slinger's classic photobook, An Exorcism: A Photo Romance, explores the feminine psyche. Developed from a visit to Lilford Hall in 1970, Slinger provides us with a series of haunting images that chart a process of self-discovery and awakening. This new edition from Fulgur Press has been expanded with new images from the original series held in the artist’s archive and offers a previously unpublished narrative by Slinger.

Penny Slinger is a Los Angeles–based artist whose work investigates the feminine, the magical and the erotic. While studying at Chelsea College of Art in the late 1960s, Slinger encountered Max Ernst’s Une semaine de bonté (1934), initiating an enduring involvement with both the Surrealist movement and the medium of collage. She has published three books of provocative photo collage: 50% The Visible Woman, An Exorcism and Mountain Ecstasy. Her work is in many international museum collections, including Tate Britain.

File under: Penny Slinger Penny Slinger Fulgur Press / UK Eros Collage / Mail Art / Xerox Art Surrealism Photography

Unica Zürn: Art, Writing and Post-War Surrealism
by Esra Plumer

2022, English
Softcover, 272 pages, 13.8 x 21.6 cm
Published by Bloomsbury Academic / London

$85.00 - In stock -

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Diagnosed with schizophrenia in the 1950s, writer and artist Unica Zürn produced a wealth of remarkable textual and visual material while in psychiatric institutions across Germany and France. While Zürn is often discussed in relation to her partner, the controversial artist Hans Bellmer, this innovative book moves beyond the familiar model of the overlooked ‘signifigant other’ and re-introduces her as a member of the French Surrealist group.

In the first text on Unica Zürn in English, Esra Plumer presents Zürn’s life and work in light of the artist’s individual experiences of the Second World War, post-war Surrealism and mental illness, at the same time revealing wider aspects of her artistic practice in relation to her contemporaries. Plumer also reveals how the techniques of anagrams and automatism (writing and drawing methods designed to unlock the subconscious mind) form the pillars of Zürn’s artistic creative output, which carry her work into the wider theoretical circles of psychoanalytic theory and post-structuralist thought.

File under: Esra Plumer Bloomsbury Academic / London Surrealism Art Drawing Fiction / Poetry Weird / Speculative / Science Fiction

Paris Spleen
By Charles Baudelaire

1970, English
Softcover, 118 pages, 13.2 x 20.3 cm
Published by New Directions / New York

$29.00 - In stock -

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Baudelaire composed the series of prose poems known as Paris Spleen between 1855 and his death in 1867. He attached great importance to his work in this then unusual form, asking, “Which one of us, in his moments of ambition, has not dreamed of the miracle of a poetic prose, musical, without rhythm and without rhyme, supple enough and rugged enough to adapt itself to the lyrical impulses of the soul, the undulations of reverie, the jibes of conscience?” In his biography of Baudelaire, Lewis Piaget Shanks calls Paris Spleen “the final expression of the poet’s vision of the world, of his melancholia, his idealism, his desperate desire to flee from the prison of his subjectivity, his furious longing to find some escape from the ugliness of modern life. They are the center of his work: absolutely devoid of pose, they explain all the rest of it.” Where Baudelaire treated the same theme both in Paris Spleen and in Flowers of Evil, Enid Starkie finds the prose poems “more mature in conception, containing more harmony in the contrast between the flesh and the spirit.” Several of these “corresponding” poems are given in an appendix to this edition.

File under: Charles Baudelaire New Directions / New York Fiction / Poetry Symbolism / Decadence / Fin de siècle

Rimbaud : Complete Works, Selected Letters

2005, English / French
Softcover, 496 pages, 23.6 x 16.2 cm
Published by University of Chicago Press / Chicago

$45.00 - In stock -

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The enfant terrible of French letters, Jean-Nicholas-Arthur Rimbaud (1854-91) was a defiant and precocious youth who wrote some of the most remarkable prose and poetry of the nineteenth century, all before leaving the world of verse by the age of twenty-one. More than a century after his death, the young rebel-poet continues to appeal to modern readers as much for his turbulent life as for his poetry; his stormy affair with fellow poet Paul Verlaine and his nomadic adventures in eastern Africa are as iconic as his hallucinatory poems and symbolist prose.

The first translation of the poet’s complete works when it was published in 1966, Rimbaud: Complete Works, Selected Letters introduced a new generation of Americans to the alienated genius—among them the Doors’s lead singer Jim Morrison, who wrote to translator Wallace Fowlie to thank him for rendering the poems accessible to those who "don’t read French that easily." Forty years later, the book remains the only side-by-side bilingual edition of Rimbaud’s complete poetic works.

Thoroughly revising Fowlie’s edition, Seth Whidden has made changes on virtually every page, correcting errors, reordering poems, adding previously omitted versions of poems and some letters, and updating the text to reflect current scholarship; left in place are Fowlie’s literal and respectful translations of Rimbaud’s complex and nontraditional verse. Whidden also provides a foreword that considers the heritage of Fowlie’s edition and adds a bibliography that acknowledges relevant books that have appeared since the original publication. On its fortieth anniversary, Rimbaud remains the most authoritative—and now, completely up-to-date—edition of the young master’s entire poetic ouvre.

Translated with an Introduction and Notes by Wallace Fowlie
Updated, Revised, and with a Foreword by Seth Whidden

File under: Arthur Rimbaud University of Chicago Press / Chicago Fiction / Poetry Symbolism / Decadence / Fin de siècle

Pleats Please by Issey Miyake / Issey Miyake by Irving Penn
Two-volume Exhibition Catalogue, 1990

1990, English / Japanese
Softcover (two-volume catalogue house in original printed cardboard sleeve w. invitation), 21 x 30 cm, 40 pages / 20 pages / folded invitation
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by Touko Museum of Contemporary Art / Tokyo

$280.00 - Out of stock

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The incredibly rare and beautiful two-volume catalogue edition, issued in conjunction with the exhibition "Issey Miyake: Pleats Please" at Touko Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, Japan, 1990.

This is a first (only) edition printing in VG—fine condition, with additional inserted exhibition folding invitation to the private reception in 1990.

Housed in their original printed cardboard folder/pocket, these two publications, designed by Ikko Tanaka, both feature text in English and Japanese. Volume one: "Pleats Please by Issey Miyake" examines the exhibition "Issey Miyake: Pleats Please", which saw the first presentation of renowned Japanese designer Issey Miyake's new technique called garment pleating, in which the garments are cut and sewn first, then sandwiched between layers of paper and fed into a heat press, where they are pleated. The fabric's 'memory' holds the pleats and when the garments are liberated from their paper cocoon, they are ready-to wear. Miyake's pleating works were first exhibited here in 1990, three years before the launch of the famous line "Pleats Please" in 1993. The publication documents production and installation photography from the exhibitions, where the garments were set into a custom built floor system.

Volume Two: "Issey Miyake by Irving Penn", features stunning photography by the great Irving Penn, of each of Issey Miyake's first "Pleats Please" garments together with a poem by Shuntaro Tanikawa.

This is truely a collector's item for any Issey Miyake enthusiast or collector, marking the beginning of "Pleats Please" through the photography of Irving Penn. This copy has been well looked after, with both books in wonderful condition, protected by the original printed folder sleeve, which is also in preserved condition.

VG—F condition all round.

File under: Irving Penn Issey Miyake Shuntaro Tanikawa Touko Museum of Contemporary Art / Tokyo Fashion Out-of-print / Rare Photography Textiles Art

KATHY ACKER: GET RID OF MEANING

2022, English
Softcover, 400 pages, 25 x 34 cm
Published by Walther König / Köln

$89.00 - In stock -

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An essential compendium on the work, life and legacy of the transgressive autofiction pioneer.

The American author Kathy Acker was one of the most influential writers of the 20th century. Working through a tradition spanning Bataille, Burroughs, Schneemann, French critical theory and pornography, she wrote numerous novels, essays, poems and novellas from the early 1970s to the late 1990s, among them the classics The Childlike Life of the Black Tarantula, Blood and Guts in High School and In Memoriam to Identity. A truly pioneering postmodernist, plagiarist and postpunk feminist, Acker continues to inspire generations of writers, philosophers and artists, from her contemporaries such as Dodie Bellamy, Avital Ronell, McKenzie Wark and Chris Kraus to younger writers such as Bhanu Kapil and Olivia Laing.

Get Rid of Meaning is the first comprehensive publication to synthesize art and literary perspectives on Acker's work. It shows Acker's own visual sensibility in her cut-up notebooks and her use of mail-art idioms, and orients her emergence within the 1970s art scenes in New York and California populated by Eleanor Antin, Lynn Hershman Leeson and Constance DeJong, among others--artists who made innovations in performance, of which Acker would make use.

Also included is previously unpublished material from Acker's personal archive and other collections, including correspondence, her library and various personal effects.

Contributors include: Kathy Acker, Dodie Bellamy, Hanjo Berressem, Ruth Buchanan, Anja Casser, Georgina Colby, Leslie Dick, Claire Finch, Johnny Golding, Anja Kirschner, Chris Kraus, Sylvère Lotringer, Douglas A. Martin, Jason McBride, Karolin Meunier and Kerstin Stakemeier, Avital Ronell, Daniel Schulz, Matias Viegener and McKenzie Wark.

File under: Kathy Acker Walther König / Köln Art Feminism Performance / Dance / Theater Collage / Mail Art / Xerox Art Fiction / Poetry Transgressive / Visceral / Abject

The Childlike Life of The Black Tarantula
by Kathy Acker (The Black Tarantula)

1978, English
Softcover, 152 pages,
Out of print title / used / good
Published by TVRT Press / New York

$90.00 - Out of stock

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Rare 1978 edition of The Childlike Life of The Black Tarantula, the first book by Kathy Acker (The Black Tarantula), and arguably her greatest.

A controversial avant-garde writer and cult figure of the punk movement, Kathy Acker (1947-1997) is considered among the most significant proponents of radical feminism and the postmodern literary aesthetic. Associated with the discordant, irreverent music of punk rock, Acker's iconoclastic metafiction—a chaotic amalgam of extreme profanity, violence, graphic sex, autobiography, fragmented narrative, and plagiarized texts—rejects conventional morality and traditional modes of literary expression. Acker's trademark fiction is a pastiche of visceral prose, sensationalized autobiography, political tract, pornography, and appropriated texts in which characters—often famous literary or historical figures—easily move through time and space while frequently changing personalities and genders. Deliberately non-chronological and usually evoking a quest theme, her largely plotless stories progress through disjointed, jump-cut sequences that incorporate fantasy, personal statement, and the juxtaposition of excerpted texts from various sources, such as Charles Dickens, Marcel Proust, and the Marquis de Sade. Acker's trenchant criticism of oppressive middle-class mores, phallocentric culture, and all hierarchial power structures permeates her writings, particularly as symbolized in repeated scenes of rape and incest. In The Childlike Life of the Black Tarantula, a sixteen-year-old female narrator explores alternate identities as a murderess and prostitute, copies passages from pornographic books in which she imagines herself the leading character, and participates in public sex acts.

Good copy with rubbing to covers, otherwise tight, well preserved copy.

File under: Kathy Acker Kathy Acker TVRT Press / New York Fiction / Poetry

Jan Švankmajer
Švankmajer's Museum : Tactile Art, Objects, Collages

2001, Japanese
Hardcover (w. dust jacket), 164 pages, 25.8 x 19.6 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / fine
Published by Kokusho Kankokai / Japan

$100.00 - Out of stock

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First edition of this wonderful hardcover monographic survey on the work of Czech Surrealist artist, puppeteer, animator, and filmmaker, Jan Švankmajer (b. Prague, 1934), published in Japan in 2001. Profusely illustrated throughout in colour and b/w with chapters dedicated to his sculpture, collage, ceramics, “tactile experiments”, and much more. Well-known for his dark re-imaginings of well-known fairy tales and for his avant-garde merging of live action, stop-motion animation and puppetry, Švankmajer is one of the most distinctive and acclaimed Czech filmmakers. Since the mid-1960s, his films have shocked, mesmerized, repulsed and delighted audiences, amassing international cult-like following. His prolific work off-screen across assemblage and collage mediums, using both man-made and organic materials, share the central thematic elements of his subversive films, such as black humour, metamorphosis, sex, decomposition, mythology, scatology, death, humour and the absurd. Over 300 illustrations with texts by Hideto Fuse, Maki Kumagai, Petr Holly, Jan Švankmajer.

Very Good copy in VG dust jacket.

File under: Jan Svankmajer Eva Švankmajerová Kokusho Kankokai / Japan Art Sculpture / Installation Drawing Film / Video Out-of-print / Rare Surrealism Performance / Dance / Theater Weird / Speculative / Science Fiction Ceramics / Glass Transgressive / Visceral / Abject

Grave Desire : A Cultural History of Necrophilia
by Steve Finbow

2024, English
Hardcover (w. dust jacket), 316 pages, 21 x 15 cm
Published by Infinity Land Press / London

$80.00 - In stock -

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Necrophilia has shadowed humanity throughout its existence, from ancient Egypt, to the Moche culture of Peru, the exploits of the renowned Vampire of Montparnasse, the sexual murders of the Weimar Republic, through to serial killers such as Ted Bundy and Jeffrey Dahmer. This new edition of Grave Desire – with artworks by Karolina Urbaniak – delves unflinchingly into the myths, art and practices surrounding this taboo subject. Finding Juliet’s catatonic body and believing she had poisoned herself, it could have crossed Romeo’s mind to act out the unthinkable. Maybe Juliet, seeing Romeo’s corpse, considered a little sexual frottage before she stabbed herself with the phallic dagger. Repulsive yet real, disgusting and disturbing, this is an erotic book of the dead.

“If sex and death are two pivotal obsessions of the human species, Steve Finbow nails both of them simultaneously in his brilliantly incisive cultural and corporeal history of necrophilia. Pathologically and outlandishly good.”—Stephen Barber

“If you only read one book before you die make sure it’s Grave Desire.”—Stewart Home

Illustrated by Karolina Urbaniak
Interview conducted by Martin Bladh
Afterword by Richard Marshall

File under: Martin Bladh Karolina Urbaniak Steve Finbow Richard Marshall Martin Bladh Infinity Land Press / London Weird / Speculative / Science Fiction Theory / Essay Transgressive / Visceral / Abject Crime / Violence Eros

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