World Food Books' programme is largely produced on Kulin Nation land. We acknowledge the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation as the first and continuing custodians of this land, and pay respect to their Elders past, present, and emerging.
World Food Books is an arts and special interests bookshop in Naarm / Melbourne. Founded in 2010, World Food Books is devoted to the presentation of a rotating, hand-selection of international art, design, literary and counterculture publications with an emphasis on the anti-traditional, the experimental, the avant-garde, the heretic, the marginal.
Presenting new titles alongside rare and out-of-print books, catalogues and journals spanning the fields of modern and contemporary art, design, photography, illustration, film, literature, poetry, cultural theory, philosophy, sexuality, popular and underground culture in its many radical forms, World Food Books wishes to encourage adventurous, thoughtful and open-minded reading, looking, writing, and exchange of publishing and ideas, both current and historical.
As well as our bookshop, located in Melbourne's historical Nicholas Building, all of our inventory is available internationally via our online mail-order service.
World Food Books semi-regularly co-ordinates "Occasions", a programme of exhibits and events at the bookshop and in partnership with other hosts (such as museums and art galleries) that develop out of the activities, relationships and content of the bookshop itself.
World Food Books
The Nicholas Building
37 Swanston Street
Room 5, Level 6
Melbourne 3000
Australia
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THU—FRI 12—6 PM
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World Food Books
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PO Box 435
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Pick-Ups
Pick-up orders can be collected in our bookshop during opening hours after order date. Please collect any Pick-up orders within 2 weeks of ordering as we have limited storage space. Orders will be released back into stock if not collected within this time. No refunds can be made for pick-ups left un-collected. If you cannot make it in to the bookshop in this time-frame, please choose postage option.
Return Policy
All sales are final. We do accept returns (for refund or exchange) for items received in error. All our orders are packed with special care using heavy-duty padding and cardboard book-mailers or bubble mailers (for smaller books), using reinforcement where required. We cannot take responsibility for any lost, stolen or damaged parcels.
Insurance
Should you wish to insure your package, please email us directly after placing your order and we can organise this at a small extra expense. Although all standard/express tracked packages are very safe and dependable, we cannot take responsibility for any lost, stolen or damaged parcels. We recommend insurance on valuable orders.
Interested in selling your old books, catalogues, journals, magazines, comics, fanzines, ephemera? We are always looking for interesting, unusual and out-of-print books to buy. We only buy books in our fields of interest and specialty, and that we feel we can resell.
We base these prices on desirability, market value, in-print prices, condition and our current stock levels. We offer cash, store credit, and can take stock on consignment. All
about 25% of the price we expect to get when we sell them, or 30% in store credit. We base these prices on desirability, market value, in-print prices, condition and our current stock levels.
Sell your books any day of the week. You can drop them off and return later. If you have a lot of books, we can visit your Sydney home.
We buy books that we feel we can resell. We offer about 25 % of the price we expect to get when we sell them, or 30% in store credit. We base these prices on desirability, market value, in-print prices, condition and our current stock levels.
Philadelphia Wireman
03 August - 01 September, 2018
World Food Books is proud to announce our next Occasion, the first presentation of sculptures by Philadelphia Wireman in Australia.
The Philadelphia Wireman sculptures were found abandoned in an alley off Philadelphia’s South Street on trash night in 1982. Their discovery in a rapidly-changing neighbourhood undergoing extensive renovation, compounded with the failure of all attempts to locate the artist, suggests that the works may have been discarded after the maker’s death. Dubbed the "Philadelphia Wireman" during the first exhibition of this work, in 1985, the maker’s name, age, ethnicity, and even gender remain uncertain. The entire collection totals approximately 1200 pieces, all intricately bound together with tightly-wound heavy-gauge wire (along with a few small, abstract marker drawings, reminiscent both of Mark Tobey and J.B. Murry). The dense construction of the work, despite a modest range of scale and materials, is singularly obsessive and disciplined in design: a wire armature or exoskeleton firmly binds a bricolage of found objects including plastic, glass, food packaging, umbrella parts, tape, rubber, batteries, pens, leather, reflectors, nuts and bolts, nails, foil, coins, toys, watches, eyeglasses, tools, and jewellery.
Heavy with associations—anthropomorphic, zoomorphic, and socio-cultural responses to wrapped detritus—the totemic sculptures by Philadelphia Wireman have been discussed in the context of work created to fulfil the shamanistic needs of alternative religions in American culture. Curators, collectors, and critics have variously compared certain pieces to sculpture from Classical antiquity, Native American medicine bundles, African-American memory jugs, and African fetish objects. Reflecting the artist’s prolific and incredibly focused scavenging impulse, and despite—or perhaps enhanced by—their anonymity, these enigmatic objects function as urban artefacts and arbiters of power, though their origin and purpose is unknown. Philadelphia Wireman, whatever their identity, possessed an astonishing ability to isolate and communicate the concepts of power and energy through the selection and transformation of ordinary materials. Over the course of the past two decades, this collection has come to be regarded as an important discovery in the field of self-taught art and vernacular art.
Presented in collaboration with Fleisher-Ollman Gallery, Philadelphia, and Robert Heald, Wellington.
Susan Te Kahurangi King
02 February - 10 March, 2018
Susan Te Kahurangi King (24 February 1951 - ) has been a confident and prolific artist since she was a young child, drawing with readily available materials - pencils, ballpoint pens and felt-tip markers, on whatever paper is at hand. Between the ages of four and six Susan slowly ceased verbal communication. Her grandparents William and Myrtle Murphy had developed a special bond with Susan so they took on caring responsibilities for extended periods. Myrtle began informally archiving her work, carefully collecting and storing the drawings and compiling scrapbooks. No drawing was insignificant; every scrap of paper was kept. The King family are now the custodians of a vast collection containing over 7000 individual works, from tiny scraps of paper through to 5 meter long rolls.
The scrapbooks and diaries reveal Myrtle to be a woman of great patience and compassion, seeking to understand a child who was not always behaving as expected. She encouraged Susan to be observant, to explore her environment and absorb all the sights and sounds. Myrtle would show Susan’s drawings to friends and people in her community that she had dealings with, such as shopkeepers and postal workers, but this was not simply a case of a grandmother’s bias. She recognised that Susan had developed a sophisticated and unique visual language and sincerely believed that her art deserved serious attention.
This was an unorthodox attitude for the time. To provide some context, Jean Dubuffet coined the term Art Brut in 1945 to describe work created by self-taught artists – specifically residents of psychiatric institutions and those he considered to be visionaries or eccentrics. In 1972 Roger Cardinal extended this concept by adopting the term Outsider Art to describe work made by non-academically trained artists operating outside of mainstream art networks through choice or circumstance. Susan was born in Te Aroha, New Zealand in 1951, far from the artistic hubs of Paris and London that Dubuffet and Cardinal operated in. That Myrtle fêted Susan as a self-taught artist who deserved to be taken seriously shows how progressive her attitudes were.
Susan’s parents Doug and Dawn were also progressive. Over the years they had consulted numerous health practitioners about Susan’s condition, as the medical establishment could not provide an explanation as to why she had lapsed into silence. Dawn educated herself in the field of homeopathy and went on to treat all twelve of her children using these principles – basing prescriptions on her observations of their physical, mental and emotional state.
Doug was a linguist with an interest in philosophy who devoted what little spare time he had to studying Maori language and culture. To some extent their willingness to explore the fringes of the mainstream made them outsiders too but it was their commitment to living with integrity and their respect for individuality that ensured Susan’s creativity was always encouraged.
Even though Susan’s family supported her artistic pursuits, some staff in schools and hospitals saw it as an impediment to her assimilation into the community and discouraged it in a variety of ways. Her family was not always aware of this and therefore did not fully understand why Susan stopped drawing in the early 1990s. However, rather than dwell on the challenges that Susan faced in pursuit of her artistic practice, they prefer to highlight her achievements. In 2008 Susan began drawing again in earnest, after an almost 20 year interruption, and her work is now shown in galleries around the world.
Susan grew up without television and has been heavily influenced by the comics she read as a child. She is absolutely fearless in the appropriation of recognizable characters, such as Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse, in her work. She twists their limbs, contorts their faces, compresses them together, blends them into complex patterned backgrounds - always imbuing them with an incredible energy. Although Susan often used pop culture characters in her work they are not naive or childlike. These are drawings by a brilliant self-taught artist who has been creating exceptional work for decades without an audience in mind.
Mladen Stilinović
"Various Works 1986 - 1999"
02 February 16 - September 10, 2016
Various works 1986 - 1999, from two houses, from the collections of John Nixon, Sue Cramer, Kerrie Poliness, Peter Haffenden and Phoebe Haffenden.
Including: Geometry of Cakes (various shelves), 1993; Poor People’s Law (black and white plate), 1993; White Absence (glasses, ruler, set square, silver spoon, silver ladel with skin photograph and wooden cubes), 1990-1996; Exploitation of the Dead (grey and red star painting, wooden painting, black spoon with red table, red plate), 1984-1990; Money and Zeros (zero tie, paintings made for friends in Australia (Sue, John, Kerrie), numbers painting), 1991-1992; Words - Slogans (various t-shirts) - “they talk about the death of art...help! someone is trying to kill me”, “my sweet little lamb”, “work is a disease - Karl Marx”; Various artist books, catalogues, monographs, videos; Poster from exhibition Insulting Anarchy; "Circular" Croatian - Australian edition; Artist book by Vlado Martek (Dostoyevsky); more.
Thanks to Mladen Stilinović and Branka Stipančić.
Jonathan Walker
Always Will Need To Wear Winter Shirt Blue + Ochre Small Check Pattern
21 August - 21 September, 2015
Untitled
I am not a great reader of poetry but I always return to the work of Melbourne poet, Vincent Buckley (1925- 1988). Perhaps I find his most tantalising piece to be not a finished poem but a fragment left on a scrap of paper discovered on his desk after the poet’s death.
The poetry gathers like oil
In the word-core, and spreads
It has its music meet,
Its music is in movement.
This fragment is more the shell left behind from a volatile thought than a finished poem. I find the last two lines honest but awkward whereas the first two lines work like an arrow. Most likely he could not find a resolution so it was left. Still, in its present form, it remains an eloquent testimony to the ultimate failure of a medium to express mobile thought and sensation, in Buckley’s case, through verbal language. It’s an important matter because this is something all artists have to deal with regardless of the medium.
I have never written a poem, however, I am forever copying fragments from books on paper scraps in a vain effort to fix certain notions in my head. At first, they function as bookmarks that are sometimes returned to when I open the book. But before long, as they accumulate, they fall out littering the table interspersed with A4 photocopies, bills, books and medications.
To return to Buckley’s fragment, the first two lines very much evoke how I paint nowadays. As you age, detail diminishes and patches of light become more luminous and float. I feel the most honest way of dealing with this is by smearing the oil paint on the canvas with the fingers and working close-up, blind. Only if the patches coalesce into an approaching image can the work gain a life.
-
Jonathan Walker was born in Melbourne, Australia and brought up on a dairy farm in Gippsland. In the 1970’s he studied painting at RMIT and won the Harold Wright Scholarship to the British Museum, London. During the 1980’s he exhibited at Pinacotheca Gallery, Richmond and had work shown at the NGV and Heidi City Art Gallery. Over the same period he designed the cover for the “Epigenesi” LP by Giancarlo Toniutti, Italy and conducted a mail exchange work with Achim Wollscheid, Germany. The work with artists through the post resulted in an article published in the bicentenary issue of Art and Australia 1988. He showed in artist run spaces such as WestSpace in the 90’s and 2000’s, and until 2012, taught painting at Victoria University, which is where we (Colleen Ahern and Lisa Radford) as organisers of the exhibition, among many others, had the privilege of being his student.
Walker’s knowledge was imparted to students through the careful selection of music, literature, and artists found in books that he himself had ordered for the library. Walker’s strategy was the generosity of sharing his vast knowledge with references specific to each student and their context.
Walker’s paintings share a similar focus and intimacy.
This exhibition presents a small selection of recent paintings alongside a publication that includes Walker’s writing. Observational and analytical, Walker’s work is a type of material notation — the time of day, colour and how it is blended, the both specific and fleeting location of a reflection on lino or the question of whether a chair leg should be included in a painting.
Please join us on Friday August 21 between 6-8pm to celebrate the opening of the exhibition.
Curated by Colleen Ahern and Lisa Radford.
B. Wurtz
Curated by Nic Tammens
March 26 - April 4, 2015
B.Wurtz works from a basement studio in his home on Manhattan’s Lower East Side.
This local fact is attested to by the plastic shopping bags and newsprint circulars that appear in his work. As formal objects, they don’t make loud claims about their origins but nonetheless transmit street addresses and places of business from the bottom of this long thin island. Like plenty of artists, Wurtz is affected by what is local and what is consumed. His work is underpinned by this ethic. It often speaks from a neighborhood or reads like the contents of a hamper:
“BLACK PLUMS $1.29 lb.”
“Food Bazaar”
“USDA Whole Pork Shoulder Picnic 99c lb.”
“RITE AID Pharmacy, with us it’s personal.”
“H. Brickman & Sons.”
“Sweet Yams 59c lb."
Most of the work in this exhibition was made while the artist was in residence at Dieu Donne, a workshop dedicated to paper craft in Midtown. Here Wurtz fabricated assemblages with paper and objects that are relatively lightweight, with the intention that they would be easily transportable to Australia. This consideration isn’t absolute in Wurtz’s work, but was prescriptive for making the current exhibition light and cheap. Packed in two boxes, these works were sent from a USPS post office on the Lower East Side and delivered to North Melbourne by Australia Post.
Wurtz appears courtesy of Metro Pictures, New York.
Thanks to Rob Halverson, Joshua Petherick, Sari de Mallory, Matt Hinkley, Helen Johnson, Fayen d'Evie, Ask Kilmartin, Lisa Radon, Ellena Savage, Yale Union, and "Elizabeth".
John Nixon
"Archive"
December 15 - January 20, 2014
The presentation of John Nixon's archive offered a rare showcase of this extensive collection of the artist's own publications, catalogues, posters, ephemera, editions and more, from the mid 1980s onwards, alongside a selection of his artworks.
Organized by John Nixon, Joshua Petherick and Matt Hinkley.
"Habitat"
at Minerva, Sydney (organised by Joshua Petherick and Matt Hinkley)
November 15 - December 20, 2014
Lupo Borgonovo, Janet Burchill & Jennifer McCamley,
Lewis Fidock, HR Giger, Piero Gilardi, Veit Laurent Kurz,
Cinzia Ruggeri, Michael E. Smith, Lucie Stahl, Daniel Weil, Wols
Press Release:
“...It contained seven objects. The slender fluted bone, surely formed for flight, surely from the wing of some large bird. Three archaic circuitboards, faced with mazes of gold. A smooth white sphere of baked clay. An age-blackened fragment of lace. A fingerlength segment of what she assumed was bone from a human wrist, grayish white, inset smoothly with the silicon shaft of a small instrument that must once have ridden flush with the surface of the skin - but the thing’s face was seared and blackened.”
William Gibson, “Count Zero”, 1986
"Autumn Projects Archive"
Curated by Liza Vasiliou
March 6 - March 15, 2014
World Food Books, in conjunction with the Virgin Australia Melbourne Fashion Festival 2014, presented the Autumn Projects archive, consisting of a selection of early examples in Australian fashion with a particular interest in collecting designers and labels from the period beginning in the 1980’s, who significantly influenced the discourse of Australian Fashion.
Curated by Liza Vasiliou, the exhibition provided a unique opportunity to view pieces by designers Anthea Crawford, Barbara Vandenberg, Geoff Liddell and labels CR Australia, Covers, Jag along with early experimental collage pieces by Prue Acton and Sally Browne’s ‘Fragments’ collection, suspended throughout the functioning World Food Books shop in Melbourne.
H.B. Peace
presented by CENTRE FOR STYLE
November 14, 2013
"Hey Blinky, you say chic, I say same"
Anon 2013
H.B. Peace is a clothing collaboration between great friends Blake Barns and Hugh Egan Westland. Their pieces explore the divergences between 'character’ and ‘personality’ in garments....etc
Special Thanks to Joshua Petherick and Matt Hinkley of WFB and Gillian Mears
and a Very Special Thank you to Audrey Thomas Hayes for her shoe collaboration.
Janet Burchill & Jennifer McCamley
"Aesthetic Suicide"
May 10 - June 8, 2013
The first of our occasional exhibitions in the World Food Books office/shop space in Melbourne, "Aesthetic Suicide" presented a body of new and older works together by artists Janet Burchill & Jennifer McCamley, including videos, prints, a wall work, and publications.
During shop open hours videos played every hour, on the hour.
2013, English / Japanese
Softcover, 642 pages, 18.8 x 26 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / fine
Published by
Aomori Museum of Art / Aomori
$180.00 - In stock -
This enormous and exhaustive (now out of print) volume on the work and life of Japanese artist Tetsumi Kudo was produced to accompany the recent, most comprehensive retrospective exhibition of his work, "Your Portrait: A Tetsumi Kudo Retrospective", that toured Japan throughout 2013-2014 (The National Museum of Art, Osaka; The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo; Aomori Museum of Art, Aomori).
Like the exhibition, this wonderfully designed and compiled book is the most comprehensive publication on Tetsumi Kudo ever published. The book breaks-down the periods of production, activity and major bodies of work/installations in Tetsumi Kudo's career alongside his ever-evolving philosophy of complex ideas thus: "1956-1962 "From Anti-art to the Philosophy of Impotence"; 1962-1969 "From Your Portrait to Cultivation by Radioactivity"; 1969-1970 "A Brief Return To Japan and The Making of Monument to Metamorphosis"; 1970-1975 "From Portrait of Ionesco to Pollution-Cultivation-New Ecology"; 1975-1979 "From Portrait of Artist in the Crisis to Waiting for the Revelation in the Rain of Heredity-Chromosome"; 1980-1990 "From Paradise and the Structure of the Emperor Systme to the Soul of the Avant-garde Artist".
Amongst an endless stream of visual documentation of Kudo's individual artworks, installations and performances, the book comprises of many republished texts by the artist himself throughout his career, as well as texts by Atsuhiko Shima, Yasuyuki Nakai, Takashi Fukumoto, Tomohiro Masuda, Takayo Lida, Toru Ikeda.
The book also includes a list of works for the exhibition, a thorough biography/exhibitions/bibliography section, Tetsumi Kudo's notes (including the many drawings and plans Kudo made for his installations, artworks and exhibition designs), and a photographic catalogue of works by Tetsumi Kudo, 1955-1988.
By far the most exhaustive document on the prolific work and unique vision of this important Japanese artist.
All texts are in both English and Japanese.
Born in Osaka, Japan, in 1935 Kudo first gained notoriety in the Tokyo art scene of the late 50s. He began exhibiting his work at the Salon of Independents, Yomiuri and had his first solo exhibition at the Galerie Blanche, Tokyo. He was awarded the Grand Prize and a travel grant to Paris through his painting participation in the 1962 Second International Young Artists Exhibition in Tokyo. Immigrating to Paris, he immediately started working in a range of media--objects, sculpture, installation, drawing and painting--and presenting numerous Happenings and performances. Kudo's work and activities intersect with many important postwar artistic trends--including French Nouveau Realisme, Fluxus, Pop art, 60s anti-art tendencies and 80s Postmodernism. Throughout his life and career, Kudo remained particularly Japanese while his art and vision were consistently and uniquely transcultural, internationalist and cosmopolitan. His work made international appearances at the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (1972), Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Westfalen, Düsseldorf, Germany, (1970), Venice Biennial (1976), and the Biennial São Paulo (1977, awarded a special mention) while also appearing frequently in museums and galleries throughout Japan and France, with a growing recognition in the Netherlands.
Near-Fine copy.
1970, German
Softcover, 96 pages, 26 x 19 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Westfalen / Dusseldorf
$100.00 - In stock -
Wonderful, rare catalogue produced on the occasion of Japanese artist Tetsumi Kudo's exhibition at the Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Westfalen in Dusseldorf, 17 april - 5 July, 1970.
96 pages documenting Kudo's works of sculptural assemblage, happenings and installation, from 1959-1970. Includes a series of texts in German (including one from Kudo himself) and a biography.
About Tetsumi Kudo:
Not only did Tetsumi Kudo (1935-1990) – one of the most innovative artists in Japan in the 1950s and in France in the '60s and '70s – explore the existential possibilities for humanity in an increasingly polluted and consumption-driven world, issues critical in today's artistic practice and political debate; but in the two years since our last show and the major retrospective organized by the Walker Art Center, the wide-ranging and profound influence of his ideas and aesthetic has become increasingly clear. Mike Kelley wrote for the Walker catalog; Paul McCarthy has included Kudo in his lectures since 1968 and highlighted him as an influence in his intellectual autobiography Low Life Slow Life. Takashi Murakami, in seeing the last exhibition, has simply called Kudo, "the father of us all."
excerpt from "Tetsumi Kudo - Cubes & Gardens" (Andrea Rosen, 2010) exhibition text by Joshua Mack.
Condition: Very Good (only minor shelf wear)– All care is taken to provide accurate condition details of used books, photos available on request.
1979, English / Polish
Hardcover (w. dust jacket), 216 pages, 27.5 x 26 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / fine
Published by
Krajowa Agencja Wydawnicza / Warsaw
$180.00 - In stock -
Rare first edition of this wonderful hardcover volume, published in 1979 by Krajowa Agencja Wydawnicza in Warsaw. Beautifully designed by one of the leading graphic artists in the field of Polish posters, Hubert Hilscher, this 200+ page book remains the finest document dedicated to the "Plakat Polski" (Polish Poster) of the 1970s - an exceptional period for the medium. Lavishly illustrated throughout in colour and b&w with over 400 of the best examples spanning 1970-1978, the book opens with an introduction in both Polish and English, English captions throughout, and includes detailed artist and work indexes in the back. Includes Political and Social Posters, Theatre and Concert Posters, Film Posters, Exhibition and Commercial Posters, Tourist and Sports Posters, and Circus Posters. This stunning book is a must for anyone interested in the subject, or graphic design and illustration from this period in general.
Features the work of Maciej Urbaniec, Franciszek Starowieyski, Józef Mroszczak, Leszek Hołdanowicz, Karol Śliwka, Romuald Socha, Elzbieta Procka, Jan Młodożeniec, Włodzimierz Terechowicz, Wiktor Górka, Roman Cieślewicz, Jerzy Czerniawski, René Mulas, Maria Ihnatowicz, Jan Lenica, Janusz Grabiański, Mieczysław Wasilewski, Hubert Hilscher, Jan Kotarbinski, Waldemar Świerzy, Tomasz Rumiński, Jerzy Treliński, Roman Rosyk, Tadeusz Piskorski, Andrzej Krajewski, Danuta Żukowska, Jan Jaromir Aleksiun, Marcin Mroszczak, Jan Sawka, Henryk Tomaszewski, Doroty Kabiesz, Tomasz Jura, Jerzy Flisak, Marek Freudenreich, Marian Stachurski, Witold Janowski, and many more.
Beginning in the 1950s and through the 1980s, the Polish School of Posters combined the aesthetics of painting with the succinctness and simple metaphor of the poster. It developed characteristics such as painterly gesture, linear quality, and vibrant colours, as well as a sense of individual personality, humour, and fantasy. It was in this way that the Polish poster was able to make the distinction between designer and artist less apparent. Posters of the Polish Poster School significantly influenced the international development of graphic design in poster art. Their major contribution is in their use of the power of suggestion through allusion. Using strong and vivid colours from folk art, they combine printed slogans, often hand-lettered, with popular symbols, to create a concise inventive metaphor. As a hybrid of words and images, these posters created a certain aesthetic tension that projected the art form in this period on European design. In addition to aesthetic aspects, these posters were able to reveal the artist's emotional involvement with the subject. They did not solely exist as an objective presentation, rather they were also the artist's interpretation and commentary on the subject and on society.
To this day, "Plakat Polski" remain as influential as ever on the world of graphic design, typography, illustration and even painting, and are widely collected and exhibited around the world.
Very Good—NF copy in VG—NF dust jacket.
1989, Japanese
Softcover, (w. dust jacket + obi), 240 pages, 40 x 30 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Mother Brain / Tokyo
$550.00 - In stock -
Very collectible, rare first 1989 edition of Araki's provocative and poetic photo book masterpiece "Tokyo Nude", published by Mother Brain. Wonderful, most complete copy in original dust jacket and publisher's obi, seldom preserved. This large-format photo book by Nobuyoshi Araki was shot with a Pentax 6x7. “Each double-page spread juxtaposes a nude photograph and a fragmentary scene of everyday life in Tokyo. Turning the pages, the reader becomes enveloped in a sense of erotic travel within the womb.”—Iizawa, Araki: Self, Life, Death.
"Every diptych is divided into an image of a woman (left) and a Tokyo scene (right). Upon first glance, this juxtaposition may seem illogical. By photographing these two subjects and placing them next to each other, Araki explores them in the same light. Moreover, although he often features Tokyo in his work, "Tokyo Nude" exposes the city's more quiet and vulnerable side, and explores parts of the city that are not often displayed. The desolation of these urban pictures is complemented by the distressed, unnerving and often bold expressions worn by the female bodies on the left side of the diptychs. These architectural images thereby connect with the exposed women who stand beside them. By capturing similar feelings of desolation and abandonment from both Tokyo and its women, Araki causes them to meld into one composition. As a result, one forgets they are looking at two photographs joined together, but rather begins to understand the series of Tokyo revealed or Tokyo "Nude"."—Yoshii Gallery
Very Good copy with VG dust jacket and VG obi, both light wear to extremities.
2003, English / Japanese
Softcover (die-cut, embossed stiff slipcase w. internal illustrated card fold-out sleeve), 92 pages, 22 x 30 cm
Signed by artist,
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Treville / Tokyo
$450.00 - In stock -
First, deluxe edition of this rare Hajime Sorayama book published by Treville especially for the exhibition 'Hajime Sorayama - The Exhibition' at Ginza Graphic Gallery in 2003. Now out-of-print and collectible, this extra special copy is also signed by Sorayama himself on the cover "cleavage". Housed in an embossed, die-cut corset slipcase, with an illustrated, fold-out "pin-up" doubled-sided internal sleeve, both made from stiff card, this catalogue is profusely illustrated throughout with Japanese airbrush master Hajime Sorayama's erotic, futuristic, hyper-realistic illustrations with a heavy emphasis on latex and bondage mistresses. Includes his own commentary throughout (in English and Japanese), plus a special look inside his atelier.
Hajime Sorayama (b. 1947) is a Japanese illustrator famed for his precisely detailed, erotic portrayals of feminine robots and fetish pin-ups, and also well-known for his design work on the original Sony AIBO. He describes his highly detailed style as "superrealism", which he says "deals with the technical issue of how close one can get to one's object."
Very Good copy.
1989, English
Softcover, 272 pages, 25.5 x 18 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / good
Published by
Northwestern University Press / Evanston
$30.00 - In stock -
One of the great German Expressionist artists, Kaethe Kollwitz wrote little of herself. But her diary, kept from 1900 to her death in 1945, and her brief essays and letters express, as well as explain, much of the spirit, wisdom, and internal struggle which was eventually transmuted into her art.
"[Kollwitz's] diary and letters... provide a dramatic record of German history during the turbulent time that encompassed World War I, the November Revo- lution, the Weimar Republic and the appearance of Nazism. To these, Kollwitz grants a compassionate, critical and insightful vision, recording her own wit- nessing of historical events, her own experience of the everyday in a testimony which is generally recognized as one of the greatest autobiographical German texts of the century... As human documents they have few equals; as historical documents, they are fundamental."—REINHOLD HELLER
"No case needs to be made for Kollwitz: she belongs to the history of the human heart, and her literary as well as artistic mirror of the first half of our century is a legacy that calls for the widest reflection and distribution."—ALESSANDRA COMINI
Translated by Richard and Clara Winston. Includes 48 black and white images from the important German artist.
Käthe Kollwitz (1867–1945) was a German artist who worked with painting, printmaking (including etching, lithography and woodcuts) and sculpture. Her most famous art cycles, including The Weavers and The Peasant War, depict the effects of poverty, hunger and war on the working class. Despite the realism of her early works, her art is now more closely associated with Expressionism. Kollwitz was the first woman not only to be elected to the Prussian Academy of Arts but also to receive honorary professor status.
Good—Very Good copy, some cover wear, pressure mark on front cover. Second 1989 printing, first softcover edition.
2001, English
Softcover, 252 pages, 22.4 x 15.4 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / fine
$45.00 - In stock -
These essays by eminent European intellectual and cultural historian Anson Rabinbach address the writings of key figures in twentieth-century German philosophy. Rabinbach explores their ideas in relation to the two world wars and the horrors facing Europe at that time.
Analyzing the work of Benjamin and Bloch, he suggests their indebtedness to the traditions of Jewish messianism. In a discussion of Hugo Ball's little-known Critique of the German Intelligentsia, Rabinbach reveals the curious intellectual career of the Dadaist and antiwar activist turned-nationalist and anti-Semite. His examination of Heidegger's "Letter on Humanism" and Jaspers's The Question of German Guilt illuminates the complex and often obscure political referents of these texts. Turning to Horkheimer and Adorno's Dialectic of Enlightenment, Rabinbach offers an arresting new interpretation of this central text of the critical theory of the Frankfurt School. Subtly and persuasively argued, his book will become an indispensable reference point for all concerned with twentieth-century German history and thought.
"We are largely in the dark about the connections between revolutionary visions and reactionary brutality, but Rabinbach invites us to confront these matters more candidly in relation to texts from the fascist era that are rarely considered together."—David S. Luft, "Central European History
"The quality of Rabinbach's intellectual history and his ability to write about highly complex texts in an accessible way are unassailable. His conviction that this German tradition of thought still exerts a strong intellectual and even political influence today makes In the Shadow of Catastrophe a direct and powerful intervention in current debates. This book is a gem!"—Andreas Huyssen, author of Twilight Memories
Anson Rabinbach is Professor of History at Princeton University. He is author of The Crisis of Austrian Socialism: From Red Vienna to Civil War, 1927-1934 (1983) and The Human Motor: Energy, Fatigue and the Origins of Modernity (California, 1992).
As New copy.
2004, English
Softcover, 192 pages, 23 x 16 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Headpress / Oxford
$65.00 - In stock -
The slasher movie is the bloodiest incarnation of the modern horror film, tainted by criticisms of misogyny, yet remaining - on and off - a box-office draw for thirty years. Combining in-depth analysis with over 200 film reviews, Legacy of Blood is the most comprehensive examination of the slasher movie and its conventions to date, from Halloween and the notorious I Spit On Your Grave, to Scream - the re-defining genre hit in the nineties - and beyond. Heavily illustrated throughout.
VG copy.
1999, English
Softcover, 192 pages, 21 x 15 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Fringecore / Belgium
$70.00 - In stock -
First edition of Cinema Contra Cinema is a collection of essays and interviews by cult author Jack Sargeant on the vertiginous extremes of underground cinema. Published in 1999 in Belgium, the book includes underground filmmakers, Bruce La Bruce, Beth B, David Cronenberg, M. Henry Jones, Jeff Keen, Harry Smith, Marne Lucas, Raymond Pettibon, Eric Brummer, Boyd Rice, David Alan Clarke, Craig Baldwin, Vivien Dick, Jeff Krulik, Huck Botko, Beat Takashi, as well as newcomers such as Tyler Hubby, Modi and Peter Strickland. Plus essays on David Cronenberg's Crash, Bruce La Bruce's Hustler White, Mark Heynar's award-winning Affliction and Blunt Cut's De Leiber Rausch. Fully illustrated with many rare and previously unseen photographs.
"The subject matter is excremental, the approach obsessional and the result a kind of pervo-deviant tribute to the spirit of Georges Bataille...serious research activity."—Steve Beard, iD
"The complex critical apparatus of Foucault's Language, Counter-Memory, Practice with the sensibilities of a Todd Browning movie."—Ken Hollings, The Wire
"The post-punk Parker Tyler."—Michael Simmons, LA Weekly
VG copy with light wear to cpver/extremities.
1996, English
Softcover, 192 pages, 24.5 x 17 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Creation Books / London
$40.00 - Out of stock
Published in 1996, Necronomicon: Book one continues the singular, thought-provoking exploration of transgressive cinema begun by the much-respected and acclaimed magazine of the same name. The transition to annual book format has allowed for even greater depth and diversity within the journal's trademarks of progressive critique and striking photographic content. Includes: Jean Rollin: The surreal and the sapphic Texas Chainsaw Massacre: Exploitation or modern fairytale Barbara Steele: Icon of S/M horror Frightmare: Peter Walker's psycho-delirium classic Marco Ferreri: Sadean cinema of excess Deep Throat: Pornography as primitive spectacle Dario Argento: Tortured looks and visual displeasure Last Tango in Paris: Circles of sex and death H P Lovecraft: Visions of crawling chaos Witchfinder General: Michael Reeves' classic of visceral violence Herschell G. Lewis: Compulsive tales and cannibal feasts Evil Dead: From slapstick to splatshtick * And much more....
VG copy.
2001, English
Softcover, 262 pages, 23 x 15 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / fine
Published by
University of California Press / Berkley
$20.00 - In stock -
The overall subject of the essays in The Body/Body Problem is the traditional one of what our ultimate makeup is, as creatures with minds and bodies. The central thesis is that we are beings who represent―and misrepresent―actual and possible worlds. Addressing philosophical questions of mental representation, Danto presents his distinctive approach to some of the most enduring topics in philosophy. He is concerned with the nature of description, the status of the external world, action theory, the philosophy of history, and the philosophical status of psychoanalytic explanation. Representation is a central concept in philosophy, says Danto, with differences among philosophers arising in the ways they account for how representations connect to the world or to the individuals possessing them, and how they connect with one another to form systems of beliefs, feelings, and attitudes. In these essays Danto's own voice, with his arguments and speculations, provides rich philosophical pleasures that will endure, to borrow from Santayana, "under whatever sky."
Arthur C. Danto is one of the most original and multitalented philosophers writing today, a thinker whose interests traverse the boundaries of traditional understandings of philosophy. Best known for his contributions to the philosophy of art and aesthetics, Danto is also esteemed for his work in the history of philosophy, the philosophy of history, philosophical psychology, and action theory. These two volumes, each with an introduction by the author, contain essays spanning more than twenty-five years that have been selected to highlight the inseparability of philosophy and art in Danto's work. Together they present the thinking of Arthur C. Danto at his very best.
Near Fine copy.
1979, English
Softcover, 180 pages, 21 x 14 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Da Capo Press / New York
$45.00 - Out of stock
Translated and Edited by Ivor Montagu and Jay Leyda With a New Introduction by Dwight Macdonald
"Eisenstein is the greatest theoretician of film. Nizhny has a good ear for his teacher's voice. This book is thus a crucial document. I'm delighted to see it back in print."—Stan Brakhage
"An interesting account, long out of print, of Eisenstein in the classroom. This book is valuable for anyone interested in Eisenstein, his teaching methods, and his process of translating thought into film."—Milos Forman
"Every teacher or student of film would be well-advised to consult this invalu- able account of Eisenstein's teaching methods, and his nuts and bolts demon- strations of the art of directing."—Andrew Sarris
Sergei Eisenstein (1898-1948) was one of the world's greatest film directors, with such masterpieces to his credit as The Battleship Potemkin, October, Alexander Nevsky, and Ivan the Terrible—a body of achievement unparalleled in film history. Eisenstein was also an artist-teacher who considered teaching as important as film or stage directing. He developed the Moscow State Cinema Institute's first complete and coherent program for teaching film direction, and influenced some of the finest Soviet and foreign directors. A class with Eisenstein was an extraordinary experience, a joint voyage of discovery of truths which became stamped forever in his pupils' minds. Vladimir Nizhny was one such pupil, and it is his careful and copious notes, together with the complete short-hand records of Eisenstein's classes, that form the basis for this book. Reproduced in their entirety are four important lessons-one direc- tional solution, mise-en-scène, break-up into shots, and mise-en-shot-as well as nearly eighty of the blackboard drawings that accompanied the class- room discussions, and Eisenstein's "Programme for Teaching." In Lessons With Eisenstein, Nizhny, immeasurably aided by the translator-editors Ivor Montagu and Jay Leyda, successfully conveys the great excitement and adventure of those unique explorations with the master.
Very good copy.
1972, English
Hardcover (w. dust jacket), 96 pages, 22 x 14.5 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / fine
Published by
Vision Press / London
$55.00 - In stock -
First 1971 hardcover edition of QUE VIVA MEXICO! by Sergei Eisenstein, with an Introduction by Ernest Lindgren and an Afterword by Ivor Montagu, published by Vision Press, London.
"The scenario of Eisenstein's unfinished masterpiece Que Viva Mexico!, together with Ernest Lindgren's enthralling account of the background to the film and its making, was first published in 1951. Sadly, the blocks of the illustrations to the first edition were lost at the printers and the book went quickly out of print. Now, twenty-one years later, the publishers have reprinted the scenario and Lindgren's introduction, both without alteration, and have added thereto twenty freshly lithographed stills from the film, many of which did not appear in the 1951 edition, and an analysis by Ivor Montagu of subsequent events and find- ings relating to the film. Sergei Eisenstein, world-famous creator of the films Battleship Potemkin, Alexander Nevsky and Ivan the Terrible, believed that Que Viva Mexico!, had he been allowed to complete it, would have been his greatest work. The reappearance in print, therefore, of the scenario is, as Ivor Montagu puts it, 'a blessing because it gives the most clear and authentic picture of this remarkable film as Eisenstein sought to make it, while the admirably compact introduction by Lindgren puts the director squarely in his place in film history and the "Mexican project" squarely in its place in his life and work'.
Ernest Lindgren is Curator of the National Film Archive and a Director of the British Film Institute.
Ivor Montagu is the author of With Eisenstein in Hollywood and an acknowledged British authority on the Russian cinema.
Fine copy in VG dust jacket with light wear, preserved in mylar wrap.
2017, English
Softcover, 128 pages, 17 x 24 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / as new
Published by
Nero / Rome
$200.00 - In stock -
The unfinished works of Sergei Eisenstein are traversed by aesthetic, anthropological, and political questions.
First, only edition of this incredible, fast out-of-print book published on the occasion of the exhibition Sergei Eisenstein: The Anthropology of Rhythm, 2017—2018, edited by the curators, art and film historians Marie Rebecchi and Elena Vogman, in collaboration with the artist and typographer Till Gathmann, published by NERO. Copiously illustrated with documents from Eisenstein’s archives that were exhibited for the first time, including notebooks, drawings, film footage and photographs, this book "proposes to explore the intersecting aesthetic, anthropological and political dimensions of three unfinished film projects by Sergei Eisenstein. The Soviet director (b. 1898, Riga — d. 1948, Moscow) is best known today as the paradigmatic author of revolutionary Soviet cinema. Yet there is another face to this Janus-like figure, many of whose unfinished film projects and extensive theoretical works remained unpublished and unknown during his lifetime — and to a certain extent until today. It is this as yet unacknowledged body of work which make up the subject matter of the present book. Focusing in particular on the anthropology of rhythm in Eisenstein’s Mexican project (Que viva Mexico!, 1931–1932), the book follows this thread to two other unfinished projects: the destroyed film Bezhin Meadow (1935–37) and Fergana Canal (1939), which came to a halt before filming even begun".
Fine copy.
1974, English
Softcover, 335 pages, 22.5 x 16 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Random House / New York
$85.00 - Out of stock
The first edition of Amos Vogel's seminal book, Film as a Subversive Art, one of the greatest books on cinema, published in 1974. Reprinted in 2005 by D.A.P./C.T. Editions, that edition also quickly went out of print and this landmark book has not been available since. According to Vogel--founder of Cinema 16, North America's legendary film society--the book details the "accelerating worldwide trend toward a more liberated cinema, in which subjects and forms hitherto considered unthinkable or forbidden are boldly explored."
So ahead of his time was Vogel that the ideas that he penned some 30 years ago for this classic volume are still relevant today. Accompanied by over 300 rare film stills, Film as a Subversive Art analyzes how aesthetic, sexual and ideological subversives use one of the most powerful art forms of our day to exchange or manipulate our conscious and unconscious, demystify visual taboos, destroy dated cinematic forms, and undermine existing value systems and institutions. This subversion of form, as well as of content, is placed within the context of the contemporary world view of science, philosophy, and modern art, and is illuminated by a detailed examination of over 500 films, including many banned, rarely seen, or never released works.
Includes Luis Buñuel, Dusan Makavejev, Luis Buñuel, Stan Brakhage, Bruce Connor, Roman Polanski, Vera Chytilova, Alfred Hitchcock, Carolee Schneemann, Peter Watkins, Tony Conrad, Jonas Mekas, Andrei Tarkovsky, Marcel Duchamp, Robert Bresson, Luchino Visconti, Chris Marker, Federico Fellini, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Kate Millett, John Cassavettes, Shuji Terayama, William Klein, Russ Meyers, Louis Malle, Woody Allen, Yoko Ono, Michelangelo Antonioni, Agnes Varda, Walerian Borowczyk, Andy Warhol, Ingmar Bergman, Jacques Rivette, Sergei M. Eisenstein, Ingmar Bergman, Lindsay Anderson, Roberto Rossellini, Marguerite Duras, Charlie Chaplin, Paul Morrissey, Joseph Losey, Otto Muehl, Hans Richter, Fritz Lang, Jean Genet, Kenneth Anger, Maya Deren, Jean-Luc Godard, Frans Zwartjes, Arrabal, Jack Smith, Stan Vanderbeek, Werner Herzog, Morgan Fisher, Jean Renior, Michael Snow, Robert Frank, Jan Svankmajer, Sam Peckinpah, Paul Sharits, Akira Kurosawa, Yoko Ono, Orson Welles, Frederick Wiseman, Ken Jacobs, Martin Scorcese, Jean Cocteau, Manuel Octavio Gomez, Stanley Kubrick, Norman McLaren, Albert Maysles and David Maysles, to name only a few of the hundreds of film-makers whose works are featured in this essential film book.
VG copy.
1982, English
Hardcover (w. dust jacket), 294 pages, 22 x 15 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Secker & Warburg / London
$35.00 - Out of stock
First 1982 hardcover edition.
"A celebration of a vivid and turbulent era in the cinema, The New Italian Cinema presents a detailed account of the work of Italy's major directors over the past two decades including Antonioni & Ferreri, Bellochio & Cavani, Bolognini & Bertolucci, Pasolini & Fellini, Rosi & Petrie, Olmi & The Tavianis, Visconti & Wertmuller."
Near Fine in Very Good dust jacket.
1977, English
Softcover, 818 pages, 21.5 x 14 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Macmillan / Sydney
$65.00 - In stock -
Scarce first (and only) 1977 edition.
Conflict & Control in the Cinema brings together, for the first time in one format, essays from a whole range of perspectives on the sociology of film. From Siefried Kracauer, Chritian Metz, Andrew Tudor, Edgar Morin, Raymond Durgnat, Robert Anton Wilson, Glauba Rocha, Sergei Yutkevich, John Tulloch, George A. Huaco, and many more, plus interviews w. Alain Tanner, Michel Foucault, Ousmane Sembène, Costa-Gavras, amongst others. Dr Tulloch's introductory essays in each section are an important feature, placing and evaluating the various contributions to the field (including the latest structuralist approaches to film study), in a language designed to be readable by the non-specialist. John Tulloch's own genetic structuralist approach provides a unifying framework for the book, and at the same time suggests an important and neglected alternative to contemporary forms of film theory. By relating each sociological perspective mainly to one aspect of the cinema documentary, Hollywood, heroes and villains, political film, the Western, etc the author avoids abstraction and provides a book which will enable the film enthusiast to consider the cinema in a more systematic way.
John Tulloch completed his first degree and Dip Ed at Cambridge (England), and his MA and PhD at the University of Sussex. He has taught the sociology of film and literature at school, college and university level in England and Australia. He is editor of the Australian Journal of Screen Theory and lectures in Film and Society in the Department of General Studies, University of NSW
Good—Very Good copy. Considering the book is 818 pages, this is a well-preserved copy, with only a few spine creases, light wear and tanning to spine/cover edge.
1981, English
Softcover, 334 pages, 23 x 15.5 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Indiana University Press / Indiana
$35.00 - In stock -
First 1981 Edition.
"To what degree, Nichols asks, does ideology inform images in films, advertising, and other media? Does the cinema or any other sign system liberate or manipulate us? How can we as spectators know when the media are subtly perpetuating a specific set of values? To address these issues, the author draws from a variety of approaches—Marxism, psycholanalysis, communication theory, semiotics, structuralism, the psychology of perception. Working with two interrelated theories—ideology and image-systems, and ideology and principles of textual criticism—Nichols shows how and why we make emotional investments in sign sytsems with an ideological context.
In this lavishly illustrated book, hundreds of stills from both high and popular culture are interwoven with the text. After laying a theoretical groundwork, Nichols presents detailed discussions of Blonde Venus and The Birds, documentary film in general, Frederick Wiseman's films in particular, and that interesting special case of documentary, the ethnographic film. Students of film as well as semioticians and others interested in cultural theory and criticism will find this new direction in film interpretation stimulating and essential reading. Nichols has achieved a breakthrough in the age-old question of the relationship of aesthetics and ideology."
Very Good copy.
1997, English
Softcover, 358 pages, 23 x 15.5 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / fine
Published by
Routledge / London
$35.00 - In stock -
First 1997 Edition.
"What happens when white people look at non-whites? What happens when the gaze is returned? Looking for the Other responds to criticisms leveled at white feminist film theory of the 1970s and 1980s for its neglect of issues to do with race. It focuses attention on the male gaze across cultures, as illustrated by women filmmakers of color whose films deal with travel.
Looking relations are determined by history, tradition, myth; by national identity, power hierarchies, politics, economics, geographical and other environment. Travel implicitly involves looking at, and looking relations with, peoples different from oneself. Featured films include Birth of a Nation, The Cat People, Home of the Brave, Black Narcissus, Chocolat, and Warrior Marks. Featured filmmakers include D.W.Griffith, Jacques Tourneur, Michael Powell, Julie Dash, Pratibha Parmar, Trinh T. Min-ha, and Claire Denis."
Fine—As New copy.
2003, English
Softcover, 254 pages, 23.5 x 15.5 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Berg / Oxford
$25.00 - In stock -
'Trench art' is the evocative name given to a dazzling array of objects made from the waste of industrialized war. Each object, whether an engraved shell case, cigarette lighter or a pen made from shrapnel, tells a unique and moving story about its maker. For the first time, this book explores in-depth the history and cultural importance behind these ambiguous art forms. Not only do they symbolize human responses to the atrocities of war, but they also act as mediators between soldiers and civilians, individuals and industrial society, and, most importantly, between the living and the dead.
Trench art resonates most obviously with the terror of endless bombardment, night raids, gas attacks and the bestial nature of trench life. It grew in popularity between 1919 and 1939 when the bereaved embarked on battlefield pilgrimages and returned with objects intended to keep alive the memory of loved ones. The term 'trench art' is, however, misleading, as it does not simply refer to materials made in the trenches. It describes a diverse range of objects that have in some way emerged from the experience of war all over the world. Many distinctive objects, for example, were made during conflicts in Bosnia, Vietnam, Northern Ireland and Korea. Surprisingly, trench art predates World War I and it can be found in a number of earlier wars such as the Crimean War, the American Civil War, and the Boer War.
Saunders looks at the broader issues of what is meant by 'trench art', what it was before the trenches and how it fits in with other art movements, as well as the specific materials used in making it. He suggests that it can be seen as a bridge between the nineteenth century 'certainties' and the fragmented industrialized values and ideals of the modern world. This long overdue study offers an original and informative look at one of the most arresting forms of art. Spanning from 1800 to the present day, its analysis of art, human experience, and warfare will pave the way for new research and will be of great interest to cultural and military historians, anthropologists, art historians and collectors.
Nicholas J. Saunders, University College London
Very Good copy, light wear.
1986, German
Softcover, 164 pages, 28 x 23 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Residenz Verlag / Salzburg
$65.00 - Out of stock
First 1986 edition of this profusely illustrated monograph on Viennese Actionist, painter, graphic artist, experimental filmmaker and writer, Günter Brus (b. 1938), published in Austria by Residenz Verlag. Features texts in German with contributions by Gunter Brus, Arnulf Meifert, Dieter Ronte, Gerhard Roth, and Peter Weibel, the book is predominantly made up of full page reproductions in colour and b/w of Brus' works, beginning with his radical performances into his prolific work as a painter and graphic artist. Includes biographical information, checklist, and bibliographical information.
Günter Brus (born 1938 in Ardning, Austria) is an Austrian artist known for his controversial films, performances, and paintings. He was notably a member of the Viennese Actionist Group alongside Otto Muehl and Hermann Nitsch. In 1960, the artist’s interest in the paintings of Jackson Pollock led his transition into making performance-based paintings regarding his own body. Many of the Viennese Actionist’s radical acts were intended as reactions to what they considered the ongoing legacy of Nazi fascism in Austrian culture. His 1968 performance Kunst und Revolution, consisted of the artist consuming his own urine, masturbating in public, and vomiting, he was subsequently jailed for six months. Brus currently lives and works in Graz, Austria.
Very Good copy.
1977, English
Softcover, 182 pages, 27 x 24 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / good
Published by
Lustrum Press / New York
$80.00 - In stock -
First 1977 edition of Darkroom, edited by Eleanor Lewis, a rare and illuminating personal look into the darkroom techniques of 13 leading photographers, in their own words. Features Wynn Bullock, Jerry Burchard, Linda Connor, Larry Clark, Ralph Gibson, Betty Hann, Eikoh Hosoe, George Krause, Elaine Mayes, Duane Michals, W Eugene Smith, George Tice and Jerry Uelsmann. Along with their own reflections on their darkroom experiences, principles, philosophies, trials and tribulations, their processes are technically documented and logged with the techniques they use to reach a final product, alongside many fine reproductions of their photographs. A valuable and insightful reference book for any photographer working in the darkroom.
Good—VG copy with light general wear to extremities and cover, light knocking.
1997, Japanese / English
Hardcover (w. dust jacket), 84 pages, 24 x 20 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Treville / Tokyo
$100.00 - In stock -
First 1997 hardcover edition of Trevor Brown’s first major art book, published in Japan by Treville. This collection of Brown's uniquely perverse, disturbing and now iconic paintings revolves around girls/dolls and themes of "medical art", like his friend, Bazooka-artist and photographer, Romain Slocombe. Lots of cutesy, lolita-esque girls and girl-dolls in transgressive scenarios of fetishism, bondage, body modification, etc. Published only in Japan, where the English artist has resided since 1994.
This very popular book was also published to coincide with Brown's solo exhibition at Azzlo Gallery, who specialised in fetish wear, run by artist, costume designer and student of Kaneko Kuniyoshi, Yumi Azzlo. Invitation to the exhibition is included as an insert.
Trevor Brown (b. 1959) is an illusive and prolific artist who's work explores paraphilias, such as lolicon, ero guro, BDSM, and other fetish themes. Innocence and violence collide in Brown's confronting images. Early features on his art appeared in Adam Parfrey's Apocalypse Culture II, Shade Rupe's Funeral Party 2, and in Jim Goad's ANSWER Me! zine, garnering him wide notoriety across the provocative underground publishing scene of the 1980s—90s. He's contributed artwork to many album covers of Whitehouse, Coil, John Zorn, and many more, illustrated for Coup de Grace, an edition of Friedrich Nietzsche's Der Antichrist, the covers of Timeless magazine, and more recently illustrated the cover of the Gothic & Lolita Bible (a subculture in which Brown has many dedicated fans) in Japan, where the the artist has lived since 1994 and where his work has been published in many art book editions.
VG—NF copy.
2011, English / German
Softcover (w. 3D glasses), 196 pages, 31 x 23 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / as new
Published by
Revolver – Archiv für aktuelle Kunst / Frankfurt am Main
$190.00 - In stock -
First, only edition of this wonderful survey catalogue published on the occasion of Manfred Pernice’s exhibition sculpturama at Secession, Vienna, 26 November, 2010–13 February, 2011.
The exhibition title, sculpturama, alludes on the one hand to the panorama-like, near symmetrical layout that articulates the space with lines of sight and interrelation.
On the other hand, the title of Pernice’s exhibition refers directly to the theme: the possibilities (and history) of sculpture. Its fundamental properties – proportions, surface structures, material qualities, the relation of volumes to one another, but especially the relationship between sculpture and viewer and the related habits of reception – are dealt with and displayed as in a theme park.
With texts from Verena Dengler, Klaus Gölz, Axel Jablonski, Bettina Klein, András Pálffy, Stephan Schmidt-Wulffen, Hemma Schmutz and Annette Südbeck.
As New (sealed) copy, with 3D glasses.