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
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World Food Books Gift Voucher
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Australian Art
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Fluxus
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Arte Informale / Haute Pâte / Tachism
Nouveau Réalisme / Zero / Kinetic
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Art Brut / Folk / Visionary / Fantastic
Illustration / Graphic Art / Bandes Dessinées
Furniture
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Occult / Esoterica
Ecology / Earth / Alternative Living
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All prices in AUD (Australian dollars)
Pick-Ups
Please note: The bookshop is closed until February 1, 2024.
Pick-up orders can be collected in our bookshop during opening hours after this date. Please collect any Pick-up orders within 3 weeks of ordering as we have limited storage space. Orders will be released back into stock if not collected within this time. No refunds can be made for pick-ups left un-collected.
Return Policy
All sales are final. We do accept returns (for refund, exchange) for items received in error. All our orders are packed with special care using heavy-duty padding and cardboard book-mailers or bubble mailers (for smaller books), using reinforcement where required. We cannot take responsibility for any lost, stolen or damaged parcels.
Insurance
Should you wish to insure your package, please email us directly after placing your order and we can organise this at a small extra expense. Although all standard/express tracked packages are very safe and dependable, we cannot take responsibility for any lost, stolen or damaged parcels. We recommend insurance on valuable orders.
Interested in selling your old books, catalogues, journals, magazines, comics, fanzines, ephemera? We are always looking for interesting, unusual and out-of-print books to buy. We only buy books in our fields of interest and specialty, and that we feel we can resell.
We base these prices on desirability, market value, in-print prices, condition and our current stock levels. We offer cash, store credit, and can take stock on consignment. All
about 25% of the price we expect to get when we sell them, or 30% in store credit. We base these prices on desirability, market value, in-print prices, condition and our current stock levels.
Sell your books any day of the week. You can drop them off and return later. If you have a lot of books, we can visit your Sydney home.
We buy books that we feel we can resell. We offer about 25 % of the price we expect to get when we sell them, or 30% in store credit. We base these prices on desirability, market value, in-print prices, condition and our current stock levels.
Philadelphia Wireman
03 August - 01 September, 2018
World Food Books is proud to announce our next Occasion, the first presentation of sculptures by Philadelphia Wireman in Australia.
The Philadelphia Wireman sculptures were found abandoned in an alley off Philadelphia’s South Street on trash night in 1982. Their discovery in a rapidly-changing neighbourhood undergoing extensive renovation, compounded with the failure of all attempts to locate the artist, suggests that the works may have been discarded after the maker’s death. Dubbed the "Philadelphia Wireman" during the first exhibition of this work, in 1985, the maker’s name, age, ethnicity, and even gender remain uncertain. The entire collection totals approximately 1200 pieces, all intricately bound together with tightly-wound heavy-gauge wire (along with a few small, abstract marker drawings, reminiscent both of Mark Tobey and J.B. Murry). The dense construction of the work, despite a modest range of scale and materials, is singularly obsessive and disciplined in design: a wire armature or exoskeleton firmly binds a bricolage of found objects including plastic, glass, food packaging, umbrella parts, tape, rubber, batteries, pens, leather, reflectors, nuts and bolts, nails, foil, coins, toys, watches, eyeglasses, tools, and jewellery.
Heavy with associations—anthropomorphic, zoomorphic, and socio-cultural responses to wrapped detritus—the totemic sculptures by Philadelphia Wireman have been discussed in the context of work created to fulfil the shamanistic needs of alternative religions in American culture. Curators, collectors, and critics have variously compared certain pieces to sculpture from Classical antiquity, Native American medicine bundles, African-American memory jugs, and African fetish objects. Reflecting the artist’s prolific and incredibly focused scavenging impulse, and despite—or perhaps enhanced by—their anonymity, these enigmatic objects function as urban artefacts and arbiters of power, though their origin and purpose is unknown. Philadelphia Wireman, whatever their identity, possessed an astonishing ability to isolate and communicate the concepts of power and energy through the selection and transformation of ordinary materials. Over the course of the past two decades, this collection has come to be regarded as an important discovery in the field of self-taught art and vernacular art.
Presented in collaboration with Fleisher-Ollman Gallery, Philadelphia, and Robert Heald, Wellington.
Susan Te Kahurangi King
02 February - 10 March, 2018
Susan Te Kahurangi King (24 February 1951 - ) has been a confident and prolific artist since she was a young child, drawing with readily available materials - pencils, ballpoint pens and felt-tip markers, on whatever paper is at hand. Between the ages of four and six Susan slowly ceased verbal communication. Her grandparents William and Myrtle Murphy had developed a special bond with Susan so they took on caring responsibilities for extended periods. Myrtle began informally archiving her work, carefully collecting and storing the drawings and compiling scrapbooks. No drawing was insignificant; every scrap of paper was kept. The King family are now the custodians of a vast collection containing over 7000 individual works, from tiny scraps of paper through to 5 meter long rolls.
The scrapbooks and diaries reveal Myrtle to be a woman of great patience and compassion, seeking to understand a child who was not always behaving as expected. She encouraged Susan to be observant, to explore her environment and absorb all the sights and sounds. Myrtle would show Susan’s drawings to friends and people in her community that she had dealings with, such as shopkeepers and postal workers, but this was not simply a case of a grandmother’s bias. She recognised that Susan had developed a sophisticated and unique visual language and sincerely believed that her art deserved serious attention.
This was an unorthodox attitude for the time. To provide some context, Jean Dubuffet coined the term Art Brut in 1945 to describe work created by self-taught artists – specifically residents of psychiatric institutions and those he considered to be visionaries or eccentrics. In 1972 Roger Cardinal extended this concept by adopting the term Outsider Art to describe work made by non-academically trained artists operating outside of mainstream art networks through choice or circumstance. Susan was born in Te Aroha, New Zealand in 1951, far from the artistic hubs of Paris and London that Dubuffet and Cardinal operated in. That Myrtle fêted Susan as a self-taught artist who deserved to be taken seriously shows how progressive her attitudes were.
Susan’s parents Doug and Dawn were also progressive. Over the years they had consulted numerous health practitioners about Susan’s condition, as the medical establishment could not provide an explanation as to why she had lapsed into silence. Dawn educated herself in the field of homeopathy and went on to treat all twelve of her children using these principles – basing prescriptions on her observations of their physical, mental and emotional state.
Doug was a linguist with an interest in philosophy who devoted what little spare time he had to studying Maori language and culture. To some extent their willingness to explore the fringes of the mainstream made them outsiders too but it was their commitment to living with integrity and their respect for individuality that ensured Susan’s creativity was always encouraged.
Even though Susan’s family supported her artistic pursuits, some staff in schools and hospitals saw it as an impediment to her assimilation into the community and discouraged it in a variety of ways. Her family was not always aware of this and therefore did not fully understand why Susan stopped drawing in the early 1990s. However, rather than dwell on the challenges that Susan faced in pursuit of her artistic practice, they prefer to highlight her achievements. In 2008 Susan began drawing again in earnest, after an almost 20 year interruption, and her work is now shown in galleries around the world.
Susan grew up without television and has been heavily influenced by the comics she read as a child. She is absolutely fearless in the appropriation of recognizable characters, such as Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse, in her work. She twists their limbs, contorts their faces, compresses them together, blends them into complex patterned backgrounds - always imbuing them with an incredible energy. Although Susan often used pop culture characters in her work they are not naive or childlike. These are drawings by a brilliant self-taught artist who has been creating exceptional work for decades without an audience in mind.
Mladen Stilinović
"Various Works 1986 - 1999"
02 February 16 - September 10, 2016
Various works 1986 - 1999, from two houses, from the collections of John Nixon, Sue Cramer, Kerrie Poliness, Peter Haffenden and Phoebe Haffenden.
Including: Geometry of Cakes (various shelves), 1993; Poor People’s Law (black and white plate), 1993; White Absence (glasses, ruler, set square, silver spoon, silver ladel with skin photograph and wooden cubes), 1990-1996; Exploitation of the Dead (grey and red star painting, wooden painting, black spoon with red table, red plate), 1984-1990; Money and Zeros (zero tie, paintings made for friends in Australia (Sue, John, Kerrie), numbers painting), 1991-1992; Words - Slogans (various t-shirts) - “they talk about the death of art...help! someone is trying to kill me”, “my sweet little lamb”, “work is a disease - Karl Marx”; Various artist books, catalogues, monographs, videos; Poster from exhibition Insulting Anarchy; "Circular" Croatian - Australian edition; Artist book by Vlado Martek (Dostoyevsky); more.
Thanks to Mladen Stilinović and Branka Stipančić.
Jonathan Walker
Always Will Need To Wear Winter Shirt Blue + Ochre Small Check Pattern
21 August - 21 September, 2015
Untitled
I am not a great reader of poetry but I always return to the work of Melbourne poet, Vincent Buckley (1925- 1988). Perhaps I find his most tantalising piece to be not a finished poem but a fragment left on a scrap of paper discovered on his desk after the poet’s death.
The poetry gathers like oil
In the word-core, and spreads
It has its music meet,
Its music is in movement.
This fragment is more the shell left behind from a volatile thought than a finished poem. I find the last two lines honest but awkward whereas the first two lines work like an arrow. Most likely he could not find a resolution so it was left. Still, in its present form, it remains an eloquent testimony to the ultimate failure of a medium to express mobile thought and sensation, in Buckley’s case, through verbal language. It’s an important matter because this is something all artists have to deal with regardless of the medium.
I have never written a poem, however, I am forever copying fragments from books on paper scraps in a vain effort to fix certain notions in my head. At first, they function as bookmarks that are sometimes returned to when I open the book. But before long, as they accumulate, they fall out littering the table interspersed with A4 photocopies, bills, books and medications.
To return to Buckley’s fragment, the first two lines very much evoke how I paint nowadays. As you age, detail diminishes and patches of light become more luminous and float. I feel the most honest way of dealing with this is by smearing the oil paint on the canvas with the fingers and working close-up, blind. Only if the patches coalesce into an approaching image can the work gain a life.
-
Jonathan Walker was born in Melbourne, Australia and brought up on a dairy farm in Gippsland. In the 1970’s he studied painting at RMIT and won the Harold Wright Scholarship to the British Museum, London. During the 1980’s he exhibited at Pinacotheca Gallery, Richmond and had work shown at the NGV and Heidi City Art Gallery. Over the same period he designed the cover for the “Epigenesi” LP by Giancarlo Toniutti, Italy and conducted a mail exchange work with Achim Wollscheid, Germany. The work with artists through the post resulted in an article published in the bicentenary issue of Art and Australia 1988. He showed in artist run spaces such as WestSpace in the 90’s and 2000’s, and until 2012, taught painting at Victoria University, which is where we (Colleen Ahern and Lisa Radford) as organisers of the exhibition, among many others, had the privilege of being his student.
Walker’s knowledge was imparted to students through the careful selection of music, literature, and artists found in books that he himself had ordered for the library. Walker’s strategy was the generosity of sharing his vast knowledge with references specific to each student and their context.
Walker’s paintings share a similar focus and intimacy.
This exhibition presents a small selection of recent paintings alongside a publication that includes Walker’s writing. Observational and analytical, Walker’s work is a type of material notation — the time of day, colour and how it is blended, the both specific and fleeting location of a reflection on lino or the question of whether a chair leg should be included in a painting.
Please join us on Friday August 21 between 6-8pm to celebrate the opening of the exhibition.
Curated by Colleen Ahern and Lisa Radford.
B. Wurtz
Curated by Nic Tammens
March 26 - April 4, 2015
B.Wurtz works from a basement studio in his home on Manhattan’s Lower East Side.
This local fact is attested to by the plastic shopping bags and newsprint circulars that appear in his work. As formal objects, they don’t make loud claims about their origins but nonetheless transmit street addresses and places of business from the bottom of this long thin island. Like plenty of artists, Wurtz is affected by what is local and what is consumed. His work is underpinned by this ethic. It often speaks from a neighborhood or reads like the contents of a hamper:
“BLACK PLUMS $1.29 lb.”
“Food Bazaar”
“USDA Whole Pork Shoulder Picnic 99c lb.”
“RITE AID Pharmacy, with us it’s personal.”
“H. Brickman & Sons.”
“Sweet Yams 59c lb."
Most of the work in this exhibition was made while the artist was in residence at Dieu Donne, a workshop dedicated to paper craft in Midtown. Here Wurtz fabricated assemblages with paper and objects that are relatively lightweight, with the intention that they would be easily transportable to Australia. This consideration isn’t absolute in Wurtz’s work, but was prescriptive for making the current exhibition light and cheap. Packed in two boxes, these works were sent from a USPS post office on the Lower East Side and delivered to North Melbourne by Australia Post.
Wurtz appears courtesy of Metro Pictures, New York.
Thanks to Rob Halverson, Joshua Petherick, Sari de Mallory, Matt Hinkley, Helen Johnson, Fayen d'Evie, Ask Kilmartin, Lisa Radon, Ellena Savage, Yale Union, and "Elizabeth".
John Nixon
"Archive"
December 15 - January 20, 2014
The presentation of John Nixon's archive offered a rare showcase of this extensive collection of the artist's own publications, catalogues, posters, ephemera, editions and more, from the mid 1980s onwards, alongside a selection of his artworks.
Organized by John Nixon, Joshua Petherick and Matt Hinkley.
"Habitat"
at Minerva, Sydney (organised by Joshua Petherick and Matt Hinkley)
November 15 - December 20, 2014
Lupo Borgonovo, Janet Burchill & Jennifer McCamley,
Lewis Fidock, HR Giger, Piero Gilardi, Veit Laurent Kurz,
Cinzia Ruggeri, Michael E. Smith, Lucie Stahl, Daniel Weil, Wols
Press Release:
“...It contained seven objects. The slender fluted bone, surely formed for flight, surely from the wing of some large bird. Three archaic circuitboards, faced with mazes of gold. A smooth white sphere of baked clay. An age-blackened fragment of lace. A fingerlength segment of what she assumed was bone from a human wrist, grayish white, inset smoothly with the silicon shaft of a small instrument that must once have ridden flush with the surface of the skin - but the thing’s face was seared and blackened.”
William Gibson, “Count Zero”, 1986
"Autumn Projects Archive"
Curated by Liza Vasiliou
March 6 - March 15, 2014
World Food Books, in conjunction with the Virgin Australia Melbourne Fashion Festival 2014, presented the Autumn Projects archive, consisting of a selection of early examples in Australian fashion with a particular interest in collecting designers and labels from the period beginning in the 1980’s, who significantly influenced the discourse of Australian Fashion.
Curated by Liza Vasiliou, the exhibition provided a unique opportunity to view pieces by designers Anthea Crawford, Barbara Vandenberg, Geoff Liddell and labels CR Australia, Covers, Jag along with early experimental collage pieces by Prue Acton and Sally Browne’s ‘Fragments’ collection, suspended throughout the functioning World Food Books shop in Melbourne.
H.B. Peace
presented by CENTRE FOR STYLE
November 14, 2013
"Hey Blinky, you say chic, I say same"
Anon 2013
H.B. Peace is a clothing collaboration between great friends Blake Barns and Hugh Egan Westland. Their pieces explore the divergences between 'character’ and ‘personality’ in garments....etc
Special Thanks to Joshua Petherick and Matt Hinkley of WFB and Gillian Mears
and a Very Special Thank you to Audrey Thomas Hayes for her shoe collaboration.
Janet Burchill & Jennifer McCamley
"Aesthetic Suicide"
May 10 - June 8, 2013
The first of our occasional exhibitions in the World Food Books office/shop space in Melbourne, "Aesthetic Suicide" presented a body of new and older works together by artists Janet Burchill & Jennifer McCamley, including videos, prints, a wall work, and publications.
During shop open hours videos played every hour, on the hour.
1970, English
Softcover, 80 pages, 24.5 x 34.5 cm
Out of print title / used / good
Published by
James Fitzsimmons / Lugano
$45.00 - In stock -
Art International, Vol. XIV/10 Christmas 1970
Published and Edited by James Fitzsimmons
Features: "Letter from Australia", a report on Australian art by Alan McLeod McCulloch (inc. John Davis, Tony Coleing, Ken Reinhard, Max Lyle, Nigel Lendon, Lenton Parr, Asher Bilu, Jan Senbergs, Les Kossatz, Herbert Flugelman, Marc Clark, Jock Clutterbuck, Edwin Tanner, John Brack, Clifton Pugh, Guy Smart, Donald Laycock, Frank Hinder, Fred Williams, and more), Zoran Music, Brian O'Doherty, Michael Steiner, Bernar Venet, Rodolfo Aricò, Edward Burra, Fernando Botero, Francisco Goya, Serge Poliakoff, Aglaé Liberaki, Martial Raysse, Jean Tinguely, Claude Viallat, Supports/Surfaces, Dan Flavin, Sophie Taeuber-Arp, Barnett Newman, Karl Wirsum, Larry Poons, Georguia O'Keefe, Carl Andre, Lucas Samaras, Alexander Calder, Richard Long, Alice Neel, Antoni Tàpies, Philip Guston, Edward Kienholz, Phillip King, Keiji Usami, and many more.
Art International was a highly regarded international art journal based in Switzerland from 1957-1984. With international editors and contributing writers, A.I. was issued 10 times per year and was published and edited by James A. Fitzsimmons.
1970, English
Softcover, 80 pages, 24.5 x 34.5 cm
Out of print title / used / good
Published by
James Fitzsimmons / Lugano
$45.00 - Out of stock
Art International, Vol. XIV/9 November 1970
Published and Edited by James Fitzsimmons
cover: Eugenio Carmi
Features: Henry Moore, Anthony Caro, Aristide Maillol, Clement Meadmore, Lee Bontecou, George Grosz, Hannah Höch, R. B. Kitaj, Kurt Schwitters, Ross Woodman, Harry Soviak, The Israel Museum, James Rosati, Frances Picabia, Raffael Ferrer, Alexander Archipenko, Paolo Soleri, Ralph Goings, Alex Katz, René Magritte, Roberto Matta, Hans Bellmer, Frank Stella, David Aspden, John Armstrong, Gunter Christmann, Ken Reinhard, Jorge Camacho, Tetsumi Kudo, Michael Heizer, Jean-Pierre Raynaud, Pol Bury, Raoul Ubac, Antoni Tàpies, Llyn Foulkes, and many more.
Art International was a highly regarded international art journal based in Switzerland from 1957-1984. With international editors and contributing writers, A.I. was issued 10 times per year and was published and edited by James A. Fitzsimmons.
English
Softcover, 80 pages, 24.5 x 34.5 cm
Published by
James Fitzsimmons / Lugano
$45.00 - In stock -
Art International, Vol. XIV/7 September 20, 1970
Published and Edited by James Fitzsimmons
Features: Concrete Poetry feature article, Richard Paul Lohse, Larry Poons, Edwin Ruda, William Pettet, Ernest Trova, Mario Merz, Ugo La Pietra, Paul Klee, Robert Delaunay, Johannes Itten, Josef Albers, Adolf Hölzel, Barnett Newman, Kenneth Noland, Jasper Johns, Mary Vieira, László Moholy-Nagy, Max Bill, Bruno Munari, William Harnett, H. C. Westermann, John McCracken, Dante Leonelli, Frances Picabia, and many more.
Art International was a highly regarded international art journal based in Switzerland from 1957-1984. With international editors and contributing writers, A.I. was issued 10 times per year and was published and edited by James A. Fitzsimmons.
1970, English
Softcover, 80 pages, 24.5 x 34.5 cm
Published by
James Fitzsimmons / Lugano
$45.00 - In stock -
Art International, Vol. XIV/5 May 20, 1970
Published and Edited by James Fitzsimmons
Features: Sam Gilliam, Rockne Krebs, Ed McGowin, Enio Iommi, Rogelio Polesello, Lorser Feitelson, Alberto Lilloni, Ernest Trova, David Hockney, Paul Nash, Valeriano Trubbiani, Cynthia Carlson, Pablo Palazuelo, Victor Vasarely, Larry Bell, Jim Dine, Gustav Klimt, Milton Avery, Willliam Pye, Morris Louis, Arman, Brice Marden, Alfred Jensen, Daniel LaRue Johnson, and many more.
Art International was a highly regarded international art journal based in Switzerland from 1957-1984. With international editors and contributing writers, A.I. was issued 10 times per year and was published and edited by James A. Fitzsimmons.
1970, English
Softcover, 80 pages, 24.5 x 34.5 cm
Out of print title / used / good
Published by
James Fitzsimmons / Lugano
$45.00 - In stock -
Art International, Vol. XIV/4 April 1970
Published and Edited by James Fitzsimmons
cover: Paul Wunderlich
Features: "Letter from Australia", a report on Australian art by Alan McLeod McCulloch (inc. Col Jordan, Virginia Jay, Max Lyle, Clement Meadmore, Michael Johnson, Timothy Gibb, Ken Reinhard, Joseph Szabo, Harald Noritis, Gunter Christmann, Herbert Flugelman, Ian Chandler, Jan Senbergs, Emanuel Raft, Peter Clarke, Gordon Walters, Deanna Conti, and many more), Alberto Giacometti, Barbara Hepworth, Takis, Joe Tilson, Marsden Hartley, Conrad Marca-Relli, László Moholy-Nagy, Colin Self, Alvin Loving, Eduardo Chillida, Shusaku Arakawa, Niki de Saint Phalle, Hervé Télémaque, Claes Oldenburg, and many more.
Art International was a highly regarded international art journal based in Switzerland from 1957-1984. With international editors and contributing writers, A.I. was issued 10 times per year and was published and edited by James A. Fitzsimmons.
1970, English
Softcover, 80 pages, 24.5 x 34.5 cm
Out of print title / used / good
Published by
James Fitzsimmons / Lugano
$45.00 - In stock -
Art International, Vol. XIV/3 March 1970
Published and Edited by James Fitzsimmons
cover: Richard Hamilton
Features: Richard Hamilton, Enzo Mari, Joseph Beuys, Fernand Léger, Miguel Ortiz Berrocal, Urs Lüthi, Rodolfo Aricò, Allan Jones, Alex Colville, Anne Madden, Jasper Johns, Man Ray, Ed Ruscha, Duane Hanson, Sonia Delaunay, Erró, Francois Lalanne, Pier Manzoni, Alfred Manessier, Claes Oldenburg, Doug Wheeler, Peter Zecher, Robert Rauschenberg, Agnes Martin, Vija Clemens, Michael Heizer, Dan Flavin, Ellsworth Kelly, Frank Stella, Ronald Bladen, and many more.
Art International was a highly regarded international art journal based in Switzerland from 1957-1984. With international editors and contributing writers, A.I. was issued 10 times per year and was published and edited by James A. Fitzsimmons.
1970, English
Softcover, 80 pages, 24.5 x 34.5 cm
Out of print title / used / good
Published by
James Fitzsimmons / Lugano
$45.00 - In stock -
Art International, Vol. XIV/I January 20, 1970
Published and Edited by James Fitzsimmons
cover: Ron Robertson-Swann
Features: "Letter from Australia", a report on Australian art by Alan McLeod McCulloch (inc. Ron Robertson-Swann, Herbert Flugelman, Jock Clutterbuck, George Johnson, Stephen Walker, Owen Broughton, Les Kossatz, and more), Kazimir Malevich, Lucio del Pezzo, Christo, Konrad Klapheck, Victor Bonato, Joseph Beuys, Eliseo Mattiacci, Lambert Maria Wintersberger, Lewis Stein, Richerd Serra, Sol LeWitt, Gotthard Graubner, Robert Smithson, James Rosati, Fernando Botero, Robert Motherwell, Georges Yakoulov, Lioubov Popova, David Tremlett, Richard Smith, Guido Biasi, Max Bill, Jean Dubuffet, Helen Frankenthaler, Leon Polk Smith, Deborah Remington, Wassily Kandinsky, Saul Steinberg, Gary Kuehn, Sam Francis, Frank Stella, Karel Appel, and many more.
Art International was a highly regarded international art journal based in Switzerland from 1957-1984. With international editors and contributing writers, A.I. was issued 10 times per year and was published and edited by James A. Fitzsimmons.
1969, English / French
Softcover, 76 pages, 24.5 x 34.5 cm
Out of print title / used / good
Published by
James Fitzsimmons / Lugano
$55.00 - In stock -
Art International, Vol. XIII/6 Summer 1969
Published and Edited by James Fitzsimmons
Advisory Editors: Umbro Apollonio, Jean-Christophe Ammann, R. C. Kenedy, James Mellow.
Features: Bridget Riley, Barnett Newman, Tess Jaray, Oskar Kokoschka, Roland Topor, Tony Smith, Richard Linder, Jules Olitski, Karel Appel, Hans Bellmer, Horst-Egon Kalinowski, Louise Nevelson, Luciano Fabbro, George Brecht, Man Ray, Fernand Leger, Kenneth Noland, Lyonel Feininger, Herbert Ferber, George Sugarman, Walter de Maria, Edgar Negret, Richard Anuzkiewicz, Nicholas Krushenick, John Healey, Rodolfo Arico, Marco Cordioli, Edival Ramosa, Riccardo Emma, Livio Marzot, Pablo Picasso, Heinz Mack, and many more.
Art International was a highly regarded international art journal based in Switzerland from 1957-1984. With international editors and contributing writers, A.I. was issued 10 times per year and was published and edited by James A. Fitzsimmons.
1967, English / French / Italian
Softcover, 64 pages, 24.5 x 34.5 cm
Out of print title / used / good
Published by
James Fitzsimmons / Lugano
$55.00 - In stock -
Art International, Vol. XI/7 September 20, 1967
Published and Edited by James Fitzsimmons
Advisory Editors: Umbro Apollonio, Jorge Romero Brest, Lucy R. Lippard, James Mellow.
Features: Helen Frankenthaler, Expo '67, Jean Tinguely, Alexander Calder, Max Bill, Niki de Saint-Phalle, Otto Frei, James Rosenquist, Claude Viseux, Henri Michaux, César, Antonio Saura, Piero Gilardi, Roy Lichtenstein, Claes Oldenburg, Andy Warhol, Arman, Pol Bury, Paul de Lussanet, Henry Moore, Luis Alberto Wells, Peter Schmidt, Erwin Heerich, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Kenneth Martin, Tim Scott, Allen Jones, Tess Jaray, Jean Dubuffet, Brassai, Tetsumi Kudo, Louise Nevelson, Marcel Duchamp, Raphael Jesus Soto, and many more.
Art International was a highly regarded international art journal based in Switzerland from 1957-1984. With international editors and contributing writers, A.I. was issued 10 times per year and was published and edited by James A. Fitzsimmons.
1967, English
Softcover, 80 pages, 24.5 x 34.5 cm
Out of print title / used / good
Published by
James Fitzsimmons / Lugano
$55.00 - In stock -
Art International, Vol. XI/4 April 20, 1967
Published and Edited by James Fitzsimmons
Advisory Editors: Umbro Apollonio, Jorge Romero Brest, Lucy R. Lippard, James Mellow.
Features: Jacques Kaplan, Clement Greenberg, Anne Truitt, Anthony Caro, Carl Andre, Ronald Bladen, Robert Smithson, Lucy R. Lippard, Larry Poons, Colin Self, Eli Bornstein, Bridget Riley, Maurice de Sansmarez, Nanda Vigo, Victor Vasarely, Marcel Broodthaers, Arman, Roberto Crippa, Richard Smith, Howard Hodgkin, Avinash Chandra, Mary Preminger, Dan Flavin, Steve Kaltenbach, DeWain Valentine, Leonard Esbensen, Craig Kauffman, Kenneth Snelson, Morris Louis, Franz Kline, Aubrey Beardsley, Sam Francis, Richard Tuttle, Paul Klee, Gary Kuehn, Tony Smith, John Wesley, Jack Beal, Antonin Artuad, Nicholas Krushenick, Colin Self, Lucio del Pezzo, Peter Voulkos, Leonard da Vinci, Kenneth Noland, Jules Olitski, Ludwig Sander, Yves Klein, Edward Kienholz, Adolph Gottlieb, and many more.
Art International was a highly regarded international art journal based in Switzerland from 1957-1984. With international editors and contributing writers, A.I. was issued 10 times per year and was published and edited by James A. Fitzsimmons.
1965, English
Softcover, 80 pages, 24.5 x 34.5 cm
Out of print title / used / good
Published by
James Fitzsimmons / Lugano
$45.00 - In stock -
Art International, Vol. IX/II March 1965
Published and Edited by James Fitzsimmons
Features: Frederick Kiesler, Abraham Rattner, Henry Miller, Lucy R. Lippard, Ruth Vollmer, Jean Dubuffet, Jean Tinguely, Nicolas de Staël, Georges Mattieu, Piet Mondrian, Carlo Carrà, Frank Stella, Robert Morris, Tomioki Tessai, Masuo Ikeda, Taizo Yoshinaka, Keiji Usami, Jasper Johns, Toshimitsu Imai, Toshinobu Onosato, John Hoyland, Abrella Giorgi, and many more.
Art International was a highly regarded international art journal based in Switzerland from 1957-1984. With international editors and contributing writers, A.I. was issued 10 times per year and was published and edited by James A. Fitzsimmons.
2016, English
Softcover, 96 pages, 21 x 30 cm
Published by
Roma / Amsterdam
Kunstverein München / Münich
$40.00 - Out of stock
This book is the fourth instalment in Kunstverein München’s ‘Companion’ series, and was released parallel to Ola Vasiljeva’s eponymous exhibition. The publication’s 100 full-colour and black-and-white pages combine facsimiles of zines, records, and posters Vasiljeva produced collaboratively as OAOA, intercut and overlaid with 35mm slides, drawings, and photographs taken by the artist during the production of previous exhibitions, as well as a manic letter to the artist by Chris Fitzpatrick.
Design by Julie Peeters.
2016, English
Hardcover, 192 pages, 30. 5 x 23.5 cm
Out of print title / as new
Published by
Koenig Books / London
Studio Voltaire / London
$120.00 - Out of stock
Now out of print.
Kantarovsky’s practice encompasses painting, drawing, sculpture and occasionally film. His signature works often have thinly applied, wiped, or scraped layers of paint, and feature narrative scenes populated by isolated, sinewy figures. His paintings frequently include indirect sociopolitical commentary and a critical look at the idea of the suffering artistic genius. The publication, his first monograph will feature a selection of recent works alongside his Studio Voltaire commission, Apricot Juice. A collaboration between Kantarovsky and Lithuanian-born performance artist leva Misevičiūtė, Apricot Juice was devised around two distinct parts – a language and movement based performance by Misevičiūtė and a group of five largescale paintings by Kantarovsky. The point of departure for the collaborative project was Mikhail Bulgakov’s enigmatic masterpiece novel The Master and Margarita, a narrative woven around a visit by the Devil to the aggressively atheist Soviet Union.
2010, English
Softcover, 144 pages (colour ills, 16 wrapping paper inserts), 345 x 240 mm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Serpentine Gallery / London
Walther König / Köln
$110.00 - In stock -
This artist’s book, designed in collaboration with Manuel Raeder, re-imagines the pages of a catalogue as sheets of wrapping paper, which are intended to be torn out by the reader and used to wrap gifts. The designs, conceived by Nick Mauss specifically for this book, are derived from various sources in the fine and decorative arts. The wrapping paper materialises those isolated elements on which the mind snags and questions the distinctions between the presentation of gifts and the presentation of textual or visual information.
Illustrated essays by Emmelyn Butterfield-Rosen and Kirsty Bell explore the cultural and philosophical context of Mauss’ work and the position of this book within it.
Includes 16 sheets of colour wrapping paper exclusively designed by the artist for this publication.
2010, English / Japanese
Hardcover, 368 pages, 22.4 x 28 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / Used*,
Published by
National Art Center / Tokyo
$90.00 - Out of stock
Fantastic, visually dense, heavy monograph on the life and work of Man Ray. "At first sight, another book surveying the life and work of this versatile and inventive artist would seem superfluous, yet surprisingly, this excellent catalogue contributes a wealth of new information, thus providing a valuable contribution to our understanding of Man Ray. The treasure trove of images and objects collected here is drawn from the large archives of the Man Ray Trust in Long Island, New York, and includes little known early works, documents and objects from his private life, working drawings and sketches for major works as well as innumerable familiar masterpieces. The publication is accompanied by essays and an extensive chronology." Introductory texts are "The Fate of Objects," by Noriko Fuku and "Unconcerned But Not Indifferent" by John P. Jacob.
2006, Japanese
Hardcover (w. dustjacket, printed slipcase, obi-strip, insert booklet), 88 pages, 25 x 30 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / Used*,
Published by
Kawade Shobo Shinsha / Tokyo
$70.00 - Out of stock
Oversized Japanese monograph on Man Ray, published in a deluxe series of books on modern surrealist artists, this being volume 4 - dedicated to the work of Man Ray. Each hardcover volume comes wrapped in cloth with glossy illustrated dust-jacket, housed in a printed cardboard slipcase, wrapped in the original printer's obi-strip. Primarily the books are made up of a selection of large full-colour and black and white large reproductions of the works of each artist. This book presents page after page of Man Ray's diverse work across painting, drawing, sculpture, photography, and his famed Rayographs, all printed beautifully in Japan. Largely an oversized visual book, what small amount of text here is in Japanese. Comes with a small inserted booklet of Japanese text as well. In wonderful, almost As New condition, protected in plastic.
2008, English
Softcover, 92 pages, 15 x 23 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / fine
Published by
Standard Books / Oslo
$70.00 - Out of stock
Very scarce catalogue published by Standard Oslo in 2008 to accompany the exhibition "Aleatoric Contracts", curated by Eivind Furnesvik, held by Standard (Oslo) during Art Basel Miami Beach. This publication was given away in a limited edition to visitors.
Along with texts by Mikkel Astrup and Oscar Tuazon, the publication features many pages dedicated to the works of each exhibiting artist : Gardar Eide Einarsson, Matias Faldbakken, Kim Hiorthoy, Josh Smith, and Oscar Tuazon.
1978, English
Softcover, 380 pages, 20.3 x 20.1cm
Out of print title / used / fine
Published by
Hanuman Foundation / New Mexico
$25.00 - Out of stock
“We’re talking about metamorphosis
We’re talking about going from a caterpillar to a butterfly
We’re talking about how to become a butterfly.”
"In March 1961, Professor Richard Alpert – later renamed Ram Dass – held appointments in four departments at Harvard University. He published books, drove a Mercedes and regularly vacationed in the Caribbean. By most societal standards, he had achieved great success... And yet he couldn’t escape the feeling that something was missing.
Psilocybin and LSD changed that. During a period of experimentation, Alpert peeled away each layer of his identity, disassociating from himself as a professor, a social cosmopolite, and lastly, as a physical being. Fear turned into exaltation upon the realization that at his truest, he was just his inner-self: a luminous being that he could trust indefinitely and love infinitely.
And thus, a spiritual journey commenced. Alpert headed to India where his guru renamed him Baba Ram Dass – “servant of God.” He was introduced to mindful breathing exercises, hatha yoga, and Eastern philosophy. If he found himself reminiscing or planning, he was reminded to “Be Here Now.” He started upon the path of enlightenment, and has been journeying along it ever since.
Be Here Now is a vehicle for sharing the true message, and a guide to self-determination.
With over 150 pages of metaphysical illustrations, practical advice on how to implement a yogic regiment, and a chapter dedicated to quotes and book recommendations, Be Here Now is sure to enrich your emotional, physical, and spiritual life."
'Because we are all interrelated, what affects another person affects you.'
1978 edition.
1976, French
Softcover, 202 pages, 30 x 23 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / good
Published by
Galeries Nationales du Grand-Palais / Paris
$85.00 - Out of stock
First edition of this great 200 pages French monographic catalogue on Francis Picabia, published on the occasion of the major exhibition at National Galleries of the Grand Palais, 23 January-29 March, 1976.
Lavishly illustrated throughout with reproductions of over 200 of Picabia's paintings, drawings, designs, typography, poems, alongside many photos, portraits, texts (in French), biography, bibliography, and much more.
Francis Picabia (22 January 1879 – 30 November 1953) was a French avant-garde painter, poet, typographist, self-described funny guy, idiot, failure, pickpocket, and anti-artist par excellence. After experimenting with Impressionism and pointillism, Picabia became associated with Cubism. His highly abstract planar compositions were colourful and rich in contrasts. He was one of the defining figures in the Dada movement in the United States and in France; indeed, Andre Breton called Picabia one of the only "true" Dadas. He was later briefly associated with Surrealism, but would soon turn his back on the art establishment.
*Good - some wear to cover edges, corners, spine, otherwise very good throughout.
1983, Japanese
Softcover, 150 pages, 22 x 24 cm
1st Edition, out of print title / Used*,
Published by
Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum / Tokyo
$90.00 - Out of stock
Great book published on the occasion of the exhibition at the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum in 1983.
Illustrated throughout in colour and black and white with examples of leading firgure in 1960s Japanese art scene, across themes and movements such as Gutai, Mono-ha, Pop, Fluxus, Dada, conceptual art and much more, including profiles on Tetsumi Kudo, Yukihisa Isobe, Ushio Shinohara, Shusaku Arakawa, Takami Sakurai, Yoshio Murakami, Hisashi Indo, Tomio Miki, Nobuaki Kojima, Jiro Takamatsu, Genpei Akasegawa, Natsuyuki Nakanishi, Koichi Tateishi, Hiroshi Nakamura, Koichi Tanikawa, Kei Hiraga, Ay-o, Tadanori Yokoo, Tasuo Ikeda, Tetsuro Komai, Hideo Hagiwara, Fumiaki Fukita, Yukio Fukazawa, Arinori Ichihara, Masuo Ikeda, Mitsuo Kano, Hideo Yoshihara, Tetsuya Noda, Bushiro Mouri, Saburo Muraoka, Shu Eguchi, Hisayuki Mogami, Ryokichi Mukai, Yoshikuni Iida, Bukichi Inoue, Isamu Wakabayashi, Masakazu Horiuchi, Kakuzo Tatehata, Haruhiko Yasuda, Moio Shinoda, Katsuhiro Yamaguchi, Masunobu Yoshimura, Tatsuo Kawaguchi, Minami Tada, Aiko Miyawaki, Nobuo Sekine, Takeo Yamaguchi, Masanari Murai, Toshinobu Onosato, Yoshishige Saito, Minoru Kawabata, Kumi Sugai, Yayoi Kusama, On Kawara, Keiji Usami, Takahiko Iimura.
Texts in Japanese.
1975, Japanese
Softcover, 96 pages, 23 x 25 cm
1st edition, Out of print title / used*,
Published by
? / Japan
$75.00 - Out of stock
Great Jean Cocteau catalogue, published in Japan in 1975 on the occasion of a major exhibition of his work.
Rarely seen and very curious Cocteau catalogue, features a wonderful selection of large colour and black and white reproductions of his drawings, paintings, ceramics, and sculptures, along with photographic portraits, texts, biography and bibliography. Texts in Japanese.
First edition.
"Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau (French, 5 July 1889 – 11 October 1963) was a French writer, designer, playwright, artist and filmmaker. Cocteau is best known for his novel Les Enfants Terribles (1929), and the films The Blood of a Poet (1930), Les Parents Terribles (1948), Beauty and the Beast (1946) and Orpheus (1949). His circle of associates, friends and lovers included Kenneth Anger, Pablo Picasso, Gertrude Stein, Jean Hugo, Jean Marais, Henri Bernstein, Yul Brynner, Marlene Dietrich, Coco Chanel, Erik Satie, Albert Gleizes, Igor Stravinsky, Marie Laurencin, María Félix, Édith Piaf, Panama Al Brown, Colette, Jean Genet, and Raymond Radiguet."
1963, Swedish
Softcover, 76 pages, 16.5 x 24 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / average
Published by
Moderna Museet / Stockholm
$55.00 - Out of stock
Önskemuseet: The Museum of Our Wishes (December 26, 1963 - February 16, 1964), was a unique and very ambitious exhibition initiated by director Pontus Hultén and Moderna Museet staff that gathered together a collection of modernist art from private owners, in order to present to the public and political administration their vision of what a museum collection could actually be. The exhibition featured works from private collections alongside a “wish list” of works that were still available on the market, calling for the government to allocate funds for purchasing new works for the museum. The request was acknowledged and the Museum received a one-off allocation of five million kronor, a substantial amount in today’s currency, which enabled the purchase of several works that now constitute the core of the collection, positioning Moderna Museet as one of the most dynamic and committed contemporary art institutions of the 1960s.
This is a copy of the first and only edition of the catalogue for the exhibition, which makes up a visual checklist of the artworks and artists featured in this enormous exhibit, taking it's form from art history guides that had started to be created after the war.
Includes introduction by Gerard Boniier as well as additional text by Olle Granath, K.G. Hulten, Ulf Linde and Karin Bergqvist Lindegren. Features works by Henri Matisse, Georges Rouault, Raoul Dufy, Emil Nolde, Edwin Ludwig Kirchner, Erich Heckel, Oscar Kokoschka, Max Beckmann, Chaim Soutine, Wassily Kandinsky, Kasimir Malevich, Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, Jacques Villon, Raymond Duchamp-Villon, Henri Le Fauconnier, Fernand Léger, Robert Delaunay, Roger de la Fresnaye, Henri Laurens, Amédée Ozenfant, Juan Gris, Alexander Archipenko, Jacques Lipchitz, Giacomo Balla, Ardengo Soffici, Carlo Carrà, Umberto Boccioni, Gino Severini, Francis Picabia, Jean Arp, Marcel Duchamp, Man Ray, Kurt Schwitters, Piet Mondrian, El Lissitzky, Theo van Doesburg, Antoine Pevsner, Georges Vantongerloo, Sophie Tauber-Arp, Naum Gabo, Lazlo Moholy-Nagy, Alexander Calder, Charles Despiau, Andre Derain, Maurice Utrillo, Amedeo Modigliani, Otto Dix, Ben Shahn, Marie Laurencin, Constantin Brancusi, Julio Gonzales, Paul Klee, Giorgio de Chirico, Marc Chagall, Max Ernst, Juan Miró, Andre Masson, René Magritte, Yves Tanguy, Alberto Giacometti, Wilfredo Lam, Victor Brauner, Salvador Dali, Sebastian Matta, Henry Moore, Roger Bissière, Jean Bazaine, Maurice Esteve, Alfred Manessier, Nicolas De Staël, Auguste Herbin, Serge Poliafkoff, Victor Pasmore, Barnett Newman, Richard Mortensen, Jean Fautrier, Lucio Fontana, Henri Michaux, Jean Dubuffet, Germaine Richier, Francis Bacon, Wols, Asger Jorn, Alberto Burri, Antonio Tapies, Karel Appel, Mark Tobey, Fritz Hundertwasser, Mark Rothko, Archile Gorky, Willem de Kooning, Jackson Pollock, Jean-Paul Riopelle, Sam Francis, Robert Jacobsen, Robert Rauschenberg, Enrico Baj, César, Jasper Johns, Richard Stankiewicz, Jean Tinguely, Arman, and Yves Klein.
All texts in Swedish. The bulk of the reproductions are in black-and-white with several larger, tipped-in images in color.
Ex-library copy with stamps, stickers and covering. Otherwise a good copy.
1995, German
Softcover, 200 pages, 28 x 23 cm
Ed. of 1000,
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Witte de With / Rotterdam
Neue Nationalgalerie / Berlin
$90.00 - Out of stock
The rare first major monographic catalogue on Paul Thek, published in conjunction with a major retrospective exhibition staged at Witte de With, Center for Contemporary Art, Rotterdam, June 3 - October 8, 1995. The exhibition went on to Berlin, Barcelona, Zürich, Marseille, accompanied by this important book on the history of one of America's great artists.
Lavishly illustrated throughout with Thek's notebooks, sculptures, installations, paintings, drawings, photographs, writings, and much more, accompanied by important historical texts by Ann Wilson, Anke Bangma, Harald Szeemann, Richard Flood, Marietta Franke, Holland Cotter, Roland Groenenboom, and Rebecca Quaytman. Includes a selected bibliography.
Printed in an edition of 1000.
2012, English
Softcover, 216 pages, 24 x 28 cm
Published by
MoMA / New York
$70.00 - In stock -
A sculptor who began working during the postwar period in a classical figurative style, Alina Szapocznikow radically reconceptualized sculpture as an imprint not only of memory but of her own body. Though her career effectively spanned less than two decades (cut short by the artist's premature death in 1973 aged 47), Szapocznikow left behind a legacy of provocative objects that evoke Surrealism, Nouveau Realisme and Pop art. Her tinted polyester casts of body parts, often transformed into everyday objects like lamps or ashtrays; her poured polyurethane forms; and her elaborately constructed sculptures, which at times incorporated photographs, clothing or car parts, all remain as wonderfully idiosyncratic and culturally resonant today as when they were first made.
Well-known in Poland, where her work has been highly influential since early in her career, Szapocznikows compelling body of work is ripe for art-historical reexamination. "Alina Szapocznikow: Sculpture Undone, 1955-1972" offers a comprehensive overview of this important artists work at a moment when international interest is blossoming. Richly illustrated with over 150 colour plates, the catalogue features essays by the exhibition curators that touch on key aspects of her practice and historical reception, as well as an extensive annotated chronology that provides an in-depth exploration of the intersection of her life and art. Spanning one of the most rich and complex periods of the twentieth century, Szapocznikows oeuvre responds to many of the ideological and artistic developments of her time through artwork that is at once fragmented and transformative, sensual and reflective, playfully realized and politically charged.