World Food Books' programme is largely produced on Kulin Nation land. We acknowledge the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation as the first and continuing custodians of this land, and pay respect to their Elders past, present, and emerging.
World Food Books is an arts and special interests bookshop in Naarm / Melbourne. Founded in 2010, World Food Books is devoted to the presentation of a rotating, hand-selection of international art, design, literary and counterculture publications with an emphasis on the anti-traditional, the experimental, the avant-garde, the heretic, the marginal.
Presenting new titles alongside rare and out-of-print books, catalogues and journals spanning the fields of modern and contemporary art, design, photography, illustration, film, literature, poetry, cultural theory, philosophy, sexuality, popular and underground culture in its many radical forms, World Food Books wishes to encourage adventurous, thoughtful and open-minded reading, looking, writing, and exchange of publishing and ideas, both current and historical.
As well as our bookshop, located in Melbourne's historical Nicholas Building, all of our inventory is available internationally via our online mail-order service.
World Food Books semi-regularly co-ordinates "Occasions", a programme of exhibits and events at the bookshop and in partnership with other hosts (such as museums and art galleries) that develop out of the activities, relationships and content of the bookshop itself.
World Food Books
The Nicholas Building
37 Swanston Street
Room 5, Level 6
Melbourne 3000
Australia
SHOP HOURS:
OPEN 12—5 THU—FRI
WEB-SHOP OPEN 24/7.
World Food Books
Postal Address:
PO Box 435
Flinders Lane
Victoria 8009
Australia
Art
Theory / Essay
Architecture / Interior
Graphic Design / Typography
Photography
Fashion
Eros
LGBTQ+
Fiction / Poetry
Weird / Speculative / Science Fiction / Horror
Transgressive / Visceral / Abject
Symbolism / Decadence / Fin de siècle
Film / Video
Painting
Sculpture / Installation
Performance / Dance / Theater
Drawing
Sound / Music
Curatorial
Group Shows / Collections
Periodicals
Out-of-print / Rare
Posters / Ephemera / Discs
Signed Books
World Food Books Gift Voucher
World Food Book Bag
Australian Art
Australian Photography
Japanese Photography
Conceptual Art
Minimal Art
Dada
'Pataphysics / Oulipo
Fluxus
Concrete Poetry
Pop Art
Surrealism
Arte Povera
Arte Informale / Haute Pâte / Tachism
Nouveau Réalisme / Zero / Kinetic
Situationism / Lettrism
Collage / Mail Art / Xerox Art
Art Brut / Folk / Visionary / Fantastic
Illustration / Graphic Art / Bandes Dessinées
Furniture
Italian Radical Design / Postmodernism
Textiles
Ceramics / Glass
Counterculture
Protest / Revolt
Anarchism
Socialism / Communism / Capitalism
Literary Theory / Semiotics / Language
Feminism
Fetishism / BDSM
Drugs / Psychedelia
Crime / Violence
Animal Rights / Veganism
Occult / Esoterica
Ecology / Earth / Alternative Living
Whole Earth / Crafts
All prices in AUD (Australian dollars)
Pick-Ups
Please note: The bookshop is closed until February 1, 2024.
Pick-up orders can be collected in our bookshop during opening hours after this date. Please collect any Pick-up orders within 3 weeks of ordering as we have limited storage space. Orders will be released back into stock if not collected within this time. No refunds can be made for pick-ups left un-collected.
Return Policy
All sales are final. We do accept returns (for refund, exchange) for items received in error. All our orders are packed with special care using heavy-duty padding and cardboard book-mailers or bubble mailers (for smaller books), using reinforcement where required. We cannot take responsibility for any lost, stolen or damaged parcels.
Insurance
Should you wish to insure your package, please email us directly after placing your order and we can organise this at a small extra expense. Although all standard/express tracked packages are very safe and dependable, we cannot take responsibility for any lost, stolen or damaged parcels. We recommend insurance on valuable orders.
Interested in selling your old books, catalogues, journals, magazines, comics, fanzines, ephemera? We are always looking for interesting, unusual and out-of-print books to buy. We only buy books in our fields of interest and specialty, and that we feel we can resell.
We base these prices on desirability, market value, in-print prices, condition and our current stock levels. We offer cash, store credit, and can take stock on consignment. All
about 25% of the price we expect to get when we sell them, or 30% in store credit. We base these prices on desirability, market value, in-print prices, condition and our current stock levels.
Sell your books any day of the week. You can drop them off and return later. If you have a lot of books, we can visit your Sydney home.
We buy books that we feel we can resell. We offer about 25 % of the price we expect to get when we sell them, or 30% in store credit. We base these prices on desirability, market value, in-print prices, condition and our current stock levels.
Philadelphia Wireman
03 August - 01 September, 2018
World Food Books is proud to announce our next Occasion, the first presentation of sculptures by Philadelphia Wireman in Australia.
The Philadelphia Wireman sculptures were found abandoned in an alley off Philadelphia’s South Street on trash night in 1982. Their discovery in a rapidly-changing neighbourhood undergoing extensive renovation, compounded with the failure of all attempts to locate the artist, suggests that the works may have been discarded after the maker’s death. Dubbed the "Philadelphia Wireman" during the first exhibition of this work, in 1985, the maker’s name, age, ethnicity, and even gender remain uncertain. The entire collection totals approximately 1200 pieces, all intricately bound together with tightly-wound heavy-gauge wire (along with a few small, abstract marker drawings, reminiscent both of Mark Tobey and J.B. Murry). The dense construction of the work, despite a modest range of scale and materials, is singularly obsessive and disciplined in design: a wire armature or exoskeleton firmly binds a bricolage of found objects including plastic, glass, food packaging, umbrella parts, tape, rubber, batteries, pens, leather, reflectors, nuts and bolts, nails, foil, coins, toys, watches, eyeglasses, tools, and jewellery.
Heavy with associations—anthropomorphic, zoomorphic, and socio-cultural responses to wrapped detritus—the totemic sculptures by Philadelphia Wireman have been discussed in the context of work created to fulfil the shamanistic needs of alternative religions in American culture. Curators, collectors, and critics have variously compared certain pieces to sculpture from Classical antiquity, Native American medicine bundles, African-American memory jugs, and African fetish objects. Reflecting the artist’s prolific and incredibly focused scavenging impulse, and despite—or perhaps enhanced by—their anonymity, these enigmatic objects function as urban artefacts and arbiters of power, though their origin and purpose is unknown. Philadelphia Wireman, whatever their identity, possessed an astonishing ability to isolate and communicate the concepts of power and energy through the selection and transformation of ordinary materials. Over the course of the past two decades, this collection has come to be regarded as an important discovery in the field of self-taught art and vernacular art.
Presented in collaboration with Fleisher-Ollman Gallery, Philadelphia, and Robert Heald, Wellington.
Susan Te Kahurangi King
02 February - 10 March, 2018
Susan Te Kahurangi King (24 February 1951 - ) has been a confident and prolific artist since she was a young child, drawing with readily available materials - pencils, ballpoint pens and felt-tip markers, on whatever paper is at hand. Between the ages of four and six Susan slowly ceased verbal communication. Her grandparents William and Myrtle Murphy had developed a special bond with Susan so they took on caring responsibilities for extended periods. Myrtle began informally archiving her work, carefully collecting and storing the drawings and compiling scrapbooks. No drawing was insignificant; every scrap of paper was kept. The King family are now the custodians of a vast collection containing over 7000 individual works, from tiny scraps of paper through to 5 meter long rolls.
The scrapbooks and diaries reveal Myrtle to be a woman of great patience and compassion, seeking to understand a child who was not always behaving as expected. She encouraged Susan to be observant, to explore her environment and absorb all the sights and sounds. Myrtle would show Susan’s drawings to friends and people in her community that she had dealings with, such as shopkeepers and postal workers, but this was not simply a case of a grandmother’s bias. She recognised that Susan had developed a sophisticated and unique visual language and sincerely believed that her art deserved serious attention.
This was an unorthodox attitude for the time. To provide some context, Jean Dubuffet coined the term Art Brut in 1945 to describe work created by self-taught artists – specifically residents of psychiatric institutions and those he considered to be visionaries or eccentrics. In 1972 Roger Cardinal extended this concept by adopting the term Outsider Art to describe work made by non-academically trained artists operating outside of mainstream art networks through choice or circumstance. Susan was born in Te Aroha, New Zealand in 1951, far from the artistic hubs of Paris and London that Dubuffet and Cardinal operated in. That Myrtle fêted Susan as a self-taught artist who deserved to be taken seriously shows how progressive her attitudes were.
Susan’s parents Doug and Dawn were also progressive. Over the years they had consulted numerous health practitioners about Susan’s condition, as the medical establishment could not provide an explanation as to why she had lapsed into silence. Dawn educated herself in the field of homeopathy and went on to treat all twelve of her children using these principles – basing prescriptions on her observations of their physical, mental and emotional state.
Doug was a linguist with an interest in philosophy who devoted what little spare time he had to studying Maori language and culture. To some extent their willingness to explore the fringes of the mainstream made them outsiders too but it was their commitment to living with integrity and their respect for individuality that ensured Susan’s creativity was always encouraged.
Even though Susan’s family supported her artistic pursuits, some staff in schools and hospitals saw it as an impediment to her assimilation into the community and discouraged it in a variety of ways. Her family was not always aware of this and therefore did not fully understand why Susan stopped drawing in the early 1990s. However, rather than dwell on the challenges that Susan faced in pursuit of her artistic practice, they prefer to highlight her achievements. In 2008 Susan began drawing again in earnest, after an almost 20 year interruption, and her work is now shown in galleries around the world.
Susan grew up without television and has been heavily influenced by the comics she read as a child. She is absolutely fearless in the appropriation of recognizable characters, such as Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse, in her work. She twists their limbs, contorts their faces, compresses them together, blends them into complex patterned backgrounds - always imbuing them with an incredible energy. Although Susan often used pop culture characters in her work they are not naive or childlike. These are drawings by a brilliant self-taught artist who has been creating exceptional work for decades without an audience in mind.
Mladen Stilinović
"Various Works 1986 - 1999"
02 February 16 - September 10, 2016
Various works 1986 - 1999, from two houses, from the collections of John Nixon, Sue Cramer, Kerrie Poliness, Peter Haffenden and Phoebe Haffenden.
Including: Geometry of Cakes (various shelves), 1993; Poor People’s Law (black and white plate), 1993; White Absence (glasses, ruler, set square, silver spoon, silver ladel with skin photograph and wooden cubes), 1990-1996; Exploitation of the Dead (grey and red star painting, wooden painting, black spoon with red table, red plate), 1984-1990; Money and Zeros (zero tie, paintings made for friends in Australia (Sue, John, Kerrie), numbers painting), 1991-1992; Words - Slogans (various t-shirts) - “they talk about the death of art...help! someone is trying to kill me”, “my sweet little lamb”, “work is a disease - Karl Marx”; Various artist books, catalogues, monographs, videos; Poster from exhibition Insulting Anarchy; "Circular" Croatian - Australian edition; Artist book by Vlado Martek (Dostoyevsky); more.
Thanks to Mladen Stilinović and Branka Stipančić.
Jonathan Walker
Always Will Need To Wear Winter Shirt Blue + Ochre Small Check Pattern
21 August - 21 September, 2015
Untitled
I am not a great reader of poetry but I always return to the work of Melbourne poet, Vincent Buckley (1925- 1988). Perhaps I find his most tantalising piece to be not a finished poem but a fragment left on a scrap of paper discovered on his desk after the poet’s death.
The poetry gathers like oil
In the word-core, and spreads
It has its music meet,
Its music is in movement.
This fragment is more the shell left behind from a volatile thought than a finished poem. I find the last two lines honest but awkward whereas the first two lines work like an arrow. Most likely he could not find a resolution so it was left. Still, in its present form, it remains an eloquent testimony to the ultimate failure of a medium to express mobile thought and sensation, in Buckley’s case, through verbal language. It’s an important matter because this is something all artists have to deal with regardless of the medium.
I have never written a poem, however, I am forever copying fragments from books on paper scraps in a vain effort to fix certain notions in my head. At first, they function as bookmarks that are sometimes returned to when I open the book. But before long, as they accumulate, they fall out littering the table interspersed with A4 photocopies, bills, books and medications.
To return to Buckley’s fragment, the first two lines very much evoke how I paint nowadays. As you age, detail diminishes and patches of light become more luminous and float. I feel the most honest way of dealing with this is by smearing the oil paint on the canvas with the fingers and working close-up, blind. Only if the patches coalesce into an approaching image can the work gain a life.
-
Jonathan Walker was born in Melbourne, Australia and brought up on a dairy farm in Gippsland. In the 1970’s he studied painting at RMIT and won the Harold Wright Scholarship to the British Museum, London. During the 1980’s he exhibited at Pinacotheca Gallery, Richmond and had work shown at the NGV and Heidi City Art Gallery. Over the same period he designed the cover for the “Epigenesi” LP by Giancarlo Toniutti, Italy and conducted a mail exchange work with Achim Wollscheid, Germany. The work with artists through the post resulted in an article published in the bicentenary issue of Art and Australia 1988. He showed in artist run spaces such as WestSpace in the 90’s and 2000’s, and until 2012, taught painting at Victoria University, which is where we (Colleen Ahern and Lisa Radford) as organisers of the exhibition, among many others, had the privilege of being his student.
Walker’s knowledge was imparted to students through the careful selection of music, literature, and artists found in books that he himself had ordered for the library. Walker’s strategy was the generosity of sharing his vast knowledge with references specific to each student and their context.
Walker’s paintings share a similar focus and intimacy.
This exhibition presents a small selection of recent paintings alongside a publication that includes Walker’s writing. Observational and analytical, Walker’s work is a type of material notation — the time of day, colour and how it is blended, the both specific and fleeting location of a reflection on lino or the question of whether a chair leg should be included in a painting.
Please join us on Friday August 21 between 6-8pm to celebrate the opening of the exhibition.
Curated by Colleen Ahern and Lisa Radford.
B. Wurtz
Curated by Nic Tammens
March 26 - April 4, 2015
B.Wurtz works from a basement studio in his home on Manhattan’s Lower East Side.
This local fact is attested to by the plastic shopping bags and newsprint circulars that appear in his work. As formal objects, they don’t make loud claims about their origins but nonetheless transmit street addresses and places of business from the bottom of this long thin island. Like plenty of artists, Wurtz is affected by what is local and what is consumed. His work is underpinned by this ethic. It often speaks from a neighborhood or reads like the contents of a hamper:
“BLACK PLUMS $1.29 lb.”
“Food Bazaar”
“USDA Whole Pork Shoulder Picnic 99c lb.”
“RITE AID Pharmacy, with us it’s personal.”
“H. Brickman & Sons.”
“Sweet Yams 59c lb."
Most of the work in this exhibition was made while the artist was in residence at Dieu Donne, a workshop dedicated to paper craft in Midtown. Here Wurtz fabricated assemblages with paper and objects that are relatively lightweight, with the intention that they would be easily transportable to Australia. This consideration isn’t absolute in Wurtz’s work, but was prescriptive for making the current exhibition light and cheap. Packed in two boxes, these works were sent from a USPS post office on the Lower East Side and delivered to North Melbourne by Australia Post.
Wurtz appears courtesy of Metro Pictures, New York.
Thanks to Rob Halverson, Joshua Petherick, Sari de Mallory, Matt Hinkley, Helen Johnson, Fayen d'Evie, Ask Kilmartin, Lisa Radon, Ellena Savage, Yale Union, and "Elizabeth".
John Nixon
"Archive"
December 15 - January 20, 2014
The presentation of John Nixon's archive offered a rare showcase of this extensive collection of the artist's own publications, catalogues, posters, ephemera, editions and more, from the mid 1980s onwards, alongside a selection of his artworks.
Organized by John Nixon, Joshua Petherick and Matt Hinkley.
"Habitat"
at Minerva, Sydney (organised by Joshua Petherick and Matt Hinkley)
November 15 - December 20, 2014
Lupo Borgonovo, Janet Burchill & Jennifer McCamley,
Lewis Fidock, HR Giger, Piero Gilardi, Veit Laurent Kurz,
Cinzia Ruggeri, Michael E. Smith, Lucie Stahl, Daniel Weil, Wols
Press Release:
“...It contained seven objects. The slender fluted bone, surely formed for flight, surely from the wing of some large bird. Three archaic circuitboards, faced with mazes of gold. A smooth white sphere of baked clay. An age-blackened fragment of lace. A fingerlength segment of what she assumed was bone from a human wrist, grayish white, inset smoothly with the silicon shaft of a small instrument that must once have ridden flush with the surface of the skin - but the thing’s face was seared and blackened.”
William Gibson, “Count Zero”, 1986
"Autumn Projects Archive"
Curated by Liza Vasiliou
March 6 - March 15, 2014
World Food Books, in conjunction with the Virgin Australia Melbourne Fashion Festival 2014, presented the Autumn Projects archive, consisting of a selection of early examples in Australian fashion with a particular interest in collecting designers and labels from the period beginning in the 1980’s, who significantly influenced the discourse of Australian Fashion.
Curated by Liza Vasiliou, the exhibition provided a unique opportunity to view pieces by designers Anthea Crawford, Barbara Vandenberg, Geoff Liddell and labels CR Australia, Covers, Jag along with early experimental collage pieces by Prue Acton and Sally Browne’s ‘Fragments’ collection, suspended throughout the functioning World Food Books shop in Melbourne.
H.B. Peace
presented by CENTRE FOR STYLE
November 14, 2013
"Hey Blinky, you say chic, I say same"
Anon 2013
H.B. Peace is a clothing collaboration between great friends Blake Barns and Hugh Egan Westland. Their pieces explore the divergences between 'character’ and ‘personality’ in garments....etc
Special Thanks to Joshua Petherick and Matt Hinkley of WFB and Gillian Mears
and a Very Special Thank you to Audrey Thomas Hayes for her shoe collaboration.
Janet Burchill & Jennifer McCamley
"Aesthetic Suicide"
May 10 - June 8, 2013
The first of our occasional exhibitions in the World Food Books office/shop space in Melbourne, "Aesthetic Suicide" presented a body of new and older works together by artists Janet Burchill & Jennifer McCamley, including videos, prints, a wall work, and publications.
During shop open hours videos played every hour, on the hour.
1985, English
Softcover, 144 pages, 18.5 x 24 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Art & Text / Prahran
$70.00 - Out of stock
ART & TEXT 18
PHANTASM AND SIMULACRA: The Drawings of Pierre Klossowski
July 1985
Edited by Paul Foss, Paul Taylor, Allen S. Weiss
Very special 1985 issue of Melbourne's ART & TEXT, dedicated to the work of Pierre Klossowski.
Pierre Klossowski (1905-2001) was a significant and influential philosopher, writer, translator and artist who befriended Georges Bataille and formulated an original stance on many theological issues, as well as the philosophy of the Marquis de Sade. His first novel, Roberte, ce soir, appeared in 1954 as a limited edition containing six of his own erotic illustrations, after he rejected drawings by his younger brother, the painter Balthus. Following the encouragement of Robert Lebel, Andre Masson and Alberto Giacometti, Klossowski held his first exhibition in Paris in 1956, and subsequently produced numerous life-size drawings of erotic scenes imbued with mythological, allegorical and philosophical connotations. By the 1970s, he had won the acclaim of such eminent thinkers as Maurice Blanchot, Michel Butor, Gilles Deleuze, Michel Foucault and Felix Guattari. Of Klossowski, Gilles Deleuze once said, “That bodies speak has been known for a long time.”
CONTENTS:
Preface
Pierre Klossowski "On the Collaboration of Demons in the Work of Art"
Pierre Klossowski "SELF-PORTRAITS"
Pierre Klossowski "The Decline of the Nude"
Pierre Klossowski "The Phantasms of Perversion: Sade and Fourier"
J.-M. Monnoyer and Pierre Klossowski "In the Charm of Her Hand"
Rémy Zaugg and Pierre Klossowski "Simulacra"
MONTAGE
Pierre Zucca "From Roberte interdite"
PORTRAITS OF OTHERS
André Masson "Introduction"
Walo Von Fellenberg "Parallel Bars, Parallel Worlds"
Chantal Thomas "The Indiscreet Gaze"
Alphonso Lingis "The Incommunicable"
Allen S. Weiss "A Logic of the Simulacrum, or The Anti-Roberte"
Postface
Paul Foss "On the ”Difficulty” of Picturing the Emotions of Pierre Klossowski"
References
Art & Text, one of the landmark contemporary art magazines of the 1980s and 1990s. Founded in Melbourne, Australia, in 1981 by Paul Taylor (1957–92), who soon moved to New York City to make his mark as an art critic, the magazine went on to become one of a handful of international art magazines that succeeded in capturing the turmoil and passing brilliance of that period of postmodernism.
2002, English
Hardcover, 132 pages, 24 x 34 cm
Published by
Skira / Milan
$65.00 - Out of stock
Ettore Sottsass' intimate diary of writings, drawings and evocative photographs, taken by the designer himself between 1968 - 1976, with accompanying texts by editor Barbara Radice.
During the years of a protest and important time of analysis and critical reflection (initiated in the late 1960's through much of the 1970's) that involved The Italian Radical Movement, which developed parallel to Arte Povera and Conceptual Art, Sottsass had almost stopped designing. He named it as "a period of emptiness and introvert meditation. Of purification and release from everything that constituted the laws, customs and vocabulary of rationalist culture.’’ Debates were calling to reconsider the mechanisms of design, the role and responsibility of architects towards society and culture. Ettore wrote: "I felt a deep necessity to visit deserted places, mountains; to re-establish a physical relationship with the cosmos, which is the only real environment, precisely because it can’t be measured, foreseen, controlled or known… it seemed to me that if anything was to be regained we would have to begin by regaining microscopic gestures and elementary actions, the sense of one’s own position…’’
This book, designed and conceived by the designer himself, captures this important period. Between years 1968 and 1976 Ettore was in a constant movement traveling between his office in Milan and long escapes to Barcelona, Madrid, Granada and above all to the deserts close to Ebro river and the wild valleys of the Pyrenees. It was there that he started, together with his partner in this nomadic life, artist Eulalia Grau, the "Metaphors" series of photographs. Broken into the groupings "Designs for the destinies of man’’, "Designs for the rights of man’’, "Designs for the necessities of animals’’ and "Fiancées", these photographs and graphic constructions have been arranged by their author, revealing the complex cultural and visual roots of Sottsass’s work as well as offering us a glimpse of the great designer’s mental and creative processes, and his analyses of architecture, environment and anthropology.
2018, English
Hardcover, 72 pages, 30 x 22.5 cm
Ed. of 300,
Published by
Coracle / Ireland
$90.00 - Out of stock
Published in an edition of only 300 copies, this hardcover book contains all the drawings by Percy Grainger for the Free Music Machines he developed with Burnett Cross towards the end of his musical life. They were mostly drawn between 1951 and 1953.
This is the first time many of these drawings have been seen, and their improvisational notation and sense of invention make them of recurrent interest to both composers, writers and artists working in wider fields.
At the same time the book attempts to be the album in which to present them, and in which they can be viewed at a suitably large and readable scale.
The book and drawings are introduced by an authoritative contextual essay by musicologist Wilfred Mellers written for this publication.
2018, English
Hardcover, 400 pages, 24 x 28.8 cm
Published by
Mumok / Vienna
$68.00 - In stock -
English edition of this heavy hardcover monographic catalogue published on the occasion of a retrospective exhibition of Austrian artist Bruno Gironcoli at mumok, Vienna in 2018. Heavily illustrated throughout, with accompanying texts by Manuela Ammer, Edith Futscher, Peter Gorsen, Charlotte Matter, Karin Steiner.
Bruno Gironcoli is one of the most idiosyncratic artists of the twentieth century. He gained public recognition with his late large-scale sculptures, in which archetypes and trivial elements meld to form futuristic conglomerates. It is less well known that alongside his work in sculpture Gironcoli also produced an extensive body of graphic works. This retrospective exhibition at mumok will for the first time focus on Gironcoli the painter and draughtsman. His works on paper will enter into dialogue with outstanding examples of the artist’s wire sculptures, polyester objects, installations, and monumental sculptures, also opening up new perspectives on the sculptural work.
Right from the beginning, Gironcoli’s works on paper were more than just designs for his sculptures. On paper, the Austrian artist took his ideas into dimensions that by far transcend any concrete work on physical materials. On paper, he animated his own sculptural work: Divorced from the laws of physics, his schematic figures, animals, symbols, and apparatuses enter into hypothetical connections and merge to form fantastic and surreal scenes. Gironcoli’s works on paper are literally “surfaces of considerations” that seek to rescue potential forms of life from alienated signs.
2018, English
Softcover, 208 pages, 20 x 23.5 cm
Published by
Museum Abteiberg / Mönchengladbach
Kunstverein Hannover / Hannover
M HKA / Antwerp
Walther König / Köln
$47.00 $30.00 - Out of stock
Monographic catalogue published by Koenig Books on the occasion of a series of exhibitions by Anne-Mie Van Kerckhoven at Museum Abteiberg Mönchengladbach, Kunstverein Hannover, and M HKA, Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp. Heavily illustrated throughout with a broad cross-section of Anne-Mie's history of work in drawing, collage, sound, painting, video, performance, installation, and more. Texts by Menno Grootveld, Anders Kreuger, Ana Teixeira Pinto, Kathleen Rahn, Susanne Titz, Travis Jeppesen. Design by Sara de Bondt.
Anne-Mie van Kerckhoven (also known as AMVK) was born in Antwerp and lives in Antwerp and Berlin. She studied graphic design at the Fine Arts Academy in Antwerp and has been prolific in her output of drawings and other works on paper and synthetic material, as well as short videos, since the early eighties. Anne-Mie van Kerckhoven has been fascinated for a long time with the representation in the mass media of images of women, of interiors, of the kinetic powers of any kind of language. She investigates supra-moral connections in contemporary society s.a. between sex and technology. Her work connects different knowledge systems, explores the areas of the unconscious, and looks at moral aberrations or the obscene from a female point of view. In the nineties, hand-made paper works gave way to computer graphics, while text has always featured alongside images, underlining the message of Van Kerckhoven’s proud, sometimes exhibitionist female figures like song-lyrics. Music plays an important role in Van Kerchkoven’s creative production in parallel to her visual output, and she and Danny Devos have stood as a key pair of the Antwerp experimental music scene under the band name Club Moral (1981–now).
"In opposition to the arbitrary, which is the origin of every written and spoken language, I have placed the unspoken, the mystic. From despair to ecstasy, that is what the mystic is about now. This is the all-devouring lust for life and love. Unification, not feeling separated from the rest. No ego, no boundaries. Creation becomes one with its creator. I call it the analogue. The analogue versus the arbitrary. The analogue is ritual, evil, mystery, desire, yearning, lust, while the digital is control, technology, sublimation, dependence, cleanliness, transparency. The analogue plus the digital is what humans are about: perspective." - Anne-Mie Van Kerckhoven, Some Sort of Manifesto, 2016–17
2017, English
Softcover (spiral-bound), 196 pages, 7.6 x 12.7 cm
Published by
Karma / New York
$48.00 - In stock -
A prolific writer and documenter of both her art and her relationships, the public and private, Lee Lozano (1930-99) kept a series of personal journals from 1968 to 1972 while living in New York's SoHo neighbourhood. Eleven of these private books survive. Private Book 2 is the second in a series of 11 pocket-sized books, which are printed as facsimiles with spiral binding.The notebooks contain notes on her work, detailed interactions with artist friends and commentary on the alienations of gender politics, as well as philosophical queries into art's role in society and humourous asides from daily life. In the decade before her infamous "dropout piece" -- culminating in a move to Dallas where she would remain until her death -- Lozano returned to these notebooks, editing the entries, sometimes blacking out entire pages. Private Book 2 is the second in a series of 11 pocket-sized books, which are printed as facsimiles with spiral binding.
2018, English
Softcover, 240 pages, 22.5 x 28.5 cm
Published by
Walther König / Köln
$45.00 - Out of stock
Curated by Karola Kraus, the exhibition Optik Schröder II presents a representative selection from the collection of Alexander Schröder to date. This includes important works by Kai Althoff, Tom Burr, Bernadette Corporation, Claire Fontaine, Gelitin, Isa Genzken, Anne Imhof, Sergej Jensen, Pierre Klossowski, Manfred Pernice, Martha Rosler, and Reena Spaulings, and is one of the most important German private collections of contemporary art.
These works illustrate some of the key conceptual trends and positions in the development of Western art in the past three decades, including references to social issues, queer lifestyles, the critique of institutions and the economy, critical investigation of public spaces and architecture, poetry, and contemporary forms of critical painting. The prominently represented artists’ collectives exemplify endeavors to challenge and transform the traditional roles and systems of the artist, of art production, and of the sale of art.
This comprehensive overview shows a collection built up consistently since the mid-1990s and based on close proximity to the artists and sensitivity for new developments. The collection illustrates an exemplary philosophy of collecting focusing on the nature of the contemporary, on curiosity, expertise, humor, independence, and outstanding aesthetic judgement.
Participating Artists:
Kai Althoff, Lutz Bacher, Cosima von Bonin, KP Brehmer, Tom Burr, Merlin Carpenter, Marc Camille Chaimowicz, Anne Collier, Bernadette Corporation, Lukas Duwenhögger, Jana Euler, Cerith Wyn Evans, Claire Fontaine, Gelitin, Isa Genzken, Ull Hohn, Karl Holmqvist, Alex Hubbard, Peter Hujar, Anne Imhof, Sergej Jensen, Martin Kippenberger, Pierre Klossowski, John Knight, Michael Krebber, Mark Leckey, Klara Lidén, Lucy McKenzie, Christian Philipp Müller, Henrik Olesen, Paulina Olowska, Dietrich Orth, Manfred Pernice, Josephine Pryde, Martha Rosler, Cameron Rowland, Andreas Slominski, Reena Spaulings, Katja Strunz, Philippe Thomas, Danh Vo, Peter Wächtler
Designed by Studio Manuel Raeder.
2006, English / German
Softcover, 240 pages, 220 x 270 mm
Published by
Walther König / Köln
$75.00 - Out of stock
Catalogue from Optik Schröder, Werke aus der Sammlung Schröder, 2006 exhibition at Kunstverein Braunschweig.
Now out-of-print, this comprehensive book surveys the private art collection of gallerist Alexander Schröder, built up since the mid-1990s and featuring important artworks by Andreas Hofer, Andreas Slominski, Cerith Wyn Evans, Christian Flamm, Christian Philipp Müller, Clegg & Guttmann,Cosima von Bonin, Diedrich Orth, Guillaume Bijl, Henrik Olesen, Isa Genzken, Jan Timme, Jochen Klein, Josephine Pryde, Kai Althoff, Katharina Wulff, Katja Strunz, Keith Farquhar, Lucy McKenzie, Lukas Duwenhögger, Manfred Pernice, Mark Handforth, Martha Rosler, Michael Krebber, Paulina Olowska, Reena Spauling, Sergej jensen, Sharon Lockhart, Stephan Dillemuth, Thilo Heinzmann, Tom Burr, Torsten Slama, Ull Hohn, Marc Camille Chaimowicz, Enrico David, Mark Leckey ...
Profusely illustrated throughout with texts by Dominic Eichler, Isabelle Graw, and Karola Grasslin.
Designed by Manuel Raeder.
1994, English / Japanese
Softcover, 158 pages, 23 x 29 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Marugame Genichiro-Inokuma Museum of Contemporary Art / Tokyo
$100.00 - Out of stock
First edition Japanese book on Hockney's Californian work, published in 1994 on the occasion of a major travelling exhibition in Japan. Profusely illustrated in colour throughout with Hockey's iconic paintings and drawings - his Showers, Pools, Interiors, Drives, and Portraits from California. Includes texts in English and Japanese, biography and bibliography.
Good copy with light tanning to cover and page edges.
1987, Japanese
Softcover (french-flaps), 32 pages, 28 x 22 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / fine
Published by
M. Gallery / Tokyo
$160.00 - Out of stock
Perfect copy of this very rare Japanese publication on Marcel Duchamp. Published to accompany an exhibition of Duchamp's work in Tokyo entitled "Etchings", 6 April-2 May, 1987, "Two Series of Etchings : The Lovers, Large Glass and Related Works" beautifully reproduces 35 etchings dating 1965 (Large Glass and Related Works) - 1967/68 (Lovers), complete with full details, captions and reference images.
Introductory text by Yoshiaki Tono and 1965 portrait of Duchamp by Ugo Mulas. Exhibition brochure inserted along with other ephemera.
Duchamp insisted that art should be at the service of the mind, as opposed to a particular skill or material, and he brought to his art an interest in traditionally non-art subject matter, such as linguistics, mathematics and game theory.
1947, English
Softcover (staple-bound), 24.5 x 18.5 cm, 64 pages
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / good
Published by
Victorian Artists Society / Melbourne
$25.00 - Out of stock
The Australian Artist was founded in 1947 by Richard Haughton James, aka Jimmy James, a legendary figure in the history of Australian design and art, and published quarterly by The Victorian Artists Society in East Melbourne. It was available for three shillings and sixpence.
This issue (Volume One, Part Two: Personality in Art) is filled with articles such as "The Anatomy of Vulgarity" by Clive Turnbull; "Art and Sanity" by Alice Barber; "Sculpture Shown at The Victorian Artists Society"; "The Art of Children" by Frances Derham; and a feature on Pablo Picasso by Paul Haefleiger, alongside many other commentaries, illustrations (Pablo Picasso, Jacques Lipchitz, Rembrandt, Rodin, Georges Rouault, Cassandre, Aubrey Beardsley, Honoré Daumier, etc.) advice, "Food for Thought" and advertisements from late 1940s Melbourne.
General age wear, foxing and tanning to book edges and corners, otherwise bright and clean throughout.
1947, English
Softcover (staple-bound), 24.5 x 18.5 cm, 60 pages
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / good
Published by
Victorian Artists Society / Melbourne
$25.00 - Out of stock
The Australian Artist was founded in 1947 by Richard Haughton James, aka Jimmy James, a legendary figure in the history of Australian design and art, and published quarterly by The Victorian Artists Society in East Melbourne. It was available for three shillings and sixpence.
This issue (Volume One, Part Three: What is Art Worth?) is filled with articles such as editorial texts "What Is Art Worth?", "What Is Art Training Worth?", "Why be a Sculptor", "The Fact About The Commercial Artist", "The Teaching of Arts in Victorian Schools", a feature on Henry Moore by Douglas Glass; Tom Roberts in retrospect; "Wood Engravings" by Imrie Reiner, alongside many other commentaries, illustrations (Albrecht Durer, Douglas Annand, Pierre Bonnard, George Grosz, Erwin Fabian, Georges Roualt, Henry Moore, Tom Roberts, Russell Drysdale, etc.), advice, "Food for Thought" and advertisements from late 1940s Melbourne.
General age wear, foxing and tanning to book edges and corners, otherwise bright and clean
1984, English / Italian
Softcover (w. printed plastic dust jacket), 109 pages, 24 x 31 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / good
$80.00 - Out of stock
First edition of this incredibly unique and scarce catalogue published in 1984 on the occasion of an exhibition of leading fashion designers at the Palazzo Grassi, Venice.
Wrapped in a printed acetate dust jacket, this intriguing volume includes the work by Armani, Westwood, Miyake, Capucci, Missoni, Krizia, Ungaro, Versace, Rhodes, Gaultier, Fendi, Courreges, Lanvin, Givenchy, Rykiel, Valentino, Chloe, and many others. Staged throughout the streets and canals of Venice, this special event invited masters in the field of fashion to create one-off creations outside the necessarily commercial limitations of production and the confines of the fashion house and it's seasons. The results are documented across lush photographic colour spreads, shot on location by Italian photographer Franco Fontana, known for his abstract colour landscapes and his work for the ECM jazz label, illuminating the animated forms and material textures of each designer's garments amongst the architectural landscape of Venice. A series of wooden sculptural figures ("Doges") by Melbourne artist Rod Dudley were featured in the exhibit and adorn the cover and contents pages. Portraits and biographies on each designer in English and Italian accompany their contributions.
Good copy in original acetate dust jacket, binding and plastic spine have become brittle with age, now protected in mylar wrap.
2016, English
Hardcover (w. dustjacket), 112 pages, 23 x 28 cm
Published by
ICA / Miami
$68.00 - Out of stock
The only book in print on the self-taught New Zealand artist who stopped speaking at age 4; drew prolifically for decades; stopped drawing for several more; and then started again in 2008. Recently discovered, these are masterpieces of 20th-century drawing.
Like many so-called outsider artists, Susan Te Kahurangi King (born 1951) has an origin story--from an early age, she communicated solely through her art. The Drawings of Susan Te Kahurangi King reveals the various periods of the New Zealand artist’s work from that foundational moment: from her childhood drawings, to her notebooks, to her mature work of the 1970s and ’80s up until the point, sometime in the 1980s, when King stopped drawing. Also included is work made since 2008, when King returned to art, showing the artist’s recent moves beyond representation.
King’s surreal, cartoonish work triumphs in dialogue with contemporary painting and drawing, echoing the comic-inspired work of such painters as Nicole Eisenman, Laura Owens and Joyce Pensato--work that similarly draws from the poles of an unfettered vision, on the one hand, and common pop culture iconography on the other. Yet in King’s work we see the unfiltered manifestation of a self-taught artist, whose work is always art and communication simultaneously. In addition to offering a biographical overview of King’s life, this catalogue tracks the evolution of her oeuvre and provides contextualization of her art.
Edited with text by Tina Kukielski. Foreword by Alex Gartenfeld. Text by Gary Panter, Amy Sillman, Chris Byrne, Petita Cole, Rachel King.
1979, English / Catalan / Spanish / French
Hardcover (w. dust jacket), 143 pages, 21 x 21 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Ediciones Polígrafa / Barcelona
$48.00 - Out of stock
First edition of this great hard cover monograph on self-taught Cuban surrealist painter, Jorge Camacho. Heavy illustrated throughout with his stunning drawings and paintings, including a series of illustrations inspired by Satie's Gnossiennes. Includes writings by Camacho and Carlos Franquai in English, Catalan, Spanish, French; a chronology, list of works and bibliography. Hard linen covers in original illustrated dust jacket.
Born in 1934 in Havana (Cuba), in 1952, Jorge Camacho abandons his law studies and begins painting, driven by an inner strength that still remains for him mysterious. Camacho's first major influence was the Wilfredo Lam exhibit at the University of Havana in 1955. In Mexico, in 1959, he meets the painter Jose Luis Cuevas, with whom he begins a long journey to the sources of pre-Columbian cultures (Teotihuacan, Olmec, Maya, Aztec) that defines a new direction in his painting. He had two exhibitions in Havana, in 1955 and 1958, before moving to Paris in 1959. Once in Paris, Camacho immediately adopted Surrealism and in 1960 had a show at Galerie Raymond Cordier. Camacho met surrealist poet André Breton during an exhibit of works by Toyen in 1961- his meeting with Breton truly tied him to the Surrealist movement. This exhibit also served as the setting for a 1962 event with the surrealist group, where he created an antireligious tribute to Oscar Panizza that featured aggressive paintings, including L'Immaculée conception des Papes. André Breton wrote a preface to Camacho's 1964 exhibition at the Galerie Mathias Fels, describing his work as a painting of cruelty. Camacho's works, with their claw-like forms laden with ossuaries, borrowed their harsh themes from novels by Sade and Bataille. The rich influence of Central and South America truly sets Camacho's painting apart from the European Surrealists, his paintings haunted by the ibijau, a bird he observed on a trip to Venezuela (Camacho was fascinated with ornithology), the landscapes of Peru, and the magical and hermetic societies throughout ancient Latin America.
Camacho lived in Paris from 1975 until his death in 2011.
2017, English
Softcover, 320 pages, 24 × 19 cm
Published by
Mousse / Milan
Editions Lebeer Hossmann / Brussels
M HKA / Antwerp
$75.00 - Out of stock
Foreword by Anders Kreuger, essay by Irmeline Lebeer, translated transcript of conversation between Robert Filliou and Irmeline Lebeer
“The absolute secret of permanent creation: not deciding, not choosing, not wanting, not owning, aware of self, wide awake. SITTING QUIETLY DOING NOTHING.” — Robert Filliou.
Published to document the recent Filliou retrospective at M HKA, the Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp, this book centres on the transcript of an extensive conversation between the French artist and the Brussels-based art critic Irmeline Lebeer, recorded on seven cassette tapes in August 1976 in Flayosc in Southern France. This conversation is structured as an abécédaire and touches on a variety of topics to do with Filliou’s art and thinking, from amitié (friendship) to zen. It was supposed to become an extensive monograph but was never published until now.
Robert Filliou: The Secret of Permanent Creation gives today’s reader direct insight into the mind and the practice of this extraordinary artist, whose influence on subsequent generations cannot be overestimated. Now, in the second decade of the twenty-first century, is the time to realise that Robert Filliou was one of the greatest artists of the twentieth century, apart from being a significant playwright and poet. This book helps contemporary readers grasp his significance. It contains many black-and-white illustrations and colour plates of nearly all the 192 works in the exhibition at M HKA.
Designed by Sara De Bondt
Copublished with M HKA, Antwerp, and Editions Lebeer Hossmann, Brussels
2011, English
Softcover, 132 pages, 270 x 290 mm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
The Modern Institute / Glasgow
$120.00 - In stock -
Wonderful, long out of print monograph on Tompkins’ work, lavishly illustrated throughout, designed by Marit Münzberg, and published by Inverleith House, Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh on the occasion of a major solo exhibition in 2011. Accompanying essays by Daniel Baumann, Pati Hertling and a conversation with artist Karla Black.
Hayley Tompkins (born 1971, Leighton Buzzard) lives and works in Glasgow. Recent solo exhibitions include A Piece of Eight, The Modern Institute, Glasgow (2011); Autobuilding, Inverleith House, Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (2009); and Transfer (with Sue Tompkins) Spike Island, Bristol (2007). Her work is included in Watercolour, currently at Tate Britain, London.
Fine-Very Good copy.
1985, English
Box edition (all components : 32 page catalogue, sketchbook, one yard of fabric, 6 x A4, PCB (tin copper), chessboard in printed cloth-board box), 32 x 32 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Architectural Association Publications (AA) / London
$300.00 $100.00 - Out of stock
The stunning 1985 "Light Box", a collector's book/box/object edition by the great Daniel Weil (architect and industrial designer with Memphis Milano and Pentagram). Published by Architectural Association Publications (AA) on the occasion an exhibition, "Heavy Box", at the Architectural Association in London, May 29-June 25, 1985. This elaborate edition comes housed in a printed purple cloth-covered box, itself inlayed with checkerboard backing and fitted with two die-cut card slip-cases printed with wood grain patterns that contain a softcover book of drawings, photographs and texts (introduction by Dawn Ades, with essays by Nigel Coates, Christopher Jones and John Thackara). An additional 6 prints of original drawings slide into the other wood grain patterned sleeve. Opposite, a set of cantilevering metal hardware clips grasp brightly coloured soft plastic covers designed to hold a folded linen cloth (1 yard) printed with Weil's drawings and 2 plastic panels printed with metallic drawings (one silver, one copper). These are made of the same material as plastic circuit boards, a key component of Weil's wonderful, iconic Bag Radios and Clock works. The entire Duchampian exhibition-in-a-box edition perfectly embodies Weil's highly individual work from the 1980s that explored the territory between design, art and function through an array of everyday artefacts that have now attained the status of cult objects.
An extremely rare item in very good condition - complete and intact set.
A copy of this edition was featured in the World Food Books-presented exhibition "Habitat", organised by Matt Hinkley and Joshua Petherick at Minerva, Sydney, 2014.
Daniel qualified as an architect at the University of Buenos Aires in his native Argentina in 1977. He relocated to London the following year to study industrial design at the Royal College of Art, where he received his MA (RCA) in 1981. After graduating from the RCA, Daniel designed and manufactured his own products, including a collection for Memphis in Milan and his iconic Bag Radio, a radio taken apart and put into a transparent bag. This deconstructed approach, rooted in the punk aesthetics of the 1980s, has been a core of many of Weil's design pieces, including his more recent clocks. The 1983 edition of the Radio Bag is part of the permanent collection in the MOMA and the V&A. In 1985 Weil produced his Light Box book edition, which was published by the Architectural Association. He works for the famed UK design group Pentagram and has worked with Alessi, Swatch, Esprit, Knoll and many others.
2003, English
Hardcover (w. dust jakcet), 320 pages, 24.8 x 31.8 cm
Published by
Edition Hansjörg Mayer / Stuttgart
Walther König / Köln
$86.00 - Out of stock
Dieter Roth was the quintessential artist's artist, highly revered by his peers but nonetheless something of a dark horse.
With the collaboration of his friend Philipp Buse, Roth created and curated his own private museum, which at the time of his death in 1998 housed a remarkable 550 original works, 1,400 prints, around 250 artist's books and all the multiples and specially designed editions he ever created. This book is a visually stunning survey of Dieter Roth's 'Unique Pieces', referred to by him as 'Originale', as well as an unparalleled insight into his life and work. It charts the progression of Roth's 'Unique Pieces' from 1950 to 1998 and provides a complete catalogue of them all, accompanied by information supplied mainly by the artist. Dirk Dobke, Curator at the Dieter Roth Foundation, explores the artist's 25-year friendship and collaboration with Philipp Buse, as well as the history and development of the Museums.
Unique Pieces, the first in a three-volume series, is accompanied by a spectacular CD-ROM that features a virtual tour of the Schimmelmuseum, enabling the reader to experience in full the magic of the Chocolate Gnomes, the Spice Objects and much more.
2017, English
3 Softcovers with banderole, 256 pages, 17.2 x 23.5 cm
Published by
Moderna Museet / Stockholm
Walther König / Köln
$95.00 $50.00 - Out of stock
3 volume publication set.
Edited by Fredrik Liew.
Text: Daniel Birnbaum, Barnabás Bencsik, Maria Berríos, Katie Kitamura, Pamela M Lee, Fredrik Liew, Ann-Sofi Noring, Jesper Olsson, Hito Steyerl
Fahlström was unquestionably one of the twentieth century’s most innovative and multi-dimensional artists. His incentive was to investigate economical, political and social issues and the production of meaning. Rather than developing a style, he worked with a variety of different media and techniques: poetry, theater, journalism, criticism, drawing, painting, film, television, happenings, radio, objects, graphic design, and installations.
2015, English
Hardcover w slipcase, 36 pages (1 colour & 14 b/w ill.), 24 x 21.6 cm
Published by
Walther König / Köln
$75.00 - Out of stock
'Because Religion of Love (written in 1990s) is so late in coming out, we hope it worth the wait. As representative of one of the most important artist's late thinking; on the one hand, it reconfirms her most classical thought (Beauty is the mystery of life.), and, on the other, adds new thought with an urgency only found in a mature artist of her age and persuasion. One of the most rigorous of sensibilities, we do not know what she meant by uncharacteristically asking another artist, Richard Tuttle, to illustrate her text, for she, unlike he, had a clear understanding of the meaning of illustration. Knowing that, he took it up as much to fathom a friend's genius after their passing, as well as the chance to say goodbye, life did not include, yet made available in publication. Hopefully, the reader can enjoy these various levels of interaction as art.' Richard Tuttle, London, September, 2014 -
1998, English
Hardcover (cloth-bound), 28 pages (6 circular pages folded in fourths and sewn into binding), 205 x 205 mm
Edition of 800, hand-numbered.,
Published by
Walther König / Köln
$90.00 - Out of stock
This rare artist book by Richard Tuttle features a unique design of die-cut circular pages that are sewn into the the binding and fold-out to allow the reader to turn the book in circles on order to read the words of poet Charles Bernstein amongst reproductions of Richard Tuttle's artworks. Parallel English and German texts including an essay by Wolfgang Becker.
This book was published by Walther König in Köln in 1998, and issued in a hand-numbered edition of 800 copies only.
As new, but small spots of wear and tear from glue to cover image only (not pictured), otherwise fine. Photographs upon request.
2013, English / Italian
Hardcover (w. dustjacket), 782 pages, 22 x 29 cm
Published by
Fondazione Prada / Venice
$210.00 - Out of stock
Published by Fondazione Prada
Edited by Germano Celant. Introduction by Miuccia Prada. Preface by Miuccia Prada, Patrizio Bertelli. Text by Gwen L. Allen, Pierre Bal Blanc, Claire Bishop, Benjamin H.D. Buchloh, Charles Esche, Boris Groys, Jens Hoffmann, Chus Martínez, Glenn Phillips, Christian Rattemeyer, Dieter Roelstraete, Anne Rorimer, Terry Smith, Mary Anne Staniszewski, Francesco Stocchi, Jan Verwoert. Interviews with Thomas Demand, Rem Koolhaas.
In a daring act of historical reconstruction, the curator Germano Celant, in dialogue with Thomas Demand and Rem Koolhaas, has recreated Harald Szeemann’s epochal "Live in Your Head: When Attitudes Become Form", held at the Bern Kunsthalle in 1969, and installed by Celant at the magnificent Ca’ Corner della Regina in Venice in June–November 2013. Szeemann’s show was a dialogue with the Bern Kunsthalle, and Celant has reprised its spirit by placing the works in dialogue with the Ca’ Corner della Regina--a very different building, in its Venetian grandeur, to the Kunsthalle.
This publication is divided into three parts: the first reproduces a complete collection of photo documentation of the original exhibit in 1969, many photographs previously unpublished, taken by photographers during the exhibition (Claudio Abate, Leonardo Bezzola, Balthasar Burkhard, Siegfried Kuhn, Dölf Preisig, Harry Shunk and Albert Winkler); the second compiles essays and interviews on Celant’s project (texts by Gwen L. Allen, Pierre Bal Blanc, Claire Bishop, Benjamin H.D. Buchloh, Charles Esche, Boris Groys, Jens Hoffmann, Chus Martínez, Glenn Phillips, Christian Rattemeyer, Dieter Roelstraete, Anne Rorimer, Terry Smith, Mary Anne Staniszewski, Francesco Stocchi, Jan Verwoert. Interviews with Thomas Demand, Rem Koolhaas) and the third includes the installation views of the show in Venice. The book is completed by a "Register" of works included in both shows.
A heavy, scientific volume of almost 800 pages that has become an invaluable reference for those interested in Conceptual Art, Minimalism, Art Povera, Land Art, Curatorial history, and much more.
It includes the work of artists:
1969: Carl Andre, Giovanni Anselmo, Richard Artschwager, Thomas Bang, Jared Bark, Robert Barry, Joseph Beuys, Alighiero Boetti, Mel Bochner, Marinus Boezem, Bill Bollinger, Michael Buthe, Pier Paolo Calzolari, Paul Cotton, Hanne Darboven, Walter de Maria, Jan Dibbets, Ger van Elk, Rafael Ferrer, Barry Flanagan, Ted Glass, Hans Haacke, Michael Heizer, Eva Hesse, Douglas Huebler, Paolo Icaro, Alain Jacquet, Neil Jenney, Stephen Kaltenbach, Jo Ann Kaplan, Edward Kienholz, Yves Klein, Joseph Kosuth, Jannis Kounellis, Gary B. Kuehn, Sol LeWitt, Bernd Lohaus, Richard Long, Roelof Louw, Bruce McLean, David Medalla, Mario Merz, Robert Morris, Bruce Nauman, Claes Oldenburg, Dennis Oppenheim, Panamarenko, Pino Pascali, Paul Pechter, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Emilio Prini, Markus Raetz, Allen Ruppersberg, Reiner Ruthenbeck, Robert Ryman, Frederick Lane Sandback, Alan Saret, Sarkis, Jean-Frédéric Schnyder, Richard Serra, Robert Smithson, Keith Sonnier, Richard Tuttle, Frank Lincoln Viner, Franz Erhard Walther, William G. Wegman, Lawrence Weiner, William T. Wiley, Gilberto Zorio.
2013: Carl Andre, Giovanni Anselmo, Richard Artschwager, Thomas Bang, Robert Barry, Joseph Beuys, Mel Bochner, Alighiero Boetti, Bill Bollinger, Marinus Boezem, Daniel Buren, Michael Buthe, Pier Paolo Calzolari, Paul Cotton (Adam II), Hanne Darboven, Walter De Maria, Jan Dibbets, Ger van Elk, Rafael Ferrer, Barry Flanagan, Philip Glass, Hans Haacke, Eva Hesse, Paolo Icaro, Alain Jacquet, Neil Jenney, Stephen Kaltenbach, Edward Kienholz and Jean Tinguely, Joseph Kosuth, Jannis Kounellis, Gary B. Kuehn, Sol LeWitt, Richard Long, Roelof Louw, Mario Merz, Robert Morris, Bruce Nauman, Claes Oldenburg, Dennis Oppenheim, Pino Pascali, Emilio Prini, Markus Raetz, Steve Reich, Allen Ruppersberg, Reiner Ruthenbeck, Robert Ryman, Frederick Lane Sandback, Alan Saret, Sarkis, Richard Serra, Robert Smithson, Michael Snow, Keith Sonnier, Richard Tuttle, Frank Lincoln Viner, Aldo Walker, Franz Erhard Walther, Lawrence Weiner, William T. Wiley, Gilberto Zorio.
1984, English / Japanese / German
Softcover, 174 pages, 21 x 29.6 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Asahi Shimbun / Japan
Seibu / Tokyo
$80.00 - Out of stock
Wonderful, uncommon monographic catalogue on the work of Joseph Beuys, published to accompany a large Japanese exhibition at The Seibu Museum of Art in 1984.
Heavily illustrated throughout with colour and black/white examples of Beuys diverse works, including his many installations, sculptures, performances, editions, drawings, paintings, etc., dating from the mid-1940s to the year the book was published (1984). Includes texts in Japanese, with contributors texts from Nam June Paik and Dr. Gotz Adriani, in English, Japanese and German.
Also features extensive catalogue of works, and biography.
Joseph Beuys (12 May 1921 – 23 January 1986) was a German Fluxus, happening, and performance artist as well as a sculptor, installation artist, graphic artist, art theorist, and pedagogue.
His extensive work is grounded in concepts of humanism, social philosophy and anthroposophy; it culminates in his "extended definition of art" and the idea of social sculpture as a gesamtkunstwerk, for which he claimed a creative, participatory role in shaping society and politics. His career was characterized by passionate and only rarely acrimonious open public debates on a very wide range of subjects including political, environmental, social and long term cultural trends. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential artists of the second half of the 20th century.