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:
CLOSED FOR SUMMER
RE—OPENING JAN 16
WEB-SHOP OPEN 24/7
ORDERS SHIP FROM JAN 6
World Food Books
Postal Address:
PO Box 435
Flinders Lane
Victoria 8009
Australia
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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.
1995, Japanese
Hardcover (w. dust jacket), 32 x 27 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / good
Published by
Bunkasha / Japan
$140.00 - In stock -
First 1995 hardcover edition of "one, two, three", a gorgeous oversized hardcover collection of nude photography by master Japanese photographer Kishin Shinoyama of award-winning actress Saki Takaoka. Takaoka was born in Kanagawa in 1972 and has appeared in many films, TV dramas, commercials, and musicals. Composed of black-and-white and colour works, this book became a hot topic in society at the time of its publication and recorded an astounding circulation of approximately 470,000 copies, which is unthinkable today. The number of sales and topicality are certainly very high, but the beauty of the photographs, and above all, the beauty of Saki Takaoka, who does not wear a single thread, can be said to be a work of art from head to toe. The atmosphere of monochrome printing is also very wonderful. A stunning book with beautiful, modern, pared back typographic design.
Very Good copy of clothbound 1st edition with Good dust jacket with wear and some chipping to spine/extremities.
1998, English / Japanese
Softcover, 128 pages, 30.5 x 22.5 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Little More / Tokyo
$200.00 - Out of stock
Controversial inaugural (December 1998) issue of Richardson magazine, the short-lived cult 1990's art/sex magazine published by Little More in Japan, edited by Andrew Richardson (of Richardson label, fashion stylist w. Supreme, CK, Valentino, etc.) and art direction by Laura Genninger of STUDIO 191 (designer of AnOther Magazine, etc.). Navigating the murky boundaries between art and obscenity, an honourable pursuit in Japan, this first issue features the double-cover (censored and non-censored) of adult film star Jenna Jameson shot by Glen Luchford, along with J.J. photo feature and interview, Richard Prince’s “Spiritual America” text and photography/artworks inc. the infamous 11-year-old Brooke Shields piece, "Be Broken" erotic artwork gallery by Harmony Korine, "Love Letter to Amerika" from Takashi Homma, Terry Richardson photography, "Cunt" fiction by Stewart Home, photos by French cinematographer (Gummo, Ulysse, Boy Meets Girl, etc.) Jean-Yves Escoffier, Japanese V-Cinema and pink star Nao Saejima, Stewart Home on Cosey Fanni Tutti, many works of photography and text by American photojournalist and writer Erika Langley, erotic photography by skater Ed Templeton of photographer and wife Deanna Templeton, vintage erotica collection by photographer Bela Borsodi, poetry and more! Riddled with bans and confiscations due to explicit un-censored imagery by Japanese censorship standards.
Texts in both English and Japanese.
Very Good copy.
1993, English
Softcover, 256 pages, 24 x 16.5 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Whitney Museum / New York
Harry N. Abrams / New York
$300.00 - Out of stock
Still, and will probably always be, the best book on Mike Kelley. First edition, now very collectible. This definitive survey was published in 1993 in conjunction with "Mike Kelley", a travelling exhibition held at Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, LA; and Moderna Museet, Stockholm, throughout 1994. Mike Kelley, one of the leading Californian artists of the 1990s, was a proponent of abject or pathetic art, an anti-aesthetic, anti-heroic movement, which criticized social and artistic issues through banality and humour. Exploring the work of this great and controversial performance artist and sculptor at the mid-way point in his career, this dense book presents thirteen essays, plus an introduction, discussing Kelley's projects, performances, and the ideas and diverse influences that motivate his work - contemporary art, rock and roll, social commentary and pop culture. Profusely illustrated throughout in colour and black and white, with texts by Elizabeth Sussman, David Marsh, Richard Armstrong, Timothy Martin, Howard Singerman, Colin Gardner, Dennis Cooper & Casey McKinney, John Miller, Ralph Rugoff, Kim Gordon, Howard N. Fox, Diedrich Diederichsen, Jutta Koether, Martin Prinzhorn, Paul Schimmel, John G. Hanhardt. No less! Includes a bibliography and exhibition history. Catalogue designed by Lorraine Wild and ReVerb.
Highly recommended.
Very Good copy, tightly bound, no spine creases. Light cover edge wear.
1987, Japanese
Softcover (w. dust jacket), 98 pages (w. fold-outs), 42 x 30 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Treville / Tokyo
$190.00 - Out of stock
First Japanese edition of H.R. Giger's Necronomicon II, the second oversized and visually overwhelming Giger-designed collection that takes us further through the incredible history of one of the most brilliant fantasy artists of the century. Reproducing Giger's award-winning work for the film ALIEN, his paintings, environments, sculptural works, his work for never shot film "The Tourist", collaborations with Blondie's Debbie Harry, his "New York City" series from the late 1970's and much more, all beautifully reproduced in full-colour and black and white, full-bleed spreads, including fold-out pages. Also includes interviews, texts, biography. These Giger folio books have become very desirable, collectable editions in their various printings around the world, the series encompassing the work of one of the world's most unique and influential visionaries of the macabre. This is volume 2 of 2 of "HR Giger's Necronomicon" where Al Azred's legendary magical book of the most wonderful abominations and perversions, "Necronomicon" (made infamous in the pages of HP Lovecraft's "Cthulhu" mythology), becomes a visual reality!
First Japanese edition, published by Treville, Tokyo, in 1987. Very good copy throughout with Very Good dust jacket. Some edge wear with fragile, oversized edition.
2021, English
Softcover, 300 pages, 17 x 24 cm
Published by
Edition Patrick Frey / Zürich
$175.00 - In stock -
Thanks to his work on the iconic creature for the film Alien (Ridley Scott, 1979) – a detailed account of which is given in his Alien Diaries (2013, first edition, Edition Patrick Frey) – H. R. Giger was firmly established in Hollywood’s supernatural horror and science fiction genres. Giger went on to design all the ghosts for Poltergeist II: The Other Side (Brian Gibson, 1986). Unlike his work on Alien on the set at Shepperton Studios in England, Giger collaborated on the movie remotely from Zürich, basing his creatures on Michael Grais and Mark Victor’s screenplay and airmailing the airbrushed designs to Los Angeles.
Due to his absence as well as misunderstandings with the director and the studio and a meagre production budget, the dark inscrutability and amorphous plasticity of Giger’s initial shape-shifting sketches ended up falling flat on celluloid, coming to resemble cheap-looking monsters in a campy B-movie. Giger’s in some cases psychedelic sketches were designed as sequences showing the metamorphosis of a worm-like ghost into a grotesque dwarf that ultimately morphs into a soul-devouring Gorgon-like monster called 'The Great Beast'. Poltergeist II – Drawings 1983–1985 is a facsimile edition of Giger’s original sketchbook, containing 135 of his remarkable drawings as well as drafts of letters expressing doubts and suggestions to director Brian Gibson.
2023, English / German
Hardcover, 240 pages, 35 x 26 cm
Published by
Scheidegger und Spiess / Zürich
$190.00 - Out of stock
A unique visual foray into the fantastic worlds of artist H.R. Giger.
The art of H.R. Giger (1940-2014), Swiss-born creator of the legendary monster in Ridley Scott's movie Alien, is currently experiencing a renaissance and is featured in exhibitions as well as in magazines around the globe. This lavish large-format volume offers never-before-seen insights into Giger's private house and garden, both of which are populated by biomechanical sculptures, airbrush paintings, Alien furniture, objects, prints, and self-portraits. French photographer Camille Vivier—best known for her work for Stella McCartney and Cartier—enjoyed exclusive access to the artist's Zurich home and studio for this book, where she worked on her own as well as with models in a series of photo sessions.
Vivier's around 200 photographs form an atmospheric tribute to the arguably most distinguished representative of Fantastic Realism. In addition to images of Giger's studio and his life-size sculptures, Vivier has also documented some hundred objects and artworks, as well as his famous Alien-style garden railroad.
An essay by French publicist Farbrice Paineu places H.R. Giger's art in the wider context of pop culture and the genre of horror movies.
Edited by Beda Achermann.
Text in English and German.
1994, English
Softcover, 208 pages, 27 x 15 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
University of Minnesota Press / Minnesota
$35.00 - In stock -
First 1994 edition published by University of Minnesota Press.
Focusing on feminist theorists such as Hélène Cixous, Teresa de Lauretis, Julia Kristeva, and Monique Wittig in conjunction with Bakhtin’s concepts of dialogism, heteroglossia, and chronotope, the authors offer close readings of texts from a wide range of multicultural genres, including nature writing, sermon composition, nineteenth-century British women’s fiction, the contemporary romance novel, Irish and French lyric poetry, and Latin American film.
Focusing on feminist theorists such as Hélène Cixous, Teresa de Lauretis, Julia Kristeva, and Monique Wittig in conjunction with Bakhtin’s concepts of dialogism, heteroglossia, and chronotope, the authors offer close readings of texts from a wide range of multicultural genres, including nature writing, sermon composition, nineteenth-century British women’s fiction, the contemporary romance novel, Irish and French lyric poetry, and Latin American film.
Very Good copy.
1992, English
Softcover, 300 pages, 21.5 x 14 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Indiana University Press / Indiana
$25.00 - Out of stock
January 1992 issue of Camera Obscura (No. 28), the Journal of Feminism and Film Theory published by Indiana University Press. This issue with the theme of "Imaging Technologies, Inscribing Science", with special issue editors Paula A. Treichler and Lisa Cartwright.
Edited by Elisabeth Lyon, Constance Penley, Lynn Spigel, Sharon Willis, with advisory editors Bertrand Augst, Elizabeth Cowie, Mary Ann Doane, Laura Mulvey, Linda Orr, Susan Suleiman, and managing editor Gary Laderman.
camera obscura
A Journal of Feminism and Film Theory/28
Imaging Technologies, Inscribing Science
Special Issue Editors: Paula A. Treichler and Lisa Cartwright
5 Introduction by Paula A. Treichler and Lisa Cartwright
Beyond Cosmo: AIDS, Identity, and Inscriptions of Gender by Paula A. Treichler; Local and Global: AIDS Activism and Feminist Theory by Katie King; Gallo, Montagnier, and the Debate Over HIV: A Narrative Analysis by Jamie Feldman; WAVE in the Media Environment: Camcorder Activism and the Making of HIV TV by Alexandra Juhasz; WAVE in the Media Environment: Camcorder Activism in AIDS; Education by Juanita Mohammed; The Politics of Breast Cancer by Alisa Solomon; Shooting the Mother: Fetal Photography and the Politics of Disappearance by Carol Stabile; On the Cutting Edge: Cosmetic Surgery and the Technological Production of the Gendered Body by Anne Balsamo; Spectatorial Embodiments: Anatomies of the Visible and the Female Bodyscape by Giuliana Bruno; Those Who Squat and Those Who Sit: The Iconography of Race in the 1895 Films of Félix-Louis Regnault by Fatimah Tobing Rony; plus reviews and much more.
Very Good copy.
2024, English
Hardcover, 144 pages, 26.1 x 21 cm
Published by
MoMA / New York
$65.00 - Out of stock
The first-in depth publication to critically investigate the impact of Pope.L’s early performances on his career. With contributions by Stuart Comer, C. Carr, Valerie Cassel Oliver, Adrienne Edwards, Darby English, Malik Gaines, Danielle A. Jackson, Adrian Heathfield, EJ Hill, Thomas J. Lax, Andre Lepecki, Yvonne Rainer, Martine Syms, Martha Wilson.
Pope.L (b. 1955) is a consummate thinker and provocateur whose practice across multiple mediums – including painting, drawing, installation, sculpture, theatre and video – utilizes abjection, humour, endurance, language and absurdity to confront and undermine rigid systems of belief. Spanning works made primarily from 1978 to 2001, member: Pope.L, 1978-2001 features a combination of videos, photographs, sculptural elements, ephemera and live actions. This volume, published in conjunction with an exhibition at The Museum of Modern Art, presents a detailed study of thirteen early works that helped define Pope.L’s career. It features essays by curators, artists, filmmakers and art historians, plus an intervieww and artistic interventions by the artist. These components are supplemented by thirteen detailed plate entries that highlight key details of each work. The entries engage performances that are rooted in experimental theatre such as Egg Eating Contest (1990) and Aunt Jenny Chronicles (1991) as well as street interventions such as Thunderbird Immolation a.k.a. Meditation Square Piece (1978), ATM Piece (1996), and The Great White Way: 22 miles, 9 years, 1 street (2001-2009), among others. Together these works highlight the role of that performance has played within a seditious, emphatically interdisciplinary career that has established Pope.L as an influential force in the history of contemporary art.
2024, English
Softcover, 160 pages, 21.5 x 14 cm
Published by
Bombast / Seattle
$45.00 - In stock -
MAKING CINEPHILIA A THREAT AGAIN!
The long-awaited second issue of the periodical that “saved film culture” [J-M Straub], Bombast, that shape-shifting, mind-bending “Journal of Film and Funnies,” is back with a sophomore edition nigh twice as girthy as the first, a laff-larded -yet -thought-provoking traipse through the posh front parlors and squalid back alleys of the Seventh (and Best) Art. Far cheaper and more edifying than a Cinema Studies degree, a thing of beauty to treasure forever, and still in retina- scorching full color!
CONTRIBUTORS: Nick Pinkerton, Dan Fried, Christopher Norris, Nick Blinko, Mira Sonnleitner, Chase Slaker, David Tarafa, Jonathan Bauerle, Gashly, Jay Giampietro, Mike Kuchar, Wil Long, Rozz Williams, Casey Moore, Demian Johnston, Ben Horak...
Extremely LIMITED copies!
1994, English
Hardcover, 72 page,s 20.5 x 16.5 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Art Gallery of New South Wales / Sydney
$18.00 - In stock -
Hardcover catalogue published on the occasion of the exhibition of Susan Norrie at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, 1994, profusely illustrated with accompanying texts by Victoria Lynn, Gregory Burke, Ingrid Periz. Includes chronology, catalogue.
Susan Norrie (b. 1953) is Sydney-based artist who has developed a practice which utilises art, documentary and film genres. Her projects are concerned with the environment, human rights and survival. In 2007 she represented Australia at the 52nd Venice Biennale.
Very Good copy, light cover wear.
1980, Japanese
Softcover (staple-bound), 36.5 x 25.5 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Ryuko Tsushin / Japan
$80.00 - Out of stock
Wonderful early issue of Japan's Studio Voice magazine, with original cover artwork by Aquirax Uno, published in 1980 in the early over-sized, tabloid format established by Andy Warhol's Interview magazine. When it was first launched in 1976, Studio Voice was the Japanese edition of Warhol's Interview, bridging New York and Tokyo culture. The arts, music, fashion, photography, film, literature, model news, style news, reviews... The Japanese Interview, say no more!
Very Good copy, some cover/spine wear.
1992, English / French
Softcover (staple-bound), 64 pages, 24.5 x 19 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Purple Institute / Paris
$580.00 - In stock -
The true beginning of Purple — the very rare first issue of Elein Fleiss and Olivier Zahm's Purple Prose, published in 1992. Founded as a reaction against the superficial glamour of the 1980’s, Purple Prose embraced the immediate fanzine aesthetics of what became referred to as 1990's anti-fashion, a far cry from what we now identify with Purple Fashion with.
Purple Prose 1, Automne 1992, features contributions by Dike Blair, Andrea Zittel, Joshua Decter, Henry Bond, Daniel Lemer, Jutta Koether, Andrea Zittel, Roddy Bogawa, Jon Moritsugu, Jacques Boyreau, Jan Avgikos, Martin Kippenberger, Patrick Van Caeckenbergh, Edgar Heap of Birds, David Robbins, Jean-Christophe Menu, Vitaly Glabel, Kitten (pre—Free Kitten: Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth and Pussy Galore's Julia Cafritz), Patrick Bouchitey, Jean-Luc Vilmouth, François Roche, and many more.
Soon after the birth of Purple Prose, Zahm created spin-off publications like Purple Sexe, Purple Fiction and what we now know and love, Purple Fashion. Zahm aimed at fusing together his two worlds, fashion and art, in creating Purple Fashion.
Before entering the world of fashion, Zahm worked as an art critic with widespread recognition for his work as a curator as well as his participation in over 150 exhibitions featuring international contemporary art. In 1994, Zahm and Fleiss curated “The Winter of Love,” a hit show for the Museum of Modern Art in Paris that they later took to P.S.1 in New York. In responding to the superficial glamour of the 1980s, Zahm co-founded Purple Prose magazine. In the introduction of Purple Anthology, Zahm shares why he chose to create Purple Prose:
"We launched Purple Prose in the early 1990s without any means, and without any experience, because we wanted to make a magazine that was radically different. We wanted to support the artists around us that no one else supported, much less talked about. [..] It would be a form of opposition of our own".
Very Good—Near Fine copy, light wear.
1993, French / English
Softcover (staple-bound), 80 pages, 24.5 x 18 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Purple Institute / Paris
$220.00 - Out of stock
The very scarce second issue of Elein Fleiss and Olivier Zahm's Purple Prose, the Parisian literary art zine that began the world of Purple. Founded in 1992 as a reaction against the superficial glamour of the 1980’s, Purple Prose embraced the immediate fanzine aesthetics of what became referred to as 1990's anti-fashion, a far cry from what we now identify with Purple Fashion with.
Purple Prose 2 (Winter 1993) features: Martine Aballea, Olivier Badot, Pierre Bismuth, Dike Blair, Olivier Blanckart, Henry Bond, Cocto, Tommaso Corvi-Mora, Liz Dalton, Peter Fleissig, Anne Frémy, Vitaly Glabel, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Isabelle Graw, John S. Hall, Markus Hansen, Lothar Hempel, Thomas Johnson, Bernard Jolsten, Isaac Julien, Jutta Koether, Ariel Kyrou, Simon Lee, Christophe Lemaire, Michel Maffesoli, Eva Marisaldi, Barbara Osborn, Valerie Pigato, Jeff Rian, David Robbins, François Roche, Julia Scher, R. U. Sirius, Liz Stirling, Tom Verlaine, Jean-Luc Vilmouth, Jacques-Arthur Weil.
Soon after the birth of Purple Prose, Zahm created spin-off publications like Purple Sexe, Purple Fiction and what we now know and love, Purple Fashion. Zahm aimed at fusing together his two worlds, fashion and art, in creating Purple Fashion.
Before entering the world of fashion, Zahm worked as an art critic with widespread recognition for his work as a curator as well as his participation in over 150 exhibitions featuring international contemporary art. In 1994, Zahm and Fleiss curated “The Winter of Love,” a hit show for the Museum of Modern Art in Paris that they later took to P.S.1 in New York. In responding to the superficial glamour of the 1980s, Zahm co-founded Purple Prose magazine. In the introduction of Purple Anthology, Zahm shares why he chose to create Purple Prose:
"We launched Purple Prose in the early 1990s without any means, and without any experience, because we wanted to make a magazine that was radically different. We wanted to support the artists around us that no one else supported, much less talked about. [..] It would be a form of opposition of our own".
Very Good—Near Fine copy, light wear.
2004, English / French
Softcover (staple-bound), 21 x 27.5 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Purple Institute / Paris
$190.00 - In stock -
Rare copy of the first issue of The Purple Journal, featuring Elein Fleiss, Jeffrey Rian, Dorothée Perret, Mark Borthwick, Gérard Duguet-Grasser, Laetitia Benat, Marina Faust, Allen Ginsberg, Susan Cianciolo, Henry Roy, Lizzi Bougatsos, Anders Edström, Maurizio Cattelan, Takashi Homma, Michel Zumpf, Chikashi Suzuki, Barbet Schroeder, Alain Lacroix, Jonathan Boulting, Maison Martin Margiela, Cora Maghnaoui, Claude Lévêque, Beth Yahp, Cosmic Wonder, Angela Hill, Ferdinand Gouzon, Comme des Garçons, Curtis Winter, Beth Yahp, Ferdinand Gouzon, Curtis Winter, Manon de Boer, Christophe Brunnquell, Sébastien Jamain, Tiphaine Samoyault, Helmut Lang, Veronique Branquinho, Sébastien Jamain, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Sharon Mesmer, Gérard Duguet-Grasser, and much more. Includes the special Paris supplement (16 pages).
"This is our first issue: joy, hope. Starting out or beginning again (the journal Hélène and the magazine Purple)-anyway, it's a first appearance. A path we'll travel together, we, the editors, and you, the readers. We will show reality as we see it through encounters with people, places, landscapes, artworks. Writing and photographs, original voices. The journey is not mapped out in advance, we'll discover it (as it reveals itself) with the changing seasons."—the editors
In 1992 Olivier Zahm and his partner Elein Fleiss printed the first issue of Purple Prose, a Parisian literary art zine that over the years has evolved into Purple Fashion Magazine. Soon after the birth of Purple Prose, Zahm and Fleiss created spin-off publications like les cahiers purple, Purple Sexe, Purple Fiction, and of course, Purple Fashion. Zahm aimed at fusing together his two worlds, fashion and art, in creating Purple Fashion.
Very Good copy, light wear/age/rippling to page edges.
2021, English
Softcover, 128 pages, 24 x 29 cm
Published by
Lenz Press / Milan
$95.00 - In stock -
A series of images of Villa Santo Sospir in Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, the "Tattooed Villa" transformed into an artwork by Jean Cocteau, whose Brazilian photographer Mauro Restiffe reveals the hidden details during a residency.
The Villa Santo Sospir in Saint-Jean Cap-Ferrat is not a Gesamtkunstwerk, and stands out in particular from the now-mythical realizations by Eileen Gray and Le Corbusier at Cap-Martin, just a stone's throw away. Far from a manifesto, Cocteau invests a pre-existing and rather unremarkable architecture, then conceives his intervention in the villa through a process of accumulation, mixing souvenirs and objects belonging to Francine Weisweiller or himself with the furniture of their friend Madeleine Castaing. Inspired by Greek mythology and the Mediterranean landscapes that surrounded the Villa, this late pictorial work, resolutely anti-modern, has long been ignored or vilified by historians. While Cocteau's entire literary, theatrical and cinematographic work deals with the representation of self, it always takes place in a particular setting. The interiors imagined by Cocteau provide accurate portraits of their occupants. In the 1950s, Jean Cocteau split his time between Paris, Milly la Forêt, and Saint-Jean Cap-Ferrat. It is at Santo Sospir that most of his TV interviews were made. It is above all the only house he filmed in his last two cinematographic opuses: La Villa Santo Sospir (filmée et commentée par Jean Cocteau) and Le Testament d'Orphée (Ne me demandez pas pourquoi). Santo Sospir can thus be viewed from the angle of a movie set, which allows him to introduce the world to the other Jean Cocteau—the Mediterranean poet, the craftsman.
Architecture, and Modernism in particular, has always been a source of inspiration for Brazilian photographer Mauro Restiffe. In his photographs, Restiffe has been exploring how every side of the built environment is imbued with life, all the more so in the unobserved details and even when no one is framed. In 2018, at the beginning of a multi-year restoration, he was invited to reside at the villa.
Mauro Restiffe (born 1970, lives and works in São Paulo) captures large format photographs of landscapes, modernist interiors, iconic architectures, and urban life, as well as exploring issues of representation in images that reproduce existing works of art. His work, exhibited internationally, is part is in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art (New York), SFMOMA (San Francisco), Tate Modern (London), MASP (São Paulo), among others.
1991 / 1994, English
Softcover (2 Vols), 192 + 126 pages, 22 x 28 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / good
Published by
Titan Books / London
$80.00 - Out of stock
First two first edition (1991 and 1994) volumes of this incredible collection of features, interviews and reviews covering the excesses of the world of exploitation cinema gathered from the pages of 1980's U.K. cult horror magazine Shock Xpress, featuring the film writings of Stephen Thrower, Anne Billson, Julian Grainger, George Kuchar, Ramsey Campbell, Kim Newman, Jack Stevenson, David Kerekes, David McGillivray, Alan Jones, and edited by Skullflower/Ascension guitarist Stefan Jaworzyn. Includes interviews with directors such as David Cronenberg, Clive Barker, and John Waters, as are features on obscure "classics" such as "Hitler's Wild Women", plus hundreds of rare photos, stills, lobby cards, posters... Georges Franju, Walerian Borowczyk, Franco Nero, Lindsay Shonteff...
"Really is the essential guide to exploitation cinema"—Film Review
Average—Good copies. Both generally Good but Vol. 2 with two loose pages, light creasing/wear to both.
2024, English
Softcover, 596 pages, 24 x 17 cm
Published by
Headpress / Oxford
$62.00 - In stock -
In the early 1980s, video technology forever changed the face of home entertainment. The videocassette - a handy-sized cartridge of magnetic tape inside a plastic shell - domesticated cinema as families across Britain began to consume films in an entirely new way. Demand was high and the result was a video gold rush, with video rental outlets appearing on every high street almost overnight. Without moderation their shelves filled with all manner of films depicting unbridled sex and violence. A backlash was inevitable. Video was soon perceived as a threat to society, a view neatly summed up in the term 'video nasties'.
CANNIBAL ERROR chronicles the phenomenal rise of video culture through a tumultuous decade, its impact and its aftermath. Based on extensive research and interviews, the authors provide a first-hand account of Britain in the 1980s, when video became a scapegoat for a variety of social ills. It examines the confusion spawned by the Video Recordings Act 1984, the subsequent witch hunt that culminated in police raids and arrests, and offers insightful commentary on many contentious and 'banned' films that were cited by the media as influential factors in several murder cases. It also investigates the cottage industry in illicit films that developed as a direct result of the 'video nasty' clampdown.
CANNIBAL ERROR, a revised and reworked edition of SEE NO EVIL (2000), is an exhaustive and startling overview of Britain's 'video nasty' panic, the ramifications of which are still felt today.
1981, English
Softcover, 116 pages, 28 x 21 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
PARCO / Tokyo
$90.00 - In stock -
Like no other magazine - Super Art Gocoo was the wild late 1970s—1980s art journal from art director Ryōichi Enomoto and published by the mighty Parco gallery, imprint and department-store-like-no-other in Tokyo. With a cover by Harumi Yamaguchi, this bumper issue from 1981 is also largely dedicated to "Harumi Eros" — the work of legendary Japanese airbrush queen Harumi Yamaguchi and her "Gals". Not only does it feature a heavily illustrated behind-the-scenes with Yamaguchi it also visits the studio of fellow-airbrush master Pater Sato in his New York New Wave period. There is also lots of work by the great graphic artist Tadanori Yokoo, a feature on legendary French underground magazine Façade (1976—1983), a story on American dancer/choreographer/composer/Steve Reich collaborator Laura Dean, the photography of Hiroshi Yamazaki, graphic designer Kiyoshi Awazu, graphic designer Yutaka Sugita, a discussion between Japanese pop artists Akiko Yano and Nanako Sato, Tokyo Designers Space Report, plus articles, reviews, reports on art, dance, film, fashion, music, magazines, books.... The Face, Terry Riley, etc. Parco were instrumental in exhibiting, publishing and promoting Japanese and international graphic artists and new pop culture in this period, and these journals create a wonderful time-capsule at the height of that incredible time.
Very Good - Fine copy.
1969, Japanese
Softcover, 218 pages, 21 x 14.8 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / good
Published by
Misaki Shobo / Tokyo
$45.00 - Out of stock
Erotica September 1969, Japan's erotic magazine for bibliophiles, published in the 1960s—1970s by Misaki Bookstore. Each issue densely packed with illustrations, articles, news, and feature stories around the universe of Eros from around the world during a time of great sexual revolution. Covering all manner of sexual customs and subject matter from the arts and literature, film and manga, philosophy and radical politics, Erotica was Japan's leading erotic academic journal, featuring, amongst it's heavy historical and contemporary papers, the cutting-edge of Japanese and international erotic artists, from Hans Bellmer to Toshio Saeki.
Erotica September 1969 is themed "The Situation of Eros".
Good copy, wear/age.
1970, Japanese
Softcover, 250 pages, 21 x 14.8 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / good
Published by
Misaki Shobo / Tokyo
$30.00 - Out of stock
Erotica December 1970, Japan's erotic magazine for bibliophiles, published in the 1960s—1970s by Misaki Bookstore. Each issue densely packed with illustrations, articles, news, and feature stories around the universe of Eros from around the world during a time of great sexual revolution. Covering all manner of sexual customs and subject matter from the arts and literature, film and manga, philosophy and radical politics, Erotica was Japan's leading erotic academic journal, featuring, amongst it's heavy historical and contemporary papers, the cutting-edge of Japanese and international erotic artists, from Hans Bellmer to Toshio Saeki.
Erotica December 1970 is themed "The Eros of Theatre: The Aesthetics of Voluptuousness".
Good copy, light wear/age.
2024, English
Hardcover, 180 pages, 22.9 x 15.2 cm
Published by
No Place Press / US
$48.00 - In stock -
Two of the most important voices in art history discuss their intellectual foundations, the changing role of criticism, and the possibilities for artistic practice today.
In Exit Interview, the prominent art critics and historians Hal Foster and Benjamin Buchloh discuss their intellectual foundations and the projects they've worked on together, from October magazine to Art Since 1900. Through three engaging conversations, Foster engages Buchloh on his early influences and aspirations, his formative years in Berlin, London, and Dusseldorf, and his career in North America, while exploring the impact of other art historians and critics. Buchloh candidly addresses his successes, critical significance, and unexplored avenues in art history, providing a unique window into his motivations and experiences. With a powerful postface by Buchloh, Exit Interview builds from biography and anecdote to important reflection on one's critical life as a whole.
2023, English
Softcover, 120 pages, 10.5 x 8 cm
Published by
Hanuman Editions / US
$25.00 - In stock -
Garden of Ashes, Cookie Mueller's second entry into the Hanuman Books canon (following 1988's Fan Mail, Frank Letters, and Crank Calls) brings together ten stories, autobiographical accounts of her ascent to cult-cinema superstardom, with tales dedicated to several of her fellow Dreamlanders, including "Edith Massey: A Star" and "Divine".
Cookie Mueller (1949–1989) was an American writer, actress, and advice columnist, best remembered as a regular cast member of some of the director John Waters's groundbreaking films, including Multiple Maniacs, Pink Flamingos, Female Trouble, and Desperate Living. She died from AIDS-related complications in 1989.
From the first series redux of Hanuman Books, the legendary and cult series of chapbooks that were printed in southern India and published out of the storied Chelsea Hotel in New York City between 1986 and 1993. Founded by American curator Raymond Foye and artist Francesco Celemente, Hanuman Books was dedicated mainly to the extreme deconstructive edge of the countercultural poetic, musical, and artistic currents of the 1960s and 1970s, spanning the era of the Cold War, the AIDS crisis, the Harlem Ballroom scene, the Beats, Warhol's Factory etc. Hanuman Books sought to marry the folk-minimal-artisanal with the cutting edge, playfully marketing their books as ‘secret’ documents of an avant-garde subculture, meant to be passed on covertly at street corners just as millenarian chapbooks of medieval times were supposed to have been. Printed in India, the small format is meant to mimic the chapbook form of the Hanuman Chalisa (a folk compendium of chants to the Hindu god Hanuman, sold very cheaply in the bazaars of India) that made them perfect for slipping illicitly into any pocket. Redux editions edited by Shruti Belliappa and Joshua Rothes.
1989/1991, English
Softcover (spiral bound, hand collaged acetate cover), 212 pages, 22 x 18.5 cm
Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Apathy Press / Baltimore
$140.00 - In stock -
Exceptionally rare copy of How to Write a Resumé Volume II: Making a Good First Impression by Baltimore guerrilla cultist conceptualist tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE aka Michael Tolson aka Tim Ore aka Monty Cantsin aka tENT, published by poet Tom DiVenti's Apathy Press around 1989. Self-described as a mad scientist/d composer/sound thinker/thought collector, Tolson's work has involved body art, installation, film and video, performances, artist books, mail art, and graffiti. He is also a member of the Church of the Sub-genius and co-publisher of Widemouth Tapes with the Merzaum (Schwitters' "Merz" / Kruchenykh's "zaum") Collective. With a first edition of little more than 100 copies, this second expanded edition of 200 copies was hand-copied by the anarcho dadaist, neoist author himself in 1991 whilst working at Kinkos in Baltimore, featuring hand-collaged acetate covers and an additional 72 pages of content, it is an impressive document where even language itself is under interrogation. How to Write a Resumé Volume II: Making a Good First Impression (naturally there was no Volume 1) functions as a sort of evidence file of Tolson's life/agit-career as a self-made objet d'art. The incidents, subversive actions, broadcasts, exhibitions, rituals, arrests and general provocation; collating documentation, texts, reflections and press clippings of legitimate news coverage of his various activities throughout the 1980's, from the subtle to the catastrophic, the petty to the galvanising — drug trips, urban rituals, fights at parties, body modification, pranks, art strikes. Includes his guerrilla art action at the upmarket Luskin's department store, confronting customers by broadcasting his films across the audio/visual department, and "Three Year Emergency of Fire & Grim" — an illustrated journal from the "working class barracks" of South Baltimore in the early 1980's, depicting the rising violent tensions and mutual vulnerability of a progressively deteriorating neighbourhood poisoned by surrounding gentrification and inhabited by squatters and drunks.
Safe to say there is no account like it because there is no other life like it, yet it simultaneously embodies a certain tragicomedy provocateur death-drive that permeated the underground arts (or anti-arts) in the 1980's—1990's, that can seldom be found in culture today. As one reviewer commented, How to Write a Resumé Volume II: Making a Good First Impression could have made an entire issue of RE/SEARCH at that time.
Very Good with general light wear/tanning to extremities.