World Food Books

Miroslav Tichý
Les formes du vrai / Forms of Truth

2011, English / French
Hardcover (w. dust jacket), 248 pages, 24 x 30 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / as new
Published by Kant / Prague

$160.00 - Out of 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 Out-of-print / Rare

Alfred Kubin / Fritz von Herzmanovsky-Orlando
Perle und Tarockanien

1980, German
Softcover, 120 pages, 24.5 x 31.9 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by Edition Spangenberg im Ellermannverlag / Münich

$60.00 - In stock -

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Wonderful over-sized publication devoted to two of the great originators of the Austrian fantastic, Alfred Kubin (1877–1959) and Fritz von Herzmanovsky-Orlando (1877–1954), published in 1980 by Edition Spangenberg im Ellermannverlag, Münich. The volume presents full-page drawings from both artists, in colour and b/w, along side biographies and photographs, accompanying texts in German.

Alfred Kubin and Fritz von Herzmanovsky-Orlando shared a profound, lifelong friendship and artistic kinship. Both were "double talents"—artists who achieved mastery in both literature and the visual arts. They were both part of the Münich bohemian scene and the Cosmic Circle. Despite their reclusive natures—Kubin in his castle at Zwickledt and Herzmanovsky-Orlando in South Tyrol—the two maintained a prolific and intense correspondence throughout their lives. Both shared a fascination with the fantastical and the bizarre, despite their starkly different artistic tones. While Kubin focused on the dark, nightmarish depths of the human subconscious, Herzmanovsky-Orlando channeled the satirical, absurd and grotesque through his mystical realm of "Tarockia". Together, they anchored the Austrian fantastic tradition.

Very Good copy with some tanning to boards, wear to bottom back cover.

File under: Alfred Kubin Fritz von Herzmanovsky-Orlando Edition Spangenberg im Ellermannverlag / Münich Illustration / Graphic Art / Bandes Dessinées Out-of-print / Rare Art Brut / Folk / Visionary / Fantastic Art Drawing

Alfred Kubin
The early drawings up to 1904

1977, German
Softcover, 340 pages, 28.5 x 27.5 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / good
Published by Baden-Baden Kunsthalle / Germany

$80.00 - In stock -

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Wonderful, heavy 1977 Kunsthalle Baden–Baden catalogue devoted to the work of the great Austrian draftsman, illustrator and author, Alfred Kubin (1877–1959), originator of the Austrian fantastic and bizarre. Not to be mistake for the slim catalogue published at the same time, this very large volume edited by Hans Albert Peters serves as an in–depth monographic look at Kubin's work with over 300 pages, 89 full–page plates and countless illustrations to accompany the text of Christoph Brockhaus, of his sketch studies for his most masterful artworks and his work references not published in any other book, along with many other works. A comprehensive book of the most artistically impressive period in Kubin's work, including a full biography and bibliography. After the exhibition the remaining copies were withdrawn from circulation, making it quite scarce.

'The fascination that the work of the Austrian draftsman Alfred Kubin held for his contemporaries has not diminished since his death in 1959. A brilliant illustrator who invented strange worlds to express himself, he was an important precursor of surrealism, as well as an influence on the Blaue Reiter and other early movements of German Expressionism. But his contact with Klee, Kandinsky, and Mare did not lead him on to Weimar of the Bauhaus or Paris of the Surrealists; instead, he chose to remain in Austria - the Austria of Freud and Kafka rather than that of Loos, Schiele, or Musil.

Sensitive and visionary, Kubin spent a youth filled with emotional crises, but he exorcized his demons by externalizing them with his pen and pencil. Drawing did not come easily to him; rather, it was a compulsion — he had to transmit the vision of his inner world. Even as an illustrator, he would absorb a manuscript and translate it back visually through his pictorial language. Among the authors whose works he illustrated were Poe, Nerval, Dostoevsky, Gogol, Hoffman, Balzac, Flaubert, Hardy, Strindberg, Mann, Werfel, Hesse, and Kafka.

This book presents the most extensive selection of Kubin's graphic work yet published. Most of the 188 facsimiles of drawings and sketches were made from selected works in Kubin's esta: which was divided between the Alber 1 Museum, in Vienna, and the State inu-seum of Upper Austria, at Linz. Particularly important are the pencil sketches from the estate of the priest Alois Samhaber, a close friend of Kubin.
Though the artist considered these works unfinished - many of them were literally rescued from the wastebasket by Samhaber they are especially attractive in their spontaneity and valuable for the insight they give into Kubin's creative processes.'

Alfred Kubin, an accomplished draughtsman, was inspired by his fascination with the philosophies of Schopenhauer and Nietzsche; and influenced by the artists Goya, Klinger, Ensor, Redon, Rops and Munch. Kubin called his dreamlike imagery a vital "escape into the unreal": ghostly figures, hybrid creatures, variants of torture and self-torture, dream, vampirism, spiritualism, decadence, sex, death and birth. His extraordinary oeuvre comprises more than 20,000 drawings, a large part of it consist of pen drawings, portfolio pieces and illustrations from more than 70 books.

Good copy in Good dust jacket. Tanning and light foxing to initials, a few plates loose from binding at the opening of the plate section, all present. DJ with discolouration to spine edge, some wear/some chips to extremities. Preserved in mylar wrap.

File under: Alfred Kubin Hans Albert Peters Christoph Brockhaus Baden-Baden Kunsthalle / Germany Art Out-of-print / Rare Illustration / Graphic Art / Bandes Dessinées Drawing Symbolism / Decadence / Fin de siècle Art Brut / Folk / Visionary / Fantastic Painting

Giger's Alien

1986, Japanese
Softcover, 76 pages, 29.7 x 29.7 cm
Out of print title / used / very good
Published by Treville / Tokyo

$80.00 - In stock -

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Japanese 1986 edition of the classic "Giger's Alien", a visually stunning and wonderfully insightful book for any fan of the art of H.R. Giger, Ridley Scott and Dan O'Bannon's Alien film or in the production of science-fiction/horror/special effects in any way. A must.

"Giger's Alien provides a complete record of the months and months of painstaking work that resulted in two hours of terrifying celluloid. Sketches, original paintings, photographs of scenery and the Alien under construction and scenes from the film are linked by Giger's detailed diary of his thoughts and actions at the time".

Very Good copy in original dust jacket of this title. Only light wear, beautifully preserved.

File under: H.R. Giger Ridley Scott Dan O'Bannon Treville / Tokyo Weird / Speculative / Science Fiction Film / Video Out-of-print / Rare Sculpture / Installation Drawing Art Brut / Folk / Visionary / Fantastic

Gertrude Abercrombie
The Whole World Is a Mystery

2025, English
Hardcover, 224 pages, 30 x 24 cm
Published by DelMonico Books / US

$125.00 - In stock -

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This book is the definitive scholarly volume on Chicago artist Gertrude Abercrombie, who was a critical figure in the midcentury Chicago art and jazz scenes. Abercrombie was a creative force of singular vision who, from the 1930s until her death in 1977, produced enigmatic paintings full of personal significance, drawing consistently on her dreams as source material. This title accompanies the artist’s first retrospective since 1991. With a deft hand, a concise symbolic vocabulary and a restrained palette, she produced potent images that speak to her mercurial nature and her evolving psychology as an artist. Cats, owls, doors, moons, barren trees, seashells and searching female figures all converge in her mysterious works, which suggest a life of purposeful introspection and emotional struggle. Drawing consistently on her dreams as source material, Abercrombie said, “The whole world is a mystery.” This title accompanies the artist’s first retrospective since 1991: an eponymous exhibition which begins at the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh before traveling to the Colby College Museum of Art in Maine and the Milwaukee Art Museum.

File under: Gertrude Abercrombie Eric Crosby Sarah Humphreville DelMonico Books / US Surrealism Painting Art Art Brut / Folk / Visionary / Fantastic

Victor Brauner
The Magical Adventure

2026, English
Hardcover, 256 pages, 25 x 17.5 cm
Published by Hatje Cantz / Berlin

$94.00 - In stock -

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The Prophet of Surrealism.

In 1941, Victor Brauner confessed: "Every drawing, every discovery will be an extraordinary unknown place; every painting will be an adventure." A central figure in international Surrealism, Victor Brauner is a unique artist in the history of art, whose original, erudite, humorous and inventive work remains to be discovered. This book presents for the first time an extraordinary private collection that offers a comprehensive overview of the artist’s entire body of work, illustrating his multifaceted creations—paintings, drawings, sculptures, objects, writings, magazines, engravings—from the 1920s up to the 1960s.

Edited by Camille Morando, with an interview between Samy Kinge and the private collector and texts by Noémie Fillon, Fabrice Flahutez, Marie Mauzé and Didier Semin.

Victor Brauner (1903–1966) was a key figure in the Romanian avant-garde before settling in Paris. There, he became one of the most captivating painters of the Surrealist movement, remaining a prolific and inspiring creator until his death in 1966.

Edited by: Camille Morando
Designed by: Gregor Schreiter
Texts by: Noémie Fillon, Fabrice Flahutez, Marie Mauzé, Didier Semin
Nouveau Musée National de Monaco. July 3, 2026–January 3, 2027

File under: Victor Brauner Noémie Fillon Fabrice Flahutez Marie Mauzé Didier Semin Hatje Cantz / Berlin Surrealism Art Brut / Folk / Visionary / Fantastic Art Drawing Painting Sculpture / Installation

Niko Pirosmani

2023, English
Softcover, 200 pages, 30 x 23 cm
Published by Hatje Cantz / Berlin

$115.00 - In stock -

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A Legendary Artist Revisited.

Edited by: Sam Keller und Daniel Baumann für die Fondation Beyeler
Designed by: Dan Solbach
Texts by: Daniel Baumann, Thea Djordjadze, Mariam Dvali, Irine Jorjadze, Nana Kipiani, Grigol Robakidse, Demna Schengelaia, Kirill Sdanewitsch, Ana Shanshiashvili, Nino Tarischwili, Andro Wekua

Unknown to many, Niko Pirosmani is revered as a legend in his native Georgia. Conveying a sense of poignant empathy, his portraits, animal paintings, landscapes and scenes from everyday life painted around 1900 in a flourishing Tbilisi draw on medieval iconography and testify to a deeply felt sense of belonging. At the same time, the avant-garde recognised a novel and radically new form of painting in his work. Like Henri Rousseau or Marc Chagall, Pirosmani is one of the exceptional yet difficult to categorize proponents of early modern art. This catalogue demonstrates Pirosmani’s qualities in numerous illustrations, showing how his rapid brushstrokes on black oilcloth give the sparsely applied colors a glow as if coming from a dark depth. Pirosmani was a master of concentration―and a storyteller. As expertly explained in the catalogue by a selection of Georgian art historians, he was a unique artist, a contradictory figure and an important part of the art scene in Tbilisi, then considered the “Paris of the East.”

Born into a peasant family, NIKO PIROSMANI (1862 – 1918) arrived in Tbilisi in 1870. Painting portraits and tavern signs for room and board, he came to the attention of the Georgian and Russian avant-garde in 1912, who presented him a year later as the “Rousseau of the East” in the Moscow exhibition Mischén alongside works of Natalia Goncharova, Mikhail Larionov, Kazimir Malevich and Marc Chagall. An exhibition in Paris was planned, yet never to happen due to the First World War. Pirosmani died impoverished in 1918. Today he is Georgia’s most celebrated artist.

Published on the occasion of the major exhibition at Fondation Beyeler, Riehen/Basel, September 17, 2023 – January 28, 2024.

File under: Niko Pirosmani Dan Solbach Daniel Baumann Thea Djordjadze Mariam Dvali Irine Jorjadze Nana Kipiani Grigol Robakidse Demna Schengelaia Kirill Sdanewitsch Ana Shanshiashvili Nino Tarischwili Andro Wekua Hatje Cantz / Berlin Art Brut / Folk / Visionary / Fantastic Painting Art

Unica Zürn et Hans Bellmer

1992, French / Japanese
Softcover (french-folds w. parchment dust-jacket and obi-strip),
Ed. of 950, first hand-numbered ed. 19/50,
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by Taito Vision / Tokyo

$180.00 - In stock -

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Stunning, very rare Japanese publication collecting the works of married Surrealist artist-couple Unica Zürn and Hans Bellmer, issued in a limited edition of 950 copies by Taito Vision in 1992. This copy scarcer still, being one of the first edition of 50 hand-numbered copies (no.19/50). Contents include colour reproductions of Unica Zürn's print series "Oracles et Spectacles", published in 1967 after a series of drawings created by Zürn during a 1960 hospitalization caused by a clinically diagnosed psychotic episode. They are accompanied here by a selection of her anagrammatic poetry and a hommage to Zürn by husband Bellmer. These are followed by colour reproductions of Hans Bellmer's "Petit Traité de Morale" print series from 1966-68. Accompanied by biographies, a series of texts in Japanese, a full catalogue and portraits of the artists. A stunning book making these wonderful print editions by two important Surrealists available together in book-form.

Very Good copy in Very Good dust jacket protected in publisher's removable parchment jacket and publisher's obi-strip (both not pictured here, both with some tanning and wear). A most complete and limited copy.

File under: Unica Zürn Hans Bellmer Taito Vision / Tokyo Surrealism Out-of-print / Rare Art Drawing Transgressive / Visceral / Abject Eros Art Brut / Folk / Visionary / Fantastic Painting

Lesabéndio
by Paul Scheerbart

2012, English
Softcover, 257 pages, 23 x 15 cm
Published by Wakefield Press / Cambridge

$36.00 - In stock -

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This title is an intergalactic utopian novel that describes life on the planetoid Pallas, where rubbery suction-footed life forms with telescopic eyes smoke bubble-weed in mushroom meadows under violet skies and green stars. Amid the conveyor-belt highways and lighthouses weaving together the mountains and valleys, a visionary named Lesabéndio hatches a plan to build a 44-mile-high tower and employ architecture to connect the two halves of their double star.

A cosmic ecological fable, Scheerbart’s novel was admired by such architects as Bruno Taut and Walter Gropius, and such thinkers as Walter Benjamin and Gershom Scholem (whose wedding present to Benjamin was a copy of Lesabéndio. Benjamin had intended to devote the concluding section of his lost manuscript “The True Politician” with a discussion of the positive political possibilities embedded in Scheerbart’s “Asteroid Novel.” As translator Christina Svendsen writes in her introduction, “Lesabéndio helps us imagine an ecological politics more daring than the conservative politics of preservation, even as it reminds us that we are part of a larger galactic set of interrelationships.” This volume includes Alfred Kubin’s illustrations from the original German edition.

Paul Scheerbart (1863–1915) was a novelist, playwright, poet, newspaper critic, draftsman, visionary, proponent of glass architecture and would-be inventor of perpetual motion, who wrote fantastical fables and interplanetary satires that were to influence Expressionist authors and the German Dada movement, and which helped found German science fiction.

File under: Paul Scheerbart Paul Scheerbart Wakefield Press / Cambridge Art Brut / Folk / Visionary / Fantastic Fiction / Poetry Weird / Speculative / Science Fiction

H.R. Giger's Necronomicon I

1984, Japanese
Softcover (w. dust jacket), 98 pages (w. fold-outs), 42 x 30 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by Treville / Tokyo

$200.00 - In stock -

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First Japanese edition of H.R. Giger's Necronomicon from 1984. Beginning with a hommage from Salvador Dali and introduction by Clive Baker, the first in this series of oversized and visually overwhelming Giger-designed volumes takes us through the early history of one of the most brilliant fantasy artists of the century. From his "Passegen" series, his work for theatre, posters, album artwork, environments, personal works, is designs for Alejandro Jodorowsky's DUNE, and much more, all beautifully reproduced in full-colour and black and white, full-bleed spreads, including fold-out pages. These Giger folio books have become very desirable, collectable editions in their various printings around the world, the series encompassing the work of one of the world's most unique and influential visionaries of the macabre. This is volume 1 of 2 of "HR Giger's Necronomicon" where Al Azred's legendary magical book of the most wonderful abominations and perversions, "Necronomicon" (made infamous in the pages of HP Lovecraft's "Cthulhu" mythology), becomes a visual reality!

With an introduction by Clive Baker and numerous texts by HR Giger as well as texts by Fritz Billeter and Simon Vinkenoog and a tribute from Salvador Dali. Note: Japanese language edition.

First Japanese edition, published by Treville, Tokyo, in 1984. Very good copy throughout with Very Good dust jacket. Some edge wear with fragile, oversized edition.

File under: H.R. Giger Salvador Dalí Alejandro Jodorowsky Treville / Tokyo Surrealism Weird / Speculative / Science Fiction Out-of-print / Rare Painting Drawing Sculpture / Installation Illustration / Graphic Art / Bandes Dessinées Art Film / Video Eros Art Brut / Folk / Visionary / Fantastic Ero Guro / Erotic / Grotesque

H. R. Giger
Biomechanics

1989, Japanese
Softcover (w. dust jacket + ephemera), 96 pages, 42.5 x 30.5 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by Treville / Tokyo

$200.00 - Out of stock

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Rare first 1989 Japanese edition of H. R. Giger's Biomechanics. In his classic series of oversized and visually immersive early art volumes, this book comprises a retrospective showcase, from 1964—88, of Giger's work, designed by and with running commentary by Giger himself, with over 200 drawings, paintings, and sculptures, and including concept art for the film Poltergeist II, and design paintings for Emerson, Lake, and Palmer albums, his lost film work and early cartoons. With a foreword by legendary Science Fiction author and longtime Giger fan Harlan Ellison, who dubs him "our latter-day Hieronymus Bosch."

Note: the Japanese editions of these books often had better reproductions from the original plates than the German and English language editions.

Includes Treville publisher ephemera inserted as issued, including an illustrated advert for Giger poster editions, etc.

Very Good in Very Good dust jacket. Excellent, well-preserved copy.

File under: H.R. Giger Harlan Ellison Treville / Tokyo Ero Guro / Erotic / Grotesque Surrealism Art Brut / Folk / Visionary / Fantastic Out-of-print / Rare Weird / Speculative / Science Fiction Film / Video Illustration / Graphic Art / Bandes Dessinées Drawing Painting Art

Broken Music

2019, English
Softcover (w. flexi-disc), 280 pages, 26 x 21 cm
Ed. of 2500,
Published by Primary Information / New York

$65.00 - In stock -

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Broken Music is an essential compendium for records created by visual artists. The publication was edited by Ursula Block and Michael Glasmeier and originally published in 1989 by DAAD. Broken Music focuses on recordings, record-objects, artwork for records, and record installations made by thousands of artists between WWII and 1989.

It also includes essays by both editors as well as Theodor W. Adorno, René Block, Jean Dubuffet, Milan Knizak, László Moholy-Nagy, Christiane Seiffert, and Hans Rudolf Zeller, as well as a flexi disc of the Arditti Quartet performing Knizak’s “Broken Music.” The centerpiece of the publication is a nearly 200-page bibliography of artists’ records.

Works chosen for the publication revolved around four criteria: (1) record covers created as original work by visual artists; (2) record or sound-producing objects (multiples/editions/sculptures); (3) books and publications that contain a record or recorded-media object; and (4) records or recorded media that have sound by visual artists.

Artists documented in the volume include Vito Acconci, albrecht/d., Laurie Anderson, Guillaume Apollinaire, Karel Appel, Arman, Hans Arp, Antonin Artaud, John Baldessari, Hugo Ball, Claus van Bebber, John Bender, Harry Bertoia, Jean-Pierre Bertrand, Joseph Beuys, Mel Bochner, Claus Böhmler, Christian Boltanski, KP Brehmer, William Burroughs, John Cage, Henri Chopin, Henning Christiansen, Jean Cocteau, William Copley, Philip Corner, Merce Cunningham, Hanne Darboven, Jim Dine, Marcel Duchamp, Max Ernst, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Fischli and Weiss, R. Buckminster Fuller, Allen Ginsberg, Philip Glass, Jack Goldstein, Peter Gordon, Hans Haacke, Richard Hamilton, Bernard Heidsieck, Holger Hiller, Richard Huelsenbeck, Isidore Isou, Marcel Janco, Servie Janssen, Jasper Johns, Joe Jones, Thomas Kapielski, Allan Kaprow, Martin Kippenberger, Per Kirkeby, Cheri Knight, Milan Knizak, Richard Kriesche, Christina Kubisch, Laibach, John Lennon, Sol Lewitt, Roy Lichtenstein, Annea Lockwood, Paul McCarthy, Meredith Monk, Josef Felix Müller, Piotr Nathan, Hermann Nitsch, Albert Oehlen, Frank O’Hara, Claes Oldenburg, Yoko Ono, Dennis Oppenheim, Nam June Paik, Charlemagne Palestine, A.R. Penck, Tom Phillips, Robert Rauschenberg, The Red Crayola, Ursula Reuter Christiansen, Gerhard Richter, Jim Rosenquist, Dieter Roth, Gerhard Rühm, Robert Rutman, Sarkis, Thomas Schmit, Conrad Schnitzler, Kurt Schwitters, Selten Gehörte Musik, Richard Serra, Robert Smithson, Michael Snow, Keith Sonnier, Strafe für Rebellion, Jean Tinguely, Moniek Toebosch, Tristan Tzara, Ben Vautier, Yoshi Wada, Emmett Walsh, Andy Warhol, William Wegman, and Lawrence Weiner.

Ursula Block is a curator living in Berlin, Germany. From 1981 until 2014, she ran gelbe Musik, a gallery and record shop in Berlin that featured work by artists at the crossroads between music and art.

Michael Glasmeier is a professor, writer, and editor living in Berlin, Germany. Since the early 1980s, he has curated dozens of shows that explore the intersection between the visual arts, music, film, and language.

File under: Vito Acconci albrecht/d. Laurie Anderson Karel Appel Arman Antonin Artaud John Baldessari Hugo Ball Claus van Bebber John Bender Harry Bertoia Jean-Pierre Bertrand Joseph Beuys Mel Bochner Claus Böhmler Christian Boltanski John Cage Henri Chopin Henning Christiansen Jean Cocteau William Copley Philip Corner Merce Cunningham Hanne Darboven Jim Dine Marcel Duchamp Max Ernst Lawrence Ferlinghetti Buckminster Fuller Fischli & Weiss Peter Fischli Peter Fischli & David Weiss David Weiss Allen Ginsberg Philip Glass Jack Goldstein Peter Gordon Hans Haacke Richard Hamilton Bernard Heidsieck Holger Hiller Richard Huelsenbeck Isidore Isou Marcel Janco Servie Janssen Jasper Johns Joe Jones Thomas Kapielski Allan Kaprow Martin Kippenberger Per Kirkeby Cheri Knight Milan Knizak Richard Kriesche Christina Kubisch Laibach John Lennon Sol Lewitt Roy Lichtenstein Annea Lockwood Paul McCarthy Meredith Monk Josef Felix Müller Piotr Nathan Hermann Nitsch Albert Oehlen Frank O’Hara Claes Oldenburg Yoko Ono Dennis Oppenheim Nam June Paik Charlemagne Palestine A.R. Penck Tom Phillips Robert Rauschenberg The Red Crayola Ursula Reuter Christiansen Gerhard Richter Jim Rosenquist Dieter Roth Gerhard Rühm Robert Rutman Sarkis Thomas Schmit Conrad Schnitzler Kurt Schwitters Selten Gehörte Musik Richard Serra Robert Smithson Michael Snow Keith Sonnier Strafe für Rebellion Jean Tinguely Moniek Toebosch Tristan Tzara Ben Vautier Yoshi Wada Emmett Walsh Andy Warhol William Wegman Lawrence Weiner Jean Arp (Hans Arp) K. P. Brehmer William S. Burroughs Ursula Block Michael Glasmeier Theodor W. Adorno René Block Jean Dubuffet Milan Knizak László Moholy-Nagy Christiane Seiffert Hans Rudolf Zeller Guillaume Apollinaire William S. Burroughs Primary Information / New York Art Sound / Music Fluxus Conceptual Art Dada Arte Povera Counterculture Bauhaus Performance / Dance / Theater Minimal Art Pop Art Nouveau Réalisme / Zero / Kinetic Art Brut / Folk / Visionary / Fantastic Curatorial Group Shows / Collections Objects / Ephemera / A/V

Broken Music

1989, English / German / French
Softcover (w. flexi-disc), 280 pages, 26 x 21 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by Daadgalerie / Berlin Gelbe Musik / Berlin

$180.00 - In stock -

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Rare first 1989 edition of Broken Music, an essential compendium for records created by visual artists. Complete with original flexi-disc. The publication was edited by Ursula Block and Michael Glasmeier and published in 1989 by DAAD and Gelbe Musik, Berlin. Broken Music focuses on recordings, record-objects, artwork for records, and record installations made by thousands of artists between WWII and 1989.

It also includes essays by both editors as well as Theodor W. Adorno, René Block, Jean Dubuffet, Milan Knizak, László Moholy-Nagy, Christiane Seiffert, and Hans Rudolf Zeller, as well as a flexi disc of the Arditti Quartet performing Knizak’s “Broken Music.” The centerpiece of the publication is a nearly 200-page bibliography of artists’ records.

Works chosen for the publication revolved around four criteria: (1) record covers created as original work by visual artists; (2) record or sound-producing objects (multiples/editions/sculptures); (3) books and publications that contain a record or recorded-media object; and (4) records or recorded media that have sound by visual artists.

Artists documented in the volume include Vito Acconci, albrecht/d., Laurie Anderson, Guillaume Apollinaire, Karel Appel, Arman, Hans Arp, Antonin Artaud, John Baldessari, Hugo Ball, Claus van Bebber, John Bender, Harry Bertoia, Jean-Pierre Bertrand, Joseph Beuys, Mel Bochner, Claus Böhmler, Christian Boltanski, KP Brehmer, William Burroughs, John Cage, Henri Chopin, Henning Christiansen, Jean Cocteau, William Copley, Philip Corner, Merce Cunningham, Hanne Darboven, Jim Dine, Marcel Duchamp, Max Ernst, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Fischli and Weiss, R. Buckminster Fuller, Allen Ginsberg, Philip Glass, Jack Goldstein, Peter Gordon, Hans Haacke, Richard Hamilton, Bernard Heidsieck, Holger Hiller, Richard Huelsenbeck, Isidore Isou, Marcel Janco, Servie Janssen, Jasper Johns, Joe Jones, Thomas Kapielski, Allan Kaprow, Martin Kippenberger, Per Kirkeby, Cheri Knight, Milan Knizak, Richard Kriesche, Christina Kubisch, Laibach, John Lennon, Sol Lewitt, Roy Lichtenstein, Annea Lockwood, Paul McCarthy, Meredith Monk, Josef Felix Müller, Piotr Nathan, Hermann Nitsch, Albert Oehlen, Frank O’Hara, Claes Oldenburg, Yoko Ono, Dennis Oppenheim, Nam June Paik, Charlemagne Palestine, A.R. Penck, Tom Phillips, Robert Rauschenberg, The Red Crayola, Ursula Reuter Christiansen, Gerhard Richter, Jim Rosenquist, Dieter Roth, Gerhard Rühm, Robert Rutman, Sarkis, Thomas Schmit, Conrad Schnitzler, Kurt Schwitters, Selten Gehörte Musik, Richard Serra, Robert Smithson, Michael Snow, Keith Sonnier, Strafe für Rebellion, Jean Tinguely, Moniek Toebosch, Tristan Tzara, Ben Vautier, Yoshi Wada, Emmett Walsh, Andy Warhol, William Wegman, and Lawrence Weiner.

Ursula Block is a curator living in Berlin, Germany. From 1981 until 2014, she ran gelbe Musik, a gallery and record shop in Berlin that featured work by artists at the crossroads between music and art. She was married to curator René Block.

Michael Glasmeier is a professor, writer, and editor living in Berlin, Germany. Since the early 1980s, he has curated dozens of shows that explore the intersection between the visual arts, music, film, and language.

Very Good copy all-round, light cover/corner wear.

File under: ×Vito Acconci albrecht/d. Laurie Anderson Karel Appel Arman Antonin Artaud John Baldessari Hugo Ball Claus van Bebber John Bender Harry Bertoia Jean-Pierre Bertrand Joseph Beuys Mel Bochner Claus Böhmler Christian Boltanski John Cage Henri Chopin Henning Christiansen Jean Cocteau William Copley Philip Corner Merce Cunningham Hanne Darboven Jim Dine Marcel Duchamp Max Ernst Lawrence Ferlinghetti Buckminster Fuller Fischli & Weiss Peter Fischli Peter Fischli & David Weiss David Weiss Allen Ginsberg Philip Glass Jack Goldstein Peter Gordon Hans Haacke Richard Hamilton Bernard Heidsieck Holger Hiller Richard Huelsenbeck Isidore Isou Marcel Janco Servie Janssen Jasper Johns Joe Jones Thomas Kapielski Allan Kaprow Martin Kippenberger Per Kirkeby Cheri Knight Milan Knizak Richard Kriesche Christina Kubisch Laibach John Lennon Sol Lewitt Roy Lichtenstein Annea Lockwood Paul McCarthy Meredith Monk Josef Felix Müller Piotr Nathan Hermann Nitsch Albert Oehlen Frank O’Hara Claes Oldenburg Yoko Ono Dennis Oppenheim Nam June Paik Charlemagne Palestine A.R. Penck Tom Phillips Robert Rauschenberg The Red Crayola Ursula Reuter Christiansen Gerhard Richter Jim Rosenquist Dieter Roth Gerhard Rühm Robert Rutman Sarkis Thomas Schmit Conrad Schnitzler Kurt Schwitters Selten Gehörte Musik Richard Serra Robert Smithson Michael Snow Keith Sonnier Strafe für Rebellion Jean Tinguely Moniek Toebosch Tristan Tzara Ben Vautier Yoshi Wada Emmett Walsh Andy Warhol William Wegman Lawrence Weiner Jean Arp (Hans Arp) K. P. Brehmer William S. Burroughs Theodor W. Adorno René Block Jean Dubuffet Milan Knizak László Moholy-Nagy Christiane Seiffert Hans Rudolf Zeller Ursula Block Michael Glasmeier Daadgalerie / Berlin Gelbe Musik / Berlin Art Conceptual Art Performance / Dance / Theater Art Brut / Folk / Visionary / Fantastic Counterculture Out-of-print / Rare Group Shows / Collections Curatorial Theory / Essay Fluxus Arte Povera Pop Art Sound / Music Dada Minimal Art Nouveau Réalisme / Zero / Kinetic Bauhaus Objects / Ephemera / A/V

Yaso
Special Feature: Jan Svankmajer

2007, Japanese
Softcover, 160 pages, 24 x 18.3 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / good
Published by Atelier Peyotl / Tokyo

$70.00 - Out of stock

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"Jan Svankmajer" Special Feature Issue of cult Japanese underground magazine Yaso, published in 2007, edited by Yuichi Konno and Atelier Peyotl (publishers of Night Vision/Yaso/Peyotl/Wave/Silvester Club...). Profusely illustrated in colour with texts in Japanese that look at the genius of Jan Švankmajer, the Czech filmmaker, animator, writer, playwright and artist, a self-labeled surrealist celebrated for his innovative stop–motion animations and feature films, his extensive collaboration with wife painter and author Eva Švankmajerová, his collage, ceramics, tactile objects and assemblages. In the early 1960s, he explored informel, which later became an important part of the visual form of his animated films. Packed with his drawings, film stills, artworks, photographs, interviews, articles on Svankmajer's motifs, artists inspired by Svankmajer and their works, a Svanmkajer filmography, and a section on Travel Tips to the Czech Republic. In typical Japanese magazine fashion, and Yaso in particular, this volume is incredibly comprehensive.

Good–VG copy. Some cover creasing. Sample image only.

File under: Jan Svankmajer Eva Švankmajerová Eva Švankmajerová Atelier Peyotl / Tokyo Periodicals Occult / Esoterica Out-of-print / Rare Film / Video Art Surrealism Collage / Mail Art / Xerox Art Art Brut / Folk / Visionary / Fantastic Sculpture / Installation

SHATTERED FORMS: Art Brut, Phantasms, Modernism
by Allen S. Weiss

1992, English
Softcover, 158 pages, 23 x 15 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by State University of New York Press / New York

$45.00 - Out of stock

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Art Brut, also termed Outsider Art, has long been suppressed from most art historical writing. Why this rejection? The hyperbolic expressions of Romanticism and Symbolism nourished a desire for derangement and dissociation that inspired both Expressionism and Surrealism. Simulated delirium became the object of the new art - experimental, avant-garde, modernist - which arose from the fragmented codes, the shattered forms of everyday communication. But what of those artists whose works, and often whose deliria, are the manifestations of sheer eccentricity, of social isolation and marginalization, or of madness? In this book Weiss investigates the origins of the unrestricted contemporary artistic field, seeking its sources in those works hitherto absent from the official histories of art - works that constitute art's dark interior, its disturbing netherworld. Secluded, occluded, excluded, Art Brut nevertheless extends the limits of artistic creativity and aesthetic discourse, regardless of whatever anxieties such works may produce. Shattered Forms explores the relations between Art Brut, the psychopathology of expression, and avant-garde Modernism, attempting to show how the consideration of Art Brut should lead to a revision of our theoretical and museological paradigms.

Illustrated throughout with works by Rosemarie Koczy, Pascal Maisonneuve, Michel Nedjar, Vojislav Jakić, Oswald Tschirtner, Philipp Schöpke, "Max," Michel Nedjar, Katherina, Adolf Wölfli, August Neter, Comte de Tromelin.

Allen S. Weiss is a writer, translator, editor, and curator in the fields of Aesthetics, Art History, Cinema Studies, and Comparative Literature. He edited Art Brut: Madness and Marginalia (a special issue of Art & Text); co-edited Psychosis and Sexual Identity and Portraits from the Outside: Figurative Expression in Outsider Art; and wrote The Aesthetics of Excess, published by SUNY Press.

Very Good copy, light age.

File under: Rosemarie Koczy Pascal Maisonneuve Michel Nedjar Vojislav Jakić Oswald Tschirtner Philipp Schöpke Max Katherina Adolf Wölfli August Neter Comte de Tromelin Allen S. Weiss State University of New York Press / New York Theory / Essay Literary Theory / Semiotics / Language Out-of-print / Rare Art Art Brut / Folk / Visionary / Fantastic Surrealism Philosophy Symbolism / Decadence / Fin de siècle

Toshio Saeki
Picture Scroll of Pathos (signed)

2004, Japanese
Hardcover (w. slipcase), 48 pages, 27 x 19 cm
Signed and numbered edition,
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by Seirin Kogeisha / Tokyo

$320.00 - In stock -

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Very rare first Japanese edition of Picture Scroll of Pathos by ero-guro master Toshio Saeki (1945—2019), limited to only 1000 copies, numbered and this special copy signed by Saeki inside the cover! A gorgeous and rarely seen collection of Saeki's early manga works and picture stories that were originally published in the early 70's and thought to be lost, here reproduced impeccably in black and white with stunning multi-panel colour fold-out spreads. Hardcover bound in illustrated slipcase. Most complete.

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.

Fine copy with Fine dj, slipcase. Signed in bold silver pen by Saeki.

File under: Toshio Saeki Seirin Kogeisha / Tokyo Eros Ero Guro / Erotic / Grotesque Illustration / Graphic Art / Bandes Dessinées Drawing Painting Art Art Brut / Folk / Visionary / Fantastic Fetishism / BDSM Out-of-print / Rare Signed Books Transgressive / Visceral / Abject

Toshio Saeki
The Earliest Works of Toshio Saeki (signed)

2002, Japanese
Hardcover in slipcase w. illustrated paste-on, unpaginated, 21.5 x 15 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / fine
Published by Seirin Kogeisha / Tokyo

$380.00 - In stock -

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Signed copy of the first, limited, number-stamped edition of "The Earliest Works of Toshio Saeki" by the Japanese master of Ero guro, published by Seirin-Kogei-Sha in 2002 and long out-of-print. Before Saeki worked in his later palette of bright flat colours, he expressed the darker and more chaotic aspects of unbridled eroticism in stark black and white, with the occasional and dramatic splash of a single primary colour. In this lavishly illustrated book, Saeki's disturbing iconography reveals links to the past and simultaneously indicates the even more bizarre twists his work would take in the future. The Earliest Works also shows the early inspirations of Toshio Saeki, Tomi Ungerer's effect being a most clear one. Broken into three chapters: Earliest Works, Uncollected Works, and Unpublished Studies from 1969, the book also includes a chronological record and notes by Yuji Yamashita. An incredible book! Signed by Saeki in metallic silver to inside cover.

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.

Perfect fine hardcover copy housed in fine slipcase, beautifully preserved.

File under: Toshio Saeki Seirin Kogeisha / Tokyo Signed Books Illustration / Graphic Art / Bandes Dessinées Painting Drawing Art Out-of-print / Rare Transgressive / Visceral / Abject Fetishism / BDSM Ero Guro / Erotic / Grotesque Eros Art Brut / Folk / Visionary / Fantastic

The Sacred Conspiracy : The Internal Papers of the Secret Society of Acephale and Lecturers to the College of Sociology
by Georges Bataille

2018, English
Hardcover, 480 pages, 17.4 x 23.2 cm
Published by Atlas Press / London

$74.00 - In stock -

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Georges Bataille's secret society, long the stuff of legend, is now revealed in its texts, meditations, rules and prohibitions.

This book recounts what must be one of the most unusual intellectual journeys of modern times, in which the influential philosopher, cultural theorist and occasional pornographer Georges Bataille (1897-1962), having spent the early 1930s in far-left groups opposing the rise of fascism, abandoned that approach in order to transfer the struggle onto "the mythological plane."

In 1937, Bataille founded two groups in order to explore the combinations of power and the "sacred" at work in society. The first group, the College of Sociology, gave lectures that were intended to reveal the hidden undercurrents within a society on the verge of catastrophe. The second group was Acéphale, a genuine secret society and anti-religion whose emblem was a headless figure that, in part, represented the death of God. Until the discovery a few years ago of the group's internal papers (which include theoretical texts, meditations, minutes of meetings, rules and prohibitions and even a membership list), almost nothing was known of its activities.

This book is the first to collect a representative selection of the writings of Bataille, and of those close to him, in the years leading up to World War II. The texts published here comprise lectures given to the College of Sociology by Bataille, Roger Caillois and Michel Leiris, essays from the Acéphale journal and a large cache of the internal papers from the secret society. A desperate narrative unfolds, wherein Bataille risked all in a wholly unreasonable quest--with a few fellow travelers, he undertook what he later described as a "journey out of this world."

Additional texts by Roger Caillois, Pierre Klossowski, Michel Leiris, and by Georges Ambrosino, Pierre Andler, Michel Carrouges, Jacques Chavy, Jean Dautry, Henri Dobier, Henri Dussat, Imre Kelemen, Jean Rollin, Patrick Waldberg.
And with drawings by André Masson

Highest recommendation!

File under: Pierre Klossowski André Masson Georges Bataille Roger Caillois Michel Leiris Pierre Klossowski Georges Ambrosino Pierre Andler Michel Carrouges Jacques Chavy Jean Dautry Henri Dobier Henri Dussat Imre Kelemen Jean Rollin Patrick Waldberg Atlas Press / London Philosophy Theory / Essay Surrealism Occult / Esoterica Art Fiction / Poetry Drawing Transgressive / Visceral / Abject Weird / Speculative / Science Fiction Art Brut / Folk / Visionary / Fantastic Anthropology

Paul Thek
Artist's Artist

2009, English
Hardcover, 550 pages, 22 x 28 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / good
Published by The MIT Press / Massachusetts

$400.00 - Out of stock

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First edition of the scarce, highly sought after, and most comprehensive book ever published on American artist Paul Thek, published in 2009 by MIT Press. Edited by Harald Falckenberg and Peter Weibel, this enormous 550 page monograph contains more than 300 works by this groundbreaking artist, documenting his journey from legendary outsider to central figure in many contemporary art movements.

Paul Thek occupied a place between high art and low art, between the epic and the everyday. During his brief life (1933-1988), he went against the grain of art world trends, humanizing the institutional spaces of art with the force of his humor, spirituality, and character. Twenty years after Thek's death from AIDS, we can now recognize his influence on contemporary artists ranging from Vito Acconci and Bruce Nauman to Matthew Barney, Mike Kelley, and Paul McCarthy, as well as Kai Althoff, Jonathan Meese, and Thomas Hirschhorn. This book brings together more than 300 of Thek's works—many of which are published here for the first time—to offer the most comprehensive display of his work yet seen. The book, which accompanies an exhibition at ZKM ? Museum of Contemporary Art presenting Thek's work in dialogue with contemporary art by young artists, includes painting, sculpture, drawing, and installation work, as well as photographs documenting the room-size environments into which Thek incorporated elements from art, literature, theater, and religion. These works chart Thek's journey from legendary outsider to foundational figure in contemporary art. In their antiheroic diversity, Thek's works embody the art revolution of the 1960s; indeed, Susan Sontag dedicated her classic Against Interpretation to him. Thek's treatment of the body in such works as “Technological Reliquaries,” with their castings and replicas of human body parts, tissue, and bones, both evoke the aura of Christian relics and anticipate the work of Damien Hirst. The book, with more than 500 images (300 in colour) and nineteen essays by art historians, curators, collectors, and artists, investigates Thek's work on its own terms, and as a starting point for understanding the work of the many younger artists Thek has influenced.

Essays by Jean-Christophe Ammann, Margrit Brehm, Bazon Brock, Suzanne Delehanty, Harald Falckenberg, Marietta Franke, Stefan Germer, Kim Gordon, Roland Groenenboom, Axel Heil, Gregor Jansen, Mike Kelley, John Miller, Susanne Neubauer, Kenny Schachter, Harald Szeemann, Annette Tietenberg, Peter Weibel, Ann Wilson.

Good copy with heavy tanning to spine and covers (esp. fluro spot colour), some bumping to cover corners, light page edge tanning. Internally Very Good, clean throughout.

File under: Paul Thek Harald Falckenberg Peter Weibel Jean-Christophe Ammann Margrit Brehm Bazon Brock Suzanne Delehanty Marietta Franke Stefan Germer Kim Gordon Roland Groenenboom Axel Heil Gregor Jansen Mike Kelley John Miller Susanne Neubauer Kenny Schachter Harald Szeemann Annette Tietenberg Ann Wilson The MIT Press / Massachusetts Arte Povera Sculpture / Installation Out-of-print / Rare Painting Drawing Performance / Dance / Theater Art Art Brut / Folk / Visionary / Fantastic

Morton Bartlett
Secret Universe 3

2012, English / German
Softcover, 104 pages, 20.3 x 24.8 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / as new
Published by Walther König / Köln Collection de l'Art Brut / Lausanne

$100.00 - In stock -

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Scarce out-of-print monograph on the work of Morton Bartlett, one of only a couple of books on the artist, published by Collection de l'Art Brut Lausanne and Walther Koenig in 2012 and quickly sold out.

When the freelance photographer and graphic designer Morton Bartlett (1909–1992) died at the age of 83, his relatives found 15 chests among his possessions. Each chest contained a half-life-size doll and its accessories: 12 girls and three boys, a wardrobe of hand-sewn clothes, black-and-white photographs of each doll as well as countless studies and archival materials. Bartlett began designing these dolls in the mid-1930s, studying anatomy books and histories of costume, and learning to sew and mold with clay to make them as true to life as possible. Each doll entailed a huge amount of labor, taking up to a year to complete; Bartlett created costumes and wigs for each one and then staged them in lifelike scenarios and photographed them, documenting a family he had never had and creating a body of work that would remain unexhibited during his lifetime. The third installment in the Bahnhof Museum’s series on outsider artists, this volume examines Bartlett’s extraordinary lifelong obsession.

Edited and with foreword by Udo Kittelmann, Claudia Dichter. Text by Lee Kogan.

As New copy.

File under: Morton Bartlett Udo Kittelmann Claudia Dichter Lee Kogan Walther König / Köln Collection de l'Art Brut / Lausanne Art Sculpture / Installation Photography Art Brut / Folk / Visionary / Fantastic Out-of-print / Rare

Yaso
Special Feature : Hans Bellmer — Poupée

2010, Japanese
Softcover, 208 pages, 24 x 18.5 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / good
Published by Atelier Peyotl / Tokyo

$55.00 - In stock -

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Incredible Hans Bellmer special feature Issue of cult Japanese underground magazine Yaso, published in 2010, edited by Yuichi Konno and Atelier Peyotl (publishers of Night Vision/Yaso/Peyotl/Wave/Silvester Club...). Being a magazine specialising in the doll arts it was only natural that they would dedicate an entire issue to the ground-breaking work of German Surrealist Hans Bellmer and the development of his dolls, and pay homage to his immense influence on Japanese doll artists by discussing his work with them. Heavily illustrated with reproductions of Bellmer's iconic doll photography and drawings, alongside reproduced and translated original texts, extensive chronology of Bellmer and Unica Zürn, the drawing and anagram work of his partner Zürn, an invaluable bibliography of publications related to Bellmer to date, and many portraits of the artist. There is an extensive chronicle of doll history and development stretching from 1902—2010 and a large part of the issue is made up of heavily illustrated exclusive interviews with Japanese artists influenced by the legacy of Bellmer, including Simon Yotsuya, Nori Doi, Ryo Yoshida, Tatsumi Hijikata, Makoto Onozuka, Kishin Shinoyama, Minori Nawata, and more, surveys contemporary doll artists Volks, PEACH-PIT, naruto, Hizuki, Tari Nakagawa, Minori Nawata, Os, Akihiko Aono, mican, Ayumi, Masanao, Katan Amano, Nishioka Bro. & Sis., and many more, and includes essays by Sue Taylor, Alice Mahon, Kumi Ogata... absolutely packed with content and a valuable Bellmer reference in the context of his Japanese influence on the arts.

Good copy woth knock/crease to top–right corner, light wear.

File under: Hans Bellmer Unica Zürn Simon Yotsuya Nori Doi Ryo Yoshida Tatsumi Hijikata Makoto Onozuka Kishin Shinoyama Minori Nawata Katan Amano Akihiko Aono Tari Nakagawa Hans Bellmer Unica Zürn Atelier Peyotl / Tokyo Drawing Sculpture / Installation Transgressive / Visceral / Abject Fetishism / BDSM Eros Ero Guro / Erotic / Grotesque Out-of-print / Rare Periodicals Theory / Essay Art Surrealism Art Brut / Folk / Visionary / Fantastic

Down Below
by Leonora Carrington

2017, English
Softcover, 112 pages, 12.8 x 20.4 cm
Published by The New York Review of Books / New York

$32.00 - In stock -

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A stunning work of memoir and an unforgettable depiction of the brilliance and madness by one of Surrealism’s most compelling figures

In 1937 Leonora Carrington—later to become one of the twentieth century’s great painters of the weird, the alarming, and the wild—was a nineteen-year-old art student in London, beautiful and unapologetically rebellious. At a dinner party, she met the artist Max Ernst. The two fell in love and soon departed to live and paint together in a farmhouse in Provence.

In 1940, the invading German army arrested Ernst and sent him to a concentration camp. Carrington suffered a psychotic break. She wept for hours. Her stomach became “the mirror of the earth”—of all worlds in a hostile universe—and she tried to purify the evil by compulsively vomiting. As the Germans neared the south of France, a friend persuaded Carrington to flee to Spain. Facing the approach “of robots, of thoughtless, fleshless beings,” she packed a suitcase that bore on a brass plate the word Revelation.

This was only the beginning of a journey into madness that was to end with Carrington confined in a mental institution, overwhelmed not only by her own terrible imaginings but by her doctor’s sadistic course of treatment. In Down Below she describes her ordeal—in which the agonizing and the marvelous were equally combined—with a startling, almost impersonal precision and without a trace of self-pity. Like Daniel Paul Schreber’s Memoirs of My Nervous Illness, Down Below brings the hallucinatory logic of madness home.

File under: Leonora Carrington Leonora Carrington The New York Review of Books / New York Surrealism Art Brut / Folk / Visionary / Fantastic Fiction / Poetry Art

On Monsters and Marvels
by Ambroise Pare

1982, English
Softcover, 224 pages, 23 x 14 cm
Out of print title / used / very good
Published by University of Chicago Press / Chicago

$45.00 - Out of stock

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Ambroise Paré, born in France around 1510, was chief surgeon to both Charles IX and Henri III. In one of the first attempts to explain birth defects, Paré produced On Monsters and Marvels, an illustrated encyclopedia of curiosities, of monstrous human and animal births, bizarre beasts, and natural phenomena. Janis L. Pallister’s acclaimed English translation offers a glimpse of the natural world as seen by an extraordinary Renaissance natural philosopher.

Scarce 1982 edition. Good—VG copy, light wear and spotting to block edges.

File under: Ambroise Pare Janis L. Pallister University of Chicago Press / Chicago Out-of-print / Rare Theory / Essay Occult / Esoterica Illustration / Graphic Art / Bandes Dessinées Ancient / Medieval / Gothic Art Brut / Folk / Visionary / Fantastic Art

The Real Alice: Lewis Carroll's Dream Child
by Anne Clark

1981, English
Hardcover (w. dust jacket), 272 pages, 23.5 x 18.5 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / fine
Published by Michael Joseph / London

$30.00 - Out of stock

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First 1981 hardcover edition of "The Real Alice: Lewis Carroll's Dream Child " by Anne Clark, published by Michael Joseph, London.

"Together Lewis Carroll and his Alice have been eulogised, criticised, psycho-analysed. Their phantasmagoric dreamworld has fired the imaginations and fed the minds of poets, philosophers, musicians and artists the world over - they have proved inspirational to creators as diverse as James Joyce, Lennon and McCartney, W.H. Auden, Walter de la Mare, Arthur Rackham and Salvador Dali. Now, for the first time, Alice Liddell is the subject of a major biography.

Daughter of the powerful Dean of Christ Church, Oxford, Alice met not only Carroll but the most brilliant personalities of her day in all walks of life. A celebrated beauty, she was painted by Richmond and photographed by J.M. Cameron. Hubert Parry dedicated music to her. Herself a gifted artist, Alice was taught to paint by Ruskin, whose flirtatious letters to her are quoted in the book. Her hopeless romance with Prince Leopold, Queen Victoria's youngest son, is explored in depth with the help of the letters he wrote to her.

Alice's marriage to wealthy Reginald Hargreaves made her mistress of a splendid country mansion, but could not erase the trace of sorrow that was written permanently on her brow after the tragic early death of her younger sister Edith. That sorrow deepened when two of her three sons were killed in battle in the First World War. Widowhood left Alice impoverished, lonely and forgotten, but the sale of Carroll's manuscript and the centenary celebrations of his birth brought her again unexpectedly into the public eye.

Immaculately researched and enhanced by 150 fine illustrations, many of them previously unpublished or rare, The Real Alice sheds a fascinating new light on the person who was Lewis Carroll's dream-child and will give pleasure both as a biography and as an addition to the wealth of Carrolliana already in existence."

Near Fine copy in NF DJ, light foxing to block edge.

File under: John Ruskin Anne Clark Lewis Carroll Michael Joseph / London Literary Theory / Semiotics / Language Art Brut / Folk / Visionary / Fantastic Theory / Essay Fiction / Poetry Out-of-print / Rare