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:
W—F 12—6 PM
Sat 12—5 PM
WEB-SHOP OPEN 24/7.
World Food Books
Postal Address:
PO Box 435
Flinders Lane
Victoria 8009
Australia
Art
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World Food Books Gift Voucher
World Food Book Bag
Australian Art
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'Pataphysics / Oulipo
Fluxus
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Arte Informale / Haute Pâte / Tachism
Nouveau Réalisme / Zero / Kinetic
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Collage / Mail Art / Xerox Art
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Furniture
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Drugs / Psychedelia
Crime / Violence
Animal Rights / Veganism
Occult / Esoterica
Ecology / Earth / Alternative Living
Whole Earth / Crafts
All prices in AUD (Australian dollars)
Pick-Ups
Please note: The bookshop is closed until February 1, 2024.
Pick-up orders can be collected in our bookshop during opening hours after this date. Please collect any Pick-up orders within 3 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.
Return Policy
All sales are final. We do accept returns (for refund, 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.
1988, English
Softcover, 136 pages, 20.5 x 13.5 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / average
Published by
Dia Art Foundation / New York
$20.00 - In stock -
A Village Voice Best Book of the Year, this seminal work presents new models of vision and examines modern theories of seeing in the context of contemporary critical practice.
With contributions by: Norman Bryson, Jonathan Crary, Martin Jay, Rosalind Krauss, Jacqueline Rose
Discussions in Contemporary Culture is an award-winning series co-published with the Dia Center for the Arts in New York City. These volumes offer rich and timely discourses on a broad range of cultural issues and critical theory. The collection covers topics from urban planning to popular culture and literature, and continually attracts a wide and dedicated readership.
Average—Good copy with tanning to spine and wear to extremities.
1980, English
Hardcover (w. dust jacket), 276 pages, 23 x 15.5 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
The Athlone Press / UK
$20.00 - In stock -
Though T. S. Eliot called Wyndham Lewis "the most fascinating personality of our time" and "the only one among my contemporaries to create a new, an original, prose style", Lewis is perhaps the most neglected and under-rated major author of this century. But a strong revival of interest in his prose writings and art is under way and much new material has become available on which to base a fresh assessment of his work.
This volume contains eighteen specially commissioned essays which consider Lewis as novelist, philosopher, poet, critic and editor, and, more briefly, in his complementary role as artist. It aims to stimulate critical appreciation of the depth and diversity of Lewis's fifty years of creative activity and of his role as a major intellectual force in modern English literature.
Jeffrey Meyers is a Professor of English at the University of Colorado.
Very Good copy w. Good dust jacket with tanning.
1991, English
Softcover, 430 pages, 20 x 13 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / good
Published by
Vintage / UK
$20.00 - In stock -
Charles Baudelaire has been the subject of myth, anecdote and scandal. A rebel, political agitator, dandy and post-romantic debauchee, his was the most original poetic imagination since the Renaissance. This account of his life is lucid, stylish and compelling, presenting a definitive portrait of one of the strangest and most innovative figures in poetic history.
Good copy with general wear/tanning.
1988, English
Hardcover (w. dust jacket), 246 pages, 24.13 x 15.24 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
$30.00 - Out of stock
Censored when it appeared in 1922 and praised and imitated ever since, Ulysses continues to yield riches to a new generation of critics. In Paperspace, Patrick McGee uses the Lacanian model of the unconscious to show how Ulysses baffles and defeats certain axioms of traditional literary criticism, such as the assumption that the meaning of an author's fiction can be reduced to his conscious beliefs and intentions. Described by Shari Benstock as "the first feminist reading of Ulysses," Paperspace goes further than any other book to date [1988] in the application of postmodern critical theory to a close reading of the novel.
"Not since Colin McCabe's James Joyce and the Revolution of the Word (1978) have we had such a strong presentation of Joyce's stylistic techniques as serving the cause of social progress.... Paperspace gives us a new and deep understanding of how style, personality, and society work together in Joyce, and it provides a sharp image of Joyce as feminist and radical."—Sheldon Brivic, James Joyce Quarterly
1967, English
Softcover, 320 pages, 18 x 11 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / good
Published by
Panther / London
$40.00 - In stock -
Panther edition from 1967 of Curzio Malaparte’s legendary work The Skin.
A CITY WHERE FLESH WAS CHEAPER THAN BREAD
Naples 1943... the first European city to be liberated in World War II ... tragic, defeated, a city where the barbarity of war has destroyed all moral values ... a festering Gomorrah of frenzied drinking, debauchery and sex which takes place when the conquered Italians, men, women and children, long under the Fascist and Nazi boot, open the gates of their city to the US Army ...
THE SKIN is a masterpiece of power, grandeur and cruelty. On every page there is a ferocious pity, a cruel delight in the misery of the vanquished, in the arrogance and cruelty of the victor
"MALAPARTE is a very great writer. THE SKIN is a tremendous work, a masterpiece ... In THE SKIN everything is on a grand scale"—Pierre Lesdain
"MALAPARTE is the most epic of all the great writers of Europe"—Robert Pick
Subtle, cynical, evasive, manipulative, unnerving, always astonishing, Malaparte is a supreme artist of the unreliable, both the product and the prophet of a world gone rotten to the core.
Good copy with light wear / age / tanning. Previous owner's name to top first page.
1994, English
Softcover, 50 pages, 20.5 x 15cm
Signed, numbered edition,
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / fine
$550.00 - In stock -
First signed edition of this lovely, rare book on Australian artist and occultist Rosaleen Norton (1917—1979). Published in a limited edition of 250 numbered copies signed by Richard Moir (this copy no. 61), Kings Cross Witch collects the Moir's personal memories of Norton, "the not so public person", whom he knew in her last elusive years (1969—1979). Illustrated throughout Norton’s paintings and several photographs.
Rosaleen Miriam Norton (1917—1979), who used the name of "Thorn", was an Australian artist and occultist, in the latter capacity adhering to a form of pantheistic / Neopagan Witchcraft largely devoted to the Greek god Pan. She lived much of her later life in the bohemian area of Kings Cross, Sydney, leading her to be termed the "Witch of Kings Cross" in some of the tabloids, and from where she led her own coven of witches. Her paintings, which have been compared to those of British occult artist Austin Osman Spare, often depicted images of supernatural entities such as pagan gods and demons, sometimes involved in sexual acts. These caused particular controversy in Australia during the 1940s and '50s, when the country "was both socially and politically conservative" with Christianity as the dominant faith and at a time when the government "promoted a harsh stance on censorship." For this reason the authorities dealt with her work harshly, with the police removing some of her work from exhibitions, confiscating books that contained her images, and attempting to prosecute her for public obscenity on a number of occasions. According to her later biographer, Nevill Drury, "Norton's esoteric beliefs, cosmology and visionary art are all closely intertwined – and reflect her unique approach to the magical universe." She was inspired by "the 'night' side of magic", emphasising darkness and studying the qlippoth, alongside forms of sex magic which she had learned from the writings of English occultist Aleister Crowley.
Very Good—NF copy. Light tanning to spine edge.
1990, English
Softcover, 164 pages, 19.5 x 12.5 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Angus & Roberston / NSW
$35.00 - Out of stock
"Are you a witch?" people had started asking her, years ago. Trouble with police began, and courts; an exhibition had been closed, paintings were seized, trials held, and reporters from newspapers and magazines came to see her. "Are you ... ?" they asked.
First 1990 edition.
Set in Sydney in the 1950s, Pagan is based on a true story, a scandal that rocked Australia at the time, when a world-famous conductor was arrested for items found in his luggage, amidst rumours of his connection to a woman known as the 'Witch of the Cross' (Eveleen Warden aka Rosaleen Norton, 1917—1979). This is her story, and her world in Sydney during 1956, and that of a young newspaper reporter and his lover, a music student, who are caught up in these events. A world of art and music, light and dark. A time of curious meetings that would change everything. The new music, the new migrations and the old magick are the themes in this novel of many voices.
Very Good copy.
1994, Japanese / English
Hardcover, 80 pages, 19.3 x 13.4 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / fine
Published by
Nippon Geijutsu Shuppan (NGS) / Japan
$240.00 - In stock -
Very rare 1994 hardcover volume of nude photography by French photographer Jacques Alexandre from Japanese imprint Nippon Geijutsu Shuppan (NGS). Cover to cover glossy collection of Alexandre's romantic, dream-like nude photography spanning many years, capturing the beauty of his young amateur models in nature. Like his colleague Jacques Bourboulon, Alexandre spent time each year on the island of Ibiza and in Southern France working with mostly natural, non-professional models. One of his few and very rare photo books. Printed in Japan. First edition, never re-printed.
Very Good copy.
1995, Japanese
Softcover, 112 pages, 25.5 x 18 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
G-Modern / Tokyo
$70.00 - In stock -
Vol. 10 issue of G-Modern, the scarcely seen cult underground music magazine published by the late Hideo Ikeezumi, founder of the legendary P.S.F. label and Modern Music record store, Tokyo’s home for underground, avant-garde and obscure musics. Published in Winter 1995-1996, this early issue features Chisato Yamada, Dagmar Andrtova, AMM, Han Bennink, Captain Beefheart, Don Cherry, the ESP label, The Fanatics, Hawkwind, Die Krupps, LAFMS, Mu, Pearls Before Swine, Hiroshi Mikami, St.Mikael, Suicide, John Zorn, record reviews, and much more.
"The text is all in Japanese, but each issue is crammed with great photographs, weird artwork and ads, and lots of album reviews (the Japanese tradition of always reproducing every cover is helpful here). There's a big emphasis on older, ultra obscure stuff, so there's always a few repros of covers you'll definitely never see for the rest of your life. The accent is not only on the Tokyo underground as documented by PSF, but the entire history of worldwide psychedelic, avant-garde and underground music. Each issue is printed on nice book stock paper, in the 100 page range." - (Forced Exposure)
Very Good, light cover wear.
2002, English
Softcover (w. audio CD), 96 pages, 28 x 21.5 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Dream Magazine / Nevada City
$30.00 - In stock -
Rare second issue of Dream Magazine, published in Nevada City, California, by visual artist, radio DJ, music fanatic, collector of detritus and magazine publisher, George Parson, with the help of contributor Mats Gustafsson (of The Broken Face) and other floating luminaries of the 00's psychedelic /weird renaissance, a fervent period of new experimental musical activity networked by grassroots mail-orders and CD-r labels. Dream Magazine was an essential platform for writings on avant-garde, psychedelic and outsider music of all sorts, focussing on interviews with the artists, as well as writings on underground comic books, art and film. Many issues of Dream also included a bonus CD featuring unreleased or unavailable cuts from featured artists.
Dream Magazine #2:
Holger Czukay Of Can, Tony Dale of Camera Obscura Records, John Duncan, Alan Jenkins, Magic Carpathians, Magical Power Mako, Mandible Chatter, Timothy Renner, Robin Storey Of Rapoon, Abuna, Richard Adams Of Hood, Filip Ring Andersen, Bid of Scarlet's Well, Peter Blegvad (Slapp Happy, Henry Cow, Faust, Kew.Rhone), Tim Bowness Of No-Man and Samuel Smiles, Terrastock 4, Top 5 Record Labels, Greg Weeks, Jim White, Jim Woodring, hundreds of reviews, artwork, and much more...
CD features unreleased or otherwise unavailable material by: Abunai!, Greg Weeks, Missy Roback, Magical Power Mako, Magic Carpathians, The Spectral Light & Moonshine Firefly Snakeoil Jamboree, Dipsomaniacs, Jeffrey Lewis, Tanakh, es, Tim Bowness & Peter Chilvers, The Thurston Lava Tube, Mandible Chatter, Ring, Glen Johnson, Kiila, and more.
VG, CD likely unplayed.
2005, English
Softcover (w. audio CD), 128 pages, 28 x 21.5 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Dream Magazine / Nevada City
$40.00 - In stock -
Rare fifth issue of Dream Magazine, published in Nevada City, California, by visual artist, radio DJ, music fanatic, collector of detritus and magazine publisher, George Parson, with the help of contributor Mats Gustafsson (of The Broken Face) and other floating luminaries of the 00's psychedelic/weird renaissance, a fervent period of new experimental musical activity networked by grassroots mail-orders and CD-r labels. Dream Magazine was an essential platform for writings on avant-garde, psychedelic and outsider music of all sorts, focussing on interviews with the artists, as well as writings on underground comic books, art and film. Many issues of Dream also included a bonus CD featuring unreleased or unavailable cuts from featured artists.
Dream Magazine #5:
Robert Wyatt & Alfreda Benge, Gary Panter, Tom Rapp, Terry Riley, Sun City Girls, Testbild!, Bipolaroid, Crashing Dreams, Elf Power, Ghost, Rick Griffin, Mats Gustafsson of The Broken Face, Ed Hardy Of Eclipse Records, Kemalliset Ystavat, The Lost Domain, Mushroom, Marissa Nadler, 13 Nightmares, John Trubee, Jonny Trunk Of Trunk Records, Verdure, Julia Vorontsova, hundreds of reviews, artwork, and much more...
CD features previously unreleased material by: Jack Rose, Piano Magic, AqPop, Volcano the Bear, Testbild!, Julia Vorontsova, Verdure, The Lost Domain, Mushroom, and Bipolaroid. Also featuring Bob Moss doing a great previously unrecorded Tom Rapp song, and a rare John Trubee instrumental.
VG with light cover bends, CD likely unplayed.
?, English
Softcover (staple-bound), 154 pages, 27 x 21 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Tedium House / San Francisco
$40.00 - In stock -
Issue 12 of the legendary and influential underground noise culture magazine Bananafish, launched in 1987 in San Francisco, California, by Seymour Glass (also of Stomach Ache Records), and published until 2004. A major force during the underground magazine and experimental music boom in the 1990s, Bananafish is often credited with giving many English-speakers their first exposure to Japanese noise musicians such as Merzbow, The Boredoms and Solmania. Heavy with outsider/freak/DIY material, Bananafish featured interviews, articles, fiction, and music reviews, often written in Glass's absurdist, stream-of-consciousness writing style, which at times bordered on nonsense. There were many contributors as well, with texts complemented by bizarre artwork and photographs, frequently unrelated to the articles they accompanied. One trademark of the magazine was its use of appropriated text and images from uncredited or unknown sources, taken from found objects picked up by Glass, other contributors, or readers. Another regular feature was the inclusion of a compilation 7" record or CD of music by artists profiled in the corresponding issue.
This issue features Mike Boner, Climax Golden Twins, Neil Hamburger, Justice Yeldham, Nihilist Spasm Band, Iancu Dumitrescu, Witcyst, Fred Rinne, Sufi Mind Game, Stilluppsteypa, Crank Surgeon, and much more. CD missing.
?, English
Softcover (staple-bound w. audio CD), 162 pages, 27 x 21 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Tedium House / San Francisco
$30.00 - In stock -
Issue 15 of the legendary and influential underground noise culture magazine Bananafish, launched in 1987 in San Francisco, California, by Seymour Glass (also of Stomach Ache Records), and published until 2004. A major force during the underground magazine and experimental music boom in the 1990s, Bananafish is often credited with giving many English-speakers their first exposure to Japanese noise musicians such as Merzbow, The Boredoms and Solmania. Heavy with outsider/freak/DIY material, Bananafish featured interviews, articles, fiction, and music reviews, often written in Glass's absurdist, stream-of-consciousness writing style, which at times bordered on nonsense. There were many contributors as well, with texts complemented by bizarre artwork and photographs, frequently unrelated to the articles they accompanied. One trademark of the magazine was its use of appropriated text and images from uncredited or unknown sources, taken from found objects picked up by Glass, other contributors, or readers. Another regular feature was the inclusion of a compilation 7" record or CD of music by artists profiled in the corresponding issue.
This issue features Christine Shields, Mal Sharpe, Ana-Maria Avram, Volcano the Bear, mad-cow.org, John Crouse, Rats With Wings, Volvox, Agog, and much more. The CD follow's suit.
1976, French / Japanese
Softcover, 40 pages (w. Japanese translation booklet insert), 34.5 x 29 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Façade / Paris
$350.00 - In stock -
Inaugural issue of the incredibly rare and iconic Façade, the French underground magazine published in Paris between 1976—1983. Founded in 1976 by Alain Benoist and Hervé Pinard, Façade was the french answer to Andy Warhol's Interview, heavily centered around Parisian club, fashion and art scene and published without any date or periodicity until 1983. Launched at an Issey Miyake show where models handed out the magazine from the catwalk, the cult magazine witness through its pages a long-lost, short-lived period in Paris featuring the so-called "jeunes gens modernes" of the 1970's, like punk icons Edwige Belmore and Alain Pacadis. With pop celebrity covers and vibrant fashion shoots styled by the likes of a young Pierre et Gilles (who met through working on this very magazine), features in collaboration with the likes of Serge Gainsbourg, and in each issue a unique "false" advertisement created by Karl Lagerfeld, it's no wonder Façade's reputation spread quickly to New York, Tokyo and beyond, making it one of the most desired magazines of the new wave. With texts in French, these rare issues come complete with the inserted Japanese translation booklets. Includes Divine and John Waters (interview), Kenzo (interview), Christian Boltanski (interview), Jean-Louis Bory, Popy Moreni, nude centrefold by Jacques Parnel … with contributions from Pierre Commoy, Dominique Gangloff, Tan Giudicelli, Annette Messager… A very rare first issue with cover shot and designed by Pierre Commoy (of Pierre et Gilles) featuring Eva Ionesco.
Very Good with light tanning. Beautiful copy.
1976, French / Japanese
Softcover, 40 pages (w. Japanese translation booklet insert), 34.5 x 29 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / good
Published by
Façade / Paris
$160.00 - In stock -
Issue no. 2 of the incredibly rare and iconic Façade, the French underground magazine published in Paris between 1976—1983. Founded in 1976 by Alain Benoist and Hervé Pinard, Façade was the french answer to Andy Warhol's Interview, heavily centered around Parisian club, fashion and art scene and published without any date or periodicity until 1983. Launched at an Issey Miyake show where models handed out the magazine from the catwalk, the cult magazine witness through its pages a long-lost, short-lived period in Paris featuring the so-called "jeunes gens modernes" of the 1970's, like punk icons Edwige Belmore and Alain Pacadis. With pop celebrity covers and vibrant fashion shoots styled by the likes of a young Pierre et Gilles (who met through working on this very magazine), features in collaboration with the likes of Serge Gainsbourg, and in each issue a unique "false" advertisement created by Karl Lagerfeld, it's no wonder Façade's reputation spread quickly to New York, Tokyo and beyond, making it one of the most desired magazines of the new wave. With texts in French, these rare issues come complete with the inserted Japanese translation booklets. Includes features on New York City, Bodybuilding, an interview with Jean-Pierre Kalfon by Alain Pacadis, Elodie Lauten, and a long reprt of the Pigalle district of Paris, with collaborations from Pierre Commoy, Dominique Gangloff, Philippe Morillon, Thierry Ardisson, along with much more,
Good copy with some cover foxing and light wear.
1978, French / Japanese
Softcover, 58 pages (w. Japanese translation booklet insert), 34.5 x 29 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Façade / Paris
$290.00 - In stock -
Issue no. 6 of the incredibly rare and iconic Façade, the French underground magazine published in Paris between 1976—1983. Founded in 1976 by Alain Benoist and Hervé Pinard, Façade was the french answer to Andy Warhol's Interview, heavily centered around Parisian club, fashion and art scene and published without any date or periodicity until 1983. Launched at an Issey Miyake show where models handed out the magazine from the catwalk, the cult magazine witness through its pages a long-lost, short-lived period in Paris featuring the so-called "jeunes gens modernes" of the 1970's, like punk icons Edwige Belmore and Alain Pacadis. With pop celebrity covers and vibrant fashion shoots styled by the likes of a young Pierre et Gilles (who met through working on this very magazine), features in collaboration with the likes of Serge Gainsbourg, and in each issue a unique "false" advertisement created by Karl Lagerfeld, it's no wonder Façade's reputation spread quickly to New York, Tokyo and beyond, making it one of the most desired magazines of the new wave. With texts in French, these rare issues come complete with the inserted Japanese translation booklets. Includes cover stars Salvador Dalí (front) and Eva Ionesco (back), with interviews and astrological charts for both, Amanda Lear, Jean-Charles de Castelbajac, Giorgio Moroder, General Idea, Yves Adrien, Le Palace, Christo, Maud Molyneux, Anja Lopez, Suicide Fashion shot by Laurence Sackman (featuring Eva Ionesco, Sayoko Yamaguchi, and others), Nightclubbing, Malcolm McLaren… with collaborations from Pierre Commoy, Jean-Baptiste Mondino, Thierry Ardisson, Alain Pacadis, Maud Molyneux… and much more.
Very Good copy of one of the best issues! Beautifully preserved.
1978, French / Japanese
Softcover, 58 pages (w. Japanese translation booklet insert), 34.5 x 29 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Façade / Paris
$240.00 - In stock -
Issue no. 7 of the incredibly rare and iconic Façade, the French underground magazine published in Paris between 1976—1983. Founded in 1976 by Alain Benoist and Hervé Pinard, Façade was the french answer to Andy Warhol's Interview, heavily centered around Parisian club, fashion and art scene and published without any date or periodicity until 1983. Launched at an Issey Miyake show where models handed out the magazine from the catwalk, the cult magazine witness through its pages a long-lost, short-lived period in Paris featuring the so-called "jeunes gens modernes" of the 1970's, like punk icons Edwige Belmore and Alain Pacadis. With pop celebrity covers and vibrant fashion shoots styled by the likes of a young Pierre et Gilles (who met through working on this very magazine), features in collaboration with the likes of Serge Gainsbourg, and in each issue a unique "false" advertisement created by Karl Lagerfeld, it's no wonder Façade's reputation spread quickly to New York, Tokyo and beyond, making it one of the most desired magazines of the new wave. With texts in French, these rare issues come complete with the inserted Japanese translation booklets. Includes cover stars Jack Nicholson as 007 (front) and musician Djemila (back), with interviews and astrological charts for both, industrial designer Roger Tallon, Karl Lagerfeld, industrial designer Philippe Starck, publishing extraordinaire Daniel Filipacchi, Sonia Rykiel, Paco Rabanne, Thierry Mugler, a perverse fashion portfolio, Kenzo, Brion Gysin, Sid Vicious, Pierre et Gilles, Nightclubbing, Dining, Fashion, Music, tremendous ads and much more.
Very Good copy of one of the best issues! Beautifully preserved with only light marking/tan/age.
1980, French / Japanese
Softcover, 40 pages (w. Japanese translation booklet insert), 34.5 x 29 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Façade / Paris
$190.00 - In stock -
Issue no. 8 of the incredibly rare and iconic Façade, the French underground magazine published in Paris between 1976—1983. Founded in 1976 by Alain Benoist and Hervé Pinard, Façade was the french answer to Andy Warhol's Interview, heavily centered around Parisian club, fashion and art scene and published without any date or periodicity until 1983. Launched at an Issey Miyake show where models handed out the magazine from the catwalk, the cult magazine witness through its pages a long-lost, short-lived period in Paris featuring the so-called "jeunes gens modernes" of the 1970's, like punk icons Edwige Belmore and Alain Pacadis. With pop celebrity covers and vibrant fashion shoots styled by the likes of a young Pierre et Gilles (who met through working on this very magazine), features in collaboration with the likes of Serge Gainsbourg, and in each issue a unique "false" advertisement created by Karl Lagerfeld, it's no wonder Façade's reputation spread quickly to New York, Tokyo and beyond, making it one of the most desired magazines of the new wave. With texts in French, these rare issues come complete with the inserted Japanese translation booklets. Includes cover stars Sophia Loren (front) and Brian Ferry (back), with interviews and astrological charts for both, James White and The Blacks, Yellow Magic Orchestra, Kansai Yamamoto, Karl Lagerfeld, "Assistant Fashion" (shoots by the assistants of fashion fashion photographers), Helmut Newton, nightclubbing, dining, records, terrific ads, and much more...
Very Good with light foxing, wear the covers.
1980, French / Japanese
Softcover, 58 pages (w. Japanese translation booklet insert), 34.5 x 29 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Façade / Paris
$160.00 - In stock -
Issue no. 7 of the incredibly rare and iconic Façade, the French underground magazine published in Paris between 1976—1983. Founded in 1976 by Alain Benoist and Hervé Pinard, Façade was the french answer to Andy Warhol's Interview, heavily centered around Parisian club, fashion and art scene and published without any date or periodicity until 1983. Launched at an Issey Miyake show where models handed out the magazine from the catwalk, the cult magazine witness through its pages a long-lost, short-lived period in Paris featuring the so-called "jeunes gens modernes" of the 1970's, like punk icons Edwige Belmore and Alain Pacadis. With pop celebrity covers and vibrant fashion shoots styled by the likes of a young Pierre et Gilles (who met through working on this very magazine), features in collaboration with the likes of Serge Gainsbourg, and in each issue a unique "false" advertisement created by Karl Lagerfeld, it's no wonder Façade's reputation spread quickly to New York, Tokyo and beyond, making it one of the most desired magazines of the new wave. With texts in French, these rare issues come complete with the inserted Japanese translation booklets. Includes cover stars Catherine Deneuve (front) and James Brown (back), with interviews and astrological charts for both, Sports Fashion (featuring Françoise Hardy), Funky fashion, The Village People, Karl Lagerfeld, more James Brown, clubbing, dining, jet-setting, dance music and much more.
Very Good with some light wear/marks to covers, light tanning.
1981, French / Japanese
Softcover, 58 pages (w. Japanese translation booklet insert), 34.5 x 29 cm
1st US Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Façade / Paris
$160.00 - In stock -
Issue no. 10 of the incredibly rare and iconic Façade, the French underground magazine published in Paris between 1976—1983. Founded in 1976 by Alain Benoist and Hervé Pinard, Façade was the french answer to Andy Warhol's Interview, heavily centered around Parisian club, fashion and art scene and published without any date or periodicity until 1983. Launched at an Issey Miyake show where models handed out the magazine from the catwalk, the cult magazine witness through its pages a long-lost, short-lived period in Paris featuring the so-called "jeunes gens modernes" of the 1970's, like punk icons Edwige Belmore and Alain Pacadis. With pop celebrity covers and vibrant fashion shoots styled by the likes of a young Pierre et Gilles (who met through working on this very magazine), features in collaboration with the likes of Serge Gainsbourg, and in each issue a unique "false" advertisement created by Karl Lagerfeld, it's no wonder Façade's reputation spread quickly to New York, Tokyo and beyond, making it one of the most desired magazines of the new wave. With texts in French, these rare issues come complete with the inserted Japanese translation booklets. Includes Gina Lollobrigida interview and astrology, so too Jacno, Karl Lagerfeld, Howard Hughes, Sonia Rykiel, Defunkt (Mudd Club), Paul-Loup Sulitzer, Catherine Breillat, Djémila, dining, dancing, music, the scene… with collaborations from Dominique Gangloff, Dominique Lauga, Philippe Morillon, Serge Krüger, Jean-Edern Hallier, Alain Pacadis… and much more.
Very Good with light wear/marking to cover. Light tanning.
2004, French / English
Softcover, 224 pages, 21 x 21 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / fine
Published by
Editions Bricolage / Montreuil
$90.00 - Out of stock
The handsome bilingual first edition of the scarcely circulated and long out-of-print “Recreational Discography” from Paris, brimming with an incredible technicolour selection of home made record sleeves - a collection that began in 1996 as both a documentary and collectional work. The book is composed entirely of different iconographic montages made from record sleeves and CD jackets. The distinctive feature: these covers, be they 45s, 33s, or CDs, mostly found at flea markets, have all been redesigned or modified by anonymous individuals/previous owners, sometimes using the original sleeve art as a starting point. The meandering imaginations of anonymous bricolers and music fans invites the viewer into a stereographic experience seldom captured in any other record collection.
1973, English
Softcover, 309 pages, 20.5 x 13.5 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / good
Published by
Princeton University Press / New York
$25.00 - In stock -
The Swiss thinker J. J. Bachofen is most often connected with his theory of matriarchy, or “mother right,” but that concept is only a small part of his contribution to our understanding of cultural history. This book includes an autobiographical essay and selections from An Essay on Ancient Mortuary Symbolism, Mother Right, and The Myth of Tanaquil.
Johann Jakob Bachofen (1815—1887) was a Swiss antiquarian, jurist, philologist, anthropologist, and professor for Roman law at the University of Basel from 1841 to 1845. Bachofen is most often connected with his theories surrounding prehistoric matriarchy, or Das Mutterrecht, the title of his seminal 1861 book Mother Right: an investigation of the religious and juridical character of matriarchy in the Ancient World. Bachofen assembled documentation demonstrating that motherhood is the source of human society, religion, morality, and decorum. He postulated an archaic "mother-right" within the context of a primeval Matriarchal religion or Urreligion.
Bachofen became an important precursor of 20th-century theories of matriarchy, such as the Old European culture postulated by Marija Gimbutas from the 1950s, and the field of feminist theology and "matriarchal studies" in 1970s feminism.
Good copy with some light wear.
1991, English
Softcover, 353 pages, 24.5 x 15.5 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
W W Norton & Co / New York
$50.00 - In stock -
First 1991 Norton edition.
A complete translation of the seminar that Jacques Lacan gave in the course of a year's teaching within the training programme of the Société Française de Psychanalyse. The French text was prepared by Jacques-Alain Miller in consultation with Jacques Lacan, from the transcriptions of the seminar. This Seminar, together with Seminar I, which was published simultaneously, was worked on by both translators so as to produce uniformity in both terminology and style. Considerable attention was paid to the practices of previous translators of Lacan, in particular Anthony Wilden, Alan Sheridan, Stuart Schneiderman and Jacqueline Rose, in the hope that some consistency in the English rendition of Lacan can be achieved.
Edited by Jacques-Alain Miller
Translated by Sylvana Tomaselli.
Very Good copy.
1994, English
Softcover, 308 pages, 21 x 13.5 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / as new
Published by
Continuum / London
$40.00 - In stock -
First 1994 edition.
Up to the end of the nineteenth century, Germany largely perceived itself as "the nation of poets and philosophers." But with the enormous popularity of Schubert and Wagner, this began to change. Suddenly, composers also began to play a greater role in theories of national identity, and music theory became and important element of German thought. The essays in this volume reflect this, and are by a range of writers: Adorno, Bloch, Thomas Mann, Wachenroder, Herder, E. T. A. Hoffmann, Hegel, Bettina von Arnim, Nietzsche, Max Weber, Brecht, Arthur Schopenhauer, Immanuel Kant, Christian Gottlieb Ludwig, Karl Wilhelm Ramler, Arnold Schering, Christian Friedrich Daniel Schubart, Johann Georg Sulzer, and others.
Fine—As New.