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 01.02.24
WEB-SHOP OPEN 24/7.
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.
2007, English
Hardcover (pressed cloth w. plastic sleeve), 218 pages, 21 x 26.5 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / fine
Published by
JRP Ringier / Zürich
Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst / Zürich
$1000.00 - Out of stock
One of the great artist books of our time, Marc Camille Chaimowicz's The World of Interiors disappeared from existence immediately after its publication, becoming a book of legend.
Awarded "The Most Beautiful Swiss Book" in 2007, The World of Interiors was conceived and realized by Chaimowicz (b. post-war Paris) on the occasion of his solo exhibition at the Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Zurich. In the guise of a perfectly reproduced copy of an issue of the famous World Of Interiors magazine, the artist conceived this publication as a reference monograph and a source catalogue, ranging from his first post-Pop scatter installations to works realized in the 1990s. Looking back over nearly 30 years of work, this issue of World Of Interiors is beautifully détourned by Chaimowicz through inserting and collaging his own work (drawings, designs, paintings, photographs of installations, sculptures, his own domestic interiors, furniture, objects), personal writings, clippings from other magazines, references to Cocteau, Proust, Flaubert, Grey, Genet, Giacometti, and texts by contributing writers throughout its glossy pages. Legend has it (and we have this from the best sources) that the publishers received a 'cease and desist' letter from World Of Interiors' publisher Conde Nast immediately after its release and the majority of the print-run was destroyed, making this a very scarce and sought after book. The perfect follow-up Chaimowicz book to his gorgeous "Café du Reve" from 1985.
Born in 1947, Paris, Marc Camille Chaimowicz is a London-based artist whose cross-disciplinary work in painting, drawing, collage, sculpture, installation, furniture, lighting, ceramics, textiles, and wallpaper challenges the categorical divisions between fine and applied arts, masculine and feminine, public and private, past and present. His works are in the Museum of Modern Art, Tate Modern, and Victoria and Albert Museum collections.
A fine example of a very collectable and special book, wrapped in original rose cloth hardcover, protected under mylar wrap..
1973, French
Hardcover (w. dust jacket), 288 pages, 25 x 32 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Réalités - Hachette / Paris
$690.00 - In stock -
First and only printing of one of the heaviest hitters of interior design books ever, the enormous, lavishly illustrated "Decoration : Tradition et Renouveau" (Collection Connaissance des Arts) published in 1973. Without a doubt one of the most sought after interior design books and now extremely rare.
This heavy, prestigious, cloth-bound volume travels through some of the world's most incredible domestic interiors by the 20th century's top interior designers and decorators, including Francois Catroux, Serge Royaux, Gae Aulenti, Alberto Pinto, Maria Pergay, Charles Sevigny, Martine Dufour, Isabelle Hebey, Michel Boyer, David Mlinaric, Karl Lagerfeld, Quasar Khanh, Marc du Plantier, Yves Vidal, Jacques Grange, Valentino, Aldo Jacober, David Hicks, Piero Pinto, Henri Samuel, Nanda Vigo, John Stefanidis, Paolo Tommasi, and more, including the homes of major architects, fashion designers, art and antiquities collectors, celebrities, and interior designers themselves, showcasing objets d'art, historical artifacts, furniture and decor (from Mies van der Rohe, Lucio Fontana, Nicola L, Cesar, Jean Dubuffet, Pablo Picasso, Arman, Gae Aulenti, Marcel Breuer, Cy Twombly, Le Corbusier, François-Xavier Lalanne and Claude Lalanne, Quasar Khanh, Roger Tallon, Pierre Jeanneret, Enzo Mari, Pierre Paulin, Carla Venosta, Nanda Vigo, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Marcel Breuer, Ruth Francken, Afra + Tobia Scarpa, Charles Eames, Joe Columbo, Verner Panton, Bruno Munari, Mario Bellini, Henri Michaux, Jean Fautrier, Tom Wesselman, Sonia Delaunay, Marimekko, Superstudio, Man Ray... just to name a few) adorning decorated interiors ranging from "Tradition" ("a formula that allows one to integrate older items, furniture and artwork in a contemporary context"); "le Renouveau" (contemporary interiors of the 1970's and "a section dedicated to design of the time offering a selection of the finest furniture, objects and accessories created by top designers"); and "l'Avant-garde" (displaying some of the most experimental, idiosyncratic, and forward-thinking interiors that bring together modern materiality, pop art and space design to create inspired interior living architectural spaces).
"How to reconcile antique furniture and contemporary structures? Can we adapt modern furniture within a traditionally inspired framework? This book, illustrated with beautiful photographs, mostly in color, reproducing the finest achievements of the great contemporary designers, responds to these questions."
Preface by Francis Spar. All texts in French. Hundreds of beautiful photographs in vivid colour and b/w. A must-have for the interior design lover.
Very good, beautifully preserved copy, strong binding, and seldom now seen with original dust jacket (also VG).
1985, Japanese / English
Softcover, 166 pages, 20 x 29 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
National Museum of Modern Art / Kyoto
$150.00 - In stock -
Beautiful and extremely scarce Japanese catalogue for a major international exhibition on Postmodern design held at the National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto and at the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, 1985. Presents 200 pieces of work by 48 designers and architects from Europe, America and Japan. Features the work of Aldo Rossi, Alessandro Mendini, Andrea Branzi, Arata Isozaki, Ettore Sottsass, Frank Gehry, Fumihiko Maki, Mario Botta, Masanori Umeda, Matteo Thun, Michael Graves, Michele De Lucchi, Nathalie Du Pasquier, Peter Shire, Richard Meier, Robert Venturi, Ron Arad, Daniel Weil, Shiro Kuramata...This book profiles many of these important designers through photographs, biographies and texts. Foreword by Michiaki Kawakita and Kenji Adachi. Introduction by Shinji Kohmoto and an essay on Italian radical and neo-radical design by Alessandro Mendini.
One of the finest and lesser-known volumes produced on postmodern design.
Very Good copy with some tanning/light marking to cover, internally perfect, crisp copy.
1991, English
Hardcover, 60 pages, 28 x 21.5 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / fine
Published by
Sotheby's / Monaco
$400.00 - In stock -
The incredible and now very collectable hardcover catalogue for the important sale of Karl Lagerfeld's collection of Memphis furniture and objects in 1991. Lagerfeld had built one of the most extensive collections of this extraordinary design group during the early 1980s in order to furnish his new modern apartment in Monte Carlo. In his catalogue introduction where he declares his love at first sight for the Memphis group in 1981, he goes on to call Memphis the "Art Deco of the '80s". When he sold the apartment he decided to sell the collection that furnished it from floor to ceiling. Lavishly illustrated in full-colour with 133 lots, all the main Memphis designers are included - Ettore Sottsass, Michele De Lucchi, Martine Bedin, Matteo Thun, Marco Zanini, Masanori Umeda, George James Sowden, Peter Shire, Aldo Cibic. The pieces include chairs, tables, cabinets, shelves, lights, teapots, clocks, televisions, etc. Includes texts and quotes from Lagerfeld, Barbara Radice, Ettore Sottsass and Frederique Huygen, and a bibliography. Still one of the most unique, impressive and informative books on Memphis ever published.
Fine, beautifully preserved copy complete with inserted invitation sheet to the Monaco auction with schedule and hotel booking information (in French). Texts in the book are in French, with some English.
1980, Italian
Softcover, 72 pages, 24 x 17 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Studio Forma / Turin
Studio Alchymia / Milan
$300.00 - In stock -
Very rare, very early volume published on the occasion of the exhibition "Elogio Del Banale" at the Venice Biennale, 1980, as part of the 1st International Architecture Exhibition. Conceived by Alessandro Mendini, Daniela Puppa, Paola Navone, this collection and book (directed by Andrea Branzi and designed by Michele de Lucchi) is heavily illustrated throughout with the work and studies of radical Italian design group Studio Alchimia, including many rarely seen early exhibition designs, interiors, furniture, objects, even catalogue decor for Fiorucci. Accompanying texts are by founding members Alessandro Mendini and Franco Raggi, and with an introduction by Barbara Radice. Includes patterns by Paola Navone and photographic studies by Ettore Sottsass throughout. An exceptional piece of printed radical design history, featuring many future Memphis members, published by Studio forma in Turin and Studio Alchymia in Milan.
Studio Alchimia was an iconoclastic, radical design group founded in Italy in 1976 by the Italian Architect Alessandro Guerriero. The Studio Alchimia was composed of designers, whose aim was to design and manufacture exhibition pieces, rather than consumer orientated products. Their products were to be regarded as prototypes / one-offs, leading the way from the principles of modernist design to a bold, new, experimental design style. This style would lead to the formation and popularity of Italian design groups in the 1980′s such as the Memphis Group and the new directions taken by the Alessi company.
Very Good copy.
1971, English / Italian / French
Softcover, 150 pages, 24.5 x 24.5 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / good
Published by
Cento Di / Florence
$190.00 - Out of stock
Rare exhibition catalogue published on the occasion of the 7th Paris Biennale held at the Parc Floral de Paris, Bois de Vincennes, Paris, France, September 24 — November 1, 1971, curated by Achille Bonito Oliva. An important volume representing the Italian avant-garde of the various sectors of art (including music and architecture) in this critical period in history, including the work of Alighiero Boetti, Pierpaolo Calzolari, Gino De Dominicis, Luciano Fabro, Mimmo Germanà, Giuseppe Penone, Emilio Prini, Gilberto Zorio, Jannis Kounellis, Giulio Paolini, Giorgio Pressburger, Achille Bonito Oliva, Mario Franco, Umberto Silva, Paolo Mussat Sartor, Frederic Rzewski, Marcello Panni, Archizoom, Superstudio, and Ufo. Illustrated throughout with many examples by each artist, alongside artists' biographies, exhibition histories, and bibliographies, and essay by Achille Bonito Oliva. Text in English, Italian, and French.
Achille Bonito Oliva (born 1939) is an Italian art critic and historian of contemporary art. Since 1968 he has taught history of contemporary art at La Sapienza, the university of Rome. He has written extensively on contemporary art and contemporary artists; he originated the term Transavanguardia to describe the new direction taken in the late 1970s by artists such as Sandro Chia, Francesco Clemente, Enzo Cucchi, Nicola De Maria, and Mimmo Paladino. He has organised or curated numerous contemporary art events and exhibitions; in 1993 he was artistic director of the Biennale di Venezia.
Good copy w. light wear/tanning/spotting.
2020, English / French / Italian / Dutch
Softcover (3 volumes in slipcase), 400 pages, 24 x 16.9 cm
Published by
Walther König / Köln
$300.00 - Out of stock
At 400 pages, this is the definitive overview of the great and influential pioneers of Italian radical architecture, Superstudio. Immediately out-of-print and now collectible.
The avant-garde Italian architecture collective Superstudio was founded in 1966 by Adolfo Natalini (1941–2020) and Cristiano Toraldo di Francia (1941–2019), and quickly leaped to the forefront of the 1960s radical architecture movement alongside the likes of Archigram and Haus-Rucker-Co. Through their architectural projects (housing, industrial buildings, banks, interiors), design objects, photocollages, drawings, texts, installations, models, films and exhibitions, Superstudio found brilliant and highly inventive ways in which to inhabit a world transformed by capitalist forces and technological evolutions. This beautifully produced, slipcased, 400-page volume explores their oeuvre through the lens of “migrations” (migrazioni). Borrowed from Superstudio’s vocabulary, this term serves as a conceptual and poetic key to the group’s architecture and their works in all mediums.
Presented in 3 books, the first is a collection of critical essays and interviews with three prominent figures in architecture who have been in close contact with Superstudio over the past 50 years; By examining their personal and theoretical careers, these different voices show the great influence of the small group, bringing to life this “journey to the higher realms of reason.” The second book proposes a thematic journey through the work: it shows the rich iconography through a series of concepts from Superstudio’s vocabulary. They reveal the richness of the projects and images produced over the active years of the group that go beyond the narrative contained in some of the quasi-iconic photo collages. The last book presents previously unpublished letters from the archive of Adolfo Natalini. The exchanges between the members of Superstudio and the letters to prominent architects from the second half of the twentieth century form a collective autobiography in which architecture and life increasingly converge. In addition to the group’s oeuvre, the publication also presents work by 9999, Archizoom, Hiromi Fujii, Hans Hollein, Arata Isozaki, Rem Koolhaas, Ugo La Pietra, Leonardo Ricci, Aldo Rossi, Leonardo Savioli, Ettore Sottsass Jr. and Bernard Tschumi.
Edited with text by Emmanuelle Chiappone-Piriou. Text by Beatrice Lampariello, Gabriele Mastrigli, Frédéric Migayrou. Interviews with Veronique Patteeuw, Rem Koolhaas, Aurelien Vernant, Bernard Tschumi, Yûki Yosikawa, Hiromi Fujii.
As New sealed copy.
1970, English
Hardcover (w. dust jacket), 236 pages, 26 x 26 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Paul Hamlyn / Sydney
$200.00 - Out of stock
First, only hardcover edition of the incredible "Australian Style", one of the great unsung interior books of the 1960s/70s. Published in 1970 this heavily-illustrated volume aims to survey what the "new" (c. 1970) Australian style of modern architecture and interior design looked like through profiles on prominent Australian decorators, designers, innovators and architects of the time, including Harry Seidler, Robin Boyd, Gordon Andrews, Babette Hayes, Neville Marsh, Florence Broadhurst, Marion Hall Best, Leslie Walford, Barry Little, Ken Woolley, and Neville Gruzman, amongst many others, lavishly illustrated with photographic reproductions by Rodney Weidland of their interiors, buildings, furniture, textiles, and more. Edited by April Hersey and Babette Haynes, Australia's first Design Stylist of the burgeoning 1960s decor scene.
"Australia is developing a style of living which is as unique as the country itself. With growing affluence and the aggressive assault of mass media on our sensibilities, we have emerged from the era of composite nothingness drawn from remembered lands across the sea, and are presently finding our own standards and our own likes and dislikes in everything from pepper grinders to fifty-storey buildings. This book opens communication with the people who are making the new Australia liveable. It shows in 236 pages of magnificent colour and black and white illustration just what is happening on the frontiers of our sophistication. It voices the opinions of the experts who create our shelters. Architects like Robin Boyd, Harry Seidler and Neville Gruzman; designers like Gordon Andrews and Florence Broadhurst; interior designers like Marion Hall Best, Leslie Walford and Barry Little and the dozens of other innovators and creators who are daily adding to our knowledge and our comfort. In compiling the text, April Hersey has drawn our domestic development briefly to this time and place and then pin-pointed the rooms of a house and the work of the various designers and architects. Babette Hayes and Rodney Weidland have found the perfect illustrations for everything, from the smallest device to the most extravagant decor, to show Australian homes as they look today."
Very Good copy, with G—VG dust jacket.
1999, French
Hardcover (w. dust jacket), 115 pages, 22.3 x 22.3 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / fine
Published by
Galerie Jacques Lacoste / Paris
$300.00 - In stock -
Important, very rare hardcover catalogue produced by the Galerie Jacques Lacoste for the first major retrospective exhibition of one of the most audacious, free-spirited decorators of the twentieth century, Jean Royère, held in 1999. Lavishly illustrated overview featuring Royère's furniture (chairs, tables, consoles,...), light fittings and lamps, interior design, and more, all recorded in colour and monochrome photographic documentation, accompanied by descriptions, history and various texts throughout in French. An incredible resource published by Galerie Jacques Lacoste, specialist in twentieth-century French decorative arts and home to Royère's archives.
Jean Royère (French, 1902—1981) was a French interior designer known for his bright, plush, and playful furniture. Born in Paris, France in 1902 into a wealthy family, he initially worked as a banker before leaving in 1931 to apprentice with Pierre Gouff under whom he learned the meticulous craftsmanship of cabinetmaking. Royère won a prestigious competition in 1934 to design the restaurant of the luxurious Hotel Carlton on the Champs-Élysées, garnering widespread acclaim and launching his career overnight. He founded his own company in 1944 and began building a global clientele, opening offices in Cairo, Beirut, Tehran, and São Paulo, with famed customers that included King Farouk, the King Hussein of Jordan, and the Shah of Iran. In 1947 the French designer redecorated his mother’s Paris apartment, including a rotund sofa called Boule, covered in a deliciously fuzzy velvet that would later inspire the design’s charming nickname, Ours Polaire—“polar bear”, one of his most iconic designs. He died in 1981 in New York, NY just one year after moving there. The Museum of Decorative Arts in Paris held a museum show of his work in 1999, and in 2008, was the subject of a major posthumous retrospective at Sonnabend Gallery in New York.
Fine copy.
1993, English / Japanese
Softcover, 126 pages, 26 x 22 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / fine
Published by
Galerie Watari / Tokyo
$180.00 - Out of stock
Rare first full book study of this major work of the great Italian architect Carlo Scarpa, Villa "Palazzetto", the 10-year restoration of a 17th century villa at Monselice left unfinished at the time of Scarpa's death in 1978. Published in 1993 on the occasion of a major exhibition of the Villa "Palazzetto" in Tokyo, this first edition of this long out-of-print volume is profusely illustrated with colour and b/w beautiful and intimate documentation, portraits, drawings, plans, remembrances, plus an illustrated career overview documenting all of Scarpa's other major architectural works and design objects 1955—1978. Texts in both English / Japanese by Shizuko Watari, Aldo Businaro, Arata Isozaki, Guido Pietropoli, Louis Kahn, plus biography,
Carlo Scarpa (1906, Venice—1978, Sendai, Miyagi, Japan) was an Italian architect, influenced by the materials, landscape and the history of Venetian culture, and by Japan. Scarpa translated his interests in history, regionalism, invention, and the techniques of the artist and craftsman into ingenious glass and furniture design.
Near Fine copy.
1978, English / Japanese
Softcover, 160 pages, 26 x 12 cm
Out of print title / used / fine
Published by
The National Museum of Art / Osaka
$160.00 - In stock -
Incredibly rare Japanese publication from 1978, printed on the occasion of a major exhibition entitled "Design and Art of Modern Chairs", August 19-October 15, at the National Museum of Art, Osaka. This wonderful landscape-formatted book is profusely illustrated throughout (in colour and black and white) with the chairs of designers and artists including Gerrit Rietveld, Isamu Kenmochi, Olivier Mourgue, Pierre Paulin, Sadamasa Motonaga, Mario Ceroli, Marcel Breuer, Studio 65, Le Corbusier, Pierre Jeanneret, Charlotte Perriand, Jan Dranger, Johan Huldt, Robert Haussman, Kwok Hoi Chan, Steen Østergaard, George Nakashima, Mies van der Rohe, Poul Kjaerholm, Eero Saarinen, Harry Bertoia, Charles Pollock, Aarne Jacobsen, Warren Platner, Roger Tallon, Verner Panton, Earo Aarnio, Bruno Mathsson, Motomi Kawakami, Marco Zanuso, Richard Sapper, Gerd Lange, Vico Magistretti, Alver Aalto, Jonathan de Pas, Paolo Lomazzi, Donato d'Urbino, Giorgio Decursu, Sori Yanagi, Reiko Tanabe-Murai, Wolfgang Mueller-Deisig, Stacy Dukes, Ettore Sottsass, Charles Eames, Hans J. Wegner, Franco Albini, Gio Ponti, Kaare Klint, Enzo Mari, Takeshi Nii, Achille Castiglioni, Achille and Piergiacomo Castiglioni, Tadashi Minohara, Gaetano Pesce, Yrjo Kukkapuro, Afra and Tobia Scarpa, Mario Bellini, Cini Boeri, Mario Marenco, Joe Colombo, Piero Gatti, Jonathan de Pas, Paolo Lomazzi, Donato d'Urbino, Ubald Klug, Gerrit Rietveld, Salvador Dali, Poltronova, Cassina, Taro Okamoto. Jiro Takamatsu, Susumu Koshimizu, Shiro Kuramata, Minoru Takeyama, Lucas Samaras, Kozo Mio, Arata Isozaki, Shigeo Fukuda, Takashi Sakaizawa, Constantin Brâncuși, Yoji Kuri, Yayoi Kusama, Vitra, Knoll, Kartell, Herman Miller, Arflex, BBB, Flexform, C&B Italia, Cassina, and many more. Each chair included is detailed with a blurb in Japanese, data/specs of year, designer/artist, manufacture and dimensions. Also includes an illustrated timeline tracing a chronological history of the chairs exhibited, along with a production index and forward texts in English and Japanese. Forms an indispensible index of important modern chair designs from the early 1930s—late 1970s.
Near Fine copy.
1980, Italian
Hardcover, 50 pages, 32 x 24 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Casa Vogue / Milan
Edizioni Condé Nast / Milan
$80.00 - In stock -
First edition, published in 1980 by Edizioni Condé Nast / Casa Vogue (Milan), of this little known furniture book, edited by Casa Vogue editor Isa Vercelloni, who brought us the 1985 classic “Styles of Living: The Best of Casa Vogue”.
This fantastic hardcover book, the first in Casa Vogue's book library, is dedicated entirely to showcasing furniture by (amongst many other deisgners) Aldo Rossi, Gaetano Pesce, Andrea Branzi, Ettore Sottsass, Afra and Tobia Scarpa, Toshiyuki Kita, Achille Castiglioni, Alchimia, Paolo Nava, Antonio Citterio, Enzo Mari, Alessandro Mendini, B&B Italia, Cassina, Flos, Poltronova, Vico Magistretti, Artemide, Stilnovo, Mario Bellini, Josef Hoffman, Studio Driade, Poltronova, Carlo Scarpa, Gae Aulenti, Angelo Mangiarotti, Eileen Grey, Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Gerrit T. Rietveld, Le Corbusier, Charlotte Perriand, , Pierre Jeanneret, C&B Italia, Mario Ceroli, Cini Boeri, Arflex, Zanotta, Superstudio, Archizoom, Knoll, Meret Oppenheim, Max Ernst, René Magritte, Jonathan de Pas, De. Pas + D'urbino + Lomazzi, Donato d'Urbino, Paolo Lomazzi, Gufram, Giani Ruffi, Piero Gilardi, Joe Columbo, Sergio Asti, Hans Hollein...
Scarce, wonderfully compiled Italian title of 1970's-1980's furniture design and its influences.
Very Good copy.
1985, English
Hardcover (w. dustjacket), 224 pages, 30 x 22.6 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Rizzoli / New York
$200.00 - Out of stock
First edition, published by Rizzoli in 1985, of this classic interior design book, "Styles of Living: The Best of Casa Vogue"
Making appearances in these rooms: Gae Aulenti, Man Ray, Enzo Mari, Carlo Scarpa, Pablo Picasso, Josef Hoffman, Cinzia Ruggeri, Max Ernst, Wols, Matteo Thun, Ettore Sottsass, Le Corbusier, Salvador Dali, René Magritte, Lucio Fontana, Eileen Grey, Daniel Buren, Gaetano Pesce, Charles Eames, Verner Panton, Massimo Vignelli, Andy Warhol, Frank Lloyd Wright, Antoni Tàpies, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Alver Aalto.....
"Ever since the end of the Second World War, Italian style, design and decoration have maintained an unprecedented predominance in the Western World. It was in the early 1950s that a great surge of decorative talent welled up in Italy, and this resulted in the 'Italian look' in clothes and in homes - a new standard of chic inventiveness.
The Italian view of interior design has been most enterprisingly expressed in the magazine Casa Vogue, which was founded in 1968 and has consistently been one of the most admired publications of Condé Nast International.
This book, garnered from the many issues of Casa Vogue, has been written and produced under the guidance of Isa Vercellonim who has been its editor ever since its inception. The choice of picture-stories is intended to reflect the unusual and distinctive diversity of the magazine - ranging from traditional decoration to the more advance examples of minimal design, most the most significant of contemporary buildings to the spectacular reconstructions and reconversions of old palazzi and coachhouses, from the 'post modern' to the 'anti-modern' and any other 'moderns' that may have been advocated recently. Italian trends naturally provide the main focus, but Casa Vogue also includes developments in the United States, France, Switzerland - indeed, wherever unusual and meaningful designs are being created."
Very good copy in Good dust-jacket, protected under mylar wrap.
1976, English / Italian
Hardcover, 230 pages, 31 x 22 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / good
Published by
Idea Books Edizioni / Milano
Studio Vista / London
$300.00 - Out of stock
The like-no-other Decorattivo - a groundbreaking publishing project from Achizoom founders Andrea Branzi and Massimo Morozzi, along with Clino T. Castelli and Adela Coat Turin, who together formed Il Centro Design Montefibre, to research textiles, fibres and colours. The published outcome was Decorattivo - a hardcover publication dedicated to "monographic themes of international textile and environmental design. This work is the result of wide research conducted internationally in museums, private collections and foundations, and aiming to trace original textile samples relating to the handbook's different chosen themes."
Intended to be an annual publication, only two editions of Decorattivo were issued by Idea (Milan) and Studio Vista, becoming very collectable source-books for anyone interested in pattern design, textiles, fibre design, and decorative systems, not to mention the work of some of Italy's finest avant-garde designers.
"The monographic theme of Decorattivo 1 is concerned with two contrasting decorative trends: on one side the amorphous or informal design directly connected to creative and spontaneous processes, on the other, the 'UFO', a decorative system created out of objects in space."
A one-of-kind design resource, profusely illustrated throughout in colour and black and white, including fold-out spreads. All texts in English and Italian.
Good copy, with light cover/spine wear and bumping to hard covers. Minor ex-libris card and markings. Light warp, but bright, crisp pages and good binding throughout.
1977, English / Italian
Hardcover, 230 pages, 31 x 22 cm
Private edition,
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Centro Design Montefibre / Milan
$350.00 - Out of stock
The like-no-other Decorattivo - a groundbreaking publishing project from Achizoom founders Andrea Branzi and Massimo Morozzi, along with Clino T. Castelli and Adela Coat Turin, who together formed Il Centro Design Montefibre, to research textiles, fibres and colours. The published outcome was Decorattivo - a hardcover publication dedicated to "monographic themes of international textile and environmental design. This work is the result of wide research conducted internationally in museums, private collections and foundations, and aiming to trace original textile samples relating to the handbook's different chosen themes."
Intended to be an annual publication, only two editions of Decorattivo were issued, in both commercially distributed editions by Idea Books Milan, and the exceptionally rare privately distributed not-for-sale editions issued by Centro Design Montefibre itself. All versions very rare, but the not-for-sale editions with debossed covers barely exist. Very collectable source-books for anyone interested in pattern design, textiles, fibre design, and decorative systems, not to mention the work of some of Italy's finest avant-garde designers.
The monographic them of Decorattivo 2 is Righe e Quadri (Lines and Squares).
A one-of-kind design resource, profusely illustrated throughout in colour and black and white. All texts in English and Italian.
VG copy, with light cover/spine wear and bumping to one hard cover corner not affecting the pages within. Clean and bright throughout, tightly bound.
1974, Italian
Softcover, 198 pages, 27.5 x 13.5 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / good
Published by
Casabella / Milan
$450.00 - Out of stock
The extremely collectable book of the movement, Architettura "Radicale" was published by Casabella Milan in 1974 and collects Navone's thesis with Orlandoni, forming an unsurpassed critical essay on the new avant-garde architecture and radical design of Italy (and further afield) that rose out of the 1960s. With an introduction by the great designer and editor Andrea Branzi, this volume contains over 150 black and white illustrations of projects and works by Archizoom, Superstudio, Alessandro Mendini, Gianni Pettena, UFO Group, Raimund Abraham, Lapo Binazzi, Andrea Branzi, James Gowan, Rem Koolhaas, Ugo La Pietra, Eduardo Paolozzi, Gaetano Pesce, Walter Pichler, Ettore Sottsass and many others. Includes a very important bibliography and profiles on the designers. A stunning piece of printed design history, now very rarely seen.
Good-Very Good copy with light general cover and corner wear, tanning to edges.
1981, English
Softcover, 96 pages, 24 x 24 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Quick Fox / New York
$500.00 - In stock -
The now extremely rare, first, only edition of one of the greatest interior design books ever published by one of the greatest interior design photographers ever. Tim Street-Porter (Domus, Underground Interiors, et al), compiled this, his first and most iconic book, in 1981. A wild book of his personal interior photographs with a fantastic design to match the fantastic interiors within. Capturing a multitude of architectural and interior styles, Interiors really is one of the rarest looks inside the homes you'd not usually see in glossy magazines nor coffee table books. From London, Los Angeles, New York, even Australia, from pop artists, stage designers, architects, animators, art dealers, stylists, textile designers, actresses... including the homes of Frank Gehry, Allen Jones, Zsa Zsa Gábor, Ward Bannett, Thea Porter, Duggie Fields, Harry Nilsson, James Coburn, Rudi Stern, Moira Lister, Luciana Martínez, Sally Sirkin Lewis, Lloyd Ziff, Philip Castle, Max Clendinning, Ralph Adron, and many more, including the photographer himself. A very rare, interior classic.
Very Good copy with some cover wear and small previous owner dedication to inside cover.
2023, English
Hardcover (with pillowed plastic), 304 pages, 29 x 22 cm
Published by
Apartamento / Barcelona
$149.00 - In stock -
‘If I write it all, search and find it all, it’s maybe to try to understand what happened, everything is ultimately bound, art and life, children, loves, errors, joys, hopes’.—Nicola L.
Nicola L.: Life and Art is the first comprehensive monograph about the pioneering artist Nicola L. (1932-2018), whose wide-ranging work—impossible to categorise—challenged ideas about identity, gender, and the body long before such questions were de rigueur. Born in Morocco to French parents, she spent her formative years in Paris attending the Beaux-Arts, only to burn most of her paintings in 1965 and move towards formats that engaged people more directly: wall-mounted canvases that could be worn as costumes, sculptures that doubled as seats, coats designed for many people to wear at once, or films about radical political figures. Far from settling in a time and place, she travelled the world, finding physical and artistic homes in the free-spirited community of Ibiza, in countercultural New York, and even, briefly, in a Lebanese jail.
The art Nicola made stemmed from the life she lived—there were no boundaries between the two. This book follows the same logic, intertwining both throughout its 304 pages: on one hand, a comprehensive catalogue raisonné of her artworks; on the other, a fanzine of Nicola’s never-seen-before memoirs, in which she narrates her incredible life, punctuated with anecdotes involving Jean-Paul Sartre, Salvador Dalí, Yves Klein, Niki de Saint Phalle, Caetano Veloso, Andy Warhol, Bad Brains, and Carolee Schneemann. Her writing is complemented by the personal stories of those who knew her and the commentary of those who have connected with her work: Christophe and David Lanzenberg (her sons), Gary Indiana (writer and longtime friend), Marta Minujín (artist and longtime friend), Pierre Restany (late critic and mentor), H.R. (Bad Brains frontman and film subject), Alexandra Cunningham Cameron, Flavia Frigeri, Ruba Katrib, and Myriam Ben Salah (curators), among many others. Edited by Hannah Martin and Omar Sosa, and made with the support of Alison Jacques, London and the Nicola L. Collection and Archive, this book brings together original images of the work, archival photographs, essays, interviews, and journals—in sum, all the pieces of Nicola’s puzzle.
2023, English
Hardcover, 432 pages, 30.5 x 22.9 cm
Published by
Judd Foundation / New York
$199.00 - Out of stock
This second expanded edition of the Donald Judd Spaces presents an unprecedented visual survey of the living and working spaces of the artist Donald Judd in New York and Texas. Filled with newly commissioned and archival photographs alongside five essays by the artist, this book provides an opportunity to explore Judd's personal locations. From a 19th-century cast-iron building in Manhattan to an extensive ranch in the mountains of western Texas, this book details the spaces that inspired Judd's work.
Readers will discover how Judd developed the concept of permanent installation at Spring Street in New York City, with artworks, furniture and decorative objects striking a balance between the building's historical qualities and his own architectural innovations.
His buildings in Marfa, Texas, demonstrate how Judd reiterated his concept of integrative living on a larger scale, extending to the reaches of the Chinati Mountains at Ayala de Chinati, his 33,000-acre ranch south of the town. Each of the spaces was thoroughly considered by Judd with resolute attention to function and design. From furniture to utilitarian structures that Judd designed himself, these residences reflect Judd's consistent aesthetic. His spaces underscore his deep interest in the preservation of buildings and his deliberate interventions within existing architecture.
Donald Judd (1928–94) was born in Excelsior Springs, Missouri. After serving in the United States Army, he attended the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia; the Art Students League of New York; and Columbia University in New York, where he completed a BS in philosophy in 1953. Judd was a prolific critic for magazines including Arts, Art International and Art News; he continued to write throughout his career, addressing the relationship of art practice to architecture, design, political action and lived experience in letters and published essays. As an artist, he started out as a painter before turning to three-dimensional work. His radical work and thinking helped shape the art of the late 20th century and continues to influence artists, architects and designers.
1994, English / Dutch
Hardcover (w. dust jacket), 134 pages, 27 × 22 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Museum Boymans-van Beuningen / Rotterdam
$850.00 - Out of stock
First hardcover edition of the the highly sought after Donald Judd Furniture Retrospective catalogue, published on the occasion of the exhibition at Museum Boymans-van Beuningen, Rotterdam, in 1993.
The only published overview of Judd's furniture works, this clothbound (wrapped in kraft paper printed jacket), is profusely illustrated throughout and accompanied by Judd's essays "It’s Hard to Find a Good Lamp", “Eichholteren, Switzerland” and “Marfa, Texas: Concrete Building”. "It’s Hard to Find a Good Lamp" is partly an account of his first forays into chair and table making, having found it hard to buy the right furnishings for his own home in Marfa, Texas. It is also a meditation on the problems of designer, antique and mass-produced furniture in which Judd rails against the price and availability of decent furniture, while also examining what constitutes good and bad design.
Lovely copy of the original hardcover volume, much scarcer than the softcover.
Very Good copy with light tanning to edges in Very Good jacket with light tanning to spine.
1974, Japanese / English
Softcover, 96 pages, 32.5 × 25.5 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / good
Published by
Interior Publishing Co. Ltd. / Tokyo
$80.00 - Out of stock
Japan's finest magazine for interior design, architecture and home furnishings, edited by Moriyama Kazuhiko. JAPAN INTERIOR DESIGN presented "a monthly comprehensive view of traditional, contemporary, and contemplated environmental designs and pure art forms both Japanese and foreign, through pictures and critical reviews. English captions and summaries of major articles are provided each issue." The in-depth analysis in which JAPAN INTERIOR DESIGN committed to covering new international furniture, textile, product, environmental, and interior design developments and major events from the period (1950s-1980s), places it soundly alongside its Italian comrade Domus. Lavishly illustrated throughout with beautiful photography in colour and b/w, with comprehensive plans, drawings and elevations bringing many innovative and long lost architectural and industrial designs into sharp focus. A wealth of archival reference material in each issue for any enthusiast of modern and space age design.
no. 183 June 1974
CONTENTS :
FEATURE OF THE MONTH : CANVAS IN FURNITURE & ENVIRONMENTAL DESIGN
1970, Japanese / English
Softcover, 96 pages, 32.5 × 25.5 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / good
Published by
Interior Publishing Co. Ltd. / Tokyo
$140.00 - Out of stock
Japan's finest magazine for interior design, architecture and home furnishings, edited by Moriyama Kazuhiko. JAPAN INTERIOR DESIGN presented "a monthly comprehensive view of traditional, contemporary, and contemplated environmental designs and pure art forms both Japanese and foreign, through pictures and critical reviews. English captions and summaries of major articles are provided each issue." The in-depth analysis in which JAPAN INTERIOR DESIGN committed to covering new international furniture, textile, product, environmental, and interior design developments and major events from the period (1950s-1980s), places it soundly alongside its Italian comrade Domus. Lavishly illustrated throughout with beautiful photography in colour and b/w, with comprehensive plans, drawings and elevations bringing many innovative and long lost architectural and industrial designs into sharp focus. A wealth of archival reference material in each issue for any enthusiast of modern and space age design.
JAPAN INTERIOR DESIGN
No.138, September 1970
Very rare, this issue includes a huge cover feature on SUPERSTUDIO "DESIGNERS WHO PHILOSOPHIZE" which includes profiles on a series of Italian Bookstore, Night Club and Boutique designs by SUPERSTUDIO, "Enclosure of Serenity", Lighting Fixtures, Fumiturel "Luxor Series" from the Antique Furniture Fair, The Florence Architectural Exhibition "Trigon ’69", "The Continuous Monument" - A Project for Italian Pavilion at Expo’70, fold-out pages, interviews and much more.
Also includes "Easy Chair" by Tobia Scarpa; Furniture Design by l; Furniture Manufacturer of the World "Knoll International" U. S. A.; Bar―Wagon by Tadao Ando; Men’s Wear Shop "MARKET ONE EDWARD’S" interior design: Kuramata Design Associates; Two Floor-Lamp Designs by Nanda Vigo; Camera Attachments Designed by Joe C. Colombo; "Space Jack" Living Capsule for Leisure design & production: Team JEMCO; Theatrical Design for a Kabuki Play design: Kaoru Kanamori & Associates and much more.
1972, Japanese / English
Softcover, 100 pages, 32.5 × 25.5 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / good
Published by
Interior Publishing Co. Ltd. / Tokyo
$90.00 - Out of stock
Japan's finest magazine for interior design, architecture and home furnishings, edited by Moriyama Kazuhiko. JAPAN INTERIOR DESIGN presented "a monthly comprehensive view of traditional, contemporary, and contemplated environmental designs and pure art forms both Japanese and foreign, through pictures and critical reviews. English captions and summaries of major articles are provided each issue." The in-depth analysis in which JAPAN INTERIOR DESIGN committed to covering new international furniture, textile, product, environmental, and interior design developments and major events from the period (1950s-1980s), places it soundly alongside its Italian comrade Domus. Lavishly illustrated throughout with beautiful photography in colour and b/w, with comprehensive plans, drawings and elevations bringing many innovative and long lost architectural and industrial designs into sharp focus. A wealth of archival reference material in each issue for any enthusiast of modern and space age design.
no. 156 March 1972
CONTENTS :
FEATURE OF THE MONTH : HOW FRENCH DESIGNS HAVE CHANGED
How has France, with its long tradition of "decorative art" accepted what is called "modern design" in the modern wave of industrialization? As if to prove the saying that there is no such word as "design" in France, the French designs have developed in accordance with public demand closely related to ordinary life. This is strikingly in contrast to Italy [...]
Works by thirteen contemporary designers Marc Held, Marc Berthier, Olivier Mourgue, Pierre Paulin, J. C. Maugi-Rard, Christian Ragot, Christian Ger-Manaz, Daniel Pigeon, Kwok Hoi Chan, C.E.I. Raymond Loewy. Bureau De Style Prisunic, Jean-Philippe Lenclos, Group Ludic.
Good copy, general light magazine wear.
1982, Japanese / English
Softcover, 96 pages, 32.5 x 25.5 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / good
Published by
Interior Publishing Co. Ltd. / Tokyo
$100.00 - Out of stock
Japan's finest magazine for interior design, architecture and home furnishings, edited by Moriyama Kazuhiko. JAPAN INTERIOR DESIGN presented "a monthly comprehensive view of traditional, contemporary, and contemplated environmental designs and pure art forms both Japanese and foreign, through pictures and critical reviews. English captions and summaries of major articles are provided each issue." The in-depth analysis in which JAPAN INTERIOR DESIGN committed to covering new international furniture, textile, product, environmental, and interior design developments and major events from the period (1950s-1980s), places it soundly alongside its Italian comrade Domus. Lavishly illustrated throughout with beautiful photography in colour and b/w, with comprehensive plans, drawings and elevations bringing many innovative and long lost architectural and industrial designs into sharp focus. A wealth of archival reference material in each issue for any enthusiast of modern and space age design.
Very rare, this issue includes a special feature on the furniture of Italy's Memphis design group. Fantastic full-colour spreads of photo documentation highlighting some of Memphis' most iconic and wild pieces by Ettore Sottsass, Matteo Thun, Michele de Lucchi, Andrea Branzi, Shiro Kuramata, etc. together with texts by Katsuhiro Yamaguchi and Barbara Radice.
Also includes the design work of Takashi Sakaizawa, Lacquer furniture of Kawakami Motomi, furniture of Abe Hiroshisan, New lighting fixtures by Asahara Shigeaki, Awatsuji Expo: Indigo textile statement by Hiroyuki Shindo, Residential Design of Helsinki: Timo Pentira, Ikedayama housing design: Edward Suzuki Architects, and much more.
Good copy, general light magazine wear. A mark to cover.