World Food Books

On Painting
By Gilles Deleuze

2025, English
Softcover, 360 pages, 21.5 x 14 cm
Published by University of Minnesota Press / Minnesota Univocal Publishing / Minneapolis

$62.00 - In stock -

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From 1970 until 1987, Gilles Deleuze held a weekly seminar at the Experimental University of Vincennes and, starting in 1980, at Saint-Denis. In the spring of 1981, he began a series of eight seminars on painting and its intersections with philosophy. The recorded sessions, newly transcribed and translated into English, are now available in their entirety for the first time. Extensively annotated by philosopher David Lapoujade, On Painting illuminates Deleuze's thinking on artistic creation, significantly extending the lines of thought in his book Francis Bacon.

Through paintings and writing by Rembrandt, Delacroix, Turner, Cezanne, Van Gogh, Klee, Pollock, and Bacon, Deleuze explores the creative process, from chaos to the pictorial fact. The introduction and use of color feature prominently as Deleuze elaborates on artistic and philosophical concepts such as the diagram, modulation, code, and the digital and the analogical. Through this scrutiny, he raises a series of profound and stimulating questions for his students: How does a painter ward off greyness and attain color? What is a line without contour? Why paint at all?

Written and thought in a rhizomatic manner that is thoroughly Deleuzian-strange, powerful, and novel-On Painting traverses both the conception of art history and the possibility of color as a philosophical concept.

Edited by David Lapoujade, translated by Charles J. Stivale.

File under: Francis Bacon Eugène Delacroix Rembrandt J. M. W. Turner Paul Cézanne Jackson Pollock Paul Klee Vincent van Gogh Gilles Deleuze David Lapoujade Charles J. Stivale University of Minnesota Press / Minnesota Univocal Publishing / Minneapolis Philosophy Art Painting Theory / Essay Arte Informale / Haute Pâte / Tachism

The Dedalus Book of Surrealism: The Identity of Things
Edited by Michael Richardson

1993, English
Softcover, 280 pages, 20 x 12.5 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by Dedalus / Cambs

$35.00 - In stock -

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In the the public mind surrealism is associated primarily with its visual imagery: and this has served to obscure the richness of surrealist contributions in other spheres. This has been particularly so in respect of its rich storytelling tradition...Surrealism draws on older traditions of storytelling, most notably the fairy tale and the Gothic novel...it seeks to capture the mysterious essence of reality and to embody myth and the forces set free by desire.

"The range is impressive, and includes several women...Gisele Prassinos...Leonora Carrington and Meret Oppenheim; contemporary writers like Rikki Ducornet. Richardson makes available in English several early treasures, such as Salvador Dali's Reverie and Pierre Unik's Long Live the Bride, a wonderful tale of mistaken identity and metonymical transfer of meaning." —Fiona Bradley in the Times Literary Supplement

"'I went to fetch my car, but my chauffeur, who has no sense at all, had just buried it,' writes Leonora Carrington in this captivating collection of tales from 17 languages."—The Observer

VG copy.

File under: Leonora Carrington Meret Oppenheim Mary Low Marcel Mariën Philippe Soupault Andre Breton André Breton Meret Oppenheim Gisèle Prassinos Agustín Espinosa Anneliese Hager François Valorbe Irène Hamoir Jean Ferry Jindřich Štyrský Juan Breá Léo Malet Leonora Carrington Marcel Noll Mary Low Paul Nougé Pierre Unik Rikki Ducornet Marcel Mariën Julien Gracq Benjamin Péret Raymond Queneau René Crevel Dedalus / Cambs Surrealism Eros Dada Out-of-print / Rare Art Fiction / Poetry Weird / Speculative / Science Fiction Occult / Esoterica

Iconophages: A History of Ingesting Images
by Jérémie Koering

2024, English
Softcover, 480 pages, 23 x 15.4 cm
Published by Zone Books / New York

$49.00 - In stock -

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Translated by Nicholas Huckle

Eating and drinking images may seem like an anomalous notion but, since antiquity, in the European and Mediterranean worlds, people have swallowed down frescoes, icons, engravings, eucharistic hosts stamped with images, heraldic wafers, marzipan figures, and other sculpted dishes. Either specifically made for human consumption or diverted from their original purpose so as to be ingested, these figured artifacts have been not only gazed upon but also incorporated—taken into the body—as solids or liquids.

How can we explain such behavior? Why take an image into one’s own body, devouring it at the risk of destroying it, consuming rather than contemplating it wisely from a distance? What structures of the imagination underlie and justify these desires for incorporation? What are the visual configurations offered up to the mouth, and what are their effects? What therapeutic, religious, symbolic, and social functions can we attribute to these forms of relations with icons? These are a few of the questions raised in this investigation into iconophagy.

Iconophages aims to retrace, for the first time, the history of iconophagy. Jérémie Koering examines this unexplored facet of the history of images through an interdisciplinary approach that ranges across art history, cultural and material history, anthropology, philosophy, and the history of the body and the senses. He analyzes the human investment, in terms of culture and imagination, at stake in this seemingly paradoxical way of experiencing images. Beyond the hidden knowledge unearthed here, these pages bring to light a new way of understanding images, just as they illuminate the occasionally outlandish relations we maintain with them.

“Brilliantly written, this groundbreaking study combines the vividness of historical case studies with the lucidity of philosophical reflection… Iconophages makes a fundamental contribution to a comprehensive anthropology of the image.” —Peter Geimer
“This long-awaited transhistorical study of iconophagy is remarkable for its scope. With eloquence and erudition, Koering marshals an astonishing array of materials often seen as archaic, marginal, or primitive to demonstrate the ubiquity of image ingestion within the western tradition. Taking us far beyond the default ocularcentrism of art history, Iconophages engages current concerns with embodiment and materiality in a study with significant implications for the consumption and conception of images in and before modernity.” — Finbarr Barry Flood, Director of Silsila: Center for Material Histories and William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of the Humanities, New York University

“Iconophages is a tremendously entertaining book, an exploration of a permeable boundary that has developed between recent art history, anthropology, and religious studies, permitting histories that can encompass living images: images that speak, ‘operate,’ kill, and eat. After an opening look at Egyptian and Greek practices, Koering goes on a tour of edible images in Europe. He considers representations of Saint Catherine drinking blood (‘the best of sauces’ according to a sixteenth-century source) directly from Christ’s wounds, the unappetizing Sicilian pastries called ossa dei morti (‘bones of the dead’), the idea of drinking the Virgin’s milk, and iron presses for figured Eucharistic wafers.” — James Elkins, Chair of the Department of Art History, Theory, and Criticism, School of the Art Institute of Chicago

“Iconophages invites us to take a new and different look at the objects of art history. Far beyond our common understanding of images as primarily visual phenomena, Koering reveals a fascinating practice of touching, tasting, and ingesting images – from magical practices to modern art, from the sacred to the profane, from the natural to the supranatural world. Brilliantly written, this groundbreaking study combines the vividness of historical case studies with the lucidity of philosophical reflection. By opening up hitherto little-known aesthetic, religious, and cultural dimensions of visual artifacts, Iconophages makes a fundamental contribution to a comprehensive anthropology of the image.” — Peter Geimer, Director, German Center for Art History, Paris

File under: Jérémie Koering Zone Books / New York Art Theory / Essay Renaissance / Neoclassicism / Romanticism Ancient / Medieval / Gothic Occult / Esoterica

Design and Art of Modern Chairs

1978, English / Japanese
Softcover, 160 pages, 26 x 12 cm
Out of print title / used / fine
Published by The National Museum of Art / Osaka

$150.00 - In stock -

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Incredibly rare Japanese publication from 1978, printed on the occasion of a major exhibition entitled "Design and Art of Modern Chairs", August 19—October 15, at the National Museum of Art, Osaka. This wonderful landscape-formatted book is profusely illustrated throughout (in colour and black and white) with the chairs of designers and artists including Gerrit Rietveld, Isamu Kenmochi, Olivier Mourgue, Pierre Paulin, Sadamasa Motonaga, Mario Ceroli, Marcel Breuer, Studio 65, Le Corbusier, Pierre Jeanneret, Charlotte Perriand, Jan Dranger, Johan Huldt, Robert Haussman, Kwok Hoi Chan, Steen Østergaard, George Nakashima, Mies van der Rohe, Poul Kjaerholm, Eero Saarinen, Harry Bertoia, Charles Pollock, Aarne Jacobsen, Warren Platner, Roger Tallon, Verner Panton, Earo Aarnio, Bruno Mathsson, Motomi Kawakami, Marco Zanuso, Richard Sapper, Gerd Lange, Vico Magistretti, Alver Aalto, Jonathan de Pas, Paolo Lomazzi, Donato d'Urbino, Giorgio Decursu, Sori Yanagi, Reiko Tanabe-Murai, Wolfgang Mueller-Deisig, Stacy Dukes, Ettore Sottsass, Charles Eames, Hans J. Wegner, Franco Albini, Gio Ponti, Kaare Klint, Enzo Mari, Takeshi Nii, Achille Castiglioni, Achille and Piergiacomo Castiglioni, Tadashi Minohara, Gaetano Pesce, Yrjo Kukkapuro, Afra and Tobia Scarpa, Mario Bellini, Cini Boeri, Mario Marenco, Joe Colombo, Piero Gatti, Jonathan de Pas, Paolo Lomazzi, Donato d'Urbino, Ubald Klug, Gerrit Rietveld, Salvador Dali, Poltronova, Cassina, Taro Okamoto. Jiro Takamatsu, Susumu Koshimizu, Shiro Kuramata, Minoru Takeyama, Lucas Samaras, Kozo Mio, Arata Isozaki, Shigeo Fukuda, Takashi Sakaizawa, Constantin Brâncuși, Yoji Kuri, Yayoi Kusama, Vitra, Knoll, Kartell, Herman Miller, Arflex, BBB, Flexform, C&B Italia, Cassina, and many more. Each chair included is detailed with a blurb in Japanese, data/specs of year, designer/artist, manufacture and dimensions. Also includes an illustrated timeline tracing a chronological history of the chairs exhibited, along with a production index and forward texts in English and Japanese. Forms an indispensable index of important modern chair designs from the early 1930s—late 1970s.

Near Fine copy.

File under: Achille Castiglioni Afra and Tobia Scarpa Arata Isozaki Arflex Bruno Mathsson Cassina Charles Eames Charles Pollock Charlotte Perriand Cini Boeri Constantin Brâncuși Donato d'Urbino Eero Saarinen Enzo Mari Ettore Sottsass Franco Albini Gaetano Pesce George Nakashima Gerd Lange Gerrit Rietveld Gio Ponti Giorgio Decursu Hans J. Wegner Harry Bertoia Herman Miller Isamu Kenmochi Jan Dranger Joe Colombo Johan Huldt Jonathan de Pas Kaare Klint Kartell Knoll Kozo Mio Kwok Hoi Chan Le Corbusier Lucas Samaras Marcel Breuer Marco Zanuso Mario Bellini Mario Ceroli Mario Marenco Mies van der Rohe Minoru Takeyama Motomi Kawakami Olivier Mourgue Paolo Lomazzi Piero Gatti Pierre Jeanneret Pierre Paulin Poltronova Reiko Tanabe-Murai Richard Sapper Robert Haussman Roger Tallon Sadamasa Motonaga Salvador Dalí Shigeo Fukuda Shiro Kuramata Sori Yanagi Stacy Dukes Steen Østergaard Studio 65 Susumu Koshimizu Tadashi Minohara Takashi Sakaizawa Takeshi Nii Ubald Klug Verner Panton Vico Magistretti Vitra Warren Platner Wolfgang Mueller-Deisig Yayoi Kusama Yoji Kuri Yrjo Kukkapuro Alvar Aalto Eero Aarnio Arne Jacobsen Tarō Okamoto Jiro Takamatsu Poul Kjærholm Achille and Pier Giacomo Castiglioni The National Museum of Art / Osaka Architecture / Interior Art Furniture Italian Radical Design / Postmodernism Out-of-print / Rare Pop Art Surrealism Group Shows / Collections Sculpture / Installation

Bruno Munari
Design As Art

1987, English
Hardcover (w. dust jacket), 140 pages, 22.9 x 27.9 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by The MIT Press / Massachusetts

$140.00 - In stock -

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First english edition of this long out-of-print major hardcover monograph on Bruno Munari. Published by The MIT Press in 1987, this was the first comprehensive book on his work, and was itself designed by Munari! Clothbound, in original dust-jacket, protected in plastic sleeve.

Foreward by Andrea Branzi.

One of the last surviving members of the futurist generation, Bruno Munari has been the enfant terrible of Italian art and design for most of this century. Munari was born in 1907 in Milan and it was against the active background of futurism that his artistic experiments developed, but his mechanical fantasies, practical inventions, and didactic writings continue to be enjoyed by a public that has no memory of Balla, Prampolini, and Marinetti.

Munari's 40-odd books, ranging from futurist manifestoes to design manuals to children's books, have been widely read in many languages. But this book, itself designed by Munari, is the first comprehensive account of his total achievement. Here are the Unreadable Books (that told stories through the possibilities of typography, papermaking, and binding), Traveling Sculptures, Fossils of the Year 2000, Theoretical Reconstruction of Imaginary Objects, Original Xerographies, Negative Positives, and the famous Useless Machines of the 1930s (constructions for wagging the tails of lazy dogs, predicting dawn, making sobs sound musical) as well as numerous other works, some published for the first time.

The hundreds of illustrations, many in full color, recreate Munari's relentless inventiveness, his love of irony, chance and humor, his intensely experimental orientation and constantly fresh approach to new technologies and materials.

Aldo Tanchis lives in Milan where he is currently collaborating with the advertising agency Pirella Göttsche. He is the author of The Anomalous Art of Bruno Munari.

VG in VG dust jacket preserved under Mylar wrap.

File under: Andrea Branzi Bruno Munari Aldo Tanchis The MIT Press / Massachusetts Art Graphic Design / Typography Furniture Out-of-print / Rare Sculpture / Installation Ceramics / Glass Illustration / Graphic Art / Bandes Dessinées Architecture / Interior

Cool Lights (Indifferent Technology)
von/by Lapo Binazzi (UFO)

1982, English / German
Softcover, 32 pages, 14.8 cm x 18.5 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by Edition Copie / Hannover

$400.00 - Out of stock

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Extremely rare and wonderful Lapo Binazzi artist book, "Cool Lights (Indifferent Technology)", first edition from 1982. Almost entirely illustrated with Binazzi's incredible lamp objects dating from 1973-1981, this small book compiles his works, drawings, and ideas, with accompanying text by Michael Erlhoff.

Lapo Binazzi is a quintessential figure in the Italian Radical movement and a founding member of Global Tools and the collective UFO, one of the “supergroups” of Italian architects, alongside Gruppo 9999 and Superstudio. The Italian Radical movement grew in response to the political state of Italy in the 1960’s, when groups of designers congregated together to create works that challenged the current political and economical system, violently opposing the standardisation and doctrines of the international style of design. Binazzi’s designs exemplify this movement through their provocative tones, humorous messages and symbolic imagery. Lingering between conceptual and pop art, Binazzi works in a variety of mediums including interior design, fashion, film and performance.

Very Good copy with only light tanning/spotting with age.

File under: UFO UFO Group Lapo Binazzi Edition Copie / Hannover Art Italian Radical Design / Postmodernism Architecture / Interior Furniture Out-of-print / Rare Ceramics / Glass Pop Art

Purple Prose 1
Automne / Autumn 1992

1992, English / French
Softcover (staple-bound), 64 pages, 24.5 x 19 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by Purple Institute / Paris

$580.00 - In stock -

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The true beginning of Purple — the very rare first issue of Elein Fleiss and Olivier Zahm's Purple Prose, published in 1992. Founded as a reaction against the superficial glamour of the 1980’s, Purple Prose embraced the immediate fanzine aesthetics of what became referred to as 1990's anti-fashion, a far cry from what we now identify with Purple Fashion with.

Purple Prose 1, Automne 1992, features contributions by Dike Blair, Andrea Zittel, Joshua Decter, Henry Bond, Daniel Lemer, Jutta Koether, Andrea Zittel, Roddy Bogawa, Jon Moritsugu, Jacques Boyreau, Jan Avgikos, Martin Kippenberger, Patrick Van Caeckenbergh, Edgar Heap of Birds, David Robbins, Jean-Christophe Menu, Vitaly Glabel, Kitten (pre—Free Kitten: Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth and Pussy Galore's Julia Cafritz), Patrick Bouchitey, Jean-Luc Vilmouth, François Roche, and many more.

Soon after the birth of Purple Prose, Zahm created spin-off publications like Purple Sexe, Purple Fiction and what we now know and love, Purple Fashion. Zahm aimed at fusing together his two worlds, fashion and art, in creating Purple Fashion.

Before entering the world of fashion, Zahm worked as an art critic with widespread recognition for his work as a curator as well as his participation in over 150 exhibitions featuring international contemporary art. In 1994, Zahm and Fleiss curated “The Winter of Love,” a hit show for the Museum of Modern Art in Paris that they later took to P.S.1 in New York. In responding to the superficial glamour of the 1980s, Zahm co-founded Purple Prose magazine. In the introduction of Purple Anthology, Zahm shares why he chose to create Purple Prose:

"We launched Purple Prose in the early 1990s without any means, and without any experience, because we wanted to make a magazine that was radically different. We wanted to support the artists around us that no one else supported, much less talked about. [..] It would be a form of opposition of our own".

Very Good—Near Fine copy, light wear.

File under: Dike Blair Andrea Zittel Joshua Decter Henry Bond Daniel Lemer Jutta Koether Kim Gordon David Robbins Martin Kippenberger Julia Cafritz Edgar Heap of Birds Roddy Bogawa Jon Moritsugu Jacques Boyreau Olivier Zahm Elein Fleiss Purple Institute / Paris Fashion Periodicals Out-of-print / Rare Photography Art Fiction / Poetry Theory / Essay Film / Video Conceptual Art Painting Sculpture / Installation

Ero–Mondo
Edited by Shunichi Karasawa

?, Japanese
Softcover (w. dust jacket + obi), 222 pages, 21 x 15 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by Futami Shobo / Japan

$90.00 - In stock -

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"! WARNING!
The author and publisher do not advocate practicing any of the activities listed herein.
Many are dangerous and some lethal. People who choose to engage in these activities do so at their own risk."

Amazing picture book edited by Shunichi Karasawa (b. 1958), Japanese author, collector and critic of b–class books, manga, medical and bizarre culture, responsible for many books on subcultures of sexuality. Ero–Mondo is 'a large picture book full of illustrations of people who have gone wayside because they pursued the "extremes of pleasure", and the more you look at it, the more you want to do it!'. A b/w scrapbook surveying the history of various "abnormal" bodily pleasures or as the cover states: "A ton of super perverted people". Erotic asphyxiation, masturbation machines, chastity devices, Erotic lactation, Flagellation, Sadism, Masochism, body modification, body abnormalities, auto fellatio, sex toys, toilet play, golden showers, cross–dressing, adipophilia, and much much more.

VG copy in VG dust jacket w. VG obi.

File under: Futami Shobo / Japan Out-of-print / Rare Art Fetishism / BDSM Transgressive / Visceral / Abject Film / Video Drawing Eros Ero Guro / Erotic / Grotesque Counterculture

Sibylle Ruppert
Dark Light on White Shadow

2026, English / German
Hardcover (clothbound), 304 pages, 31 x 25 cm
Published by Distanz / Berlin Kunsthalle Gießen / Gießen

$110.00 - In stock -

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Grotesque and Somber. Dark Light on White Shadow is a retrospective of the largely unpublished oeuvre of Sibylle Ruppert, whose hyperrealistic works were inspired by Marquis de Sade and Georges Bataille.

Edited by Nadia Ismail / Kunsthalle Gießen and Paul J. Walter / Estate Sibylle Ruppert

Sibylle Ruppert (b. Frankfurt/Main, 1942; d. Paris, 2011) turned childhood fears and wartime experiences into art. Born the night of the first massive bombing of Frankfurt Main, she spent her early years between nursery and improvised air-raid shelter. Ruppert's richly detailed drawings, paintings, and collages investigate her traumas and the rifts within us they leave behind. Her works reveal a visual language in which bodies menace one another and fuse to produce grotesque creatures. Drawing inspiration from writers like Georges Bataille, Comte de Lautréamont, and Marquis de Sade as well as the artists Francis Bacon and HR Giger, Rupert created a prolific surreal erotic and dystopian imagery — a singular oeuvre in hues of brown and gray. In 2010, a year before her death, the artist was the subject of a retrospective at the HR Giger Museum in Gruyeres.

The book Dark Light on White Shadow pays fresh homage to her oeuvre, which was displayed at Kunsthalle Gießen in 2023. With essays by Kate Brown, Nadia Ismail, Vera Kattermann, Annekathrin Kohout, and Paul J. Walter.

File under: Sibylle Ruppert H. R. Giger Nadia Ismail Paul J. Walter Comte de Lautreamont Georges Bataille Marquis de Sade Distanz / Berlin Kunsthalle Gießen / Gießen Drawing Art Painting Illustration / Graphic Art / Bandes Dessinées Ero Guro / Erotic / Grotesque Eros Fetishism / BDSM

Etsuko Miura
The Doll Bride of Frankenstein (signed)

2006, Japanese
Hardcover (w. dust jacket), 126 pages, 22 x 16 cm
Signed by artist,
Published by Treville / Tokyo

$90.00 - In stock -

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Signed copy of the first 2006 hardcover edition of this masterpiece collection of handcrafted and beautifully twisted creations by Japanese doll artist Etsuko Miura shot by photographer Atsushi Tani in one of the most intense collaborations of the genre. 'The Doll Bride of Frankenstein' takes it's cue from Bellmer's ball–jointed doll to the gothic fantasy of Miura's operating table.

"In Frankenstein's pitiful wounds can be seen the pure-heart of both boy and girl as they progress from childhood to adulthood."—Etsuko Miura

Miura carries on his aims in a sensational manner to create intensely majestic "Eros and Thanatos" bride dolls that evoke an ultimate eroticism in the context of the Pygmalion aesthetic.

Includes bilingual (Japanese/English) essay by Hiroshi Fujita (psychoanalyst, plastic surgeon, anesthetist), profiles of Etsuko Miura & Atsushi Tani, and afterword by Etsuko Miura.

Near Fine–As New copy signed to title page in metallic ink.

File under: Etsuko Miura Atsushi Tani Treville / Tokyo Sculpture / Installation Eros Counterculture Fetishism / BDSM Out-of-print / Rare Art Signed Books

Punk On Wave (POW) / Performance of War
by Sakevi Yokoyama (G.I.S.M.) & John Duncan

1986, Japanese / English
Softcover, 106 pages, 26 x 18.5 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by Punk On Wave (POW) / Tokyo

$220.00 - Out of stock

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Very rare, notorious 1986 special edition magazine created by Japanese punk artist Sakevi Yokoyama (frontman of G.I.S.M.) and his friend, American conceptual/performance artist John Duncan. Serving as the third and final issue of Sakevi's legendary punk zine Punk on Wave (P.O.W.), this issue focused provocatively on the theme of DEATH and the art of war, featuring contributions and interviews with Genesis P-Orridge (Psychic TV/Throbbing Gristle), Hijōkaidan (Jojo Hiroshige, Toshiji Mikawa, Junko, Okano Futoshi), Hanatarash (Yamantaka Eye, Ikuo Taketani, Jojo Hiroshige), Paul McCarthy, Joe Potts, John Duncan, colour photo galleries featuring the featured artists, plus extreme topics that include interviews with the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), a Tokyo medical examiner performing autopsies, psychiatric hospital inmates, and members of the East Asia Anti-Japanese Armed Front, bi–lingual illustrated translations of HOW TO KILL by John Minnery, preperations for death: the death penalty, suicide, murder, medical death, funeral, text regarding ABC (atomic, biological, chemical) weapons, and violent or confrontational philosophies surrounding mortality and destruction, all profusely illustrated with stark imagery and fantastic design by Akihiko Sawada.

Very Good copy.

File under: Genesis P-Orridge Psychic TV Throbbing Gristle Hijōkaidan Jojo Hiroshige Toshiji Mikawa Junko Okano Futoshi Hanatarash Yamantaka Eye Ikuo Taketani Paul McCarthy Joe Potts John Duncan Boredoms Industrial Records Sakevi Yokoyama G.I.S.M. Akihiko Sawada John Minnery Punk On Wave (POW) / Tokyo Anarchism Crime / Violence Sound / Music Performance / Dance / Theater Art Transgressive / Visceral / Abject Out-of-print / Rare Periodicals Counterculture Theory / Essay

The Cradle of Humanity: Prehistoric Art and Culture
by Georges Bataille

2009, English
Softcover, 216 pages, 15.2 x 22.9 cm
Published by Zone Books / New York

$56.00 - In stock -

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The Cradle of Humanity: Prehistoric Art and Culture collects essays and lectures by Georges Bataille spanning 30 years of research in anthropology, comparative religion, aesthetics, and philosophy. These were neither idle nor idyllic years; the discovery of Lascaux in 1940 coincides with the bloodiest war in history—with new machines of death, Auschwitz, and Hiroshima. Bataille's reflections on the possible origins of humanity coincide with the intensified threat of its possible extinction.

For Bataille, prehistory is universal history; it is the history of a human community prior to its fall into separation, into nations and races. The art of prehistory offers the earliest traces of nascent yet fully human consciousness—of consciousness not yet fully separated from natural flora and fauna, or from the energetic forces of the universe. A play of identities, the art of prehistory is the art of a consciousness struggling against itself, of a human spirit struggling against brute animal physicality. Prehistory is the cradle of humanity, the birth of tragedy.

Bataille reaches beyond disciplinary specializations to imagine a moment when thought was universal. Bataille's work provides a model for interdisciplinary inquiry in our own day, a universal imagination and thought for our own potential community. The Cradle of Humanity: Prehistoric Art and Culture speaks to philosophers and historians of thought, to anthropologists interested in the history of their discipline and in new methodologies, to theologians and religious comparatists interested in the origins and nature of man's encounter with the sacred, and to art historians and aestheticians grappling with the place of prehistory in the canons of art.

File under: Georges Bataille Zone Books / New York Art Theory / Essay Surrealism

SUN RA + AYÉ ATON
SPACE, INTERIORS AND EXTERIORS, 1972

2013, English
Softcover, 112 pages, 23 x 22 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / as new
Published by PictureBox / Brooklyn Corbett vs. Dempsey / Chicago

$160.00 - In stock -

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In 1972, the legendary musician, composer and mystic Sun Ra (1914-1993) was hard at work scripting and acting in the now classic documentary on his life and work, Space is the Place, as well as publishing his second book of poetry. The book of poems (now extremely rare) was designed and edited by Ra's manager, who asked one of Ra's band members in the Arkestra--the drummer and percussionist Ayé Aton--to contribute images to accompany Ra's poems. The final publication contained three photographs of Aton's indoor, space-themed murals. Published here for the first time, a once-lost trove of photographs dating from 1972, a pivotal year for Sun Ra. Half of the photos in this book are of the interior murals made by Ayé Aton — spectacularly beautiful in their 1970s supersaturated color. From the same period, a cache of never-published photographs taken on location in Oakland for the film Space is the Place, features Ra in full regalia, wearing beautiful Egyptian costumes borrowed from a local masonic temple. These spectacular photographs — unseen artifacts from a now remote time — offer us a special and often entertaining behind-the-scenes glimpse of a much-missed musical visionary.

Published by PictureBox, Inc. and Corbett vs. Dempsey.
Includes an introduction by Glenn Ligon and an essay by John Corbett
Edited by John Corbett

File under: Sun Ra Ayé Aton John Corbett PictureBox / Brooklyn Corbett vs. Dempsey / Chicago Art Painting Sound / Music Out-of-print / Rare Art Brut / Folk / Visionary / Fantastic

Miroslav Tichý

2010, English
Hardcover (clothbound), 328 pages, 33 x 22 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by Steidl / Göttingen

$220.00 - Out of stock

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Beautiful first edition of this long out-of-print over-sized hardcover catalogue on the work of Miroslav Tichý. Few stories in the history of photography are as astonishing and as compelling as that of the octogenarian Czech photographer Miroslav Tichý. With crude homemade cameras fashioned out of cardboard and duct tape, Tichý took several thousand pictures of the women of his Moravian hometown of Kyjov throughout the 1960s and '70s. These pictures of women going about their daily business are at once banal and extraordinary, transforming the ordinary moments of work and leisure into small epiphanies. Blurred and off-kilter, his photographs have a striking contemporaneity, resembling the early paintings of Gerhard Richter or the photographs of Sigmar Polke. Printed imperfectly and deliberately battered, they evince a surprising retrograde or even anti-modernist feeling, which, in the context of the Cold War atmosphere of provincial Czechoslovakia, just before and after the liberalizing moment of the Prague Spring (1968), undoubtedly constituted a kind of oblique political provocation, a nose-thumbing response to the progressive realist perfectionism of official Soviet culture.

This major catalogue accompanies an exhibition of the same title at the International Center of Photography organized by Chief Curator Brian Wallis. Critical evaluations by Brian Wallis, Roman Buxbaum, Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, and Richard Prince introduce more than 250 plates and illustrations.

Very Good copy.

File under: Miroslav Tichý Brian Wallis Roman Buxbaum Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev Richard Prince Steidl / Göttingen Photography Art Out-of-print / Rare Art Brut / Folk / Visionary / Fantastic

Shūji Terayama
Kamen Gaho

1991, Japanese
Softcover (w. dust jacket + obi), 128 pages, 26 x 18.5 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by Heibonsha / Tokyo

$60.00 - In stock -

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Wonderful photo-book chronology of the world of Shūji Terayama (1935—1983) and his experimental theatre troupe Tenjō Sajiki (with Kujō Kyōko, Yutaka Higashi, Tadanori Yokoo, Fumiko Takagi, ...), a major phenomenon on the Japanese Angura ("underground") theater scene of the 1960s and 70s. Terayama's activities encompass a who's-who of the Japanese avant-garde arts and literature of the time. This book visually documents it all; the filmography, performances, installations, happenings, exhibitions, posters, publications, and all else that resonated from Japan’s most revered and provocative avant-garde film-maker and his collaborators. Profusely illustrated with hundreds of illustrations in colour, duo and b/w with Japanese commentary, biographies and chronology. A wonderful, visually mind-blowing reference for anyone interested in the work of Terayama, Tenjō Sajiki, Surrealist performance, or Japanese avant-garde underground (Angura) theatre.

Shūji Terayama (1935 — 1983) was a Japanese avant-garde poet, dramatist, writer, film director, and photographer. His works range from radio drama, experimental television, underground (Angura) theatre, countercultural essays, to Japanese New Wave and "expanded" cinema. In 1967 Terayama founded Tenjō Sajiki with Kujō Kyōko, Yutaka Higashi, Tadanori Yokoo, and Fumiko Takagi, a Japanese experimental theater troupe. A major phenomenon on the Japanese Angura ("underground") theater scene, the group produced a number of stage works marked by experimentalism, folklore influences, social provocation, grotesque eroticism and the flamboyant fantasy characteristic of Terayama's oeuvre. Terayama is considered one of the most productive and provocative creative artists to come out of Japan, with a wide-reaching influence on many artists from the 1970s onward.

Very Good—Near Fine (w/o obi — image just a sample)

File under: Tenjō Sajiki Kujō Kyōko Yutaka Higashi Tadanori Yokoo Fumiko Takagi Shūji Terayama Akira Uno Aquirax Uno akira Heibonsha / Tokyo Art Performance / Dance / Theater Ero Guro / Erotic / Grotesque Eros Surrealism Illustration / Graphic Art / Bandes Dessinées Sound / Music Transgressive / Visceral / Abject

Miroslav Tichý
Les formes du vrai / Forms of Truth

2011, English / French
Hardcover (w. dust jacket), 248 pages, 24 x 30 cm
Published by Kant / Prague

$160.00 - In stock -

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Like the Prague exhibition that provided the opportunity to publish it, this stunning, over-sized hardcover book is the 'explosive' result of the meeting between two personalities with a heretical reputation: the great photographer Miroslav Tichý and the former situationist Gianfranco Sanguinetti. Both are better known internationally than they are in the Czech Republic. Their paths were destined to cross - simply for the originality and radical nature of their approach to life. Tichý's work inspired Sanguinetti to make critical and riveting insights into the art of our age. While his comments may fuel polemical debate, they cannot leave the reader indifferent. The photographs by Tichý that are being presented for the first time in this book and at the City Gallery Prague represent a strict selection that prioritises the eloquence of symbols that pervade Tichý's work and which are, according to Sanguinetti, the key to his art.

Lavishly illustrated in colour throughout with all texts in English and French.

Miroslav Tichy (1926-2011)
After studying at the Academy of Arts in Prague (1945-48), Miroslav Tichy withdrew to a life in isolation in his hometown of Kyjov, Moravia, Czech Republic. In the late 1950s he quit painting and became a distinctive Diogenes-like figure. From the end of the 1960s he began to take photographs mainly of local women, in part with cameras he made by hand. He later mounted them on hand-made frames, added finishing touches with pencil, and thus moved them from photography in the direction of drawing. The result are works of strikingly unusual formal qualities, which disregard the rules of conventional photography. They constitute a large oeuvre of poetic, dreamlike views of feminine beauty in a small town under the Czechoslovak Communist regime.

File under: Miroslav Tichý Gianfranco Sanguinetti Kant / Prague Photography Art Art Brut / Folk / Visionary / Fantastic

The Tears of Eros
by Georges Bataille

1989, English
Softcover, 213 pages, 20.5 x 18 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by City Lights Books / San Francisco

$120.00 - Out of stock

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First 1989 City Lights English translation, long out-of-print.

Tears of Eros is the culmination of Georges Bataille's inquiries into the relationship between violence and the sacred. Taking up such figures as Giles de Rais, Erzebet Bathory, the Marquis de Sade, El Greco, Gustave Moreau, Andre Breton, Voodoo practitioners, and Chinese torture victims, Bataille reveals their common death. This essay, illustrated with artwork from every era, was developed out of ideas explored in Death and Sexuality and Prehistoric Lascaux or the Birth of Art . In it Bataille examines death—the "little death" that follows sexual climax, the proximate death in sadomasochistic practices, and death as part of religious ritual and sacrifice. "Bataille is one of the most important writers of the century."— Michel Foucault Georges Bataille was born in Billom, France, in 1897. He was a librarian by profession. Also a philosopher, novelist, and critic he was founder of the College of Sociology. In 1959, Bataille began Tears of Eros , and it was completed in 1961, his final work. City Lights published two of his other Story of the Eye and The Impossible . Bataille died in 1962.

French essayist, philosophical theorist, and novelist, often called the "metaphysician of evil." Bataille was interested in sex, death, degradation, and the power and potential of the obscene. He rejected traditional literature and considered that the ultimate aim of all intellectual, artistic, or religious activity should be the annihilation of the rational individual in a violent, transcendental act of communion. Roland Barthes, Julia Kristeva, and Philippe Sollers have all written enthusiastically about his work.

Very Good copy, light wear to extremities/corners.

File under: Georges Bataille City Lights Books / San Francisco Surrealism Occult / Esoterica Eros Fetishism / BDSM Transgressive / Visceral / Abject Theory / Essay Philosophy Sociology / Politics Out-of-print / Rare Art

Cruising Pavilion: Architecture, Dissident Sex and Cruising Cultures
Edited by Pierre-Alexandre Mateos & Charles Teyssou

2026, English
Softcover, 432 pages, 23 x 16 cm
Published by Spector Books / Leipzig

$82.00 - In stock -

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Cruising Pavilion: Architecture, Dissident Sex and Cruising Cultures examines the influence of cruising cultures on architecture and urban life, unfolding a typology of spaces produced by sexual – primarily gay – subcultures. From the appropriation of sites such as parks, public restrooms, and streets to purpose-built spaces like sex clubs, bars, and bathhouses, as well as the new form of virtual dérive generated by geosocial dating apps, cruising has subverted the libidinal cartography and use of the modern metropolis.

The book considers these spatial practices through the lens of artistic avant-gardes that have emerged at the intersection of sex, art, and architecture. It follows the eponymous curatorial project initiated by Pierre-Alexandre Mateos, Rasmus Myrup, Octave Perrault, and Charles Teyssou, which traveled from Paris to Venice and on to New York, Fire Island, and Stockholm.

Features Andreas Angelidakis, Monica Bonvicini, Tom Burr, Shu Lea Cheang, Victoria Colmegna, DYKE_ON, General Idea, Sidsel Meineche Hansen, Henrik Olesen, Puppies Puppies (Jade Kuriki Olivo), Hannah Quinlan + Rosie Hastings, Carlos Reyes, Prem Sahib, Jaanus Samma, S H U Í (Jon Wang + Sean Roland), Steven Warwick, Robert Yang, Trevor Yeung, Diller Scofidio + Renfro, Andrés Jaque (Office for Political Innovation), Studio Karhard, Etienne Descloux, Horace Gifford, Pol Esteve + Marc Navarro, Madelon Vriesendorp, Samuel R. Delany, Hal Fischer, Gayle Rubin, Joan Nestle, David Wojnarowicz, and more...

Pierre-Alexandre Mateos and Charles Teyssou are a Paris-based curatorial duo. Their recent projects include Paris Orbital, a series of events at the Pinault Collection – Bourse de Commerce, and the Conversations series for Paris+ par Art Basel in October 2023.

File under: David Wojnarowicz Andreas Angelidakis Monica Bonvicini Tom Burr Shu Lea Cheang Victoria Colmegna DYKE_ON General Idea Sidsel Meineche Hansen Henrik Olesen Puppies Puppies (Jade Kuriki Olivo) Hannah Quinlan + Rosie Hastings Carlos Reyes Prem Sahib Jaanus Samma S H U Í (Jon Wang + Sean Roland) Steven Warwick Robert Yang Trevor Yeung Diller Scofidio + Renfro Andrés Jaque (Office for Political Innovation) Studio Karhard Etienne Descloux Horace Gifford Pol Esteve + Marc Navarro Madelon Vriesendorp Pierre-Alexandre Mateos Charles Teyssou Samuel R. Delany Hal Fischer Gayle Rubin Joan Nestle David Wojnarowicz Steven Warwick Spector Books / Leipzig Art Theory / Essay Literary Theory / Semiotics / Language Eros Fetishism / BDSM Counterculture LGBTQ+ Film / Video

Le Sang et La Rose No. 2, 1969

1969, Japanese / French
Softcover, 228 pages, 23 x 18 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by Tensei Shuppan / Tokyo

$110.00 - Out of stock

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

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

Issue no. 2 includes photographic features by Yasuhiro Yoshioka and Yoshihiro Tatsuki, the artwork of French decorator of department store mannequins and surrealist Sunday painter Clovis Trouille, Venus in Furs erotic photo shoot by Yasuhiro Ishimoto, Yokoo Tadanori, Hans Bellmer, Leonor Fini, Alberto Martini, Félicien Rops, Rene Magritte, an incredible feature "Machine for Murder" with art by Hiroshi Nakamura, Tomi Ungerer, Koichi Tanigawa, Osamu Tsukasa, Tatsuo Ikeda, Marcel Duchamp, Seiichi Horiuchi, and others, an article on the erotica of Ukiyo-e with a fold-out colour three panel poster, the fully illustrated museum supplement on Demonology by Tatsuhiko Shibusawa with artworks throughout history, texts by Apollinaire, Burroughs, Mutsuo Takahashi, articles on laws pertaining to homosexuality, Kama Sutra, shoe fetishism, and much more.

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

Good-Very Good copy. Light general tanning/wear. Some rippling to back cover.

File under: Yoshihiro Tatsuki Clovis Trouille Tadanori Yokoo Yasuhiro Yoshioka Yokoo Tadanori Hans Bellmer Leonor Fini Alberto Martini Félicien Rops Rene Magritte Hiroshi Nakamura Tomi Ungerer Koichi Tanigawa Osamu Tsukasa Tatsuo Ikeda Marcel Duchamp Seiichi Horiuchi Yasuhiro Ishimoto Guillaume Apollinaire William S. Burroughs Georges Bataille Mutsuo Takahashi Tatsuhiko Shibusawa Tensei Shuppan / Tokyo Periodicals Eros LGBTQ+ Art Surrealism Counterculture Japanese Photography Photography Out-of-print / Rare Illustration / Graphic Art / Bandes Dessinées Theory / Essay Occult / Esoterica Fetishism / BDSM Ero Guro / Erotic / Grotesque Philosophy Fiction / Poetry Transgressive / Visceral / Abject Symbolism / Decadence / Fin de siècle Ancient / Medieval / Gothic

Le Sang et La Rose No. 3, 1969

1969, Japanese / French
Softcover, 232 pages, 23 x 18 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by Tensei Shuppan / Tokyo

$110.00 - In stock -

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

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

Issue no. 3 (with cover by Bronzino, 1554) includes full-colour photographic feature by Kishin Shinoyama ("Virgin In Uniform" featuring models/artists Angela Asaoka, Akaji Maro, Yoko Ashikawa) and beautiful Shomei Tomatsu photo feature ("Scoptophilia"), the artwork of the great French cross-dressing painter-photographer Pierre Molinier, texts by Jirō Kawamura, Yumiko Kurahashi, Taruho Inagaki ("Memories of Hemorrhoids or "New Tsurezuregusa"), Akiyuki Nosaka ("Dear Penis, Goodbye"), Minoru Minamihara ("The Mystic Thought of Love in the Case of Jakob Böhme"), Takiji Kobayashi, The Fictitious Garden of Babylon by Tatsuhiko Shibusawa, Tsunekazu Murata ("Witch's Ax : Concerning Heresy in Medieval Europe"), translation of Franz Kafka "Metamorphosis" illustrated by Franco Gentilini, recent research on homosexuality by film critic Jin'ichi Uekusa, Kama Sutra, more Gay (Danshoku) Japanese Theater history, Marquise de Blancvilliers by Koji Nakata, and much more.

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

Very Good copy. Light general tanning/wear.

File under: Kishin Shinoyama Shomei Tomatsu Pierre Molinier Franco Gentilini Yokoo Tadanori Angela Asaoka Akaji Maro Yoko Ashikawa Tatsuhiko Shibusawa Franz Kafka Yukio Mishima Taruho Inagaki Jun’nosuke Yoshiyuki Kôichi Iijima Jûrô Kara Ikuya Kato Minoru Yoshioka Ryûichi Tamura The Marquis de Sade Georges Bataille Andre Pieyre De Mandiargues Jirō Kawamura Yumiko Kurahashi Akiyuki Nosaka Minoru Minamihara Jakob Böhme Takiji Kobayashi Tsunekazu Murata Jin'ichi Uekusa Tensei Shuppan / Tokyo Ero Guro / Erotic / Grotesque Transgressive / Visceral / Abject Eros Fetishism / BDSM Out-of-print / Rare Periodicals Japanese Photography Surrealism Philosophy Theory / Essay Fiction / Poetry Symbolism / Decadence / Fin de siècle Ancient / Medieval / Gothic Art Counterculture Illustration / Graphic Art / Bandes Dessinées LGBTQ+ Occult / Esoterica Photography Sociology / Politics

Le Sang et La Rose No. 1, 1968

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

$110.00 - Out of stock

(more...)

(...less)

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

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

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

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

Good copy with some spine damage and tanning/wear.

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

Gianni Piacentino
Painting and sculpture 1965–1981 / Bilder und Objekte

1981, German
Softcover (+ compliments card), 217 pages, 30 x 21 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / good
Published by GAK / Bremen

$120.00 - In stock -

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Rare and very comprehensive catalogue published on the occasion of Gianni Piacentino's exhibition at GAK (Gesellschaft für Aktuelle Kunst), Bremen, 1981, a comprehensive survey marking his return to Europe from living in New York between 1980–81. With accompanying texts in bi–lingual English/German by esteemed collectors Marcello Levi and Reinhard Onnasch (the first German art dealer to open a gallery in New York City following World War II), the catalogue traces the entire career of Italian artist Gianni Piacentino (b. 1945). A sidecar champion, model airplane and car builder, industrial painter (for work) and philosophy student, a young Piacentino was one of the first artists involved in the Arte Povera movement at its infancy, exhibiting with Pistoletto and Gilardi at Galleria Sperone, Turin in 1966 and then in Milan the following year. During the late 1960s, his meticulously crafted, highly finished minimal sculptures and canvases had more in common with West Coast American Minimalists and solidified his differences with other Arte Povera artists, and by 1969 Piacentino began his "Vehicles" and "Wings" series that would become some of his most enduring and captivating works, spanning the 1970s. His refined minimal surfaces would take on engineered form and the language of mass–production in a highly personalised manner that predated the developments of American minimalists such as Robert Grosvenor, and the later post–minimal pop–assemblages of Ashley Bickerton. Piacentino's work would appear at DOCUMENTA (6) in Kassel (1977), the XLV Venice Biennale (1993) and the Quadrennial in Rome (1973 and 2005).

In the words of Germano Celant: "It is in this historical climate of oscillation between art and design, handcrafts and industry, the useful and the useless, the one-off piece and the mass-produced object, and between the autonomy and heteronomy of pure creation, that we can place the contribution of Piacentino, whose otherness and uniqueness lie precisely in the dialectic between the two poles, Pop and Minimal. Since 1966 his sculptures have been aiming for a result that transcends the functional object, even though the latter remains recognizable as a possible industrial product with decorative characteristics, as it is derived from a culture steeped in applied science, handicrafts and the precision of mechanics and sophisticated engineering processes."

This copy with Berlin–based gallerist and contributing collector Reinhard Onnasch's with compliments card pasted to the first blank.
Good copy with some wear to boards, light knocking to spine ends, light tanning.

File under: Marcello Levi Reinhard Onnasch GAK / Bremen Sculpture / Installation Out-of-print / Rare Art Painting Minimal Art Arte Povera Pop Art

Plexus 17
October 1968

1968, French
Softcover, 162 pages, 20 x 17.8 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by Planète / Paris

$50.00 - In stock -

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Issue 17 of Plexus, an avant-garde French magazine published in Paris from 1966-1970, created as the companion publication to fantastical realist magazine Planète by prominent figures French journalist and author Louis Pauwels and fantastique fiction author Jacques Sternberg. Born from the ashes of surrealism into it's cultivated counterculture and subtitled "the uninhibited magazine", Plexus blended a psychedelic mix of erotica, fantasy, philosophy, psychedelia, literature, esoterica, filmmaking, science fiction, satirical cartoons and more. Only 37 issues total were published during its short four year run, but it made a big splash, even being prohibited to minors in 1967 after just one year of publication for its “pornographic content.” Each issue featured striking cover artwork by some of the most prominent artists of the period, along with galleries of erotic artworks, historical and contemporary – often seen only in the pages of Plexus.

Plexus, issue 17, October 1968. Cover by Gilles Rimbault. Features a gallery of art by Gilles Rimbault, Didier Moreau, Georges Wolinski, photography by Emil Cadoo, actress Geneviève Grad, Anton LaVey, Emmanuelle Arsan, Yves de Saint-Agnes, Jacques Sternberg, and so much more.

VG copy, light wear/age, small sticker damage to lower cover (sample image only)

File under: Georges Wolinski Gilles Rimbault Didier Moreau Emil Cadoo Geneviève Grad Emmanuelle Arsan Yves de Saint-Agnes Jacques Sternberg Anton LaVey Planète / Paris Periodicals Art Eros Illustration / Graphic Art / Bandes Dessinées Photography Counterculture Film / Video Weird / Speculative / Science Fiction Occult / Esoterica Art Brut / Folk / Visionary / Fantastic Drugs / Psychedelia

Plexus 29
November 1969

1969, French
Softcover, 130 pages, 20 x 17.8 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by Planète / Paris

$50.00 - In stock -

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Issue 29 of Plexus, an avant-garde French magazine published in Paris from 1966-1970, created as the companion publication to fantastical realist magazine Planète by prominent figures French journalist and author Louis Pauwels and fantastique fiction author Jacques Sternberg. Born from the ashes of surrealism into it's cultivated counterculture and subtitled "the uninhibited magazine", Plexus blended a psychedelic mix of erotica, fantasy, philosophy, psychedelia, literature, esoterica, filmmaking, science fiction, satirical cartoons and more. Only 37 issues total were published during its short four year run, but it made a big splash, even being prohibited to minors in 1967 after just one year of publication for its “pornographic content.” Each issue featured striking cover artwork by some of the most prominent artists of the period, along with galleries of erotic artworks, historical and contemporary – often seen only in the pages of Plexus.

Plexus, issue 28, November 1969. Cover by Jean Coulot. Features a gallery of art by Jean Coulot, Raymond Bertrand, Tiger Tateishi, actress/model Elsa Martinelli, Pieyre de Mandiargues, Emmanuelle Arsan, André Guillois, and article on Hitler illustrated by Gérard Gachet, and so much more.

VG copy, light wear/age, small sticker damage to lower cover (sample image only)

File under: Gérard Gachet Raymond Bertrand Tiger Tateishi Elsa Martinelli Jean Coulot Pieyre de Mandiargues Emmanuelle Arsan André Guillois Planète / Paris Counterculture Out-of-print / Rare Periodicals Eros Illustration / Graphic Art / Bandes Dessinées Art Photography Weird / Speculative / Science Fiction Occult / Esoterica Film / Video Drugs / Psychedelia