World Food Books

The Geijutsu Seikatsu No. 291, Nov 1973
"Doll Love" Special Feature

1973, Japanese
Softcover, 182 pages, 25.5 x 18.5 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / good
Published by The Geijutsu Seikatsu / Tokyo

$70.00 - Out of stock

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Magnificent "Doll Love" Special Feature issue of The Geijutsu Seikatsu, one of the leading arts magazines in post-war Japan, with a cover feature shot by Kishin Shinoyama on Japanese doll master Simon Yotsuya. From Hans Bellmer to Hajime Sawatari's doll photography to the Ayakashi Doll Museum shot by Shigeo Anzaï to the metaphysics of "Doll Love" written by the great Tatsuhiko Shibusawa, this issue is filled with photographic features and articles on doll artists, doll museums, western automatons, karakuri dolls... plus a photo feature on Nakamura Utaemon, considered the greatest onnagata (male actors who play female roles in kabuki theatre) of the post-War period ("a divine messenger given to kabuki from heaven"), performing the legendary Japanese ghost story "Yotsuya Kaida", and much much more (Kobayashi Kiyochika, Tadanori Yokoo, Hisako Nishino, Yasufumi Konishi, Yosuke Inoue...). Always a treasure-trove!

Good copy with some wear and creases to covers.

File under: Masuo Ikeda Hans Bellmer Hajime Sawatari Kishin Shinoyama Simon Yotsuya Tadanori Yokoo Francisco de Goya Yosuke Inoue Shigeo Anzai Kobayashi Kiyochika Hisako Nishino Yasufumi Konishi Nakamura Utaemon Tatsuhiko Shibusawa The Geijutsu Seikatsu / Tokyo Periodicals Out-of-print / Rare Art Painting Performance / Dance / Theater Sculpture / Installation Art Brut / Folk / Visionary / Fantastic Surrealism Ero Guro / Erotic / Grotesque Japanese Photography Occult / Esoterica Symbolism / Decadence / Fin de siècle

Madame Edwarda
by Georges Bataille; illustrated by Hans Bellmer

1985, Japanese
Softcover (w. dust jacket), 60 pages, 26 x 17 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by Gakutokan / Japan

$180.00 - In stock -

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Beautiful 1985 Japanese edition of Georges Bataille's Madame Edwarda, illustrated throughout with all the original illustrations by Hans Bellmer. Madame Edwarda first appeared in Paris under Georges Bataille's pseudonym Pierre Angelique in two small underground editions in 1941 and 1945. It was finally published under Bataille's own name by the publishing house of Jacques Pauvert in 1956. Translated here by Kosaku Ikuta, all illustrations by German artist Hans Bellmer, complete with inserted preface booklet by Georges Bataille and additional insert of publisher's catalogue.

In Madame Edwarda, a man becomes erotically obsessed with an old whore who turns out to be God. Bataille's erotic prose fuses elements of sex and spirituality in a highly personal vision of the flesh. A world of sensation in which only the vaulting demands of disruptive excess and the anguish of heightened awareness can combat the stultifying world of reason and social order. Intoxication and insanity are so carefully delineated by the author that it seems to infect the reader.

"Madame Edwarda's truth consists in confronting us with an obvious scandal that we wouldn't even know where to place. We could incriminate her words: there have never been such rigorous ones; or the circumstances, the fact that Madame Edwarda is a brothel whore, but this, indeed, it could be reassuring; or even that certain details, which must be said to be obscene, are so with a necessity that ennobles them and makes them inevitable, not so much in the name of art, but for a perhaps moral, perhaps fundamental need. (...) That the most incongruous of books, as Georges Bataille defines it in his preface, is also the most beautiful book, and perhaps the most tender, is above all scandalous."—Maurice Blanchot

Very Good copy throughout, only light cover wear/tanning.

File under: Hans Bellmer Georges Bataille Gakutokan / Japan Surrealism Eros Transgressive / Visceral / Abject Out-of-print / Rare Ero Guro / Erotic / Grotesque Art

The Uncanny
by Mike Kelley

1993, English
Softcover, 150 pages, 24 x 17 cm
1st UK Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by Sonsbeek / Arnhem

$550.00 - Out of stock

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First 1993 edition of one of the great art books, by one of the great artists. This provocative, copiously illustrated catalogue by renowned American artist Mike Kelley is a meditation on Sigmund Freud's "Uncanny", and its relation to the grotesque in art and everyday life. Published to accompany the exhibition curated by Kelley as part of the "Sonsbeek 93" exhibition in Arnhem, The Netherlands, June 5 - September 26, 1993, Kelley presents (like a photo scrapbook) an arresting mix of modern and contemporary artists alongside bizarre figurative, prosthesis, animatronic, and mannequin-related imagery throughout history. Artists included : Hans Bellmer, Robert Gober, Tetsumi Kudo, Zoe Leonard, Paul McCarthy, Nayland Blake, John Miller, Bruce Nauman, Tony Oursler, Cindy Sherman, Kiki Smith, Duane Hanson, Man Ray, Guillaume Bijl, Dennis Oppenheim, Edgar Degas, Piero Manzoni, Marcel Broodthaers, Goya, Nam June Paik, Andy Warhol, Marcel Duchamp, Dorothea Lange, Thom Puckey, Charles Ray, Edward Kienholz, Martin Kippenberger, Laurie Simmons, Jeff Koons, Yayoi Kusama, Paul Thek, Mike Kelley himself, and many more. Includes Kelley's accompanying essay, "Playing with Dead Things". The exhibition took on mythical status and was re-staged in Liverpool in 2004. The Uncanny has become one of the most desired of Kelley's books.

Very Good copy with only light cover wear.

File under: Hans Bellmer Robert Gober Tetsumi Kudo Zoe Leonard Paul McCarthy Nayland Blake Duane Hanson Edward Kienholz Martin Kippenberger Jeff Koons John Miller Bruce Nauman Tony Oursler Cindy Sherman Kiki Smith Paul Thek Mike Kelley Laurie Simmons Guillaume Bijl Thom Puckey Dennis Oppenheim Marcel Broodthaers Marcel Duchamp Man Ray Dorothea Lange Yayoi Kusama Francisco Goya Edgar Degas Nam June Paik Andy Warhol Mike Kelley Sonsbeek / Arnhem Art Sculpture / Installation Out-of-print / Rare Group Shows / Collections Weird / Speculative / Science Fiction Pop Art Surrealism Theory / Essay

Hans Bellmer
The Doll

1995, English / Japanese
Hardcover (w. obi strip), 80 pages, 21.5 x 15.5 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / fine
Published by Treville / Tokyo Pan-Exotica / Tokyo

$140.00 - In stock -

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First 1995 hardcover edition of Hans Bellmer's surrealist masterpiece, The Doll, a beautiful photo book published only in Japan, comprised entirely of all of the known photographic images of "La Poupee" — Hans Bellmer's articulated, anatomically amorphous Surrealist doll, reconfigured and captured through Bellmer's intimate hand-painted photographic images. "La Poupee" acquired iconic status as perhaps the purest exemplification of the Surrealist ideal of "convulsive beauty." Bellmer constructed his first doll in the early 1930s. André Breton and Paul Eluard described it as "the first and only Surrealist object with a universal, provocative power". Wordless, this lovely volume is photographs-only, reproduced in colour and black and white. Designed by Jun Takechi.

German artist Hans Bellmer (1902—1975) was one of the most subversive artists associated with Surrealism, famous—notorious, even—for his erotic engravings, objects and photographs. Many of Bellmer's works were inspired by the literary works of Comte de Lautréamont and Georges Bataille, amongst others.

VG—Fine copy with obi.

File under: Hans Bellmer Hans Bellmer Treville / Tokyo Pan-Exotica / Tokyo Art Surrealism Drawing Photography Sculpture / Installation

Unica Zürn

2006, English / French
Softcover (french folds), 208 pages, 24 x 20 cm
Published by Halle Saint-Pierre / Paris

$200.00 - Out of stock

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First edition of this wonderful Unica Zürn monograph, published by Publisher Éditions du Panama to accompany a major survey exhibition in Paris in 2006—2007 at the Halle Saint Pierre, curated by Martine Lusardy and Sepp Hiekisch-Picard. Lavishly illustrated, this important catalogue, now long out-of-print, includes a large number of illuminating texts by scholars in bi-lingual English/French, including: "Unica Zürn: designs so dense" by Roger Cardinal; “Du wirst dein Geheimnis sagen (“You will tell your secret”). The anagram in the work of Unica Zürn" by Victoria Appelbe; "The magical encounter between writing and image" by Barbara Safarova; "The work of Unica Zürn, genesis and reception" by Sepp Hiekisch-Picard; "Read Unica Zürn: the contagion of the void" by Jean-Louis Lanoux; "Unica Zürn (July 6, 1916 – October 19, 1970): biographical references" by Rike Felka and Erich Brinkmann. An important, heavily illustrated reference of Zürn's life and work.

The German artist and writer Unica Zürn (1916-1970) joined the ranks of Surrealism in the 1950s, after moving to Paris and taking up residence with fellow German-born Surrealist Hans Bellmer. Already an accomplished author, Zürn was drawn to the Surrealist movement's espousal of automatic drawing and writing, Zürn pursued Henri Michaux's declaration that "the hand dreams," making a vocation of these techniques with her dense, otherworldly drawings and paintings that are labyrinthine in detail, as one form sprouts out of another. Also with her experimental anagrams, natural extensions of her established interest in hidden meanings and coincidences. Zürn produced most of her oeuvre during this intensive period in the 1950s and 60s, though one marked by her deteriorating mental health. Many of her works were made during periods of hospitalisation. In 1970, Zürn leapt to her death from the balcony of the Paris apartment she had shared with Bellmer. Upon his death in 1975, Bellmer was buried, at his request, next to Zürn in Paris’s Père-Lachaise Cemetery. Their grave is marked with the words Bellmer wrote for Zürn’s funeral wreath nearly five years before: “My love will follow you into Eternity.”

Zürn has left us an account of the sensation of automatic drawing: "After an initial moment when the pen 'swims' hesitantly on the paper, she discovers the place assigned to the first eye. It is only when she is being watched from the depths of the paper that she begins to get her bearings and, effortlessly, one motif is added to another."

Very Good copy with small tears to spine tips and light waving to book block.

File under: Gilles Berquet Unica Zürn Hans Bellmer Philippe Fuzeau Unica Zürn Roger Cardinal Victoria Appelbe Barbara Safarova Sepp Hiekisch-Picard Jean-Louis Lanoux Rike Felka Erich Brinkmann Halle Saint-Pierre / Paris Surrealism Drawing Art Fiction / Poetry

Art of Eroticism

1968, Japanese
Hardcover in hard slipcase, unpaginated, 19 x 13.5 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by Futami Shobo / Japan

$160.00 - In stock -

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Scarce hardcover, slipcased volume on the "Art of Eroticism", published only in Japan in 1968. An amazing history of humanity that collects erotic masterpieces from around the world. With illustrated slipcase by Japanese artist Kuniyoshi Kaneko, this book functions as a separate visual volume to Ove Brussendorf and Poul Henningsen's celebrated History of Eroticism, depicting sexual customs from ancient times to the present day with 700 illustrations reproduced on glossy stock.

Very Good copy with general age and some wear to slipcase. Book well-preserved!

File under: Hans Bellmer Pierre Molinier René Magritte Kuniyoshi Kaneko Futami Shobo / Japan Ero Guro / Erotic / Grotesque Eros Out-of-print / Rare Theory / Essay Painting Drawing Surrealism Transgressive / Visceral / Abject Symbolism / Decadence / Fin de siècle Art Fetishism / BDSM LGBTQ+

Fool's Mate "Special Stock" 1978—79
Vol. 4 "Fantasy" + Vol. 6 "Eros" + Vol. 7 "Avant-Garde"

1979, Japanese
Softcover, 240 pages, 25.5 x 18.5 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by Fool's Mate / Tokyo

$100.00 - In stock -

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Rare "Special Stock" compendium book by the world's finest "Euro Rock Magazine", Fool's Mate, from Japan. In the 1970's—1980's, Fool's Mate (named after the 1971 Peter Hammill LP), edited by Masashi Kitamura with regular contributions by Masami Akita (Merzbow) and many other heads, was a vital conduit between emerging and metamorphosing avant-garde music cultures in Europe (Progressive Rock, Art Rock, Free Music, Electronic, Cosmic, Psychedelic Folk, Avant Pop, Rock in Opposition, Post Punk, Industrial, etc.) and Japan. No doubt responsible for the resonance of experimental contemporary music there during that period through to today, each issue of Fool's Mate during these early years was packed cover-to-cover with exclusive interviews with the artists, rare photographs and graphics, thematic genre/artist/label/artistic movement features, in-depth profiles/discographies/family-trees, catalogues, lyrics, letters, collage art, record, book, and live reviews, columns and an endless stream of concert and import/record store/label/venue/cafe adverts, all presented in a perfectly obsessive fanzine aesthetic manner, cut 'n' pasted across many paper stocks. The Americas and other realms, including new directions in Japanese alternative music, are all covered alongside their European counterparts, with many issues exploring key artistic and theoretical influences, such as Symbolism, Dadaism, Surrealism, Eros, Futurism, etc.

This special three issue collection combines Vol. 4 "Fantasy" + Vol. 6 "Eros" + Vol. 7 "Avant-Garde". Says it all really. Incredible in-depth, encyclopaedic features on Derek Bailey (full biography and discograohy), British avant-garde/free music/jazz/avant-rock/R.I.O./Canterbury (Bailey, Henry Cow, Daevid Allen/Gong, Lol Coxhill, Soft Machine, Company, Slapp Happy, Keith Tippett, National Health, Evan Parker, Art Bears, King Crimson, Hatfield and The North, Kew Rhone, National Health, Robert Wyatt, Spontaneous Music Ensemble, Incus Records, Ogun Records, etc.), R.I.O. expanded (Univers Zero, Art Zoyd, ZNR, The Residents, Albert Marcoeur, Stormy Six, Etron Fou Leloublan, Samla Mammas Manna, etc.), plus features and articles on Robert Fripp, Atoll, Annette Peacock, Italian Prog, Gloria Mundi, Peter Hammill, Ashra, Brian Eno, Tony Banks, Van Der Graaf, Genesis, Vangelis, Peter Gabriel, New Spanish Rock, and much more. Highly recommended to any fan of such things.

Very Good copy.

File under: Aubrey Beardsley Kuniyoshi Kaneko Hans Bellmer Fernand Khnopff Charles Ricketts Dante Gabriel Rossetti Ashra Ash Ra Temple Manuel Göttsching Derek Bailey Henry Cow Daevid Allen Gong Lol Coxhill Soft Machine Company Slapp Happy Keith Tippett National Health Evan Parker Robert Wyatt Spontaneous Music Ensemble Incus Records Ogun Records King Crimson Robert Fripp Atoll Annette Peacock Gloria Mundi Peter Hammill Brian Eno Van der Graaf Generator Genesis Vangelis Peter Gabriel Univers Zero Art Zoyd ZNR The Residents Albert Marcoeur Stormy Six Etron Fou Leloublan Samla Mammas Manna Tony Banks Masami Akita (Merzbow) Masashi Kitamura Fool's Mate / Tokyo Eros Periodicals Out-of-print / Rare Sound / Music Art Symbolism / Decadence / Fin de siècle Theory / Essay Occult / Esoterica Collage / Mail Art / Xerox Art Counterculture

Unica Zürn
Bilder 1953-1970

1998, German
Hardcover, 224 pages, 23 x 30 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by Brinkmann & Bose / Berlin Neue Gesellschaft fur Bildende Kunst / Berlin

$280.00 - Out of stock

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First limited edition hardcover edition of this wonderful Unica Zürn monograph. Published to accompany a major survey exhibition in Berlin in 1998, this beautifully produced catalogue, now long out-of-print, is still one of the most cherished and comprehensive collections of Zürn's artwork ever published.

The German artist and writer Unica Zürn (1916-1970) joined the ranks of Surrealism in the 1950s, after moving to Paris and taking up residence with fellow German-born Surrealist Hans Bellmer. Already an accomplished author, Zürn was drawn to the Surrealist movement's espousal of automatic drawing and writing, Zürn pursued Henri Michaux's declaration that "the hand dreams," making a vocation of these techniques with her dense, otherworldly drawings and paintings that are labyrinthine in detail, as one form sprouts out of another. Also with her experimental anagrams, natural extensions of her established interest in hidden meanings and coincidences. Zürn produced most of her oeuvre during this intensive period in the 1950s and 60s, though one marked by her deteriorating mental health. Many of her works were made during periods of hospitalisation. In 1970, Zürn leapt to her death from the balcony of the Paris apartment she had shared with Bellmer. Upon his death in 1975, Bellmer was buried, at his request, next to Zürn in Paris’s Père-Lachaise Cemetery. Their grave is marked with the words Bellmer wrote for Zürn’s funeral wreath nearly five years before: “My love will follow you into Eternity.”

Zürn has left us an account of the sensation of automatic drawing: "After an initial moment when the pen 'swims' hesitantly on the paper, she discovers the place assigned to the first eye. It is only when she is being watched from the depths of the paper that she begins to get her bearings and, effortlessly, one motif is added to another."

Very Good copy, light wear.

File under: Unica Zürn Hans Bellmer Unica Zürn Brinkmann & Bose / Berlin Neue Gesellschaft fur Bildende Kunst / Berlin Surrealism Art Drawing Out-of-print / Rare Art Brut / Folk / Visionary / Fantastic

Hans Bellmer
Peintures / Gouaches / Collages

1983, French
Hardcover, 80 pages, 17 x 14 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / good
Published by L'Autre Musee—La Difference Paris

$40.00 - Out of stock

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First 1983 hardcover edition (later re-printed in the 1990s) of Bellmer — Peintures / Gouaches / Collages by Jean Revol, a lovely pocket monograph on the German artist Hans Bellmer published in France by L'Autre Musee / La Difference, Paris. A heavily illustrated (in colour and b/w) survey of Bellmer's painting and collage works, including some lesser seen early works. Accompanied by text in French from Revol, Bellmer biography, list of exhibitions, bibliography, etc.

Good copy. Clean interior with some marks/light staining to boards.

File under: Hans Bellmer Jean Revol L'Autre Musee—La Difference Paris Surrealism Out-of-print / Rare Art Painting Collage / Mail Art / Xerox Art Drawing Eros Ero Guro / Erotic / Grotesque

Compulsive Beauty
by Hal Foster

1995, English
Softcover, 314 pages, 23 x 18 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by The MIT Press / Massachusetts October Books / New York

$65.00 - Out of stock

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First 1995 edition of this long out-of-print study by Hal Foster, published The MIT Press and October Books. In Compulsive Beauty, Foster reads surrealism from its other, darker side: as an art given over to the uncanny, to the compulsion to repeat and the drive toward death.

Surrealism has long been seen as its founder, André Breton, wanted it to be seen: as a movement of love and liberation. In Compulsive Beauty, Foster reads surrealism from its other, darker side: as an art given over to the uncanny, to the compulsion to repeat and the drive toward death. To this end Foster first restages the difficult encounter of surrealism with Freudian psychoanalysis, then redefines the crucial categories of surrealism—the marvelous, convulsive beauty, objective chance—in terms of the Freudian uncanny, or the return of familar things made strange by repression. Next, with the art of Giorgio de Chirico, Max Ernst, and Alberto Giacometti in mind, Foster develops a theory of the surrealist image as a working over of a primal fantasy. This leads him finally to propose as a summa of surrealism a body of work often shunted to its margins: the dolls of Hans Bellmer, so many traumatic tableaux that point to difficult connections not only between sadism and masochism but also between surrealism and fascism. At this point Compulsive Beauty turns to the social dimension of the surrealist uncanny. First Foster reads the surrealist repertoire of automatons and mannequins as a reflection on the uncanny processes of mechanization and commodification. Then he considers the surrealist use of outmoded images as an attempt to work through the historical repression effected by these same processes. In a brief conclusion he discusses the fate of surrealism today in a world become surrealistic. Compulsive Beauty not only offers a deconstructive reading of surrealism, long neglected by Anglo-American art history, but also participates in a postmodern reconsideration of modernism, the dominant accounts of which have obscured its involvements in desire and trauma, capitalist shock and technological development.

Very Good copy.

File under: Giorgio de Chirico Max Ernst Alberto Giacometti Hans Bellmer Raoul Ubac Man Ray Brassaï Hal Foster André Breton The MIT Press / Massachusetts October Books / New York Out-of-print / Rare Surrealism Ero Guro / Erotic / Grotesque Eros Sculpture / Installation Painting Art Drawing Collage / Mail Art / Xerox Art Dada

Unica Zürn / Hans Bellmer
Unica Zürn: Aquarelle, Zeichnungen, Radierungen; Hans Bellmer im Studio: Druckgraphik, Zeichnungenheld

1964, German
Softcover (staple-bound), 12 pages, 22.5 x 18 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / good
Published by Galerie Dieter Brusberg / Hannover

$55.00 - Out of stock

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Wonderful, scarce 1964 catalogue published on the occasion of the two-person exhibition between married artist-couple Unica Zürn and Hans Bellmer - "Unica Zürn: Aquarelle, Zeichnungen, Radierungen; Hans Bellmer im Studio: Druckgraphik, Zeichnungenheld", held at Galerie Dieter Brusberg, Hannover, April-June 1964. Profusely illustrated throughout with portraits of the artists together alongside biographies, a selection of featured works, plus a fully illustrated catalogue of their exhibited drawings and prints. Texts in German.

Very Good copy, light general wear and tanning.

File under: Hans Bellmer Unica Zürn Galerie Dieter Brusberg / Hannover Surrealism Art Drawing Out-of-print / Rare Painting Eros

Hans Bellmer

1966/1967, German
Softcover, 21 x 16.5 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by Kestner Gesellschaft / Hannover

$65.00 - Out of stock

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First, only edition of this wonderful catalogue published on the occasion of a comprehensive exhibition of works by the German surrealist visionary Hans Bellmer (1902—1975) at the Kestner-Gesellschaft, Hannover, April 1966—June 1967(!). Absolutely brimming with content, profusely illustrated throughout in colour and b/w with Bellmer's magnificent drawings, paintings, photographs, doll sculptures, and an extensive overview of his graphic works, alongside many texts, inc. notes by Bellmer himself, forward to Georges Bataille's "Madame Edwarda", list of Bellmer's works, exhibitions, bibliography, unseen photographic portraits, and many adverts for Bellmer's exhibitions and lithographic editions, evidence of the immense popularity of the master of European erotica surrealism in Europe. Texts in German.

Very Good copy.

File under: Hans Bellmer Unica Zürn Georges Bataille Hans Bellmer Kestner Gesellschaft / Hannover Surrealism Out-of-print / Rare Drawing Eros Ero Guro / Erotic / Grotesque Transgressive / Visceral / Abject Art Brut / Folk / Visionary / Fantastic

Le Sang et La Rose No. 1, 1968

1968, Japanese / French
Softcover, 228 pages, 23 x 18 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by Tensei Shuppan / Tokyo

$110.00 - Out of stock

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Revue de Érotologie, Homosexualité, Sadisme, Masochisme, Fétischisme, Narcissime, Infantilisme, Magie, Occultisme, Humour Noir, Complexe Psychisme. What more could you ask for? Le Sang Et La Rose is a masterpiece of the Japanese underground. A groundbreaking, powerful, yet short-lived Japanese arts and literary journal published in Tokyo from late 1968—mid 1969, published in a total of four luxurious, now collectible, volumes. The first three issues were edited by Tatsuhiko Shibusawa (1928—1987), a legendary, controversial Japanese novelist, art critic, translator of French writers such as Jean Cocteau, Georges Bataille and Marquis de Sade, and specialist in medieval demonology. The importance of this magazine to the Japanese avant-garde and radical culture cannot be overstated.

Born from a period of political, social and economical turmoil in Japan, Le Sang Et La Rose may be understood as a emblematic distillation and product of the late ‘60s student rebellion and anti-authoritarian underground culture. Wilfully politically subversive, the publication drew upon a vast range of perspectives - from criticism, literature, obscure esoteric sciences, art, eroticism, radical avant-garde and a historical-rooted Japanese counterculture; featuring literature, theory, art, photography, illustration and graphic design from the most innovative and subversive Japanese and international (predominately French) artists, authors and critics, spanning the themes above. As instigator, Tatsuhiko Shibusawa in effect formulated the magazine’s design to be a spiritual and political operative that would weaponize its readers minds. This stance was made clear in the 1969 manifesto text — "My 1969" — in which Shibusawa discuss' how he perceived the ‘60s as being the age of ideas, ideas as weapons, and outlined a distain towards systems of power, moralism, State oppression, sanitised and harmless liberalism, dogmatic academic sciences and an outright distrust for ideological, progressive literary scholars who advocate "freedom of expression", but have never caused friction with the judicial power. The magazine sketched out an aim to push towards a new kind of personal freedom, intellect, autonomy and moral compass. Here, the concept of ‘erotism’ — as discussed by Georges Bataille in his highly influential 1957 book "Erotism: Death and Sensuality" — acts as a critical force. 

Issue no. 1 (1968) sets the scene perfectly, opening with Japanese author Yukio Mishima depicted as Saint Sebastian by photographer Kishin Shinoyama in a pictorial feature "Les Morts Masculines", a photographic homage to Georges Bataille that also features the photography of Eikoh Hosoe, Ikkō Narahara, Masahisa Fukase, and Osamu Hayasaki, with models including Butoh founder Tatsumi Hijikata, actor Akira Mita, author Tatsuhiko Shibusawa, actor Jin Nakayama, playwright Jūrō Kara, and others. Other features include " All Japanese are Perverse" — stories by Japanese writers including Yukio Mishima, Taruho Inagaki, Yutaka Haniya, Shinji Sōya; Henry Miller's letters to Anais Nin; a colour gallery of artwork by Belgian painter Paul Delvaux; articles on Vampire fantasy in the arts (including many original illustrations; Witches (illustrated by James Ensor); Oriental Eros, Ancient Indian poetry; Kama Sutra; female bi-sexuality; the history of gay (Danshoku) theatre in Japan; the full-colour art gallery "Masturbation Machine", featuring avant-garde artists Natsuyuki Nakanishi, Masuo Ikeda, Setsu Nagasawa, Carlos Marchioli, Kuniyoshi Kaneko, Masakazu Horiuchi, Tadanori Yokoo, Koji Suzuki, Tommy Ungerer; the fully illustrated museum supplement "Pain and Pleasure : On Torture" by Tatsuhiko Shibusawa with artworks throughout history; pornographic stories by Guillaume Apollinaire and Nicolas Restif de la Bretonne (who coined the term "Pornographer"); fiction by Pierre Morion (pseudo. André Pieyre de Mandiargues); critic Jin'ichi Uekusa on the controversial writings of Roger Peyrefitte, illustrations by Ernst, Bellmer, Labisse, Fini, Lam, and much more.

Tatsuhiko Shibusawa (1928—1987), was a well-known and controversial Japanese novelist, art critic, and translator of French writers such as Jean Cocteau, Georges Bataille and Marquis de Sade. In 1960 he and his publisher, Kyōji Ishii, were trialled for public obscenity over the publishing of Shibusawa's translation of de Sade's Juliette into the Japanese language. What was to be known as the "Sade Trial" took 9 years and although many of Japan's leading authors testified for the defense, in 1969 the Japanese Supreme Court ruled them guilty and charged. This did not deter Shibusawa, whose essays on black magic, demonology and eroticism were popular reading in Japan, and in 1981 he was awarded the 9th Izumi Kyoka Literature Prize.

Good copy with some spine damage and tanning/wear.

File under: Max Ernst Léonor Fini Felix Labisse Wilfredo Lam Hans Bellmer Paul Delvaux Natsuyuki Nakanishi Masuo Ikeda Setsu Nagasawa Carlos Marchioli Kuniyoshi Kaneko Masakazu Horiuchi Tadanori Yokoo Koji Suzuki Tommy Ungerer Tatsumi Hijikata Tatsuhiko Shibusawa Eikoh Hosoe Ikkō Narahara Masahisa Fukase Osamu Hayasaki Kishin Shinoyama James Ensor Tatsuhiko Shibusawa Jin'ichi Uekusa Roger Peyrefitte Yukio Mishima Taruho Inagaki Yutaka Haniya Shinji Sōya Henry Miller Suehiro Tanemura Guillaume Apollinaire Andre Pieyre De Mandiargues Nicolas Restif de la Bretonne Jūrō Kara Tensei Shuppan / Tokyo Fiction / Poetry Japanese Photography Occult / Esoterica Philosophy Photography Art Illustration / Graphic Art / Bandes Dessinées Fetishism / BDSM LGBTQ+ Eros Ero Guro / Erotic / Grotesque Out-of-print / Rare Periodicals Counterculture Surrealism Symbolism / Decadence / Fin de siècle Transgressive / Visceral / Abject Ancient / Medieval / Gothic

Le Sang et La Rose No. 4, 1969

1969, Japanese
Softcover, 286 pages, 23 x 18 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by Tensei Shuppan / Tokyo

$140.00 - Out of stock

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Revue de Érotologie, Homosexualité, Sadisme, Masochisme, Fétischisme, Narcissime, Infantilisme, Magie, Occultisme, Humour Noir, Complexe Psychisme. What more could you ask for? Le Sang Et La Rose was a groundbreaking, powerful, yet short-lived Japanese arts and literary journal published in Tokyo from late 1968—mid 1969, in a total of four luxurious, now collectible, volumes. The first three issues were edited by Tatsuhiko Shibusawa (1928—1987), a well-known and controversial Japanese novelist, art critic, and translator of French writers such as Jean Cocteau, Georges Bataille and Marquis de Sade, and this, the fourth final issue, and rarest of the four, edited by critic Masaaki Hiraoka and especially designed by self-taught painter, graphic designer and political activist, Kiyoshi Awazu (!)

Born from a period of political, social and economical turmoil in Japan, Le Sang Et La Rose may be understood as a emblematic distillation and product of the late ‘60s student rebellion and anti-authoritarian underground culture. Wilfully politically subversive, the publication drew upon a vast range of perspectives - from criticism, literature, obscure esoteric sciences, art, eroticism, radical avant garde and a historical-rooted Japanese counterculture; featuring literature, theory, art, photography, illustration and graphic design from the most innovative Japanese and international (predominately French) artists, authors and critics, spanning the themes above. Much like an instigator, Tatsuhiko Shibusawa in effect formulated the magazine’s design as principally to be a spiritual and political operative that would weaponize its readers minds. This stance was made clear in the 1969 manifesto text — "My 1969" — in which Shibusawa discuss' how he perceived the ‘60s as being the age of ideas, ideas as weapons, and outlined a distain towards systems of power, moralism, State oppression, sanitised and harmless liberalism, dogmatic academic sciences and an outright distrust for ideological, progressive literary scholars who advocate "freedom of expression", but have never caused friction with the judicial power. The magazine sketched out an aim to push towards a new kind of personal freedom, intellect, autonomy and moral compass. Here, the concept of ‘erotism’ — as discussed by Georges Bataille in his highly influential 1957 book "Erotism: Death and Sensuality" — acts as a critical force. 

Issue no. 4 includes photographic features by cinematographer Yasuhiro Yoshioka (Woman in the Dunes, Kwaidan, The Face of Another, Diary of a Shinjuku Thief), work by pioneering, self-taught visual artist and designer, Kiyoshi Awazu, Hans Bellmer, illustrations by the incredible Hiroshi Nakamura, sadomasochism in cinema, Ukiyo-e and Shunga art (erotic Japanese prints), writings by Tatsuhiko Shibusawa, Yukio Mishima, Taruho Inagaki, Jun’nosuke Yoshiyuki, Kôichi Iijima, Jûrô Kara, Ikuya Kato, Minoru Yoshioka, Masaaki Hiraoka, Tadanori Yokoo, and Ryûichi Tamura.   Much more....

Very Good copy.

File under: Yasuhiro Yoshioka Kiyoshi Awazu Hans Bellmer Hiroshi Nakamura Tatsuhiko Shibusawa Yukio Mishima Taruho Inagaki Jun’nosuke Yoshiyuki Kôichi Iijima Jûrô Kara Ikuya Kato Minoru Yoshioka Ryûichi Tamura Masaaki Hiraoka Tadanori Yokoo Tensei Shuppan / Tokyo Periodicals Art Illustration / Graphic Art / Bandes Dessinées Surrealism Ero Guro / Erotic / Grotesque Eros Photography Japanese Photography Out-of-print / Rare Philosophy Theory / Essay Fiction / Poetry Counterculture Fetishism / BDSM Symbolism / Decadence / Fin de siècle Occult / Esoterica Ancient / Medieval / Gothic

SALE2 No.30
SPECIAL ISSUE

1987, Japanese
Softcover, 168 pages, 13 x 18 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by Fiction Inc. / Tokyo

$80.00 - In stock -

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Issue No.30 of the great SALE2 periodical from Tokyo Japan, founded in 1984 by Makoto Orui, who later became art director for Purple magazine in France and Rockin’on magazine in Japan. SALE2 was active for about 14 years during the 1980s—1990s, published regularly as a sort-of fanzine/journal/catalogue/pocket-book by Fiction, Inc., a specialty shop and publisher of fetish and erotica in Tokyo in the 1980-90s. With Orui's distinct design SALE2 developed an exclusive curated editorial set on ‘erotisism and its spiritual philosophy’, with each issue exploring different themes and features, heavy on fetishism and erotic art.

Issue No.30, the "Special Issue" features Hans Bellmer, Leonor Fini, Richard Cerf, Gilles Deleuze, Michel Foucault, Paul Wunderlich, Robert Maplethorpe, Andy Warhol, Man Ray, Lewis Carroll, John Willie, Bernard Montorgueil, Guido Crepax, Van Rod, Carlo, Betty Page, Tealdo, clippings from periodicals such as Amateur Bondage, Bondage Life, Bondage Fantasies, Bizarre Comix, Bizarre Classix, Bizarre Fotos, and much more...

Very heavily illustrated throughout with erotic photography and artwork, all texts in Japanese.

Very Good copy with tanning to pages.

File under: Andy Warhol Bernard Montorgueil Betty Page Carlo Guido Crepax Hans Bellmer John Willie Leonor Fini Lewis Carroll Man Ray Paul Wunderlich Richard Cerf Robert Mapplethorpe Tealdo Van Rod Gilles Deleuze Michel Foucault Fiction Inc. / Tokyo Art Counterculture Eros Fashion Film / Video Performance / Dance / Theater Periodicals Photography Theory / Essay LGBTQ+

Night Vision No. 2 (Special Feature: Hans Bellmer)

1980, Japanese
Softcover, 200 pages (plus poster insert), 21 x 15 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by Night Vision / Japan

$80.00 - Out of stock

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First 1980 edition of cult Japanese underground magazine Night Vision, a special edition dedicated to the work of German artist Hans Bellmer (1902-1975). ("the doll = the human form - the body"). Nowhere in the world has Bellmer's "Die Puppe" has such a lasting effect than in Japan. This volume compiles many of the artist's texts, translated to Japanese, with many illustrations of Bellmer's graphic works, drawings nad photography, alongside contributions by Miyoko Nakano, Yuichi Konno, Shuzo Takiguchi, Hideo Nakai and others. This book also comes with an inserted copy of Japanese doll artist Nori Doi's four-fold poster (40 x 28.5 cm). Nori Doi's own work in articulated dolls is heavily inspired by Bellmer's dolls from the 1930's.

German artist Hans Bellmer (1902-1975) was one of the most subversive artists associated with Surrealism, famous--notorious, even--for his erotic engravings, objects and photographs. Best known for the life-sized pubescent female dolls he produced in the mid-1930s. "Bellmer was born in the city of Kattowitz, then part of the German Empire (now Katowice, Poland). Up until 1926, he'd been working as a draftsman for his own advertising company. He initiated his doll project to oppose the fascism of the Nazi Party by declaring that he would make no work that would support the new German state. Represented by mutated forms and unconventional poses, his dolls were directed specifically at the cult of the perfect body then prominent in Germany. Bellmer was influenced in his choice of art form by reading the published letters of Oskar Kokoschka (Der Fetisch, 1925)."

Very Good copy.

File under: Hans Bellmer Night Vision / Japan Eros Surrealism Out-of-print / Rare Periodicals Art Drawing Sculpture / Installation

Erotic Art and Esotericism
by Toshiki Soma

2018, Japanese
2 Volumes, softcover (one w. dust jacket), 195 + 95 pages, 19 x 13 cm
Signed by author,
Published by Treville / Tokyo

$40.00 - Out of stock

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A must-have book for Biblio enthusiasts. Pursuing the ultimate in erotic expression, dismantling the boundaries between pornography and art, and exploring the deepest mysteries of the desires of and , Erotic Art and Esotericism is the latest collection of reviews by Toshiki Soma. With extensive illustrations and explanations, Soma charts a "Spiritual Map of Contemporary Erotic Art (Microcosmos)" via the works and publications of Hans Bellmer, Pierre Molinier, Jean Benoit, Gérard Gachet, Sybille Ruppert, Jean-Marie Poumeyrol, H.R. Giger, Zdzisław Beksiński, Nik Douglas & Penny Slinger, Bob Carlos Clark, Hajime Sorayama... Soma then collects a diverse array of illustrated biblio reviews exploring esoteric and fetishistic book subjects such as Surrealism's relationship to murder, sensual plants, cannibalism, African power dolls, witches... reviewing a selection of erotic photography books, the literature of Arthur Machen, René Daumal, and Nakai Hideo, the illustrated books of Keizo Miyanishi, Hideshi Hino, Kazu Yuzuki, Chieko Minowa and much more.

This 2-volume set includes the "Erotic Art and Esotericism" (Booster Booklet), which expands on—in full colour—Soma's selections of artists surveyed, featuring hundreds of artworks and associated book-references. Artists include: Hans Bellmer, Pierre Molinier, Jean Benoit, Gérard Gachet, Sybille Ruppert, Jean-Marie Poumeyrol, H.R. Giger, Zdzisław Beksiński, Nik Douglas & Penny Slinger, Bob Carlos Clark, Hajime Sorayama, Seiu Ito, Kazutomo Fujino, Ayako Nakagawa, Petter Hegre, Henri Maccheroni, Jamie MacCartney, Richard Cerf, Gilles Berquet, Trevor Watson, Laszlo, Tony Ward, Laurent Bunaim...

Limited edition signed by the author.

File under: Hans Bellmer Pierre Molinier Jean Benoit Gérard Gachet Sybille Ruppert Jean-Marie Poumeyrol H.R. Giger Zdzisław Beksiński Nik Douglas & Penny Slinger Bob Carlos Clark Hajime Sorayama Seiu Ito Kazutomo Fujino Ayako Nakagawa Petter Hegre Henri Maccheroni Jamie MacCartney Richard Cerf Gilles Berquet Trevor Watson Laszlo Tony Ward Laurent Bunaim Toshiki Soma Treville / Tokyo Ero Guro / Erotic / Grotesque Eros Photography Japanese Photography Fiction / Poetry Illustration / Graphic Art / Bandes Dessinées Fetishism / BDSM Art Art Brut / Folk / Visionary / Fantastic Crime / Violence Surrealism Dada 'Pataphysics / Oulipo Drawing Occult / Esoterica Transgressive / Visceral / Abject Weird / Speculative / Science Fiction Signed Books

SALE2 No.37
MASOCHISM ISSUE

1989, Japanese
Softcover, 176 pages, 13 x 18 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by Fiction Inc. / Tokyo

$70.00 - In stock -

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Issue No.37 of the great SALE2 periodical from Tokyo Japan, founded in 1984 by Makoto Orui, who later became art director for Purple magazine in France and Rockin’on magazine in Japan. SALE2 was active for about 14 years during the 1980s—1990s, published regularly as a sort-of fanzine/journal/catalogue/pocket-book by Fiction, Inc., a specialty shop and publisher of fetish and erotica in Tokyo in the 1980-90s. With Orui's distinct design SALE2 developed an exclusive curated editorial set on ‘erotisism and its spiritual philosophy’, with each issue exploring different themes and features, heavy on fetishism and erotic art.

Issue No.37, the Masochism issue features erotic writings and artwork throughout by Loic Dubigeon, Guido Crepax, David Bailey, Man Ray, Lucas Samaras, Annie Sprinkle's Bosom Ballet, Hans Bellmer, Paul Outerbridge, Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, Shinichi Kusamori on the paintings of Seiu Ito "the father of modern kinbaku", Yamaguchi Tsubaki, E. J. Bellocq, René Girard, Noriyuki Eda on Saint Sebastian, Edogawa Ranpo, Serge Nazarieff, Rieko Matsuura, Tetsuo Amano, Freud, Nietzsche, de Sade, interspersed with lots of mysterious vintage erotic imagery, bondage illustration, and catalogue/advertisments/clippings of Richard Cerf, Araki, Eric Stanton, Irving Klaw, Jim, John Willie, Bizarre Comix, and much more...

Very heavily illustrated throughout with erotic photography and artwork, all texts in Japanese.

Very Good copy, tanning with age.

File under: Nobuyoshi Araki Loic Dubigeon Guido Crepax David Bailey Man Ray Lucas Samaras Annie Sprinkle Seiu Ito Hans Bellmer Paul Outerbridge Richard Cerf Eric Stanton Irving Klaw Jim John Willie E. J. Bellocq Leopold von Sacher-Masoch Shinichi Kusamori Friedrich Nietzsche The Marquis de Sade Sigmund Freud René Girard Yamaguchi Tsubaki Noriyuki Eda Edogawa Ranpo Serge Nazarieff Rieko Matsuura Tetsuo Amano Fiction Inc. / Tokyo Ero Guro / Erotic / Grotesque Eros Out-of-print / Rare Periodicals Theory / Essay Feminism Fetishism / BDSM Transgressive / Visceral / Abject Illustration / Graphic Art / Bandes Dessinées Counterculture

Malerei und Photographie im Dialog / Painting and photography in dialogue
Von 1840 bis Heute / From 1840 to The Present

1979, German
Softcover, 419 pages, 28 x 22 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by Kunsthaus Zürich / Zürich Bentelli Verlag / Bern

$80.00 - In stock -

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Wonderful over-sized catalogue published on the occasion of the exhibition Malerei und Photographie im Dialog / Painting and Photography in Dialogue, Kunsthaus Zürich, May 13 to July 24, 1977. Profusely illustrated, this heavy volume documents this historical survey of the relationship between photography and painting from 1840 to the present (late 1970s); with a full catalogue of works, artists' biographies, bibliography. Edited by Erika Billeter with texts throughout by art historian Josef A. Schmoll. Includes the work of Edvard Munch, Urs Lüthi, Wols, Vito Acconci, John Baldessari, Eadweard Muybridge, Hannah Höch, Raoul Hausmann, Hans-Peter Feldmann, Oskar Schlemmer, Francis Bacon, Hilla and Bernd Becher, Les Levine, Constant Puyo, Clarence Hudson White, Jan Groover, Jochen Gerz, Duane Michels, Mario Merz, Giulio Paolini, Ruth Francken, Theo Von Doesburg, Kurt Schwitters, Ferdinand Hodler, Herbert Bayer, Marcel Duchamp, Gertrude Käsebier, Edward Steichen, Alighiero Boetti, Klaus Rinke, Giuseppe Penone, Pierre Bonnard, Paul Klee, Gerhard Richter, Monika Baumgartl, Yves Klein, Wolf Vostell, Heinrich Kühn, Georges Mathieu, Peter Roehr, Sarkis, Jiro Takamatsu, Michael Heizer, Umberto Boccioni, Hans Bellmer, William Wegman, Raoul Ubac, Margrit Jäggli, André Kertész, Jiri Kolar, Kasimir Malevich, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Dennis Oppenheim, Christian Boltanski, Dan Graham, Jan Dibbets, Jürgen Klauke, Bruce Nauman, Jean Tinguely, Vettor Pisani, Max Ernst, Joseph Cornell, Allen Kaprow, Arnulf Rainer, Mieczyslaw Berman, Jim Dine, George Brecht, Man Ray, Paul Wunderlich, Karin Székessy, Tom Wesselmann, Chuck Close, Eugène Delacroix, Duane Hanson, Heinrich Zille, Félix Vallotton, Carl Durheim, Gilbert and George, Joseph Beuys, Thomas Eakins, Robert Rauschenberg, Édouard Vuillard, Carlo Carrà, Alphonse Mucha, Les Krims, Albert Steiner, Giorgio de Chirico, Keiji Uematsu, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Heinrich Zille, Franco Fontana, Richard Long, Ben Shahn, Edmund Kesting, László Moholy-Nagy, Anton Stankowski, Paul Nash, Rene Magritte, Paul T. Frankl, John Heartfield, El Lissitzky, Georges Hugnet, Gordon Matta-Clark....

Very Good copy, crease to top cover corner.

File under: Edvard Munch Urs Lüthi Wols Vito Acconci Eadweard Muybridge Hannah Höch Raoul Hausmann Hans-Peter Feldmann Oskar Schlemmer Francis Bacon Hilla and Bernd Becher Les Levine Constant Puyo Clarence Hudson White Jan Groover Jochen Gerz Duane Michels Mario Merz Giulio Paolini Ruth Francken Theo Von Doesburg Kurt Schwitters Ferdinand Hodler Herbert Bayer Marcel Duchamp Gertrude Käsebier Edward Steichen Alighiero Boetti Klaus Rinke Giuseppe Penone Pierre Bonnard Paul Klee Gerhard Richter Monika Baumgartl Yves Klein Wolf Vostell Heinrich Kühn Georges Mathieu Peter Roehr Sarkis Jiro Takamatsu Michael Heizer Umberto Boccioni Hans Bellmer William Wegman Raoul Ubac Margrit Jäggli André Kertész Jiri Kolar Kasimir Malevich Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec Dennis Oppenheim Christian Boltanski Dan Graham Jan Dibbets Jürgen Klauke Bruce Nauman Jean Tinguely Vettor Pisani Max Ernst Joseph Cornell Allen Kaprow Arnulf Rainer Mieczyslaw Berman Jim Dine George Brecht Man Ray Paul Wunderlich Karin Székessy Eugène Delacroix Félix Vallotton Tom Wesselmann Chuck Close Duane Hanson Joseph Beuys Thomas Eakins Robert Rauschenberg Édouard Vuillard Carlo Carrà Alphonse Mucha Les Krims Albert Steiner Giorgio de Chirico Keiji Uematsu Ernst Ludwig Kirchner Heinrich Zille Franco Fontana Richard Long Ben Shahn Edmund Kesting László Moholy-Nagy Anton Stankowski Paul Nash Rene Magritte Paul T. Frankl John Heartfield El Lissitzky Georges Hugnet Gordon Matta-Clark John Baldessari Erika Billeter Josef A. Schmoll. Kunsthaus Zürich / Zürich Bentelli Verlag / Bern Photography Art Painting Sculpture / Installation Theory / Essay Out-of-print / Rare Group Shows / Collections Surrealism Dada Conceptual Art

Surrealist Drawings
by František Šmejkal

1978, English
Hardcover (clothbound w. dust jacket), 160 pages, 24.5 x 32 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by Octopus / London

$65.00 - Out of stock

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English edition of the great "Surrealist Drawings", edited by František Šmejkal, designed and printed in Czechoslovakia. A beautiful clothbound hardcover folio of drawings by artists affiliated with Surrealism. What makes this lovely collection special is the inclusion of many of the Czech Surrealists, and a generally broad European scope of artists. Czech art historian František Šmejkal has collated a wonderful selection of works on paper by Toyen, Jindřich Štyrský, Wolfgang Paalen, Giorgio de Chirico, Hans Bellmer, Alfred Kubin, Francis Picabia, Jacques Hérold, Yves Tanguy, Man Ray, Josef Istler, Max Ernst, André Breton, František Muzika, Paul Delvaux, Wilfredo Lam, Richard Oelze, Mikuláš Medek, Joan Miró, Josef Sima, Kurt Seligmann, Odilon Redon, Andre Masson, Max Walter Svanberg, Salvador Dali, Arshile Gorky, Victor Brauner, Rene Magritte, and many more.

Highly recommended.
Very Good copy with light edge wear. Very Good dust jacket.

File under: Toyen Jindřich Štyrský André Masson Hans Bellmer Arshile Gorky Victor Brauner Salvador Dalí Paul Delvaux Wilfredo Lam Max Ernst Yves Tanguy Wolfgang Paalen Giorgio de Chirico Alfred Kubin Max-Walter Svanberg Odilon Redon Joan Miró Josef Sima René Magritte Jacques Hérold Francis Picabia Man Ray Richard Oelze Kurt Seligmann František Muzika Mikuláš Medek Josef Istler František Šmejkal Octopus / London Surrealism Out-of-print / Rare Drawing Painting Symbolism / Decadence / Fin de siècle

Hans Bellmer
Die Puppe

1962, German
Softcover, 190 pages, 21 x 16.8 cm
Numbered ed. 0688/2000,
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / fine
Published by Gerhardt Verlag / Berlin

$400.00 - Out of stock

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Very scarce first numbered edition of Bellmer's "Die Puppe", published by Gerhardt Verlag in Berlin in 1962. German artist Hans Bellmer (1902-1975) was one of the most subversive artists associated with Surrealism, famous--notorious, even--for his erotic engravings, objects and photographs. This collectable first edition (numbered of 2000 copies) of Die Puppe (The Doll) comprises a series of Bellmer's hand-painted photographs in the form of 10 monochrome and 15 coloured tipped-in plates accompanying his remarkable texts, here published for the first time. Bellmer's hand-coloured photographs subsequently acquired an iconic status as perhaps the purest exemplification of the Surrealist ideal of "convulsive beauty." Bellmer weaves a remarkably disparate set of concepts and intuitions--from fields as diverse as mathematics, morphology, optics and psychology--into a theory of eroticism that provides a totally unexpected rationale for his uncompromising art. His ideas are, in the words of poet Joë Bousquet, a "scandal to reason." The book also contains many b/w drawings by Bellmer along with prose poems by Paul Eluard. A book like no other!

Fine, perfectly preserved copy of this stunning edition with the die-cut decal cover.

File under: Hans Bellmer Gerhardt Verlag / Berlin Art Eros Out-of-print / Rare Surrealism Drawing Photography

Oeillades Ciselées en Branche
Hans Bellmer and Georges Hugnet

1939 / 1973, French
Softcover (w. lace-printed dust jacket), 26 pages, 13.4 x 9.5 cm
1st Facsimile Edition,
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by GQ / Tokyo

$250.00 - Out of stock

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Super rare and mysterious 1973 reprint of the exceptionally rare 'Oeillades Ciselées en Branche' (1939), Hans Bellmer's (1902 – 1975) collaboration with fellow Surrealist Georges Hugnet (1906 – 1974), published in Paris by publisher Jeanne Bucher in an edition limited to 230 hand-numbered copies wrapped in lace paper. Although Bellmer had illustrated books before 'Oeillades Ciselées en Branche', those, such as the notoriously scarce 'Die Puppe' (1934) and the later French version 'La Poupée' (1936) were illustrated with original photographs, this was his very first illustrated book. Bellmer had worked as a draftsman for his own advertising agency and his technical virtuosity combined with his inspirational predilections produced a highly original body of illustration - here in heliogravure - for Hugnet's erotic text. In the words of Pierre Seghers, the poet and publisher, the text and illustration, as well as the design of the book, with its patterned lace over pink paper, combined to produce 'an absolutely perfect little book'. Hugnet was a French graphic artist, poet, writer, art historian, bookbinding designer, critic and film director and a figure in the Dada movement and Surrealism. This was his second book after the famous collage novel Le septième face du dé (1936). The text is a prose poem on the theme of young adolescent girls, articulated with the erotic images of Bellmer, whose extraordinary skill, inherited from the technical drawing of his engineering studies, perfectly serves this particular eroticism. 'Bellmer's color engravings, placed outside the text or using free spaces in the text, offer variations on the theme of the metamorphosis of the female body associated with that of the double. Disarticulated puppets or slender silhouettes with sometimes disproportionate limbs, young girls evolve slightly over the pages, drawn with spider-like finesse by Bellmer, one of the most successful of all. '

Lovingly reproduced here in limited offset-print on warm, fragile, soft paper stocks with delicate dust jacket lace over-prints, reproducing in simplified facsimile edition number "221" of the original 230. Published in Tokyo by the great 1970s GQ (Graphic Quarterly) periodical, their facsimile editions were widely regarded for their quality, and very collectible in their own right, usually only available to those on their mailing list. They were also official reproductions, permitted by their original publishers and authors. That said, there is little to no information anywhere about this particular 1973 edition, published shortly before the deaths of both artists.

Very Good copy.

File under: Hans Bellmer Georges Hugnet Georges Hugnet GQ / Tokyo Eros Surrealism Dada Fiction / Poetry Illustration / Graphic Art / Bandes Dessinées Drawing Art Out-of-print / Rare

The Lyotard Reader and Guide
Edited by Keith Crome and James Williams

2006, English
Softcover, 376 pages, 15.5 x 23 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by Columbia University Press / New York

$35.00 - Out of stock

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First edition.

The Lyotard Reader and Guide is a one-stop companion to Lyotard's thought. It covers the full range of his works, from his three main books (Discours, figure; Libidinal Economy; and The Differend) and up to his influential essays in The Inhuman and Postmodern Fables.

The readings are organized into sections on philosophy, politics, art, and literature. Several have never before been translated into English. Detailed introductions to each section by two leading Lyotard scholars explain the philosopher's key ideas and provide crucial social, political, aesthetic, and philosophical context. As a sourcebook and guide, this is the most up-to-date and comprehensive volume on Lyotard. It is indispensable to students and scholars in philosophy, literature, the arts, and politics.

Keith Crome is lecturer in philosophy at Manchester Metropolitan University. He is the author of Lyotard and Greek Thought: Sophistry.

James Williams is a leading Lyotard scholar. He is senior lecturer and head of philosophy at the University of Dundee and is the author of Understanding Poststructuralism and The Transversal Thought of Gilles Deleuze: Encounters and Influence.

Very Good copy.

File under: Antonin Artaud Hans Bellmer John Cage Daniel Buren Paul Cézanne Marcel Duchamp Pierre Klossowski Albrecht Dürer Jean-François Lyotard Georges Bataille Gilles Deleuze & Felix Guattari Felix Guattari Gilles Deleuze Immanuel Kant G. W. F. Hegel Pierre Klossowski Karl Marx Sigmund Freud Friedrich Nietzsche Plato Ludwig Wittgenstein Theodor W. Adorno Denis Diderot Columbia University Press / New York Theory / Essay Out-of-print / Rare Art

Hans Bellmer

1972/2006, Japanese
Hardcover (w. dust jacket, slipcase, obi), 92 pages, 31 x 25 cm
Out of print title / used / fine
Published by Kawade Shobo Shinsha / Tokyo

$150.00 - Out of stock

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2006 facsimile edition of this wonderful 1972 slip-cased hardcover monograph on German artist Hans Bellmer, considered one of the most important representatives of Surrealist Art. Bound in brown cloth and wrapped in illustrated original dust-jacket, this heavily illustrated book surveys Bellmer's incredible paintings, drawings, photography and sculptural dolls through beautiful colour and monochrome gravure reproductions, with alongside various texts, biography, bibliography and portrait of the artist. Published as volume 2 of the deluxe La Septième Face du Dé series by Kawade Shobo Shinsha in Japan in the 1970s, all later re-printed in the 2000s. All editions now out-of-print.

German artist Hans Bellmer (1902 – 1975), was best known for the life-sized pubescent female dolls he produced in the mid-1930s. "Bellmer was born in the city of Kattowitz, then part of the German Empire (now Katowice, Poland). Up until 1926, he'd been working as a draftsman for his own advertising company. He initiated his doll project to oppose the fascism of the Nazi Party by declaring that he would make no work that would support the new German state. Represented by mutated forms and unconventional poses, his dolls were directed specifically at the cult of the perfect body then prominent in Germany. Bellmer was influenced in his choice of art form by reading the published letters of Oskar Kokoschka (Der Fetisch, 1925).

Fine copy.

File under: Hans Bellmer Unica Zürn Kawade Shobo Shinsha / Tokyo Eros Out-of-print / Rare Surrealism Drawing Art Photography