World Food Books' programme is largely produced on Kulin Nation land. We acknowledge the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation as the first and continuing custodians of this land, and pay respect to their Elders past, present, and emerging.
World Food Books is an arts and special interests bookshop in Naarm / Melbourne. Founded in 2010, World Food Books is devoted to the presentation of a rotating, hand-selection of international art, design, literary and counterculture publications with an emphasis on the anti-traditional, the experimental, the avant-garde, the heretic, the marginal.
Presenting new titles alongside rare and out-of-print books, catalogues and journals spanning the fields of modern and contemporary art, design, photography, illustration, film, literature, poetry, cultural theory, philosophy, sexuality, popular and underground culture in its many radical forms, World Food Books wishes to encourage adventurous, thoughtful and open-minded reading, looking, writing, and exchange of publishing and ideas, both current and historical.
As well as our bookshop, located in Melbourne's historical Nicholas Building, all of our inventory is available internationally via our online mail-order service.
World Food Books semi-regularly co-ordinates "Occasions", a programme of exhibits and events at the bookshop and in partnership with other hosts (such as museums and art galleries) that develop out of the activities, relationships and content of the bookshop itself.
World Food Books
The Nicholas Building
37 Swanston Street
Room 5, Level 6
Melbourne 3000
Australia
SHOP HOURS:
THU—FRI 12—6 PM
WEB-SHOP OPEN 24/7
World Food Books
Postal Address:
PO Box 435
Flinders Lane
Victoria 8009
Australia
Art
Theory / Essay
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World Food Books Gift Voucher
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Australian Art
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Dada
'Pataphysics / Oulipo
Fluxus
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Arte Povera
Arte Informale / Haute Pâte / Tachism
Nouveau Réalisme / Zero / Kinetic
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All prices in AUD (Australian dollars)
Pick-Ups
Pick-up orders can be collected in our bookshop during opening hours after order date. Please collect any Pick-up orders within 2 weeks of ordering as we have limited storage space. Orders will be released back into stock if not collected within this time. No refunds can be made for pick-ups left un-collected. If you cannot make it in to the bookshop in this time-frame, please choose postage option.
Return Policy
All sales are final. We do accept returns (for refund or exchange) for items received in error. All our orders are packed with special care using heavy-duty padding and cardboard book-mailers or bubble mailers (for smaller books), using reinforcement where required. We cannot take responsibility for any lost, stolen or damaged parcels.
Insurance
Should you wish to insure your package, please email us directly after placing your order and we can organise this at a small extra expense. Although all standard/express tracked packages are very safe and dependable, we cannot take responsibility for any lost, stolen or damaged parcels. We recommend insurance on valuable orders.
Interested in selling your old books, catalogues, journals, magazines, comics, fanzines, ephemera? We are always looking for interesting, unusual and out-of-print books to buy. We only buy books in our fields of interest and specialty, and that we feel we can resell.
We base these prices on desirability, market value, in-print prices, condition and our current stock levels. We offer cash, store credit, and can take stock on consignment. All
about 25% of the price we expect to get when we sell them, or 30% in store credit. We base these prices on desirability, market value, in-print prices, condition and our current stock levels.
Sell your books any day of the week. You can drop them off and return later. If you have a lot of books, we can visit your Sydney home.
We buy books that we feel we can resell. We offer about 25 % of the price we expect to get when we sell them, or 30% in store credit. We base these prices on desirability, market value, in-print prices, condition and our current stock levels.
Philadelphia Wireman
03 August - 01 September, 2018
World Food Books is proud to announce our next Occasion, the first presentation of sculptures by Philadelphia Wireman in Australia.
The Philadelphia Wireman sculptures were found abandoned in an alley off Philadelphia’s South Street on trash night in 1982. Their discovery in a rapidly-changing neighbourhood undergoing extensive renovation, compounded with the failure of all attempts to locate the artist, suggests that the works may have been discarded after the maker’s death. Dubbed the "Philadelphia Wireman" during the first exhibition of this work, in 1985, the maker’s name, age, ethnicity, and even gender remain uncertain. The entire collection totals approximately 1200 pieces, all intricately bound together with tightly-wound heavy-gauge wire (along with a few small, abstract marker drawings, reminiscent both of Mark Tobey and J.B. Murry). The dense construction of the work, despite a modest range of scale and materials, is singularly obsessive and disciplined in design: a wire armature or exoskeleton firmly binds a bricolage of found objects including plastic, glass, food packaging, umbrella parts, tape, rubber, batteries, pens, leather, reflectors, nuts and bolts, nails, foil, coins, toys, watches, eyeglasses, tools, and jewellery.
Heavy with associations—anthropomorphic, zoomorphic, and socio-cultural responses to wrapped detritus—the totemic sculptures by Philadelphia Wireman have been discussed in the context of work created to fulfil the shamanistic needs of alternative religions in American culture. Curators, collectors, and critics have variously compared certain pieces to sculpture from Classical antiquity, Native American medicine bundles, African-American memory jugs, and African fetish objects. Reflecting the artist’s prolific and incredibly focused scavenging impulse, and despite—or perhaps enhanced by—their anonymity, these enigmatic objects function as urban artefacts and arbiters of power, though their origin and purpose is unknown. Philadelphia Wireman, whatever their identity, possessed an astonishing ability to isolate and communicate the concepts of power and energy through the selection and transformation of ordinary materials. Over the course of the past two decades, this collection has come to be regarded as an important discovery in the field of self-taught art and vernacular art.
Presented in collaboration with Fleisher-Ollman Gallery, Philadelphia, and Robert Heald, Wellington.
Susan Te Kahurangi King
02 February - 10 March, 2018
Susan Te Kahurangi King (24 February 1951 - ) has been a confident and prolific artist since she was a young child, drawing with readily available materials - pencils, ballpoint pens and felt-tip markers, on whatever paper is at hand. Between the ages of four and six Susan slowly ceased verbal communication. Her grandparents William and Myrtle Murphy had developed a special bond with Susan so they took on caring responsibilities for extended periods. Myrtle began informally archiving her work, carefully collecting and storing the drawings and compiling scrapbooks. No drawing was insignificant; every scrap of paper was kept. The King family are now the custodians of a vast collection containing over 7000 individual works, from tiny scraps of paper through to 5 meter long rolls.
The scrapbooks and diaries reveal Myrtle to be a woman of great patience and compassion, seeking to understand a child who was not always behaving as expected. She encouraged Susan to be observant, to explore her environment and absorb all the sights and sounds. Myrtle would show Susan’s drawings to friends and people in her community that she had dealings with, such as shopkeepers and postal workers, but this was not simply a case of a grandmother’s bias. She recognised that Susan had developed a sophisticated and unique visual language and sincerely believed that her art deserved serious attention.
This was an unorthodox attitude for the time. To provide some context, Jean Dubuffet coined the term Art Brut in 1945 to describe work created by self-taught artists – specifically residents of psychiatric institutions and those he considered to be visionaries or eccentrics. In 1972 Roger Cardinal extended this concept by adopting the term Outsider Art to describe work made by non-academically trained artists operating outside of mainstream art networks through choice or circumstance. Susan was born in Te Aroha, New Zealand in 1951, far from the artistic hubs of Paris and London that Dubuffet and Cardinal operated in. That Myrtle fêted Susan as a self-taught artist who deserved to be taken seriously shows how progressive her attitudes were.
Susan’s parents Doug and Dawn were also progressive. Over the years they had consulted numerous health practitioners about Susan’s condition, as the medical establishment could not provide an explanation as to why she had lapsed into silence. Dawn educated herself in the field of homeopathy and went on to treat all twelve of her children using these principles – basing prescriptions on her observations of their physical, mental and emotional state.
Doug was a linguist with an interest in philosophy who devoted what little spare time he had to studying Maori language and culture. To some extent their willingness to explore the fringes of the mainstream made them outsiders too but it was their commitment to living with integrity and their respect for individuality that ensured Susan’s creativity was always encouraged.
Even though Susan’s family supported her artistic pursuits, some staff in schools and hospitals saw it as an impediment to her assimilation into the community and discouraged it in a variety of ways. Her family was not always aware of this and therefore did not fully understand why Susan stopped drawing in the early 1990s. However, rather than dwell on the challenges that Susan faced in pursuit of her artistic practice, they prefer to highlight her achievements. In 2008 Susan began drawing again in earnest, after an almost 20 year interruption, and her work is now shown in galleries around the world.
Susan grew up without television and has been heavily influenced by the comics she read as a child. She is absolutely fearless in the appropriation of recognizable characters, such as Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse, in her work. She twists their limbs, contorts their faces, compresses them together, blends them into complex patterned backgrounds - always imbuing them with an incredible energy. Although Susan often used pop culture characters in her work they are not naive or childlike. These are drawings by a brilliant self-taught artist who has been creating exceptional work for decades without an audience in mind.
Mladen Stilinović
"Various Works 1986 - 1999"
02 February 16 - September 10, 2016
Various works 1986 - 1999, from two houses, from the collections of John Nixon, Sue Cramer, Kerrie Poliness, Peter Haffenden and Phoebe Haffenden.
Including: Geometry of Cakes (various shelves), 1993; Poor People’s Law (black and white plate), 1993; White Absence (glasses, ruler, set square, silver spoon, silver ladel with skin photograph and wooden cubes), 1990-1996; Exploitation of the Dead (grey and red star painting, wooden painting, black spoon with red table, red plate), 1984-1990; Money and Zeros (zero tie, paintings made for friends in Australia (Sue, John, Kerrie), numbers painting), 1991-1992; Words - Slogans (various t-shirts) - “they talk about the death of art...help! someone is trying to kill me”, “my sweet little lamb”, “work is a disease - Karl Marx”; Various artist books, catalogues, monographs, videos; Poster from exhibition Insulting Anarchy; "Circular" Croatian - Australian edition; Artist book by Vlado Martek (Dostoyevsky); more.
Thanks to Mladen Stilinović and Branka Stipančić.
Jonathan Walker
Always Will Need To Wear Winter Shirt Blue + Ochre Small Check Pattern
21 August - 21 September, 2015
Untitled
I am not a great reader of poetry but I always return to the work of Melbourne poet, Vincent Buckley (1925- 1988). Perhaps I find his most tantalising piece to be not a finished poem but a fragment left on a scrap of paper discovered on his desk after the poet’s death.
The poetry gathers like oil
In the word-core, and spreads
It has its music meet,
Its music is in movement.
This fragment is more the shell left behind from a volatile thought than a finished poem. I find the last two lines honest but awkward whereas the first two lines work like an arrow. Most likely he could not find a resolution so it was left. Still, in its present form, it remains an eloquent testimony to the ultimate failure of a medium to express mobile thought and sensation, in Buckley’s case, through verbal language. It’s an important matter because this is something all artists have to deal with regardless of the medium.
I have never written a poem, however, I am forever copying fragments from books on paper scraps in a vain effort to fix certain notions in my head. At first, they function as bookmarks that are sometimes returned to when I open the book. But before long, as they accumulate, they fall out littering the table interspersed with A4 photocopies, bills, books and medications.
To return to Buckley’s fragment, the first two lines very much evoke how I paint nowadays. As you age, detail diminishes and patches of light become more luminous and float. I feel the most honest way of dealing with this is by smearing the oil paint on the canvas with the fingers and working close-up, blind. Only if the patches coalesce into an approaching image can the work gain a life.
-
Jonathan Walker was born in Melbourne, Australia and brought up on a dairy farm in Gippsland. In the 1970’s he studied painting at RMIT and won the Harold Wright Scholarship to the British Museum, London. During the 1980’s he exhibited at Pinacotheca Gallery, Richmond and had work shown at the NGV and Heidi City Art Gallery. Over the same period he designed the cover for the “Epigenesi” LP by Giancarlo Toniutti, Italy and conducted a mail exchange work with Achim Wollscheid, Germany. The work with artists through the post resulted in an article published in the bicentenary issue of Art and Australia 1988. He showed in artist run spaces such as WestSpace in the 90’s and 2000’s, and until 2012, taught painting at Victoria University, which is where we (Colleen Ahern and Lisa Radford) as organisers of the exhibition, among many others, had the privilege of being his student.
Walker’s knowledge was imparted to students through the careful selection of music, literature, and artists found in books that he himself had ordered for the library. Walker’s strategy was the generosity of sharing his vast knowledge with references specific to each student and their context.
Walker’s paintings share a similar focus and intimacy.
This exhibition presents a small selection of recent paintings alongside a publication that includes Walker’s writing. Observational and analytical, Walker’s work is a type of material notation — the time of day, colour and how it is blended, the both specific and fleeting location of a reflection on lino or the question of whether a chair leg should be included in a painting.
Please join us on Friday August 21 between 6-8pm to celebrate the opening of the exhibition.
Curated by Colleen Ahern and Lisa Radford.
B. Wurtz
Curated by Nic Tammens
March 26 - April 4, 2015
B.Wurtz works from a basement studio in his home on Manhattan’s Lower East Side.
This local fact is attested to by the plastic shopping bags and newsprint circulars that appear in his work. As formal objects, they don’t make loud claims about their origins but nonetheless transmit street addresses and places of business from the bottom of this long thin island. Like plenty of artists, Wurtz is affected by what is local and what is consumed. His work is underpinned by this ethic. It often speaks from a neighborhood or reads like the contents of a hamper:
“BLACK PLUMS $1.29 lb.”
“Food Bazaar”
“USDA Whole Pork Shoulder Picnic 99c lb.”
“RITE AID Pharmacy, with us it’s personal.”
“H. Brickman & Sons.”
“Sweet Yams 59c lb."
Most of the work in this exhibition was made while the artist was in residence at Dieu Donne, a workshop dedicated to paper craft in Midtown. Here Wurtz fabricated assemblages with paper and objects that are relatively lightweight, with the intention that they would be easily transportable to Australia. This consideration isn’t absolute in Wurtz’s work, but was prescriptive for making the current exhibition light and cheap. Packed in two boxes, these works were sent from a USPS post office on the Lower East Side and delivered to North Melbourne by Australia Post.
Wurtz appears courtesy of Metro Pictures, New York.
Thanks to Rob Halverson, Joshua Petherick, Sari de Mallory, Matt Hinkley, Helen Johnson, Fayen d'Evie, Ask Kilmartin, Lisa Radon, Ellena Savage, Yale Union, and "Elizabeth".
John Nixon
"Archive"
December 15 - January 20, 2014
The presentation of John Nixon's archive offered a rare showcase of this extensive collection of the artist's own publications, catalogues, posters, ephemera, editions and more, from the mid 1980s onwards, alongside a selection of his artworks.
Organized by John Nixon, Joshua Petherick and Matt Hinkley.
"Habitat"
at Minerva, Sydney (organised by Joshua Petherick and Matt Hinkley)
November 15 - December 20, 2014
Lupo Borgonovo, Janet Burchill & Jennifer McCamley,
Lewis Fidock, HR Giger, Piero Gilardi, Veit Laurent Kurz,
Cinzia Ruggeri, Michael E. Smith, Lucie Stahl, Daniel Weil, Wols
Press Release:
“...It contained seven objects. The slender fluted bone, surely formed for flight, surely from the wing of some large bird. Three archaic circuitboards, faced with mazes of gold. A smooth white sphere of baked clay. An age-blackened fragment of lace. A fingerlength segment of what she assumed was bone from a human wrist, grayish white, inset smoothly with the silicon shaft of a small instrument that must once have ridden flush with the surface of the skin - but the thing’s face was seared and blackened.”
William Gibson, “Count Zero”, 1986
"Autumn Projects Archive"
Curated by Liza Vasiliou
March 6 - March 15, 2014
World Food Books, in conjunction with the Virgin Australia Melbourne Fashion Festival 2014, presented the Autumn Projects archive, consisting of a selection of early examples in Australian fashion with a particular interest in collecting designers and labels from the period beginning in the 1980’s, who significantly influenced the discourse of Australian Fashion.
Curated by Liza Vasiliou, the exhibition provided a unique opportunity to view pieces by designers Anthea Crawford, Barbara Vandenberg, Geoff Liddell and labels CR Australia, Covers, Jag along with early experimental collage pieces by Prue Acton and Sally Browne’s ‘Fragments’ collection, suspended throughout the functioning World Food Books shop in Melbourne.
H.B. Peace
presented by CENTRE FOR STYLE
November 14, 2013
"Hey Blinky, you say chic, I say same"
Anon 2013
H.B. Peace is a clothing collaboration between great friends Blake Barns and Hugh Egan Westland. Their pieces explore the divergences between 'character’ and ‘personality’ in garments....etc
Special Thanks to Joshua Petherick and Matt Hinkley of WFB and Gillian Mears
and a Very Special Thank you to Audrey Thomas Hayes for her shoe collaboration.
Janet Burchill & Jennifer McCamley
"Aesthetic Suicide"
May 10 - June 8, 2013
The first of our occasional exhibitions in the World Food Books office/shop space in Melbourne, "Aesthetic Suicide" presented a body of new and older works together by artists Janet Burchill & Jennifer McCamley, including videos, prints, a wall work, and publications.
During shop open hours videos played every hour, on the hour.
1984, Japanese
Softcover (w. dust jacket), 98 pages (w. fold-outs), 42 x 30 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Treville / Tokyo
$220.00 - Out of stock
First Japanese edition of H.R. Giger's Necronomicon from 1984. Beginning with a hommage from Salvador Dali and introduction by Clive Baker, the first in this series of oversized and visually overwhelming Giger-designed volumes takes us through the early history of one of the most brilliant fantasy artists of the century. From his "Passegen" series, his work for theatre, posters, album artwork, environments, personal works, is designs for Alejandro Jodorowsky's DUNE, and much more, all beautifully reproduced in full-colour and black and white, full-bleed spreads, including fold-out pages. These Giger folio books have become very desirable, collectable editions in their various printings around the world, the series encompassing the work of one of the world's most unique and influential visionaries of the macabre. This is volume 1 of 2 of "HR Giger's Necronomicon" where Al Azred's legendary magical book of the most wonderful abominations and perversions, "Necronomicon" (made infamous in the pages of HP Lovecraft's "Cthulhu" mythology), becomes a visual reality!
With an introduction by Clive Baker and numerous texts by HR Giger as well as texts by Fritz Billeter and Simon Vinkenoog and a tribute from Salvador Dali. Note: Japanese language edition.
First Japanese edition, published by Treville, Tokyo, in 1984. Very good copy throughout with Very Good dust jacket. Some edge wear with fragile, oversized edition.
1987, Japanese
Softcover (w. dust jacket), 98 pages (w. fold-outs), 42 x 30 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Treville / Tokyo
$220.00 - In stock -
First Japanese edition of H.R. Giger's Necronomicon II, the second oversized and visually overwhelming Giger-designed collection that takes us further through the incredible history of one of the most brilliant fantasy artists of the century. Reproducing Giger's award-winning work for the film ALIEN, his paintings, environments, sculptural works, his work for never shot film "The Tourist", collaborations with Blondie's Debbie Harry, his "New York City" series from the late 1970's and much more, all beautifully reproduced in full-colour and black and white, full-bleed spreads, including fold-out pages. Also includes interviews, texts, biography. These Giger folio books have become very desirable, collectable editions in their various printings around the world, the series encompassing the work of one of the world's most unique and influential visionaries of the macabre. This is volume 2 of 2 of "HR Giger's Necronomicon" where Al Azred's legendary magical book of the most wonderful abominations and perversions, "Necronomicon" (made infamous in the pages of HP Lovecraft's "Cthulhu" mythology), becomes a visual reality!
First Japanese edition, published by Treville, Tokyo, in 1987. Very good copy throughout with Very Good dust jacket. Some light wear to over-sized book.
1984, English / Japanese
Softcover (w. metallic obi + poster), 96 pages, 27.2 x 21.4 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Doremi Music / Japan
$180.00 - In stock -
The super rare Visual of Heavy Metal (The Heavy Metal Music Encyclopedia), published in Japan in one small edition in 1984! No text fluff, this book is cover-to-cover blazing full-colour reproductions of Heavy Metal album art, published at the height of metal's international break-out. NWOBHM, Speed Metal, Hard Rock, Glam Metal, Thrash... UK, USA, Sweden, France, Australia, Canada... Iron Maiden, Ethel The Frog, Mercyful Fate, Anvil, Exciter, Girl School, Black Sabbath, Samson, The Rods, Venom, Mother's Finest, Killer Dwarfs, Alkatrazz, Praying Mantis, Riot, Cloven Hoof, Gotham City, Raven, Witchfynde, Ostrogoth, Satan Jokers, Satan, Demon Eyes, Chateaux, Blaspheme, Fist, Sortilège, Pink Fairies, Anthrax, Queensrÿche, Heavy Pettin, Alaska, Helstar, Ratt, AC/DC, Jack Starr, Gamma, H-Bomb, Virgin Steele, Black Alice, Spider Force, Dio, Maccoy, Tygers Of Pan Tang, Band Of Joy, Scorpions, Wild Dogs, Kiss, Def Leppard, Alvin Lee, Heaven, Sledgehammer, Electric Sun, Colosseum II, Harman Rarebell, Tank, Pantera, Tokyo Blade, The Michael Schenker Strife Group, Budgie, Wolf, Nazareth, Status Quo, Judas Priest, Icon, Torch, British Lions, Rush, Pandemonium, Crucifixion, Thin Lizzy, Victim, Accept, Trouble Manillaroad, Witch Killer, Crawler, Faithful, Breath, Gary Moore, Trance, Silver Mountain, Slayer, Hawkwind, Helix, The Handsome Beats, Motorhead, Tank, Warrior, Manowar, Picture, Ufo, Rainbow, Alcatrazz, High Power, Warning, Battle Axe, Victim, W.A.S.P., Tsunami, Metallica, Cirith Ungol, Molly Hatchet, Biscaya, Meat Loaf, Bernie Tormé, Talas, Sinner, Chariot, Alien, Thor, Mad Max, Sad Iron, Grave Digger, Mass, Rick Derringer, Santer, Warning, Witchfinder, Be Bop Deluxe, Force, Blue Oyster Cult, Dark Wizard, Twisted Sister, Faithful Breath, Dark Heart, Thunder Fire, Cutty Sark, Night Wing, Cross Fire, Demon, Ostrogoth, Spartan Warrior, Voivod, Joshua, Omen, Elf, Uriah Heep, John Cale, Ian Gillan Band, Cozy Powell, Status Quo, Ted Nugent, Krokus, White Snake, Twisted Sister, Triumph, Wild Dogs, Steeler, Culprit Exciter Randy Hansen, Chris Spedding, Mama's Boys, Acid, Legs Diamond, Le Mans, Killer, Holocaust, Coney Hatch, Dark Star, Waysted, Brian May, Vic Vergat, Robin Trower, Quiet Riot, Ozzy Ozbourne, Gary Moore, Axewitch, Pretty Maids, Grim Reaper, Blade Runner, Black Angels, Captain Beyond, and so many more! Compiled by Masateru Makino. No text, only catalogue data for each LP, full index, appendix, colophon. An excellent reference and visual onslaught.
Very Good copy with gold obi (obi has damage) and promotional book shop poster inserted.
2025, English
Softcover, 16 silk-screened pages, 21 x 15 cm
Published by
Self-Published / Naarm
$60.00 - In stock -
Screen printed A5 zine by Oriette Wood with writing from Anonymous woman #1 is an ode to all the transvestite/transsexual/crossdressing publications that had shone the light before. This collection of poetry and prints draws upon sissification, trans exultation, obscurity and playfulness. Although there is particular reference to Virginia Prince’s magazine ‘Transvestia’, there are so many others like it that shared stories, educated and connected people to the community.
Oriette Wood is a Naarm/Melbourne based transgender printmaker and seamstress, her works explore the erotics of trans bodies, taking inspiration from influential fetish artists, cross-dressing forums, and personal fantasies.
2025, English
Softcover (thread-sewn), 12 hand-bound silkscreened pages, 30 x 21.5 cm
Numbered Ed. of 11,
Published by
Self-Published / Naarm
$220.00 - In stock -
'Cats Versus Dogs' is hand bound and screen-printed zine collection of prints published in a numbered edition of 11, self-published by Laurette Chiappa (Bicy) and Oriette Wood. “After meeting at our local screen printing studio (Troppo), this collaborative work started as a personal joke as we had conflicting opinions on which of these two domestic animals was best, drawing scenes in defence and attack of one another. Each print guiding and questioning the roles each animal plays in our lives, while technically teaching us a lot about multi-colour overlays, layouts, and binding. Over the course of a month and a half we drew, printed and bound the books.”
Oriette Wood is a Naarm/Melbourne based transgender printmaker and seamstress, her works explore the erotics of trans bodies, taking inspiration from influential fetish artists, cross-dressing forums, and personal fantasies.
Laurette Chiappa (Bicy) is printmaker and tattoo artist from Toulouse, living and working in Naarm/Melbourne. Her works inquire what and where 'home' is using tattooing and ornamental design as reference.
Limited edition of 11 copies
2001, English / German
Hardcover (w. textured vinyl covering), 144 pages, 27.5 x 21.5 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Gestalten / Berlin
$180.00 - Out of stock
First 2001 edition of Gestalten's milestone photo book collection of Martin Eberle's Temporary Spaces series created in the 1990s—a time when clubs and quasi-clubs were helping to define the image of a reunited Berlin.
Berlin's club scene is an international benchmark for improvised coolness and defined by its software: people, fashion, music, performance and drama.
Spanning over a period of 10 years, Martin Eberle's stunning photographs are the first to document of these locations as they really are. By radically reducing them to their hardware, the empty space, juxtaposing run-down facades and lovingly crafted interiors (from improvised to hysterically glamorous) with architectural brutality, he perfectly captures their legendary, ramshackle hipness.
Filling and contrasting this vague unreal, static void are personal anecdotes by well-known promoters and club patrons who have already "collapsed in pretty much every corner".
Encased in tactile white reptile print, Temporary Spaces simultaneously serves as the nostalgic documentation of a spectacular era, a personal photo album and an uneasy declaration of love for the transience and enthusiasm reverberating in the clean accuracy of these pictures.
Text in English and German by Heinrich Dubel.
Very Good copy.
1980, English
Hardcover (w. dust jacket), 128 pages, 34 x 24.5 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Open House / London
$500.00 - Out of stock
First edition of this rare and truely wonderful book on the magical Australian artist Vali Myers (1930—2003), published in this hardbound edition in 1980 by Open House, London. Artist, dancer, muse, lover of animals and powerful creatrix, Vali Myers was a unique spirit born out of time. She lived her extraordinary life like a bright flame, cutting her own path and living on her own terms: a tightrope walker – one foot in this world and one in a dream world that we can only glimpse in her profound artwork. This remains the finest volume collecting Vali's drawings and paintings, her life's work. The life of a fearless, wild spirit that is manifested in her artworks, lavishly illustrated here in colour. Foreword by photographer Ed van der Elsken, and Introduction by George A. Plimpton, editor of ‘The Paris Review’.
“Let it all be animal, my life and death, hard and clean like that, anything but human… a lot I care, me with my red heart in the dark earth and my tattooed feet following the animal ways.”—Vali Myers, diary entry, 1963
Premiere danseuse of the Melbourne Modern Ballet at seventeen, Vali left her Australian home for Paris, living on the streets of the Latin Quarter of Saint Germain des Pres on the Left Bank for three years, surviving on bread and milk and carrying a knife for protection. Despite the poverty of city ravaged by war, she never ceased to draw and dance. Vali became notorious in the cafés and nightclubs of the Quarter for her phantom-like face and almost supernatural ability to dance. Photographer Ed van der Elsken made Vali the main subject of a series of photographs documenting bohemian life in postwar Paris published in the book ‘Love on the Left Bank’ in 1956, featuring her artworks. Her work was praised by George Plimpton in his Paris Review. After stints in prison for vagrancy, Vali left Paris and began her ‘walkabout’ of France, Italy, Britain, Brussels and Austria, to return again to Paris with young architect, Rudi Rappold. Vali Myers, the 'Australian queen of bohemia', friend to Jean Cocteau, Tennessee Williams, and Jean Genet, left Paris for the last time in an effort to escape an opium addiction that was slowly killing her. After months of wandering, Vali and Rudi literally stumbled into the wild green valley of ‘Il Porto’ in Positano, Southern Italy. Protected by 1,000-foot cliffs, the almost impenetrable valley opened to the sea and became Vali’s main residence and greatest inspiration. In the early summer of 1971, Italian artist Gianni Menichetti began living with Vali and together they took care of the large animal family that developed in the valley. Ironically, these same animals had filled Vali’s dreams and work for years – the owl, raven, and the fox. Over the years more animals came to the retreat until Vali had built up a menagerie numbering over one hundred. After years of battling with local police and government bureaucracy, Vali finally obtained permission to turn the valley into a wildlife sanctuary under the protection of the World Wildlife Fund and dedicated all of her money, time and energy into it’s preservation. During the ‘60s, after years of hibernation from the outside world, the legend of Vali and her artwork began to seep into the consciousness of the new psychedelic generation, praised by Andy Warhol, Ernst Fuchs, and Salvador Dali, inspiration to Patti Smith, Deborah Harry, Mick Jagger, Mary Ellen Clark, and Marianne Faithful. She began exhibiting her artworks and dividing her time between the Hotel Chelsea in New York City, a 14th-century cottage at Il Porto, near Positano, a residence in Paris and her adopted home in Melbourne. Later, after she began having seizures, she returned to Melbourne in 1993, and opened a studio in the Nicholas Building; only returning to Positano occasionally. She passed away in 2003.
Very Good copy in Good dust jacket preserved under mylar wrap. DJ has one repaired tear with general light wear and tear to extremities, light tanning.
1985, German
Original screen print on felt, 10.2 x 14.6 x 3.2 cm
Published by
Edition Staeck / Heidelberg
$90.00 - Out of stock
Joseph Beuys’s “Filzpostkarte,” reflects the artist’s esteem for the postcard because of its double function as a vehicle for communication and as a simple artistic medium. He, therefore transferred a multitude of materials, important to his work - like wood, copper and even sulphur - into the form of a postcard.
Filzpostkarte (by Joseph Beuys) is not just the title of the item, it is also a play with words: Filpostkarte – felt postcard, and Feldpostkarte – a postcard sent to and from soldiers on in the battlfield.
Reference: Joseph Beuys: The Multiples, Schellmann, 539.
2021, Japanese / English
Hardcover (with obi), 368 pages, 20 x 30 cm
Published by
Toyota Municipal Museum of Art / Aichi
$130.00 - In stock -
Beautiful hardcover catalogue published in Japan to the exhibition Beuys + Palermo touring three venues across Japan in 2021.
Joseph Beuys and Blinky Palermo were from different generations, but both experienced WWII and the postwar reconstruction, as teacher and pupil. One of the most important artists since World War II, Joseph Beuys (1921–1986) asserted that true capital lies in the creativity of human beings, and viewing the whole of society as sculpture, set out to change it. Beuys is also known for his role in nurturing numerous artists in his capacity as an educator. One such pupil was Blinky Palermo (1943–1977). The modest abstract works that form the legacy of this painter active for just a short few years from the mid-1960s up to his early demise, were an attempt to quietly overturn our perceptions, and social systems, via the visceral experience of color and form, all the while reconstructing the compositional elements of painting. The works of these two superficially contrasting German artists were alike in that both Beuys and Palermo endeavored to restore art to the status of a raw, live endeavor, Beuys indeed later acknowledging his former student to be the artist closest to himself. Composed primarily of works from the 1960s and ‘70s, documentation from the period and detailed texts, “Beuys + Palermo” explores the features of each of these two artists, while simultaneously searching for the latent power of their praxis in their involvement and overlap with each other.
2009, English
Hardcover, 550 pages, 22 x 28 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / good
Published by
The MIT Press / Massachusetts
$400.00 - Out of stock
First edition of the scarce, highly sought after, and most comprehensive book ever published on American artist Paul Thek, published in 2009 by MIT Press. Edited by Harald Falckenberg and Peter Weibel, this enormous 550 page monograph contains more than 300 works by this groundbreaking artist, documenting his journey from legendary outsider to central figure in many contemporary art movements.
Paul Thek occupied a place between high art and low art, between the epic and the everyday. During his brief life (1933-1988), he went against the grain of art world trends, humanizing the institutional spaces of art with the force of his humor, spirituality, and character. Twenty years after Thek's death from AIDS, we can now recognize his influence on contemporary artists ranging from Vito Acconci and Bruce Nauman to Matthew Barney, Mike Kelley, and Paul McCarthy, as well as Kai Althoff, Jonathan Meese, and Thomas Hirschhorn. This book brings together more than 300 of Thek's works—many of which are published here for the first time—to offer the most comprehensive display of his work yet seen. The book, which accompanies an exhibition at ZKM ? Museum of Contemporary Art presenting Thek's work in dialogue with contemporary art by young artists, includes painting, sculpture, drawing, and installation work, as well as photographs documenting the room-size environments into which Thek incorporated elements from art, literature, theater, and religion. These works chart Thek's journey from legendary outsider to foundational figure in contemporary art. In their antiheroic diversity, Thek's works embody the art revolution of the 1960s; indeed, Susan Sontag dedicated her classic Against Interpretation to him. Thek's treatment of the body in such works as “Technological Reliquaries,” with their castings and replicas of human body parts, tissue, and bones, both evoke the aura of Christian relics and anticipate the work of Damien Hirst. The book, with more than 500 images (300 in colour) and nineteen essays by art historians, curators, collectors, and artists, investigates Thek's work on its own terms, and as a starting point for understanding the work of the many younger artists Thek has influenced.
Essays by Jean-Christophe Ammann, Margrit Brehm, Bazon Brock, Suzanne Delehanty, Harald Falckenberg, Marietta Franke, Stefan Germer, Kim Gordon, Roland Groenenboom, Axel Heil, Gregor Jansen, Mike Kelley, John Miller, Susanne Neubauer, Kenny Schachter, Harald Szeemann, Annette Tietenberg, Peter Weibel, Ann Wilson.
Good copy with tanning to spine, some bumping and waving from storage. Clean throughout.
2023, English / Italian
Softcover, 112 pages, 21 x 28 cm
Published by
Humboldt Books / Milan
$50.00 - Out of stock
A collection of works reflecting the influence of Italy on Paul Thek's artistic trajectory, with several contributions highlighting his Italian period.
Paul Thek's Italian experiences between 1962 and 1976 left a deep mark on his sensitivity. From his visits to the Capuchin Catacombs to his witnessing of spectacular religious processions, Italy was a catalyst for several key moments in the artist's career, triggering an elusive reaction in his practice to the trajectories of post-war American art. By reworking the stimuli gathered during his stays in Rome, on the island of Ponza and in Sicily, Paul Thek concocted a baroque response to Pop Art and Minimalism, which were dominant on the art scene of the time.
Paul Thek. Italian Hours brings together a selection of paintings, drawings and sculptures through photographs by Peter Hujar, presented in the exhibition of the same name at the Fondazione Nicola Del Roscio in Rome. The critical text by Peter Benson Miller, curator of the exhibition, highlights Thek's meaningful dialogue with a group of artists linked to gallery owner Topazia Alliata who were working in Italy at the time, including Cy Twombly and Piero Manzoni. A conversation between Watermill Center curator Owen Laub and theatre director Robert Wilson completes the volume.
A recognized figure on the American art scene, Paul Thek (1933-1988) produced an astonishingly diverse body of work (drawings, sculptures, paintings, installations and environments) that is consistent with his image as an elusive artist, perpetually on the move. During his lifetime, Thek was exhibited by the most important New York galleries (Stable Gallery, Pace Gallery). His work was also presented at documenta 4 and 5 in Kassel (1968, 1972), the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam (1969), the Moderna Museet in Stockholm (1971), and the Kunstmuseum in Lucerne (1973). He was supported in particular by Harald Szeemann and Jean-Christophe Ammann. In 1977, Suzanne Delehanty curated Processions at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia, marking the first solo exhibition of Paul Thek's work in an American institution. Following his death in 1988, his work was mainly shown in Europe. First in 1992, in Italy, with the Paul Thek exhibition at Castello di Rivara. Then, in 1995, Paul Thek – The Wonderful World That Almost Was opened in Rotterdam at the Witte de With and subsequently traveled to Berlin, Barcelona, Zurich and Marseille. In 2008, the ZKM in Karlsruhe programmed Paul Thek Artist's Artist, which also explored how Thek's work has resonated in the contemporary scene. On the other side of the Atlantic, it wasn't until 2010 that the Whitney Museum in New York dedicated a remarkable retrospective to Thek, whose title, Paul Thek: Diver, emphasized the artist's passion for the sea.
Texts by Nicola Del Roscio, Peter Benson Miller, Owen Laub, Robert Wilson.
Graphic design: Francesca Biagiotti.
2013, English / Japanese
Softcover, 642 pages, 18.8 x 26 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / fine
Published by
Aomori Museum of Art / Aomori
$180.00 - In stock -
This enormous and exhaustive (now out of print) volume on the work and life of Japanese artist Tetsumi Kudo was produced to accompany the recent, most comprehensive retrospective exhibition of his work, "Your Portrait: A Tetsumi Kudo Retrospective", that toured Japan throughout 2013-2014 (The National Museum of Art, Osaka; The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo; Aomori Museum of Art, Aomori).
Like the exhibition, this wonderfully designed and compiled book is the most comprehensive publication on Tetsumi Kudo ever published. The book breaks-down the periods of production, activity and major bodies of work/installations in Tetsumi Kudo's career alongside his ever-evolving philosophy of complex ideas thus: "1956-1962 "From Anti-art to the Philosophy of Impotence"; 1962-1969 "From Your Portrait to Cultivation by Radioactivity"; 1969-1970 "A Brief Return To Japan and The Making of Monument to Metamorphosis"; 1970-1975 "From Portrait of Ionesco to Pollution-Cultivation-New Ecology"; 1975-1979 "From Portrait of Artist in the Crisis to Waiting for the Revelation in the Rain of Heredity-Chromosome"; 1980-1990 "From Paradise and the Structure of the Emperor Systme to the Soul of the Avant-garde Artist".
Amongst an endless stream of visual documentation of Kudo's individual artworks, installations and performances, the book comprises of many republished texts by the artist himself throughout his career, as well as texts by Atsuhiko Shima, Yasuyuki Nakai, Takashi Fukumoto, Tomohiro Masuda, Takayo Lida, Toru Ikeda.
The book also includes a list of works for the exhibition, a thorough biography/exhibitions/bibliography section, Tetsumi Kudo's notes (including the many drawings and plans Kudo made for his installations, artworks and exhibition designs), and a photographic catalogue of works by Tetsumi Kudo, 1955-1988.
By far the most exhaustive document on the prolific work and unique vision of this important Japanese artist.
All texts are in both English and Japanese.
Born in Osaka, Japan, in 1935 Kudo first gained notoriety in the Tokyo art scene of the late 50s. He began exhibiting his work at the Salon of Independents, Yomiuri and had his first solo exhibition at the Galerie Blanche, Tokyo. He was awarded the Grand Prize and a travel grant to Paris through his painting participation in the 1962 Second International Young Artists Exhibition in Tokyo. Immigrating to Paris, he immediately started working in a range of media--objects, sculpture, installation, drawing and painting--and presenting numerous Happenings and performances. Kudo's work and activities intersect with many important postwar artistic trends--including French Nouveau Realisme, Fluxus, Pop art, 60s anti-art tendencies and 80s Postmodernism. Throughout his life and career, Kudo remained particularly Japanese while his art and vision were consistently and uniquely transcultural, internationalist and cosmopolitan. His work made international appearances at the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (1972), Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Westfalen, Düsseldorf, Germany, (1970), Venice Biennial (1976), and the Biennial São Paulo (1977, awarded a special mention) while also appearing frequently in museums and galleries throughout Japan and France, with a growing recognition in the Netherlands.
Near-Fine copy.
1970, German
Softcover, 96 pages, 26 x 19 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Westfalen / Dusseldorf
$100.00 - In stock -
Wonderful, rare catalogue produced on the occasion of Japanese artist Tetsumi Kudo's exhibition at the Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Westfalen in Dusseldorf, 17 april - 5 July, 1970.
96 pages documenting Kudo's works of sculptural assemblage, happenings and installation, from 1959-1970. Includes a series of texts in German (including one from Kudo himself) and a biography.
About Tetsumi Kudo:
Not only did Tetsumi Kudo (1935-1990) – one of the most innovative artists in Japan in the 1950s and in France in the '60s and '70s – explore the existential possibilities for humanity in an increasingly polluted and consumption-driven world, issues critical in today's artistic practice and political debate; but in the two years since our last show and the major retrospective organized by the Walker Art Center, the wide-ranging and profound influence of his ideas and aesthetic has become increasingly clear. Mike Kelley wrote for the Walker catalog; Paul McCarthy has included Kudo in his lectures since 1968 and highlighted him as an influence in his intellectual autobiography Low Life Slow Life. Takashi Murakami, in seeing the last exhibition, has simply called Kudo, "the father of us all."
excerpt from "Tetsumi Kudo - Cubes & Gardens" (Andrea Rosen, 2010) exhibition text by Joshua Mack.
Condition: Very Good (only minor shelf wear)– All care is taken to provide accurate condition details of used books, photos available on request.
1979, English / Polish
Hardcover (w. dust jacket), 216 pages, 27.5 x 26 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / fine
Published by
Krajowa Agencja Wydawnicza / Warsaw
$180.00 - In stock -
Rare first edition of this wonderful hardcover volume, published in 1979 by Krajowa Agencja Wydawnicza in Warsaw. Beautifully designed by one of the leading graphic artists in the field of Polish posters, Hubert Hilscher, this 200+ page book remains the finest document dedicated to the "Plakat Polski" (Polish Poster) of the 1970s - an exceptional period for the medium. Lavishly illustrated throughout in colour and b&w with over 400 of the best examples spanning 1970-1978, the book opens with an introduction in both Polish and English, English captions throughout, and includes detailed artist and work indexes in the back. Includes Political and Social Posters, Theatre and Concert Posters, Film Posters, Exhibition and Commercial Posters, Tourist and Sports Posters, and Circus Posters. This stunning book is a must for anyone interested in the subject, or graphic design and illustration from this period in general.
Features the work of Maciej Urbaniec, Franciszek Starowieyski, Józef Mroszczak, Leszek Hołdanowicz, Karol Śliwka, Romuald Socha, Elzbieta Procka, Jan Młodożeniec, Włodzimierz Terechowicz, Wiktor Górka, Roman Cieślewicz, Jerzy Czerniawski, René Mulas, Maria Ihnatowicz, Jan Lenica, Janusz Grabiański, Mieczysław Wasilewski, Hubert Hilscher, Jan Kotarbinski, Waldemar Świerzy, Tomasz Rumiński, Jerzy Treliński, Roman Rosyk, Tadeusz Piskorski, Andrzej Krajewski, Danuta Żukowska, Jan Jaromir Aleksiun, Marcin Mroszczak, Jan Sawka, Henryk Tomaszewski, Doroty Kabiesz, Tomasz Jura, Jerzy Flisak, Marek Freudenreich, Marian Stachurski, Witold Janowski, and many more.
Beginning in the 1950s and through the 1980s, the Polish School of Posters combined the aesthetics of painting with the succinctness and simple metaphor of the poster. It developed characteristics such as painterly gesture, linear quality, and vibrant colours, as well as a sense of individual personality, humour, and fantasy. It was in this way that the Polish poster was able to make the distinction between designer and artist less apparent. Posters of the Polish Poster School significantly influenced the international development of graphic design in poster art. Their major contribution is in their use of the power of suggestion through allusion. Using strong and vivid colours from folk art, they combine printed slogans, often hand-lettered, with popular symbols, to create a concise inventive metaphor. As a hybrid of words and images, these posters created a certain aesthetic tension that projected the art form in this period on European design. In addition to aesthetic aspects, these posters were able to reveal the artist's emotional involvement with the subject. They did not solely exist as an objective presentation, rather they were also the artist's interpretation and commentary on the subject and on society.
To this day, "Plakat Polski" remain as influential as ever on the world of graphic design, typography, illustration and even painting, and are widely collected and exhibited around the world.
Very Good—NF copy in VG—NF dust jacket.
1989, Japanese
Softcover, (w. dust jacket + obi), 240 pages, 40 x 30 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Mother Brain / Tokyo
$550.00 - In stock -
Very collectible, rare first 1989 edition of Araki's provocative and poetic photo book masterpiece "Tokyo Nude", published by Mother Brain. Wonderful, most complete copy in original dust jacket and publisher's obi, seldom preserved. This large-format photo book by Nobuyoshi Araki was shot with a Pentax 6x7. “Each double-page spread juxtaposes a nude photograph and a fragmentary scene of everyday life in Tokyo. Turning the pages, the reader becomes enveloped in a sense of erotic travel within the womb.”—Iizawa, Araki: Self, Life, Death.
"Every diptych is divided into an image of a woman (left) and a Tokyo scene (right). Upon first glance, this juxtaposition may seem illogical. By photographing these two subjects and placing them next to each other, Araki explores them in the same light. Moreover, although he often features Tokyo in his work, "Tokyo Nude" exposes the city's more quiet and vulnerable side, and explores parts of the city that are not often displayed. The desolation of these urban pictures is complemented by the distressed, unnerving and often bold expressions worn by the female bodies on the left side of the diptychs. These architectural images thereby connect with the exposed women who stand beside them. By capturing similar feelings of desolation and abandonment from both Tokyo and its women, Araki causes them to meld into one composition. As a result, one forgets they are looking at two photographs joined together, but rather begins to understand the series of Tokyo revealed or Tokyo "Nude"."—Yoshii Gallery
Very Good copy with VG dust jacket and VG obi, both light wear to extremities.
1994, Japanese
Softcover, 44 pages, 23 x 30 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Photo-Planete / Japan
$100.00 - In stock -
First edition of Nobuyoshi Araki's Obscenities, published in 1994. Here Araki, a master of Japanese fetish photography, has continued to challenge sexual taboos with radical techniques. Instead of presenting his acutely revealing images of sexuality, for which he had come to face charges, Araki has chosen an expressive thumbing of the nose to Japanese censorship techniques by scratching away the "obscenities" of the negatives—and not only the obvious ones. Just as with the explicit erotic images collected here, photographs of banal everyday objects, flowers and cityscapes also become charged with delirious sexual potency at the hands of the censor. The images become oddly more arousing, as they are revealed and embellished further through the marks of Araki's hand, as well as the desire of his eye. The result is a very special book, and Araki's statement on the idea of “obscenity”.
"Photography reveals. To reveal is obscene. Photography conceals. To conceal is obscene. Taking photographs is obscene. To be photographed is obscene. Showing photographs is obscene. To look at photographs is obscene. Not showing photographs is obscene. To not be able to look at photographs is obscene. Obscene things do not exist. Obscene acts exist. Obscene photographs are acts. Obscene photographs are relations. Photographs are obscenities. Obscenities are beautiful."—Araki Nobuyoshi (book introduction)
Very Good copy.
2003, English / Japanese
Softcover (die-cut, embossed stiff slipcase w. internal illustrated card fold-out sleeve), 92 pages, 22 x 30 cm
Signed by artist,
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Treville / Tokyo
$450.00 - In stock -
First, deluxe edition of this rare Hajime Sorayama book published by Treville especially for the exhibition 'Hajime Sorayama - The Exhibition' at Ginza Graphic Gallery in 2003. Now out-of-print and collectible, this extra special copy is also signed by Sorayama himself on the cover "cleavage". Housed in an embossed, die-cut corset slipcase, with an illustrated, fold-out "pin-up" doubled-sided internal sleeve, both made from stiff card, this catalogue is profusely illustrated throughout with Japanese airbrush master Hajime Sorayama's erotic, futuristic, hyper-realistic illustrations with a heavy emphasis on latex and bondage mistresses. Includes his own commentary throughout (in English and Japanese), plus a special look inside his atelier.
Hajime Sorayama (b. 1947) is a Japanese illustrator famed for his precisely detailed, erotic portrayals of feminine robots and fetish pin-ups, and also well-known for his design work on the original Sony AIBO. He describes his highly detailed style as "superrealism", which he says "deals with the technical issue of how close one can get to one's object."
Very Good copy.
1975 / 1995, English
Softcover, 320 pages, 23.5 x 15.5 cm
Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Pimlico Books / London
$30.00 - In stock -
1995 UK second edition of Australian philosopher Peter Singer's groundbreaking book, Animal Liberation, first published in 1975. Considered to be the founding philosophical statement of the ideas behind the animal liberation movement, Animal Liberation exposed the realities of life for animals in factory farms and testing laboratories and provided a powerful moral basis for rethinking our relationship to them.
"An extraordinary book which has had extraordinary effects. It galvanised a generation to action. Groups sprang up around the world, equipped with a new vocabulary, a new set of ethics and a new sense of mission...Singer's book is widely known as the bible of the animal liberation movement."—Independent on Sunday
Immensely influential and powerful, Animal Liberation is also highly unusual. A comprehensive analysis of conditions in factory farms and animal laboratories, it compellingly argues that we should stop eating meat. A work of philosophy, it includes recipes for vegetarian food. In this revised edition, Peter Singer discusses the evolution of the animal rights movement and the extent to which his own views have changed since first publication. He also graphically updates his account of what is being done to animals in the name of scientific, military and commercial research.
"A reasoned plea for the humane treatment of animals that galvanised the animal-rights movement the way Rachel Carson's Silent Spring drew activists to environmentalism."—New York Times
"Important and responsible...Everyone ought to read it."—Richard Adams, English novelist and writer of the books Watership Down, Maia, Shardik and The Plague Dogs
Good—VG copy with tanned pages (usual with this edition).
2020, English
Softcover, 322 pages, 13 x 19.5 cm
Published by
Repeater Books / London
$34.00 - In stock -
Edited and with an introduction by Eugene Thacker, On the Suffering of the World comprises a core selection of Schopenhauer's later writings, gathered together for the first time in print.
These texts, produced during the last decades of Schopenhauer's long life, reveal a unique kind of philosophy, expressed in a singular style. Eschewing the tradition of dry, totalizing, academic philosophy prevalent during the time, Schopenhauer's later writings mark a shift towards a philosophy of aphorisms, fragments, anecdotes and observations, written in a literary style that is by turns antagonistic, resigned, confessional, and filled with all the fragile contours of an intellectual memoir. Here Schopenhauer allows himself to pose challenging questions regarding the fate of the human species, the role of suffering in the world, and the rift between self and world that increasingly has come to define human existence, to this day. It is these writings of Schopenhauer that later generations of artists, poets, musicians, and philosophers would identify as exemplifying the pessimism of their era, and perhaps of our own as well.
On the Suffering of the World is presented with an introduction that places Schopenhauer's thought in its intellectual context, while also connecting it to contemporary concerns over climate change, the anthropocene, and the spectre of human extinction. The book also includes a bibliography and chronology of Schopenhauer's life.
1990, English
Softcover, 184 pages, 20.4 x 12.7 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Princeton University Press / New York
$15.00 - Out of stock
“The focus of any genuinely new piece of criticism or interpretation must be on the creative act of finding the new, but deconstruction puts the matter the other way around: its emphasis is on debunking the old. But aside from the fact that this program is inherently uninteresting, it is, in fact, not at all clear that it is possible… . [T]he naïvetê of the crowd is deconstruction’s very starting point, and its subsequent move is as much an emotional as an intellectual leap to a position that feels different as much in the one way as the other… .” —From the book
"Ellis argues with force and clarity. . . . [He] concludes that what Deconstruction provides is largely an emotional bonus--it gives its adherents 'a routine way to a feeling of being excitedly shocking.' They get the feeling that might attend a genuine piece of original thinking, but here it can be achieved without comparable effort."—London Review of Books
"Ellis's elegant and absolutely unsentimental book can serve as a sort of solvent in today's critical debates. Not much remains intact: binary oppositions, 'alternative logic, ' texts as 'play, ' and 'performance, ' are all subject to rigorous examination. In the process, Ellis lucidly restores Saussurean categories (so battered and reduced in contemporary criticism) to their original complexity. Appalled by the growth of a class of critics who appear to risk nothing when they take on a literary text, Ellis challenges every reader under the spell of new vocabularies to stop and think. Rarely has scholarly exasperation been put to better or more timely use."—Caryl Emerson, Princeton University
VG copy.
1991, English
Softcover, 306 pages, 23.5 x 15.8 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Oxford University Press / New York
$45.00 - In stock -
First 1991 softcover edition.
Nietzsche's friend, the philosopher Paul Rée, once said that Nietzsche was more important for his letters than for his books, and even more important for his conversations than for his letters. In Conversations with Nietzsche, Sander Gilman and David Parent present a fascinating selection of eighty-seven memoirs, anecdotes, and informal recollections by friends and acquaintances of Nietzsche. Translated from the definitive German collection, Begegnungen mit Nietzsche, these biographical pieces--some of which have never before appeared in English--cover the entire span of Nietzsche's life: his boyhood friendships, his arrival at the University of Bonn, his appointment to professor at Basel at age twenty-four, the impact of The Birth of Tragedy, his friendship with Wagner, his life in Italy, his confinement at the Jena Sanatorium, and his death. They present the philosopher in dialogue with friends and acquaintances, and provide new insights into him as a thinker and as a commentator on his times, recounting his views on some of the greats of history, including Burckhardt, Goethe, Kant, Dostoevsky, Napoleon, and numerous others. In his selections, Gilman has carefully balanced documents concerning Nietzsche's personal life with others on his intellectual development, resulting in an entertaining and informative book that will appeal to a wide audience of educated readers.
Very Good copy with one cover corner fold, otherwise a preserved tight copy.
1991, English
Softcover, 266 pages, 22 x 15 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Routledge / London
$60.00 - In stock -
Rare first 1991 softcover Routledge edition.
"This is a much needed work which will introduce philosophical readers to a way of reading Lacan that will doubtless enhance the dialogue between psychoanalysis and philosophy."—Judith Butler, Johns Hopkins University
"Not only is this book uncommonly lucid in discussing the subtleties of Freud and especially Lacan, but it is insightfully innovative in interpreting the inner link between narcissism and aggression, the imaginary and the symbolic- and death and desire, those twin epicenters of psychoanalytic theory and practice."—Edward S. Casey, State University of New York, Stony Brook
"Boothby's book not only provides us with an excellent introduction to the ideas of Jacques Lacan, but it also does an outstanding job of elucidating Freud's notion of the death drive, and makes clear what one misses in Freud if one does not pay attention to it."—John Muller, Four Winds Hospital
The immensely influential work of Jacques Lacan challenges readers both for the difficulty of its style and for the wide range of intellectual references that frame its innovations. Lacan's work is challenging too, for the way it recentres psychoanalysis on one of the most controversial points of Freudâs theory — the concept of a self-destructive drive or 'death instinct'.
Originally published in 1991, Death and Desire presents in Lacanian terms a new integration of psychoanalytic theory in which the battery of key Freudian concepts — from the dynamics of the Oedipus complex to the topography of ego, id, and superego — are seen to intersect in Freud's most far-reaching and speculative formulation of a drive toward death. Boothby argues that Lacan repositioned the theme of death in psychoanalysis in relation to Freud's main concern — the nature and fate of desire. In doing so, Lacan rediscovered Freud's essential insights in a manner so nuanced and penetrating that prevailing assessments of the death instinct may well have to be re-examined.
Although the death instinct is usually regarded as the most obscure concept in Freud's metapsychology, and Lacan to be the most perplexing psychoanalytic theorist, Richard Boothby's straightforward style makes both accessible. He illustrates the coherence of Lacanian thought and shows how Lacan's work comprises a 'return to Freud' along new and different angles of approach. Written with an eye to the conceptual structure of psychoanalytic theory, Death and Desire will appeal to psychoanalysts and philosophers alike.
Very Good copy.
1989, English
Softcover, 272 pages, 25.5 x 18 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / good
Published by
Northwestern University Press / Evanston
$30.00 - In stock -
One of the great German Expressionist artists, Kaethe Kollwitz wrote little of herself. But her diary, kept from 1900 to her death in 1945, and her brief essays and letters express, as well as explain, much of the spirit, wisdom, and internal struggle which was eventually transmuted into her art.
"[Kollwitz's] diary and letters... provide a dramatic record of German history during the turbulent time that encompassed World War I, the November Revo- lution, the Weimar Republic and the appearance of Nazism. To these, Kollwitz grants a compassionate, critical and insightful vision, recording her own wit- nessing of historical events, her own experience of the everyday in a testimony which is generally recognized as one of the greatest autobiographical German texts of the century... As human documents they have few equals; as historical documents, they are fundamental."—REINHOLD HELLER
"No case needs to be made for Kollwitz: she belongs to the history of the human heart, and her literary as well as artistic mirror of the first half of our century is a legacy that calls for the widest reflection and distribution."—ALESSANDRA COMINI
Translated by Richard and Clara Winston. Includes 48 black and white images from the important German artist.
Käthe Kollwitz (1867–1945) was a German artist who worked with painting, printmaking (including etching, lithography and woodcuts) and sculpture. Her most famous art cycles, including The Weavers and The Peasant War, depict the effects of poverty, hunger and war on the working class. Despite the realism of her early works, her art is now more closely associated with Expressionism. Kollwitz was the first woman not only to be elected to the Prussian Academy of Arts but also to receive honorary professor status.
Good—Very Good copy, some cover wear, pressure mark on front cover. Second 1989 printing, first softcover edition.
2012, English
Hardcover (w. dust jacket), 376 pages, 24.5 x 16.5 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / as new
Published by
North Atlantic Books / Vermont
$35.00 - In stock -
Edited by by Christopher Wagstaff.
Foreword by Gerrit Lansing.
Robert Duncan (1919-1988), one of the major postwar American poets, was an adulated figure among his contemporaries, including Robert Creeley, Charles Olson, and Denise Levertov. Lawrence Ferlinghetti remarked that Duncan "had the best ear this side of Dante." His stature is increasingly recognized as comparable to that of Ezra Pound, William Carlos Williams, H.D., and Louis Zukofsky.
Like his poetry, Duncan's conversation is generative and multi-directional, pushing out the boundaries of discourse. His recorded reflections are a means of discovery and exploration, and whether talking with a college student or a fellow poet, he was fully engaged and open to new thoughts as they emerged. The exchanges in this book are exciting and lively.
His vast and wide-ranging knowledge offers readers an increased understanding of the interrelations of the arts, history, psychology, and science; those who would like to learn about Duncan's own life, his bravery in being an out gay man well before Stonewall, and his friendships with fellow writers, such as Charles Olson, Jack Spicer, and Kenneth Rexroth, will find this book richly rewarding.
The six volumes of Duncan's collected writings are being issued by the University of California Press. The collected interviews are an indispensable companion to these books, providing an in-depth exposition of his poetics, which center on the belief that the poem is "a medium for the life of the spirit." In A Poet's Mind, he describes the genesis of some of his works, including that of books, essays, and individual poems, and also discusses gay love and life, along with the many diverse influences on his work. Ducan's fertile creative mind is also evident in these conversations: often coming back to Ezra Pound in these conversations, he gives one of the clearest expositions to be found anywhere on the scope and meaning of The Cantos. This volume also includes a number of photographs never before published.
Fine—As New copy.