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:
OPEN 12—5 THU—FRI
WEB-SHOP OPEN 24/7.
World Food Books
Postal Address:
PO Box 435
Flinders Lane
Victoria 8009
Australia
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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.
2004, English
Softcover, 221 pages, 15.2 x 20.3 cm
Published by
Exact Change / Boston
$34.00 - Out of stock
Morton Feldman wrote as he composed music, carefully placing one element after another, producing some of the avant-garde's most lucid considerations of what it means to make music
Morton Feldman (1926-87) is among the most influential American composers of the 20th century, a man whose music is known for its extreme quiet and delicate beauty (while Feldman himself was famously large and loud). Karlheinz Stockhausen once asked the composer what his secret was: I don't push the sounds around, Feldman replied. His writings resemble his music in their quiet steadiness, their oscillations between assertion and doubt. They are also funny and illuminating, not only about his own music but about the entire New York School of painters, poets and composers that coalesced in the 1950s, including Feldman's friends Jackson Pollock, Philip Guston, Mark Rothko, Robert Rauschenberg, Frank O'Hara and John Cage. Give My Regards to Eighth Street is an authoritative collection of Feldman's writings, culled from published articles, program notes, LP liners, lectures, interviews and unpublished writings. It is one of those rare books from which anyone can draw inspiration, no matter what the vocation or discipline.
Edited by B H Friedman
1995, Japanese
Softcover, 224 pages, 21 x 15 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Data House / Tokyo
$15.00 - Out of stock
"Sniff out!! Our fuckin' rotten brain.... Dedicated to all the gay guys in Japan"
???
The very controversial and very popular inaugural 1995 issue of Tokyo's Danger magazine. 90's nihilism publishing from Tokyo's "apocalyptic" Data House to file alongside Too Negative and End of The Century, Danger (or Dangerous), a "scientific" journal of lunatic subculture, launched onto newsstands with an in-depth international reportage on "Drugs", featuring articles on speed shooting, South American cartels, the world's rarest drugs, hallucinogenic plants from around the world from magic mushrooms to ayahuasca, how-tos/maintenance/cultivating knowledge, the history of ecstasy, sex on drugs, music on drugs, a drug slang dictionary, drug-related books and guides, world scene and dutch coffeeshop reports, xxx film director Fumiki Watanabe interview, an exploration of Japan's "dangerous documents", corpse museums, hitmen, sex criminals, "Your personality & cause of death", and genuinely horrible other tid-bits from the darker side of humanity.
Note: Aside from some photographs and violent and absurd cartoons, Danger is a "scientific" journal, filled with Japanese texts and info graphics.
Very Good copy, light cover/edge wear. 1995 edition, 1996 printing.
1985, English / Japanese
Softcover (w. dust jacket), 28 x 23 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Ryuko Tsushin / Japan
$160.00 - Out of stock
First 1985 edition of "London after the Dream" by Japanese photographer Herbie Yamaguchi (b. 1950, Tokyo). A wonderful, lesser-known Japanese photo book of Yamaguchi's images of London in a time of great turmoil, under the control of Thatcher, the 'Iron Lady'. Yamaguchi, who came from the experimental performance arts scene in Tokyo, immersed himself in the punk rock scene in London. Being penniless and without a studio, Yamaguchi shot the people around him, from his flatmate Boy George to Joe Strummer to The Slits, the hair-dressers to the squat kids, intimately capturing an radical musical moment in the city against the backdrop of class tension. London after the Dream collects the best of these photographs, chaptered through Yamaguchi's images of the city's youth, his young adult peers (including a spread featuring Johnny Rotten vis-à-vis Lady Diana), and Britain's older generation. The changing of the guard.
Very Good copy in VG dust jacket.
1995, English
Softcover, 432 pages, 22 x 27.4 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
MIY (Mind In You) Publishing Ltd / UK
$160.00 - In stock -
First and only edition of this enormous definitive history of House Music, self-published in Britain in 1995. Spanning Ambient, Techno, Jungle, Acid; from the DJ's to the raves; this huge book documents a cultural music and dance movement first-hand through the experiences and words of all the major DJ’s from the scene at the time including Larry Heard, Frankie Knuckles, Adonis, Norman Jay, Carl Cox, Fat Tony, Pete Tong, Alfredo, Fabio, Jesse Saunders, Grooverider, Juan Atkins, Sasha, Dimitri, Farley "Jackmaster" Funk, Derrick May, Andy Weatherall, Jamie Principal, about 80 interviews and profiles in total, plus extensive reviews, reflections and photography of the scenes in Ibiza, Great Britain, Italy, New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Detroit, etc., spanning all the major clubs and festivals of the time. The book's design also embodies the aesthetic of the movement at the time, with every page immersed in an insane sea of psychedelic, early CG graphic design, complete with a never-ending collection of rave flyers.
A true labor of love, this one-of-a-kind historical time-capsule is a must for any dance music collector.
1978, French
Softcover, 187 pages, 13.5 x 16.5 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Albin Michel / Paris
$150.00 - Out of stock
First edition of the rare 1978 Magma book, published by Éditions Albin Michel as part of their Rock & Folk series. Written by French TV presenter and director Antoine de Caunes, this remains the first and only official biography on the great Magma, a French progressive rock group founded in Paris in 1969 by classically trained drummer Christian Vander, who claimed as his inspiration a "vision of humanity's spiritual and ecological future" that profoundly disturbed him. In the course of their first album, the band tells the story of a group of people fleeing a doomed Earth to settle on the planet Kobaïa. Later, conflict arises when the Kobaïans—descendants of the original colonists—encounter other Earth refugees. Unique even amongst the most musically adventurous rock groups of 1970s Europe, Vander and Magma developed an entirely new musical style termed Zeuhl, and created a fictional language, Kobaïan, in which most Magma lyrics are sung. Zeuhl (meaning "celestial" in Kobaïan) encompassed the French jazz fusion/symphonic rock scene that grew around Magma and the many spinoff and solo musical projects by various Magma members, including Laurent Thibault, Didier Lockwood, Jannick Top, Patrick Gauthier, Benoît Widemann, Klaus Blasquiz, Bernard Paganotti, Frédéric d'Oelsnitz, Claude Engel, Claude Olmos, Yochk'o Sefer, François Cahen, Teddy Lasry... to name a few.
Heavily illustrated throughout. A must for any Magma fan!
Very Good copy with light edge and handling wear, light tanning.
1999, English
Softcover, 300 pages, 17 x 24 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Black Dog Publishing Ltd / London
$290.00 - Out of stock
Scarce first 1999 edition of this definitive resource on the work of COUM Transmissions and Throbbing Gristle.
"These people are the wreckers of civilisation", exclaimed the Conservative Member of Parliament Nicholas Fairbairn in 1976. His outburst was meant to describe four artists and musicians: Genesis P-Orridge, Cosey Fanni Tutti, Peter Christopherson and Chris Carter - members of the seminal band Throbbing Gristle. What "these people" had done to deserve such an epithet, and what they were about to do, is the subject of this book.
Throbbing Gristle are widely lauded as the band that invented industrial music, and their influence can be observed across today's musical landscape: from house and techno to industrial death metal. Wherever experimental electronic music is being made, Throbbing Gristle's influence can be felt.
"Wreckers of Civilisation recalls a time which despite volumes of print remains occluded, obdurate, even intimidating: that moment before the conservative reconstruction. To be awake in London in the late 1970s was to be plunged into turmoil: externally manifest in riot, internally within various forms of damage and depression and, if one felt brave or driven, extreme aesthetics. COUM Transmissions and Throbbing Gristle mark the furthest reach of that impulse: even more so than Punk, they plunged into a technological and personal examination of the dark side - the forbidden, the taboo, the dystopian future on the doorstep. Today this might seem like science fiction or deliberate shock tactics, but then it seemed like reportage, front line dispatches from a convulsed country."
Heavily illustrated and complete with a chronological list of actions, concerts and exhibitions, discography, filmography, bibliography and much more, this heavy volume has become an invaluable and sought after resource on TG, COUM Transmissions, and Industrial Records.
Simon Ford is a freelance writer and art historian. He was previously Research Associate in Craft and Design and Curator of the Design Council Slide Collection at Manchester Metropolitan University, as well as being a curator at the Victoria and Albert Museum. He received his PhD in the History of Art from the Courtauld Institute of Art in 2000. He is the author of Wreckers of Civilisation: The Story of COUM Transmissions and Throbbing Gristle (1999, 2017, Black Dog Publishing). His most recent book is The Situationist International: A User's Guide (2006, Black Dog).
Very Good copy.
1972, Japanese
Softcover (w. illustrated slipcase), 34 x 25 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Haga Bookstore / Japan
$450.00 - Out of stock
Very rare, complete first edition of this cult work by ero-guro master Toshio Saeki (1945—2019), an absolute favourite, published in 1972 in this over-sized slipcased edition by the legendary Haga Shoten. The most famous work by Toshio Saeki, Red box (Akai Hako) brings together over fifty illustrations drawn by Toshio Saeki in 1972, sublimely reproduced as large-format double-page spread artworks, captivating in their mania and gorgeous, vivid colour printing on matte stock. A stunning book to behold. A masterpiece! A must!
Toshio Saeki (1945—2019) was an illusive Japanese illustrator and painter, and icon of 1970s Tokyo counterculture, known for combining Japanese folklore, Yōkai spirits and elements of Western art with his own sophisticated aesthetics to create a unique, sensational world of eros, dark humour, and horror. Given the title “Erotic Engineer” by Timothy Leary, Saeki's provocative art broke all sexual taboos, questioned Japanese ideology and traditional views on love, desire and gender roles. Saeki’s surgically-precise graphic work is closely related to the Japanese cultural phenomenon ‘Erotic, Grotesque, Nonsense’ (ero, guro, nansensu).
“Toshio Saeki conjures death with a pen”—Shūji Terayama, 1969.
Very Good copy with light wear/age, usual print buckling, VG—G slipcase with some light wear/age/marking.
1999, English
Softcover, unpaginated, 18.5 x 18.5 cm
Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Charta / Milan
$100.00 - Out of stock
The great Propo artist's book by Paul McCarthy, published by Charta in 1999. Comprised entirely of photos of everyday objects, soiled, dirtied and ruined, shot against colourful backdrops that contrast with the mysterious nature of the decontextualized objects. Children's toys, condiment bottles, latex masks, dolls ... these objects are in fact props from McCarthy's legendary performances, and their visual inventory here reads like a book of modernity's detritus. A photo book document of residual sculptural objects of performance. One of his best books, like no other!
Born in Salt Lake City in 1945, Paul McCarthy has lived and worked in the Los Angeles area since 1970. Originally formally trained as a painter, McCarthy's main interest lies in everyday activities and the mess created by them. Much of his work in the late 1960s, such as Mountain Bowling (1969) and Hold an Apple in Your Armpit (1970), are similar to the work of Happenings founder Allan Kaprow, with whom McCarthy had a professional relationship. From 1982 to 2002 he taught performance, video, installation, and performance art history at the University of California, Los Angeles. McCarthy currently works mainly in video and sculpture. His work has been widely exhibited throughout Europe and the U.S. including the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; the Whitney Museum of American Art and The Museum of Modern Art; and the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris.
Very Good copy with only light wear.
2021, English
Hardcover, 320 pages, 23 x 16 cm
Published by
Blum & Poe / Los Angeles
$75.00 - Out of stock
Released on the 50th anniversary of the publication of Penny Slinger's iconic artists’ book 50% The Visible Woman, this 2021 edition presents Slinger’s series of surrealist photomontage works and poetry unabridged for the first time, following the hand-constructed snakeskin-bound book from 1969, and the out-of-print abridged edition from 1971. With a new conversation transcribed between Slinger and fellow artist and friend Linder.
1985, Italian
Softcover (stiff card boards), 80 pages, 31 x 23.5 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Visualbooks / Milan
$200.00 - In stock -
Very rare copy of the first, only edition of "Passioni Di Irina", one of the most sought after and best known books of French photographer Irina Ionesco. Published in 1985 in Milan as part of Visualbooks "Grandi Libri di Erotica", this large-format glossy book collects a beautiful selection of Ionesco's works in full-colour reproductions, uncensored. Published in a limited edition and very collectible.
Irina Ionesco (1935—2022) is a French photographer famous for her unique style of dramatically lit, baroque, erotic female portraits, influenced by the Decadent movement and the dream-like psycho-erotic imagery of Surrealism. At a young age she was sent to Romania where she was raised by her family who were circus performers. From the ages of 15 to 22 she performed as a contortionist. She traveled and painted for several years before discovering photography and gained wide attention when she exhibited her work at the Nikon Gallery in Paris in 1974, leading to her work being published in magazines, books, and exhibited at galleries across the globe. Working primarily as a fashion photographer, Ionesco stirred controversy with her nude portraits—much like Garry Gross would later cause with his sexualized photographs of a young Brooke Shields. Ionesco’s work often features women in elaborate dress, bejewelled, gloved, and in other finery, but also adorning themselves with symbolic pieces such as chokers and other fetishistic props, posing provocatively, partially disrobed as objects of sexual possession. Irina Ionesco is most famous for her photographs using her young daughter, Eva, as her model and muse, a decision that remains controversial to this day.
Very Good copy.
1985, English
Softcover, 385 pages, 20.5 x 13.5 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Oxford University Press / New York
$18.00 - Out of stock
First 1985 Oxford edition.
"Elaine Scarry has written an extraordinary book: large-spirited, heroically truthful. A necessary book."—Susan Sontag
"No one, with the exception of Freud, more persistently brings one back to the reality of the body.... a richly original, provocative book which makes one reconsider torture, war, and creativity from a new perspective."—Anthony Storr, Washington Post Book World
"Brilliant, ambitious and controversial... an all-encompassing discourse on creativity, imagination and the distribution of power."—Gwen Yourgrau, Los Angeles Times Book Review
The Body in Pain is a profoundly original meditation on the vulnerability of the human body and the literary, political, philosophical, medical, and religious vocabularies used to describe it. Elaine Scarry bases her analysis on a wide array of sources, including literature and art, medical case histories, documents on torture compiled by Amnesty International, and the writings of such figures as Clausewitz, Churchill, and Kissinger. The author begins with the fact of pain's inexpressibility, noting not only the difficulty of describing pain, but its ability to destroy a sufferer's language. She then analyzes the political consequences of deliberately inflicted pain, particularly in cases of war and torture, showing how regimes "unmake" an individual's world in their exercise of power. From the actions that "unmake" the world Scarry turns to a discussion of actions that "make" the world-the acts of creativity that produce language and cultural artifacts.
Elaine Scarry is William T. Fitts, Jr., Professor of English at the University of Pennsylvania.
"In its breadth and humaneness of vision, in the density and richness of its prose, above all in the compelling nature of its argument, this is indeed an extraordinary book."—Susan Rubin Suleiman, The New York Times Book Review
"A brilliant and difficult book... Scarry's compassionate linguistics docu- ments how [the] bridge between torturer and victim is cut."—Michael Ignatieff, The New Republic
Very Good copy, light wear/tanning.
2024, English
Softcover, 666 pages, 22.61 x 15.19 cm
Published by
Blackstone / US
$42.00 $30.00 - In stock -
Dubbed "the most significant and controversial SF book" of its generation, Harlan Ellison's groundbreaking collection launched an entire subgenre: New Wave science fiction. With contributions from legendary authors and multiple Hugo and Nebula Awards, Dangerous Visions returns to print in a stunning new edition perfect for new and returning fans alike.
A landmark short story collection that put the more character-based New Wave science fiction on the map, Dangerous Visions won several prestigious awards and was nominated for many others. This now-classic anthology includes thirty-three stories by thirty-two award-winning authors, over half of whom have won multiple Hugo and Nebula Awards.
Contributing authors include: Robert Silverberg, Frederik Pohl, Brian W. Aldiss, Philip K. Dick, Larry Niven, Fritz Leiber, Poul Anderson, Theodore Sturgeon, J.G. Ballard, Samuel R. Delany, and Ellison himself.
As relevant now as it was when first published, Dangerous Visions is a phenomenal collection that deserves a place on every bookshelf.
1982, Japanese
Softcover, 112 pages, 25.5 x 18.5 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Fool's Mate / Tokyo
$80.00 - Out of stock
Rare early issue of the world's finest "Euro Rock Magazine", Fool's Mate, from Japan. Fool's Mate Vol. 21 May 1982. In the 1970's—1980's, Fool's Mate (named after the 1971 Peter Hammill LP), edited by Masashi Kitamura with regular contributions by Masami Akita (Merzbow) and many other heads, was a vital conduit between emerging and metamorphosing avant-garde music cultures in Europe (Progressive Rock, Art Rock, Free Music, Electronic, Cosmic, Psychedelic Folk, Avant Pop, Rock in Opposition, Post Punk, Industrial, etc.) and Japan. No doubt responsible for the resonance of experimental contemporary music there during that period through to today, each issue of Fool's Mate during these early years was packed cover-to-cover with exclusive interviews with the artists, rare photographs and graphics, thematic genre/artist/label/artistic movement features, in-depth profiles/discographies/family-trees, catalogues, lyrics, letters, collage art, record, book, and live reviews, columns and an endless stream of concert and import/record store/label/venue/coffee shop adverts, all presented in a perfectly obsessive fanzine aesthetic manner, cut 'n' pasted across many paper stocks. The Americas and other realms, including new directions in Japanese alternative music, are all covered alongside their European counterparts, with many issues exploring key artistic and theoretical influences, such as Symbolism, Dadaism, Surrealism, Eros, Futurism, etc.
This issue with cover feature on "Female" artists in avant-garde music and culture, including articles on the history of women in experimental music (The Shaggs, Malaria!, Brigitte Fontaine, Suburban Lawns, Tamia, Lydia Lunch, Phew, Sandy Denny, etc.), interviews/in-depths articles on/with Nico, Dagmar Krause, The Slits, The Raincoats, plus features on This Heat, Lieutenant Murnau (Vittore Baroni), Grafika Airlines cassette label, Penguin Cafe Orchestra, 4AD, Mike Oldfield, The Work, and much more. Highly recommended to any fan of such things.
Very Good copy. General wear/age.
1978, Japanese
Softcover, 96 pages, 25.5 x 18.5 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Fool's Mate / Tokyo
$80.00 - In stock -
Rare early issue of the world's finest "Euro Rock Magazine", Fool's Mate, from Japan. Fool's Mate June 1978. In the 1970's—1980's, Fool's Mate (named after the 1971 Peter Hammill LP), edited by Masashi Kitamura with regular contributions by Masami Akita (Merzbow) and many other heads, was a vital conduit between emerging and metamorphosing avant-garde music cultures in Europe (Progressive Rock, Art Rock, Free Music, Electronic, Cosmic, Psychedelic Folk, Avant Pop, Rock in Opposition, Post Punk, Industrial, etc.) and Japan. No doubt responsible for the resonance of experimental contemporary music there during that period through to today, each issue of Fool's Mate during these early years was packed cover-to-cover with exclusive interviews with the artists, rare photographs and graphics, thematic genre/artist/label/artistic movement features, in-depth profiles/discographies/family-trees, catalogues, lyrics, letters, collage art, record, book, and live reviews, columns and an endless stream of concert and import/record store/label/venue/coffee shop adverts, all presented in a perfectly obsessive fanzine aesthetic manner, cut 'n' pasted across many paper stocks. The Americas and other realms, including new directions in Japanese alternative music, are all covered alongside their European counterparts, with many issues exploring key artistic and theoretical influences, such as Symbolism, Dadaism, Surrealism, Eros, Futurism, etc.
This issue with cover feature on "Occultism" with features on the history of the occult in culture and its influence on avant-garde art and music, with in depth articles on Ash Ra Temple, Magma, Heldon, David Bowie, The Pop Group, This Heat, Kate Bush, Robert Fripp, and much more. Highly recommended to any fan of such things.
Very Good copy. General wear/age.
1981, Japanese
Softcover, 112 pages, 25.5 x 18.5 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Fool's Mate / Tokyo
$80.00 - In stock -
Rare early issue of the world's finest "Euro Rock Magazine", Fool's Mate, from Japan. Fool's Mate Vol. 19 December 1981. In the 1970's—1980's, Fool's Mate (named after the 1971 Peter Hammill LP), edited by Masashi Kitamura with regular contributions by Masami Akita (Merzbow) and many other heads, was a vital conduit between emerging and metamorphosing avant-garde music cultures in Europe (Progressive Rock, Art Rock, Free Music, Electronic, Cosmic, Psychedelic Folk, Avant Pop, Rock in Opposition, Post Punk, Industrial, etc.) and Japan. No doubt responsible for the resonance of experimental contemporary music there during that period through to today, each issue of Fool's Mate during these early years was packed cover-to-cover with exclusive interviews with the artists, rare photographs and graphics, thematic genre/artist/label/artistic movement features, in-depth profiles/discographies/family-trees, catalogues, lyrics, letters, collage art, record, book, and live reviews, columns and an endless stream of concert and import/record store/label/venue/coffee shop adverts, all presented in a perfectly obsessive fanzine aesthetic manner, cut 'n' pasted across many paper stocks. The Americas and other realms, including new directions in Japanese alternative music, are all covered alongside their European counterparts, with many issues exploring key artistic and theoretical influences, such as Symbolism, Dadaism, Surrealism, Eros, Futurism, etc.
This issue with cover feature on "Psychic Youth" with features on This Heat, Robert Wyatt, Chris Cutler, Art Bears, Recommended Records, Throbbing Gristle, Keiji Haino, Fred Frith, Merzbow, King Crimson, Peter Hammill, Massacre, Holger Czukay, Can, The Cure, Bauhaus, Dome, New Order, Joy Division, P.I.L., Pungo, Neo Tendency, and much more. Highly recommended to any fan of such things.
Very Good copy. General wear/age.
1978, Japanese
Softcover, 109 pages, 25.5 x 18.5 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Fool's Mate / Tokyo
$80.00 - In stock -
Rare early issue of the world's finest "Euro Rock Magazine", Fool's Mate, from Japan. Fool's Mate April 1978. In the 1970's—1980's, Fool's Mate (named after the 1971 Peter Hammill LP), edited by Masashi Kitamura with regular contributions by Masami Akita (Merzbow) and many other heads, was a vital conduit between emerging and metamorphosing avant-garde music cultures in Europe (Progressive Rock, Art Rock, Free Music, Electronic, Cosmic, Psychedelic Folk, Avant Pop, Rock in Opposition, Post Punk, Industrial, etc.) and Japan. No doubt responsible for the resonance of experimental contemporary music there during that period through to today, each issue of Fool's Mate during these early years was packed cover-to-cover with exclusive interviews with the artists, rare photographs and graphics, thematic genre/artist/label/artistic movement features, in-depth profiles/discographies/family-trees, catalogues, lyrics, letters, collage art, record, book, and live reviews, columns and an endless stream of concert and import/record store/label/venue/coffee shop adverts, all presented in a perfectly obsessive fanzine aesthetic manner, cut 'n' pasted across many paper stocks. The Americas and other realms, including new directions in Japanese alternative music, are all covered alongside their European counterparts, with many issues exploring key artistic and theoretical influences, such as Symbolism, Dadaism, Surrealism, Eros, Futurism, etc.
This issue with cover feature on "Fantasy" in European rock and avant-garde music, features on fantasy art and literature, the Island Records label, Brian Eno, Klaus Schulze, David Bowie, special feature on Derek Bailey, Italian Prog, Peter Hammill, Ashra, Brian Eno, Tony Banks, Van Der Graaf, Genesis, Vangelis, Peter Gabriel, and much more. Highly recommended to any fan of such things.
Very Good copy. General wear/age.
1978, Japanese
Softcover, 90 pages, 25.5 x 18.5 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / good
Published by
Fool's Mate / Tokyo
$90.00 - In stock -
Rare early issue of the world's finest "Euro Rock Magazine", Fool's Mate, from Japan. Fool's Mate Vol. 8 April 1978. In the 1970's—1980's, Fool's Mate (named after the 1971 Peter Hammill LP), edited by Masashi Kitamura with regular contributions by Masami Akita (Merzbow) and many other heads, was a vital conduit between emerging and metamorphosing avant-garde music cultures in Europe (Progressive Rock, Art Rock, Free Music, Electronic, Cosmic, Psychedelic Folk, Avant Pop, Rock in Opposition, Post Punk, Industrial, etc.) and Japan. No doubt responsible for the resonance of experimental contemporary music there during that period through to today, each issue of Fool's Mate during these early years was packed cover-to-cover with exclusive interviews with the artists, rare photographs and graphics, thematic genre/artist/label/artistic movement features, in-depth profiles/discographies/family-trees, catalogues, lyrics, letters, collage art, record, book, and live reviews, columns and an endless stream of concert and import/record store/label/venue/coffee shop adverts, all presented in a perfectly obsessive fanzine aesthetic manner, cut 'n' pasted across many paper stocks. The Americas and other realms, including new directions in Japanese alternative music, are all covered alongside their European counterparts, with many issues exploring key artistic and theoretical influences, such as Symbolism, Dadaism, Surrealism, Eros, Futurism, etc.
This issue with cover feature on Electronic Music with interviews and discographies of/with Brian Eno, Klaus Schulz, Tim Blake, the Egg Label, Vangelis, Mauro Bagani, Can, Amon Düül 2, Hawkwind, Throbbing Gristle, The Residents, Lucio Battisti, a special feature on Italian Rock (PFM, New Trolls, Area, etc.), Henry Cow, Gilgamesh, Recommended Records/R.I.O., Scorpians, and much more. Highly recommended to any fan of such things.
Very Good copy. General wear/age.
1980, Japanese
Softcover, 96 pages, 25.5 x 18.5 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / good
Published by
Fool's Mate / Tokyo
$90.00 - In stock -
Rare early issue of the world's finest "Euro Rock Magazine", Fool's Mate, from Japan. Fool's Mate Vol. 16 March 1980. In the 1970's—1980's, Fool's Mate (named after the 1971 Peter Hammill LP), edited by Masashi Kitamura with regular contributions by Masami Akita (Merzbow) and many other heads, was a vital conduit between emerging and metamorphosing avant-garde music cultures in Europe (Progressive Rock, Art Rock, Free Music, Electronic, Cosmic, Psychedelic Folk, Avant Pop, Rock in Opposition, Post Punk, Industrial, etc.) and Japan. No doubt responsible for the resonance of experimental contemporary music there during that period through to today, each issue of Fool's Mate during these early years was packed cover-to-cover with exclusive interviews with the artists, rare photographs and graphics, thematic genre/artist/label/artistic movement features, in-depth profiles/discographies/family-trees, catalogues, lyrics, letters, collage art, record, book, and live reviews, columns and an endless stream of concert and import/record store/label/venue/coffee shop adverts, all presented in a perfectly obsessive fanzine aesthetic manner, cut 'n' pasted across many paper stocks. The Americas and other realms, including new directions in Japanese alternative music, are all covered alongside their European counterparts, with many issues exploring key artistic and theoretical influences, such as Symbolism, Dadaism, Surrealism, Eros, Futurism, etc.
This issue with cover feature on Throbbing Gristle/Genesis P-Orridge/Industrial Records, Come Org., Henry Cow / Art Bears, Brian Eno, French Meta Musique — The History of Magma, Heldon, Lard Free, Bernard Szajner, Catherine Ribeiro+Alpes, Yochk'o Seffer, Ariel Kalma, Theatre Du Chene Noir, Weidorje, Benoit Widemann, Urban Sax, Ilich, etc., P.I.L., The Pop Group, Metabolist, Camel, and much more. Highly recommended to any fan of such things.
Good copy. General wear/age.
2023, English
Hardcover, 216 pages, 31.8 x 24.1 cm
Published by
Hauser & Wirth / Zurich
$135.00 - Out of stock
This volume charts Lucio Fontana's exploration of sculpture from the 1930s until his death. The monograph, a collaboration with the Fondazione Lucio Fontana, also includes a biographical essay by the foundation’s Maria Villa, tracing the artist’s life through his ever-innovating sculptural practice, and serves as a companion volume to 'Lucio Fontana: Walking the Space'. This book also includes essays by Fontana scholar Luca Massimo Barbero, and researcher Cristina Beltrami.
Luca Massimo Barbero explores ceramics as 'the ideal material for the Fontanian gesture' and re-examines Fontana’s experimentation with terracotta, clay, plaster, concrete and metal. Researcher Cristina Beltrami resituates Fontana as a pioneering artist in the European post-war context, investigating his exchanges with other Italian and international practitioners.
1989, English
Softcover, 192 pages, 22 x 28 cm
Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
The Gay Men's Press (GMP) / London
Tom of Finland Foundation / Los Angeles
$190.00 - Out of stock
1989 printing of one of the finest collections of the great Tom of Finland, published by the Tom of Finland Foundation, Los Angeles, and The Gay Men's Press (GMP), London.
Preface by Tom of Finland with appreciation by Dennis Forbes and Fred Bisonnes. This book covers Tom of Finland's work from 1946 to 1987, depicting page by page throughout his iconic and impeccable erotic graphite drawings of macho leathermen, bikers, cowboys, cops, lumberjacks, hardhats, soldiers and sailors, all in all their glory.
Touko Valio Laaksonen (8 May 1920 – 7 November 1991), best known by his pseudonym Tom of Finland, was a Finnish artist known for his stylized highly masculine homoerotic fetish art, and his influence on late twentieth century gay culture. He has been called the "most influential creator of gay pornographic images" by cultural historian Joseph W. Slade. Over the course of four decades, he produced some 3500 illustrations.
Very Good copy with light cover/edge wear.
1991, English
Softcover, 192 pages, 22 x 28 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Tom of Finland Foundation / Los Angeles
$150.00 - Out of stock
First printing of Retrospective II, another of the finest collections of work from the great Tom of Finland, published in 1991 by the Tom of Finland Foundation, Los Angeles.
Preface by Tom of Finland. This book covers Tom of Finland's work dating back to 1944, depicting page by page throughout his iconic and impeccable erotic graphite drawings of macho leathermen, bikers, cowboys, cops, lumberjacks, hardhats, soldiers and sailors, all in all their glory.
Touko Valio Laaksonen (8 May 1920 – 7 November 1991), best known by his pseudonym Tom of Finland, was a Finnish artist known for his stylized highly masculine homoerotic fetish art, and his influence on late twentieth century gay culture. He has been called the "most influential creator of gay pornographic images" by cultural historian Joseph W. Slade. Over the course of four decades, he produced some 3500 illustrations.
Very Good copy with light cover/edge wear.
1995, English / German
Softcover (staple-bound), 62 pages, 28 x 21.5 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Tom of Finland Foundation / Los Angeles
$140.00 - In stock -
Rare copy of Tom of Finland Exhibition 1994-95, published in 1995 by the Tom of Finland Foundation, Los Angeles, on the occasion of the retrospective exhibition held in 1994 and the Schwules Museum, Berlin, Germany. Profusely illustrated with many unseen works, as well as photographs and documents tracing the life and work of Touko Valio Laaksonen (1920—1991), best known by his pseudonym Tom of Finland, the "most influential creator of gay pornographic images"(—Joseph W. Slade). Every period accounted for, from Tom's early commercial work to his most hardcore gay erotica, his sketch-books, his prints to his very last work. An incredible insight into this prolific artist of enduring influence. Texts throughout in English and German by president of Tom of Finland Foundation Durk Dehner and German art critic Wolfgang Max Faust, amongst others, plus chronology,
“Sometimes the attraction of the uniform is so powerful in me that I get the feeling that I am making love to the clothes and the man inside is just there to hold them up and give them shape, sort of like an animated department store dummy.”
Very Good, well preserved copy with light bump top of spine, crease to bottom front cover.
1999, Japanese / English / Spanish
Softcover (French Flaps), 170 pages, 29 x 20 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / fine
Published by
Tokyo Shimbun / Tokyo
$160.00 - Out of stock
Scarce, stunning Japanese catalogue on Spanish surrealist Remedios Varo, published on the occasion of a major touring retrospective of her work throughout Japan in 1999. Only available in the participating Japanese museums in the late 1990s and now long out-of-print, this book beautifully reproduces Varo's paintings and drawings (including preliminary sketches alongside final oils) with detailed captions and descriptions, accompanied by illustrated essays and other texts by Masayo Nonaka, Octavio Paz, Luis-Martin Lozano, and Walter Green, portraits of the artist, exhibition history, bibliography, work list and more.
Remedios Varo Uranga (1908 – 1963) was a Spanish surrealist artist. Born in Anglès (north of Catalonia), Spain in 1908, she studied at the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, Madrid. Varo spent her formative years between France and Barcelona and was greatly influenced by the surrealist movement. The summer of 1935 marked Varo's formal invitation into Surrealism when French surrealist Marcel Jean arrived in Barcelona. While still married to her first husband Gerardo Lizarraga, Varo met her second partner, the French surrealist poet Benjamin Péret, in Barcelona. During the Spanish Civil War she fled to Paris with Péret leaving Lizarraga behind (1937). It was through Peret that Remedios Varo met André Breton and the Surrealist circle, which included Leonora Carrington, Dora Maar, Roberto Matta, Wolfgang Paalen, and Max Ernst among others. Shortly after arriving in France, Varo took part in the International Surrealist exhibitions in Paris and in Amsterdam in 1938. She was forced into exile from Paris during the German occupation of France and moved to Mexico City at the end of 1941 when the Mexican president, Lázaro Cardenas, made it a policy to welcome Spanish and European refugees. In Mexico, she met native artists such as Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera, but her strongest ties were to other exiles and expatriates, notably the English painter Leonora Carrington and the French pilot and adventurer, Jean Nicolle. However, because Mexican muralism still dominated the country's art scene, surrealism was not generally well received. She worked as an assistant to Marc Chagall with the design of the costumes for the production of the ballet Aleko, which premiered in Mexico City in 1942. In 1947, Péret returned to Paris, and Varo traveled to Venezuela, living there for two years. She returned to Mexico and began her third and last important relationship with Austrian refugee Walter Gruen, who had endured concentration camps before escaping Europe. Gruen believed fiercely in Varo, and he gave her the economic and emotional support that allowed her to fully concentrate on her painting. In 1955, Varo had her first solo exhibition at the Galería Diana in Mexico City. Buyers were put on waiting lists for her work. Even Diego Rivera was supportive. In 1960, her representative, Juan Martín, opened his own gallery and showed her work there, and opened a second in 1962. Only a year after that opening, at the height of her career, she died from a heart attack in Mexico City. Her work is well known in Mexico, but not as commonly known throughout the rest of the world.
Fine, As New copy.
2024, English
Softcover, 300 pages, 12.7 x 20.3 cm
Published by
Apocalypse Party / Philadelphia
$29.00 - In stock -
"Creation is a stunning new collection by one of the most exciting living writers. Reading a Christopher Zeischegg book is like stepping into a dream in which anything can happen—his particular combination of sex, death, beauty, and horror often feels downright transcendent."—Chelsea Hodson, author of Tonight I'm Someone Else
“A phantasmagoria of the violences comprising an artist’s life. The pursuit of clout a violence of hemorrhage, of taint, of rotting from chest outward. The pursuit of intimacy a violence of sculpting, of repair, of transforming one toward divinity. How the 'art world' violates the divinity of creation. You can let art kill you, let it skin you and sell your hide to the highest bidder (like you have a choice). Or you can take your flayed muscle and pile it into cathedral. Here, you may find another—a surrogate twin, skinned as you’ve been—and press your blood into theirs, intermingle your capillaries, and claim, 'Oh yes, I know you now. I always have. The rhythm of your true heart.' It may not be truth (in fact, you know deep down for certain it cannot be), but it’s enough of a lullaby to soothe your aches; a siren's call to rouse you to wake, to push you to your feet and move you about the world for at least another day."—B.R. Yeager, author of Negative Space
"Creation asks the bold questions that force us to understand the why and the how of what we create and that which we connect with. It is also a tremendously tender work showcasing Zeischegg's masterful command over his craft. Whether it's combing the depths of personal experience or charting the complexities of the true and false self, plunging into edifices of fiction and storytelling or examining the power and propulsiveness of friendship, Christopher Zeischegg writes from between realms, and his latest is a must-experience tome as vast as the entire spectrum of creativity itself."—Michael J. Seidlinger, author of The Body Harvest and Anybody Home?
"Christopher Zeischegg’s new book is a fascinating combination of essay, memoir and fiction. It opens with a new novella, which starts at the logical point to pick up from Zeischegg’s previous book, the blank and raw LA noir that was The Magician. Dark, transactional affairs are informed by selfishness and self-survival.
From then on, we are given a masterclass in dissection as the writer examines and pulls apart relationships of all kinds in all kinds of ways. We are shown the relationship between an artist and their work. We are made to think about the relationship between art and the viewer--we are all pulled in.
One of the main focuses seems to be on the body. The bodies that we all have. How do we use these bodies? How are our bodies used? What happens when there is no pleasure left in the body that we have and what if there never was?
Ultimately though, Creation casts its view on friendship. Using the artist Luka Fisher as a muse, a character, a subject of documentary, Zeischegg can consider the notion of platonic friendship—what it means to have a friendship without transaction, and how do you really know someone? It’s a powerful thing to be witness to, and it’s a moving thing.
Creation is an excitingly original book made by one of our sharpest contemporary writers. It is a book with so much going on inside it that it is still with me now, after multiple reads. And each time the reader rethinks it, they can’t help but rethink themselves."—Thomas Moore, author of Forever
Christopher Zeischegg is a writer and filmmaker who spent eight years working in the adult industry as performer, Danny Wylde. He is the author of Creation: On Art and Unbecoming, The Magician, Body to Job, The Wolves that Live in Skin and Space, and Come to My Brother. Zeischegg lives in Los Angeles.