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
info@worldfoodbooks.com
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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.
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
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.
1992, French / Japanese
Softcover (french-folds w. parchment dust-jacket and obi-strip),
Ed. of 950, first hand-numbered ed. 19/50,
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Taito Vision / Tokyo
$200.00 - Out of stock
Stunning, very rare Japanese publication collecting the works of married Surrealist artist-couple Unica Zürn and Hans Bellmer, issued in a limited edition of 950 copies by Taito Vision in 1992. This copy scarcer still, being one of the first edition of 50 hand-numbered copies (no.19/50). Contents include colour reproductions of Unica Zürn's print series "Oracles et Spectacles", published in 1967 after a series of drawings created by Zürn during a 1960 hospitalization caused by a clinically diagnosed psychotic episode. They are accompanied here by a selection of her anagrammatic poetry and a hommage to Zürn by husband Bellmer. These are followed by colour reproductions of Hans Bellmer's "Petit Traité de Morale" print series from 1966-68. Accompanied by biographies, a series of texts in Japanese, a full catalogue and portraits of the artists. A stunning book making these wonderful print editions by two important Surrealists available together in book-form.
Very Good copy in Very Good dust jacket protected in publisher's removable parchment jacket and publisher's obi-strip (both not pictured here, both with some tanning and wear). A most complete and limited copy.
1984, Japanese
Softcover, 224 pages, 21 x 15 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / fine
Published by
Night Vision / Japan
$55.00 - Out of stock
First 1984 edition of cult Japanese underground magazine Night Vision, a special edition dedicated to Surrealism. Packed with content, including many important Surrealist texts translated to Japanese, this heavily illustrated book includes features on Hans Bellmer and Unica Zürn, Yves Tanguy, Remedios Varo, Max Ernst, Belgian Surrealism, female Surrealist artists and poets (Remedios Varo, Mimi Parent, Valentine Penrose, Gisèle Prassinos, Dorothea Tanning, Bona de Mandiargues, Isabelle Walberg, Lise Deharme, Leonora Carrington, Dora Maar, Aube Elléouët, Jane Graverol, Nelly Kaplan (Belen), Joyce Mansour, Nora Mitrani, Unica Zürn, Valentine Hugo, Marianne Van Hirtum, Leonora Fini, Marie-Laure de Noailles, Kay Sage, Toyen, Annie Le Brun, Meret Oppenheim), Latin American Surrealism and Frida Kahlo-Diego Rivera, Surrealist literature and activities (Artaud, Picabia, Apollinaire, Bataille, Duchamp, Satie, Breton, etc.) plus much more, text contributions by Georges Bataille, Paul Eluard, Midori Wakakuwa, Kuniharu Akiyama, Takashi Tanyuya, Shigeo Goto, Takahiko Okada, Octavio Paz, André Breton, Kunio Iwaya, Gonzalo Cerorio, Yuichi Konno, Satoshi Takamura, and much more. Illustrated in b/w throughout (with many more artists than mentioned above) in that great Night Vision semi-fanzine/cheap reader quality.
Very Good - Fine copy.
1975, French
Softcover, 170 pages, 27 x 21cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / good
Published by
Galeries Nationales du Grand-Palais / Paris
$55.00 - Out of stock
First printing of this comprehensive and profusely illustrated catalogue produced to accompany the survey major exhibition of the work of German artist Max Ernst, at Galeries Nationales du Grand-Palais, in Paris in 1975.
Designed in landscape form, this curious and very generous catalogue is illustrated throughout with colour and black and white reproductions of Ernst's paintings, drawings, sculptures, collages, frottage, graphics, etchings, etc., running chronologically and featuring columns of autobiographical testimonies and theoretical writings of Max Ernst, memories of friends, poetry, reflections, and correspondences with other artists, their dedicated artworks/portraits, writings by critics, writers or other artists (Tristan Tzara, Hans Bellmer, Robert Motherwell, Hans Arp, Paul Eluard, Patrick Waldberg, Benjamin Péret, André Breton, Louis Aragon, Robert Lebel, Dorothea Tanning, Hans Richter, Georges Bataille, Herny Miler, and many others), etc. set in parallel, relating to reproductions of his work, social photographs, and other imagery. Also features a bibliography, list of works, and texts by Werner Spies and others. Still one of the best catalogues on the artist. All texts are in their original French.
Max Ernst (2 April 1891 – 1 April 1976) was a German painter, sculptor, graphic artist, and poet. A prolific artist, Ernst was a primary pioneer of the Dada movement and Surrealism.
Rubbed covers otherwise Very Good throughout.
1983, Japanese
Hardcover (clothbound w. dustjacket), 152 pages, 20.5 x 30 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Orion Press / Tokyo
$160.00 - Out of stock
Rare, exquisitely designed and produced book dedicated entirely to the photography of the German artist Hans Bellmer (13 March 1902 – 23 February 1975), 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)."
Produced in French by Editions Filipacchi, Centre Georges Pompidou, and Musee National D'art Moderne in Paris in 1983, this very scarce Japanese printing (produced and printed in Japan that same year) features a different cover, with translations to the Japanese language of the introductory essay and texts. Densely illustrated with amazing and beautifully printed colour and black and white photography of Bellmer's dolls, many studies of the female nude, and photography of objects and sculptural assemblages, this book is a wonderful volume capturing an important Surrealist visionary of our time through his stunning photography.
Very good copy in dust-jacket, age tanning to edges/cover,
wear/small chipping to jacket corners.
1966, German
Softcover, 52 pages, 20 x 19 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Haus am Waldsee / Berlin
$65.00 - Out of stock
Gorgeous first edition catalogue from 1966 published on the occasion of the exhibition "Phantastische Figuration" at Haus am Waldsee in Berlin. Featuring the work of Paul Wunderlich, Hans Bellmer, Gerhard Altenbourg, Richard Oelze, Friedrich Schröder-Sonnenstern, Ursula (Schultze-Bluhm), this beautifully printed catalogue is illustrated throughout in colour and b/w with biographies and portraits for each exhibiting artist. With a foreword by Edouard Roditi.
Fine copy in stiff silkscreened covers.
1983, German
Softcover, 118 pages, 18 x 11.5 cm
Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Ullstein KunstBuch / Frankfurt
$40.00 - Out of stock
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. The first edition of Die Puppe (The Doll) comprised a series of Bellmer's photographs "illustrated" with prose poems by Paul Éluard; Bellmer's hand-colored photographs subsequently acquired an iconic status as perhaps the purest exemplification of the Surrealist ideal of "convulsive beauty." Later editions of the book were expanded to incorporate a body of theoretical, poetic and speculative texts that together comprise one of the most important expositions of Surrealist cultural theory. 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."
This 1983 printing from Frankfurt is in the original German language, as are majority of editions of Die Puppe, and includes Die Puppe, Die Spiele der Puppe, and Die Anatomie des Bildes, and more. Illustrated throughout. Very Good copy.
2011, Japanese / French
Softcover (w. printed plastic jacket over reflective cover), 296 pages
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
National Art Centre / Tokyo
$90.00 - Out of stock
First printing of this great exhibition catalogue from the National Art Centre Tokyo via Centre Pompidou Paris, on occasion of the most comprehensive Surrealist exhibition ever staged in Japan, “Le Surrealism: Exposition organisee par Le Pompidou a partir de sa Collection” at The National Art Center, Tokyo in 2011.
Housed in mirrored cover and profusely illustrated in colour with the work of André Breton, Victor Brauner, Rene Magritte, Joan Miro, Andre Masson, Francis Picabia, Claude Cahun, Hans Bellmer, Dorothea Tanning, Max Ernst, Salvador Dali, Toyen, Guilaume Apollinaire, Meret Oppenheim, Luis Buñuel, Jindrich Heisler, Andre Masson, Yves Tanguy, Alberto Giacometti, Man Ray, Marcel Duchamp, Jean Arp, Giorgio de Chirico, Wilhelm Freddie, and many others, alongside comprehensive documentation of major historical Surrealist exhibitions and documents/publications.
Very Good copy.
1974, German
Softcover, 169 page, 20 x 21 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Städtisches Museum / Leverkusen
$65.00 $45.00 - In stock - Add to cart
"Medium Fotografie" was published on the occasion of the exhibition of the same name held at Städtisches Museum, Leverkusen, 18 May - 5 August 1973.
Foreword by Rolf Wedewer; Artists featured include Herbert Bayer, Hans Bellmer, Anton Giulio, Marcel Duchamp, Theodor Fraenkel, Hannah Höch, Layos Kalsas, Lazlo Moholy-Nagy, George Mucha, Man Ray, Luigi Veronesi, Stuart Wiese, Christian Boltanski, Marcel Broodthaers, Hamish Fulton, Christoph Kohlhöfer, Ingrid Kohlhöfer, Sigmar Polke, Gerhard Richter, Johannes Theodor Baargeld, Tristan Tzara, El Lissitzky, John Heartfield, Raoul Hausmann, Jörg Immendorff, A.R. Penck, Edward Ruscha, Pablo Picasso,Gilbert & George, Walter de Maria, and many more. Heavily illustrated throughout, texts in German.
2010, English
Softcover, 197 pages, 15 x 23 cm
Published by
Solar Books / US
$44.00 - Out of stock
The Marquis de Sade (1740–1814), best known for his violent, erotic novels, such as 120 Days of Sodom and Justine, was also one of the key inspirational figures identified by André Breton in his Surrealist Manifestos. De Sade’s importance to the Surrealists and their close affiliates is reflected in the sheer volume of art and writing dedicated to, or inspired by, his life, philosophy, and writings. Sade: Sex and Death documents this body of Surrealist work, including many key texts and bizarre and erotic images never before assembled in one volume.
Included in Sade are more than fifty rarely seen transgressive illustrations by some of the most famous names associated with Surrealism, including Dalí, Hans Bellmer, Magritte, André Masson, and Man Ray. The book also features analytical texts by writers of the period such as Bataille, Breton, Bunuel, Eluard, and Klossowski. Also included is the first-ever English translation of “The Divine Marquis” by Guillaume Apollinaire, which was the first modernist appraisal of Sade and remains one of the best concise biographies of its subject, and “Sade and the Roman Noir” by scholar Maurice Heine, in which Heine posits Sade as inventor of the gothic novel. Putting the works in context is an extensive history by editor Candice Black that details the relationship between the Surrealists and Sade.
1974, Italian
Softcover, 24 pages, 15 x 21 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Galleria D'Arte / Turin
$30.00 - Out of stock
Surrealism catalogue published on the occasion of "Omaggio al Surrealismo", a group exhibition at Galleria D'Arte "La Bussola", Turin, 1974. Illustrated in colour and b/w throughout with works by Gianni Dova, Victor Brauner, Giorgio De Chirico, René Magritte, Joan Miró, Wilfredo Lam, Graham Sutherland, Salvador Dalí, Roberto Matta, Max Ernst, Paul Wunderlich, André Masson, and Hans Bellmer.
Very Good, light cover wear.
1983, Japanese
Hardcover (clothbound w. dustjacket), 151 pages, 20.5 x 30 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Orion Press / Tokyo
$160.00 - Out of stock
Rare, exquisitely designed and produced book dedicated entirely to the photography of the German artist Hans Bellmer (13 March 1902 – 23 February 1975), 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)."
Produced in French by Editions Filipacchi, Centre Georges Pompidou, and Musee National D'art Moderne in Paris in 1983, this very scarce Japanese printing (produced and printed in Japan that same year) features a different cover, with translations to the Japanese language of the introductory essay and texts. Densely illustrated with amazing and beautifully printed colour and black and white photography of Bellmer's dolls, many studies of the female nude, and photography of objects and sculptural assemblages, this book is a wonderful volume capturing an important Surrealist visionary of our time through his stunning photography.
Very good copy in dust-jacket, age tanning to edges/cover.
1980, French
Hardcover (w. dust jacket), 220 pages, 25.5 x 32 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Le Sphinx / Paris
$140.00 - Out of stock
First 1980 hardcover edition of Le Trésor Cruel de Hans Bellmer, published by Le Sphinx, Paris. With texts by French author André Pieyre de Mandiargues and Hans Bellmer himself, this volume is made up of countless drawings and paintings of the Surrealist visionary, including many preliminary sketches for well-known graphics, and many seldom seen pieces. A beautiful collection on various stocks and reproduced in both colour and b/w. All texts in French.
German artist Hans Bellmer (13 March 1902 – 23 February 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)."
Very Good in Good-VG dust jacket (small closed repair and some wear). Minimal previous library stamps. Perfectly preserved interior and binding.
1973, English
Softcover (staple-bound), 14 pages, 21 x 15 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Editions Graphiques Gallery / London
$35.00 - Out of stock
Lovely catalogue issued on the occasion of the exhibition of Hans Bellmer's etchings and drawings, published by Editions Graphiques Gallery, London, in the late 1960s-early 1970s. Illustrated throughout with many of the 43 exhibited items, including his important series "à Sade", "Madame Edwarda" (Georges Bataille), and "Les Marionettes", amongst others, alongside detailed work list, and introductory text by Victor Arwas.
Very Good copy.
1971, French
Hardcover (clothbound w. dustjacket), 88 pages, 25 x 31 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / good
Published by
Editions Filipacchi / Paris
$90.00 - Out of stock
First edition of this great monographic book on the work of Surrealist visionary Hans Bellmer, published in 1971 by Editions Filipacchi, Paris. Heavily illustrated throughout with wonderful reproductions of Bellmer's incredible drawings, photography, sculptures, paintings, alongside texts in French, biography and bibliography.
German artist Hans Bellmer (13 March 1902 – 23 February 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)."
Very Good copy in Good but worn dust jacket with tanning and a few small tears/wear. Very Good copy otherwise, with only edge tanning, preserved under Mylar wrap.
1972, English
Hardcover (clothbound w. dustjacket), 110 pages, 20.5 x 30 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Academy Editions / London
$140.00 - Out of stock
Beautifully produced, scarce hardcover monographic volume dedicated entirely to reproductions of Surrealist visionary Hans Bellmer's incredible drawings. This is the first English edition, published by Academy Editions London in 1972 following the 1966 French edition. With an introduction by Constantin Jelenski. A stunning book.
German artist Hans Bellmer (13 March 1902 – 23 February 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)."
Very Good in original dust jacket, light tanning/wear to jacket. Small notation to front endpaper.
2011 / 2015, English
Softcover, 78 pages, 14.8 x 21 cm
Published by
Urbanomic / Cornwall
$28.00 - Out of stock
Why has the concept of contingency taken on a marked importance both in contemporary philosophy and in contemporary art practice? And if this simultaneity derives from parallel problems met within the two different fields, what are their common roots? Beyond acknowledging the contingent nature of tradition, institutions, and practices, recent speculative philosophies of 'absolute contingency' demand a radical revision of the ways in which we conceive of our interaction with unknowable materialities, and pose a challenge to both probabilistic management and process-driven affirmation of contingency.The book documents the event held at Thomas Dane Gallery in February of 2011 that coincided with the show entitled New York to London and Back. The show featured work by Kristen Alvanson, Hans Bellmer, Liz Deschenes, Thomas Eggerer, Rachel Harrison, Gareth James, Alison Knowles, Sam Lewitt, Scott Lyall, R. H. Quaytman, Eileen Quinlan, Raha Raissnia, Jimmy Raskin, Blake Rayne, Pamela Rosenkranz, Pieter Schoolwerth, Amy Sillman and Cheyney Thompson.
In an unprecedented overlapping of the contexts of philosophical, financial, and art worlds, The Medium of Contingency event brought together in discussion Robin Mackay, Reza Negarestani, Elie Ayache, Matthew Poole, Miguel Abreu and Scott Lyall. This publication includes presentations by each of the participants and an edited transcript of the discussion.
Contents
ROBIN MACKAY - Introduction: Three Figures of Contingency
REZA NEGARESTANI - Contingency and Complicity
ELIE AYACHE - In The Middle of The Event
MATTHEW POOLE - Art, Human Capital, and the Medium of Contingency
MIGUEL ABREU, ELIE AYACHE, SCOTT LYALL, ROBIN MACKAY, REZA NEGARESTANI, MATTHEW POOLE - Discussion
NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS
NEW YORK TO LONDON AND BACK: LIST OF WORKS
1971, French
Hardcover (clothbound w. dustjacket), 88 pages, 25 x 31 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Editions Filipacchi / Paris
$100.00 - Out of stock
First edition of this great monographic book on the work of Surrealist visionary Hans Bellmer, published in 1971 by Editions Filipacchi, Paris. Heavily illustrated throughout with wonderful reproductions of Bellmer's incredible drawings, photography, sculptures, paintings, alongside texts in French, biography and bibliography.
German artist Hans Bellmer (13 March 1902 – 23 February 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)."
1947, French
Softcover, 142 pages, 24 x 20.5 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / good
Published by
Maeght Editeur / Paris
$480.00 - Out of stock
Very scarce copy of the legendary "Le Surréalisme en 1947 : Exposition Internationale de Surréalisme présentée par André Breton et Marcel Duchamp", published by Maeght Editeur, Paris, in conjunction with an important exhibition of Surrealist artists in 1947. Features the cover design by Marcel Duchamp - a photographic reproduction by Rémy Duval of "Prière de toucher (Please touch)", the famous Duchamp rubber breast edition, created with Italian-born painter Enrico Donati, that adorned the first 999 copies of the catalogue. This gorgeous catalogue features the work of artists from 24 countries including Victor Brauner, Max Ernst, Leonora Carrington, Jacqueline Lamba, Jacques Hérold, Wilfredo Lam, Joan Miró, Hans Bellmer, Marcel Jean, Maria Martins, Yves Tanguy, Dorothea Tanning, Hans Arp, Hector Hyppolite, Serge Brignoni, Alexander Calder, Bruno Capacci, Elizabeth van Damme, Jacques Halpern, Julio de Diego, Enrico Donati, Francis Bouvet , David Hare, Iaroslav Serpan, Jacqueline Lamba, Taro Okamoto, Roberto Matta, Kay Sage, Toyen, Vilhelm Bjerke-Petersen, Leonard Baskin, Jindrich Heisler, Jeanne Reynal, Roger Brielle, Jindrich Styrsky, Bruno Capacci, Jean Guerin, Isamu Noguchi, Gerome Kamrowski, Eugenio Granell, Francis Picabia, Remedios Varo, Hans Richter, Arshile Gorky, and many more,, along with the folding sheet catalogue loosely inserted.
Good copy considering age. Very tanned edges and wear to corners, edges and spine.
1983, Japanese
Hardcover (clothbound w. dustjacket), 151 pages, 20.5 x 30 cm
Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Centre Georges Pompidou / Paris
Editions Filipacchi / Paris
Musee National D'art Moderne / Paris
Orion Press / Tokyo
$170.00 - Out of stock
Rare, exquisitely designed and produced book dedicated entirely to the photography of the German artist Hans Bellmer (13 March 1902 – 23 February 1975), 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)."
Produced in French by Editions Filipacchi, Centre Georges Pompidou, and Musee National D'art Moderne in Paris in 1983, this very scarce Japanese printing (produced and printed in Japan that same year) features a different cover, with translations to the Japanese language of the introductory essay and texts. Densely illustrated with amazing and beautifully printed colour and black and white photography of Bellmer's dolls, many studies of the female nude, and photography of objects and sculptural assemblages, this book is a wonderful volume capturing an important Surrealist visionary of our time through his stunning photography.
Very good copy in dust-jacket, age tanning to edges/cover.
1970, English
Softcover, 80 pages, 24.5 x 34.5 cm
Out of print title / used / good
Published by
James Fitzsimmons / Lugano
$45.00 - Out of stock
Art International, Vol. XIV/9 November 1970
Published and Edited by James Fitzsimmons
cover: Eugenio Carmi
Features: Henry Moore, Anthony Caro, Aristide Maillol, Clement Meadmore, Lee Bontecou, George Grosz, Hannah Höch, R. B. Kitaj, Kurt Schwitters, Ross Woodman, Harry Soviak, The Israel Museum, James Rosati, Frances Picabia, Raffael Ferrer, Alexander Archipenko, Paolo Soleri, Ralph Goings, Alex Katz, René Magritte, Roberto Matta, Hans Bellmer, Frank Stella, David Aspden, John Armstrong, Gunter Christmann, Ken Reinhard, Jorge Camacho, Tetsumi Kudo, Michael Heizer, Jean-Pierre Raynaud, Pol Bury, Raoul Ubac, Antoni Tàpies, Llyn Foulkes, and many more.
Art International was a highly regarded international art journal based in Switzerland from 1957-1984. With international editors and contributing writers, A.I. was issued 10 times per year and was published and edited by James A. Fitzsimmons.
1969, English / French
Softcover, 76 pages, 24.5 x 34.5 cm
Out of print title / used / good
Published by
James Fitzsimmons / Lugano
$55.00 - In stock - Add to cart
Art International, Vol. XIII/6 Summer 1969
Published and Edited by James Fitzsimmons
Advisory Editors: Umbro Apollonio, Jean-Christophe Ammann, R. C. Kenedy, James Mellow.
Features: Bridget Riley, Barnett Newman, Tess Jaray, Oskar Kokoschka, Roland Topor, Tony Smith, Richard Linder, Jules Olitski, Karel Appel, Hans Bellmer, Horst-Egon Kalinowski, Louise Nevelson, Luciano Fabbro, George Brecht, Man Ray, Fernand Leger, Kenneth Noland, Lyonel Feininger, Herbert Ferber, George Sugarman, Walter de Maria, Edgar Negret, Richard Anuzkiewicz, Nicholas Krushenick, John Healey, Rodolfo Arico, Marco Cordioli, Edival Ramosa, Riccardo Emma, Livio Marzot, Pablo Picasso, Heinz Mack, and many more.
Art International was a highly regarded international art journal based in Switzerland from 1957-1984. With international editors and contributing writers, A.I. was issued 10 times per year and was published and edited by James A. Fitzsimmons.