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:
W—F 12—6 PM
Sat 12—5 PM
WEB-SHOP OPEN 24/7.
World Food Books
Postal Address:
PO Box 435
Flinders Lane
Victoria 8009
Australia
Art
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World Food Books Gift Voucher
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Animal Rights / Veganism
Occult / Esoterica
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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.
1991, English / Italian
Softcover, 46 pages, 30 x 21 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / as new
Published by
Firenze Alinea Editrice / Italy
$60.00 - Out of stock
"The Night Scene : The design of the Disco-Club", scarce Italian catalogue published to accompany the unique exhibition, La Scena della Notte : Il Design dei Disco-Club curated by Cesare Pergola at Villa Montalvo, Florence, 21-30 September, 1991. Profusely illustrated throughout in glossy colour with texts in English and Italian, this exhibition publication surveys the interior design of 1980's night clubs. From the land of some of the most inventive and iconoclastic discotheque designs, curator Cesare Pergola here presents nine emblematic clubs from around the world: the Palladium (New York), the Haçienda (Manchester), Otto Zutz (Barcelona), Rock Hudson (Rimini), Le Palace (Paris), Bolidò (New York), Gold (Tokyo), Taxim (Istanbul), Manila (Florence). Each club is presented through interior photography, plans and profiles, including information on the designers themselves, including Arata Isozaki, Ben Kelly, Giovanni Tommaso Garattoni, Massimo Iosa Ghini, Nigel Coates, Cesare Pergola, and more. A must for any night club or post-modern interior design enthusiast.
As New copy.
1985, Japanese / English
Softcover, 56 pages, 30 x 21 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Japan Industrial Design Promotion Organization / Tokyo
$35.00 $10.00 - Out of stock
Issue 166 of Japan's leading magazine for Industrial Design, published in 1985. A vital mouth piece of the post-modern design industry in Japan and internationally, this issue of Design News features an article on Robot as Pet, introducing the TOMY Omnibot and co., an interview with design critic and curator Stephen Bayley (Habitat, The Boilerhouse Project at the Victoria and Albert Museum — Issey Miyake, Memphis, etc., Design Museum in London, etc.), article on Slovenian industrial designer Davorin Savnik, store concept for the mighty Tokyu Hands department store, plus loads of industry news, reports, new product reviews, exhibitions, books, etc. Mostly in Japanese with some English.
Very Good copy with tanned spine,
1992, Japanese / English
Softcover, 112 pages, 30 x 21 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Japan Industrial Design Promotion Organization / Tokyo
$35.00 $10.00 - Out of stock
Issue 217 of Japan's leading magazine for Industrial Design, published in 1992. A vital mouth piece of the post-modern design industry in Japan and internationally, this issue of Design News features articles on car design, new experiments in Corporate design, IDEO design group, "Design After Pluralism", the design of personal fax machines, plus loads of industry news, reports, new product reviews, exhibitions, books, etc. Mostly in Japanese with some English.
Very Good copy
1992, Japanese / English
Softcover, 112 pages, 30 x 21 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Japan Industrial Design Promotion Organization / Tokyo
$35.00 $10.00 - Out of stock
Issue 219 of Japan's leading magazine for Industrial Design, published in 1992. A vital mouth piece of the post-modern design industry in Japan and internationally, this issue of Design News features an in-depth feature article on new Japanese Train design, train station information graphics, Nikon camera design, new experiments in NEC sensory products, plus loads of industry news, reports, new product reviews, exhibitions, books, etc. Mostly in Japanese with some English.
Very Good copy
1989, English
Softcover, 96 pages, 28 x 21 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / good
Published by
I.D. (International Design) / New York
$25.00 $15.00 - Out of stock
Scarce copy of I.D. (International Design) Vol 36 No 5 (September / October 1989) featuring articles on Dieter Rams, Apple, Joe Colombo, Eames House, as well as design museums, new student designs from across the US, casketry design, news, resources, much more. Heavily illustrated in colour and b/w throughout.
Good copy.
English / Japanese
Softcover, 124 pages, 26 x 36 cm
Published by
A.D.A Edita / Tokyo
$80.00 - Out of stock
One of the finest architecture series ever published, the world renowned GA (Global Architecture) series, presented by the highly esteemed publishing house that also published the GA Document, GA Houses, and GI (Global Interior) architectural publications.
Each over-sized photographic folio issue of the special GA Residential Masterpieces series highlights a renowned international architect and takes a detailed look into their creations for residence.
Absolutely stunning and vivid large-format architectural photography of the selected building’s interiors, exteriors and architectural details, along with texts (in English and Japanese) and floor-plans/elevation drawings make up the profiles on each featured architectural project. The visual generosity of these handsomely designed and beautifully printed over-sized publications make them a treasure for any architecture or interior design enthusiast or collector.
Since before the second world war, Le Corbusier has been in search of a place for putting his own architectural theory into practice outside the closed stagnation of Europe. And it was India that has been chosen, after WWII, to become his new horizon. In 1950 he was commissioned to design the city of Chandigarh, the new capital for the State of Punjab. This huge project led him to work on a number of smaller ones in India. The Sarabhai House in Ahmedabad is an example of these projects done between 1951 and 1955.
Printed in Japan
2008, English / Japanese
Softcover, 124 pages, 26 x 36 cm
Published by
A.D.A Edita / Tokyo
$90.00 - Out of stock
One of the finest architecture series ever published, the world renowned GA (Global Architecture) series, presented by the highly esteemed publishing house that also published the GA Document, GA Houses, and GI (Global Interior) architectural publications.
Each over-sized photographic folio issue of the special GA Residential Masterpieces series highlights a renowned international architect and takes a detailed look into their creations for residence.
Absolutely stunning and vivid large-format architectural photography of the selected building’s interiors, exteriors and architectural details, along with texts (in English and Japanese) and floor-plans/elevation drawings make up the profiles on each featured architectural project. The visual generosity of these handsomely designed and beautifully printed over-sized publications make them a treasure for any architecture or interior design enthusiast or collector.
An outstanding example of the golden age of Modernism and a high watermark in Aalto's oeuvre, the Villa Mairea was the result of a creative interchange between the architect and the owner. Here, through large format, full-page colour, and black and white photographs, the viewer is given the opportunity to wander through both the interior and exterior of this masterpiece while enjoying the surroundings. Including plans and elevations, the survey is introduced by a short essay from the son of the original owner.
Printed in Japan.
1992, French
Hardcover (w. dust jacket), 140 pages, 23 x 31 cm
Out of print title / used / fine
Published by
Editions du May / Paris
$350.00 - In stock -
First hardcover edition of best book on French furniture and interior designer Pierre Paulin (1927-2009), Un Univers De Formes, published by Du May in 1992 and long long out-of-print. Famous for his innovative designs during the 1960s when he worked for Artifort, with his most iconic Mushroom chair, Ribbon chair, and Tongue chair. This profusely illustrated monograph surveys his entire career, reproducing the many designs from the personal archives of the designer himself. Along with his distinctive chair designs, the books presents many seldom seen interior design works, environments, fit-out for Elysee Palace, ADSA + Partners, exhibitions, Salon des arts menagers, Mobilier National, along with texts by Anne Chapoutot, preface by Yvonne Brunhammer and afterword by Jean Coural. A must for any fan of Paulin or mid-century French design.
Fine copy in VG-Fine dustjacket.
2020, English
Softcover, 272 pages, 16 x 24 cm
Published by
écal / Renens
$60.00 - Out of stock
This book analyzes the work of Vico Magistretti in the field of industrial design. Starting in the 1960s, the Milanese architect successfully moved into mass-produced furniture and lamps. Some became museum pieces. Among others, he designed for companies such as Artemide, Cassina, De Padova, Flou, Fritz hansen, Kartell, Schiffini. Magistretti designed over 300 products and furniture pieces, about a fifth of these are still in production. Research in the archives of the Fondazione Vico Magistretti, analysis of specialist magazines and interviews with furniture companies have offered some surprising answers to the question: why does a brand stop manufacturing design classics?
Essays on the use of photography in the marketing of design products and on media coverage of furniture from the 1960s to the 2000s accompany a thorough analysis of twelve iconic Magistretti pieces, portrayed in the opening visual essay. Includes a biography, bibliography and illustrated chronological list of Magistretti designs, making this book a valuable reference for any fan of modern Italian design.
Edited by Anniina Koivu, with contributions and interviews by Maddalena Dalla Mura, Davide Fornari, Anniina Koivu, Carolien Niebling, Rosanna Pavoni, Francesco Zanot.
The "Visual Archives" series presents the results of research projects conducted at ECAL/University of Art and Design Lausanne. It focuses on unpublished material on designers, authors and companies. Together with visual material from the archives, the documents are contextualized and accompanied by critical essays.
2018, English / Japanese
Softcover, 68 pages, 26 x 36 cm
Published by
Japan Architect / Tokyo
$70.00 $50.00 - Out of stock
One of the finest architecture series ever published, the world renowned GA (Global Architecture) series, presented by the highly esteemed publishing house that also published the GA Document, GA Houses, and GI (Global Interior) architectural publications.
Each over-sized photographic folio issue of the special GA Residential Masterpieces series highlights a renowned international architect and takes a detailed look into their creations for residence.
Absolutely stunning and vivid large-format architectural photography of the selected building’s interiors, exteriors and architectural details, along with texts (in English and Japanese) and floor-plans/elevation drawings make up the profiles on each featured architectural project. The visual generosity of these handsomely designed and beautifully printed over-sized publications make them a treasure for any architecture or interior design enthusiast or collector.
Yoshio Futagawa’s photographic homage to two single-family residences in São Paulo designed by architect Paulo Mendes da Rocha brings allows an intimate look at domestic life shaped by the contrast between exposed concrete surfaces and lush natural surroundings. Designed and built in the early 1970s, both houses are archetypal examples of the so-called “Brazilian Brutalism” style for which the architect is famous. At the time, they became a laboratory for the architect’s political beliefs as he developed a language and spatiality of his own. Besides their remarkable aesthetic expression, the houses feature unique solutions related to the organisation of the programme.
Printed in Japan
1989, English
Softcover, 126 pages, 23 x 29.5 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Rizzoli / New York
$120.00 - Out of stock
First 1989 English-language edition of the Rizzoli monograph on the outstanding work of Italian artist, architect and designer, Gaetano Pesce. The first major, and still the best, published study on Pesce, this profusely illustrated and in-depth volume covering the subject matter explored in Pesce's experimental (foam and resin) furniture, building and environment designs, film, theatre design, eyewear, lamps, and much between. In all his work, he expresses his guiding principle: that modernism is less a style than a method for interpreting the present and hinting at the future in which individuality is preserved and celebrated. His iconic, unparalleled work has been exhibited the world over since the height of 1960s Italian radical design to the current day and is work is held in major museum collections.
Gaetano Pesce was born in Italy in 1939 and studied architecture at the University of Venice. After graduating in 1965, he moved between London, Padova, Helsinki, and Paris, before settling in New York in 1980. From the beginning, Pesce’s practice has straddled the boundaries between art, design, urban planning, and architecture, always using his work as a vehicle to communicate his perspective on the world today. With resin, foam, and plastics as his signature materials, Pesce has designed for companies such as Cassina, B&B Italia, and Vitra. His architectural work includes the Organic Building of Osaka, the Children’s House for Parc de la Villette, the Gallery Mourmons in Belgium, and the TBWA\Chiat\Day office in New York. Pesce has served as a visiting lecturer and professor at many prestigious institutions in America and abroad, principally the Cooper Union in New York. He is currently a faculty member at the Institut d'Architecture et d'Etude Urbaines in Strasbourg.
Good copy. Crisp Very Good copy throughout only damage is a tear to bottom-right cover corner (not through board, just the print layer), otherwise only light age wear.
1963, French
Hardcover, 1083 pages, 20 x 27 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Flammarion / Paris
$160.00 - Out of stock
The French bible of mid-century modern home-making, l'art Ménager (Household Art), was published in 1963 to advise and vividly illustrate across 1083 pages(!) the design of the modern habitat, from the latest furniture, decorative arts, the lighting, the textiles, the materials, the room arrangement, the kitchen, the bathroom, the storage, the cookware... it's comprehensive and heavy! Stunning photography and graphic design throughout in gorgeous colour and b/w reproduction, this tome is a treasure of a reference for anyone interested in mid-century European interior design. Directed by Paul Breton for Flammarion.
Scarce first edition, incredible condition. Only very light wear and dust ageing to board edges, interior clean and bright with strong binding.
1981, English
Softcover, 96 pages, 24 x 24 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Quick Fox / New York
Omnibus Press / London
$320.00 - Out of stock
Very 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 light wear.
1987, English
Softcover, 80 pages, 28 x 22 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / good
Published by
A&D / London
$25.00 - Out of stock
April 1987 of London's esteemed Art & Design magazine (A.D.), a special issue dedicated to "The Post Modern Object". Features include : Peter Fuller — Towards a New Nature for the Gothic; Michael Collins — Post-Modern Design; Hugh Cumming — The Designed Object: An International Survey; Charles Jencks — Symbolic Objects; Volker Fischer — Post-Modernism and Consumer Design; Geoffrey Broadbent — Functionalism versus Post-Modernism; Stuart Durant — Proto Post-Modernism; Hans Hollein — Post-Modern Performance Art; and much more. Profusely illustrated throughout with the work of Hans Hollein, Memphis, Robert Venturi, Ettore Sottsass, Aldo Rossi, Tadao Ando, Michael Graves, George Sowden, Mario Botta, Arata Isozaki, Matteo Thun, Shuji Hisada, Beppe Caturelli, Michele de Lucchi, Stanley Tigerman, SITE, Helmut Jahn, Landes and Rang, Charles Jencks, Richard Meier, Robert Stern, Alessi, Takefumi Aida, Eva Jiricna, Studio 65, Paolo Portoghesi, Oscar Tusquets, Terry Farrell, Tomas Taveira, Om Ungers, Swid Powell Ceramics, Lee Payne, and more...
"This issue of Art & Design takes a critical look at the controversial area of product design, a subject which does not often receive the same serious attention as painting or sculpture, although it probably concerns more people, on a day-to-day basis, than the fine arts. The Post-Modern Object focuses in particular on developments over the past few years by designers who have pulled away from the Modernist preoccupation with functionalism as an aesthetic and created a wide range of objects — from sofas to jewellery, cutlery to kettles — which are highly original and decorative. Included in this Profile are works by celebrated designers such as Ettore Sottsass, Michael Graves, Robert Venturi and Hans Hollein."
Good ex-libris copy with light associated markings, tanning and light wear to covers.
1988, English
Hardcover (w. dust jacket), 388 pages, 25 x 2.5 x 25 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
The MIT Press / Massachusetts
$160.00 - Out of stock
Rare first edition of the best, largest volume on visionary architect Bruce Goff, published by MIT in 1988! Distilled from years of research and friendship, this is the first comprehensive study to capture the essential Goff — the idiosyncratic and profoundly original designs, the erratic yet exuberant career that produced some of the most challenging and inventive architecture of this century. Bruce Goff spent most of his life (1904-1982) in the American heartland. In the seven decades of his practice he designed nearly 500 projects, of which some 140 were built. Although he loved to flaunt the novel use of found materials (steel pipe, coal, rope, plexiglas aircraft domes, cake pans) and flashy decorative surfaces including white goose feathers and egg crates Goff's central and abiding concern was with the mastery of space.
As David De Long shows in this engaging book, Goff's spatial creativity was unbounded, his diversity seemingly unlimited. De Long discusses the architect's development and early work in Tulsa, the formative influences that shaped his career, his first independent work in Chicago, the periods of working on speculation in Bartlesville and Kansas City, his withdrawal from active practice following charges of homosexuality, and Goffs triumphant resurgence with his design for the Japanese Wing of the Los Angeles County Museum. De Long devotes an entire chapter to Goff's major projects - the Ledbetter, Ford, Bavinger, and Wilson houses, the Hopewell Baptist Church, and Crystal Cathedral, whose complex geometries, spatial richness, and modified prefabricated elements set them radically apart from the conformity of small town America. The story is a fascinating one, incorporating significant design details with local reactions and sometimes devastating professional criticism.
Bruce Goff: Toward Absolute Architecture, contains a complete catalogue raisonné of buildings and projects; it is included in The Architectural History Foundation's American Monograph Series.
1997, English
Softcover, 240 pages, 30.5 x 24.5 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Federico Motta Editore / Milan
$750.00 - Out of stock
The best book on Enzo Mari that barely exists! Published in a limited edition in 1997 and immediately out-of-print, this beautifully produced, comprehensive monograph on the work of Italian designer Enzo Mari (1932—2020) is an in-depth authoritative survey of his entire oeuvre and theory, profusely illustrated throughout with photographs and drawings of all of his designs, accompanied by essays, reflections, texts by Mari, comprehensive index and a wonderful interview with Enzo Mari himself, all in bi-lingual English and Italian. An important, and extremely collectible reference book on one of the most important designers of the 20th century. Edited by theorist, historian and critic of architecture and design François Burkhardt, who was editor-in-chief of Domus magazine at the time of publishing this book.
"Enzo Mari is an unusual person, an artist, an impassioned humanist. His unusual ability to combine idea and form makes him an exceptional presence on the international design scenario. He has managed to elaborate a coherent theoretical corpus, particular attention being dedicated to social and political problems. At the same time, he has succeeded in creating a magnificent collection of designs, all different, rational and sincere; this includes some true works of art and of great beauty, without doubt as many points of reference for the history of twentieth century design. Mari is radical in his ideas and subtle in his designs. but irreprehensible in both cases, standing apart from post modern kitsch as too from pseudo functionalist orthodoxy, not creating a style but assenting a philosophy. He is a non-conformist and has tried to use his work to change the environment, introducing a percentage of Utopia into every project." — from the book jacket.
Enzo Mari (1932-2020) was an Italian designer, graphic designer, illustrator and artist. His works range from design to painting, from graphics to gallery displays. He was both a teacher and a political activist. Today he is considered one of the greatest theorists of design.
Very Good copy, only light cover wear. Includes inserted colour invite/fold-out card brochure for the exhibition Enzo Mari "Le Travail Au Centre" at the University of Montréal, Canada, as part of Les Conférences Internationals, École de Design Industriel, held in 1999.
1977, Italian
Softcover (with dust jacket), 182 pages, 30 x 21 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Poltronova / Italy
$390.00 - Out of stock
Beautiful, very rare volume published in 1977 by the mighty Poltronova. This valuable reference presented with notes by Poltronova founder Sergio Cammilli, surveys one of the most innovative furniture companies and exponents of Italian Radical Design, highly cited and fully illustrated with more than 500 images of projects and various creations by the artists and designers they collaborated with.
Poltronova was founded just north of Florence by Cammilli in 1957, and by 1958 a young Ettore Sottsass was hired to be the company's artistic director. Cammili had a background in art, and many believe it was the founder’s remarkable openness to bold creative expression that led the company to become one of the most daring in 20th-century Italian design. In 1966, Cammilli and Sottsass visited the Superarchitettura exhibition, presented at Galleria Jolly 2 in Pistoia. This era-defining project was organized by Superstudio and Archizoom—two counterculture student groups from the University of Florence’s Faculty of Architect; it’s now seen to be a landmark moment in the development of Radical Design movement. Cammilli and Sottsass immediately changed the direction of the Poltronova from sleek modern furniture to began working with young, iconoclastic designers, and helped to usher in the postmodern era in design. Archizoom designed the company’s new factory and programmed events at the headquarters, which included a poetry reading and meditation workshop led by poet Allen Ginsberg.
Design by Leonardo Baglioni, "Facendo mobili con Poltronova" compiles the entire history under the direction of Cammilli and Sottsass, who left Poltronova in the 1970s, presenting all the iconic works by Archizoom, Sergio Asti, Gae Aulenti, Mario Ceroli, De Pas D'Urbino Lomazzi, Max Ernst, Gianfranco Fini, Angelo Mangiarotti, Gino Marotta, Giovanni Michelucci, Ugo Nespolo, Gianni Ruffi, Ettore Sottsass, Superstudio, Lella and Massimo Vignelli, Achilli Brigidini Canella, Giampiero and Giovanni Bassi, Franco Bettonica, Sergio Cammilli, Graziella Guidoti, Luciano Nustrini, Paolo Portoghesi, Van Onck/Von Klier, Rino Vernuccio...
Very Good copy with light wear and tanning to jacket.
English / Japanese
Softcover, 64 pages, 26 x 37 cm
Published by
A.D.A Edita / Tokyo
$80.00 - Out of stock
One of the finest architecture series ever published, the world renowned GA (Global Architecture) series, presented by the highly esteemed publishing house that also published the GA Document, GA Houses, and GI (Global Interior) architectural publications.
Each over-sized photographic folio issue of the special GA Residential Masterpieces series highlights a renowned international architect and takes a detailed look into their creations for residence.
Absolutely stunning and vivid large-format architectural photography of the selected building’s interiors, exteriors and architectural details, along with texts (in English and Japanese) and floor-plans/elevation drawings make up the profiles on each featured architectural project. The visual generosity of these handsomely designed and beautifully printed over-sized publications make them a treasure for any architecture or interior design enthusiast or collector.
Built between 1945 and 1951, the Farnsworth House in Plano, Illinois, is among Mies van der Rohe’s most famous works. Having relocated to the United States just prior to the war, he embraced the new opportunities the country provided for his modernist vision. The house appears in the same style as others in a series of buildings from the architect’s American period, and is considered something of a prototype. Commissioned to design a weekend retreat for a prominent Chicago psychiatrist, Van der Rohe created an enchanting space that was at once both a sanctuary and a monument to modern architecture. With photographs and text by Yoshio Futagawa.
Printed in Japan.
2015, English / Japanese
Softcover, 76 pages, 26 x 36 cm
Published by
A.D.A Edita / Tokyo
$80.00 - Out of stock
One of the finest architecture series ever published, the world renowned GA (Global Architecture) series, presented by the highly esteemed publishing house that also published the GA Document, GA Houses, and GI (Global Interior) architectural publications.
Each over-sized photographic folio issue of the special GA Residential Masterpieces series highlights a renowned international architect and takes a detailed look into their creations for residence.
Absolutely stunning and vivid large-format architectural photography of the selected building’s interiors, exteriors and architectural details, along with texts (in English and Japanese) and floor-plans/elevation drawings make up the profiles on each featured architectural project. The visual generosity of these handsomely designed and beautifully printed over-sized publications make them a treasure for any architecture or interior design enthusiast or collector.
Designed by American architect Philip Johnson as his own residence, the Glass House in New Canaan, Connecticut (US), sent shockwaves through the architectural world when it was first completed, and has remained an icon of American residential modernism ever since. Lovingly portrayed by Japanese architectural photographer Yukio Futagawa, the house, its galleries of artworks, outlying studio, and pavilion on the pond all come alive through refined qualities of light and the natural setting. Moreover, Kengo Kuma contributes an essay in which he describes his impressions of meeting the architect and the first encounter with his famous house.
Printed in Japan
2012, Japanese / English
Softcover, 64 pages, 26 x 36 cm
Published by
A.D.A Edita / Tokyo
$77.00 - Out of stock
One of the finest architecture series ever published, the world renowned GA (Global Architecture) series, presented by the highly esteemed publishing house that also published the GA Document, GA Houses, and GI (Global Interior) architectural publications.
Each over-sized photographic folio issue of the special GA Residential Masterpieces series highlights a renowned international architect and takes a detailed look into their creations for residence.
Absolutely stunning and vivid large-format architectural photography of the selected building’s interiors, exteriors and architectural details, along with texts (in English and Japanese) and floor-plans/elevation drawings make up the profiles on each featured architectural project. The visual generosity of these handsomely designed and beautifully printed over-sized publications make them a treasure for any architecture or interior design enthusiast or collector.
Photographed by Yoshio Futagawa and with text by Yukio Futagawa, this edition details one of modernism’s early masterpieces - Pierre Chareau's Maison De Verre. With insights into the history and conception of the house, as well as its design and authors, the text shows how Pierre Chareau, an interior designer in charge of design and planning, “positioned this residence as a prototype of a Modernist manifesto.”
Printed in Japan
2016, English / Japanese
Softcover, 54 pages, 26 x 36 cm
Published by
A.D.A Edita / Tokyo
$70.00 - Out of stock
One of the finest architecture series ever published, the world renowned GA (Global Architecture) series, presented by the highly esteemed publishing house that also published the GA Document, GA Houses, and GI (Global Interior) architectural publications.
Each over-sized photographic folio issue of the special GA Residential Masterpieces series highlights a renowned international architect and takes a detailed look into their creations for residence.
Absolutely stunning and vivid large-format architectural photography of the selected building’s interiors, exteriors and architectural details, along with texts (in English and Japanese) and floor-plans/elevation drawings make up the profiles on each featured architectural project. The visual generosity of these handsomely designed and beautifully printed over-sized publications make them a treasure for any architecture or interior design enthusiast or collector.
Built in the early 1950s in São Paulo, Lina Bo Bardi’s Casa de Vidro (Glass House) was the first real architectural project she completed after her arrival in Brazil. Built as a home for herself and her husband, it clearly demonstrates how architecture and design should keep a distance from individuals, society or community, and the natural environment – a stance that would come to underlie all of the Italian-born architect’s subsequent works. Photographed by master architectural photographer Yukio Futagawa, Casa de Vidro still appears as its designer intended, a prototype that responded to a new society, rising directly from the earth and embedded in the surrounding jungle.
Printed in Japan
2016, English / Japanese
Softcover, 56 pages, 26 x 36 cm
Published by
A.D.A Edita / Tokyo
$70.00 - Out of stock
One of the finest architecture series ever published, the world renowned GA (Global Architecture) series, presented by the highly esteemed publishing house that also published the GA Document, GA Houses, and GI (Global Interior) architectural publications.
Each over-sized photographic folio issue of the special GA Residential Masterpieces series highlights a renowned international architect and takes a detailed look into their creations for residence.
Absolutely stunning and vivid large-format architectural photography of the selected building’s interiors, exteriors and architectural details, along with texts (in English and Japanese) and floor-plans/elevation drawings make up the profiles on each featured architectural project. The visual generosity of these handsomely designed and beautifully printed over-sized publications make them a treasure for any architecture or interior design enthusiast or collector.
Begun in São Paulo in 1964 by Paulo Mendes da Rocha when he was just 36 years old, the Brazilian architect’s own residence was highly influential in his home country but little published due to the political climate of the time. An entire “heroic” phase of Brazilian architecture, with significant works by Oscar Niemeyer, Lina Bo Bardi, and others, was impacted by the Brazil’s increasing cultural isolation. Mendes da Rocha’s work was not recognised internationally until the 1990s, which led to a “rediscovery” of this house as a kind of manifesto. Its brutalist reinforced concrete surfaces and structural simplicity resonate with history in this series of photographs by Yukio Futagawa.
Printed in Japan
1953, English
Softcover (staple-bound), 8 pages, 26 x 20 .5 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / good
Published by
NGV (National Gallery of Victoria) / Victoria
$8.00 - Out of stock
The Quarterly Bulletin of the National Gallery of Victoria Vol. VII, No. 4, 1953. Recent acquisitions and activities at the NGV, Melbourne. Good with wear, ageing, light marks.
1990, English
Softcover (french-folds and obi), 34 x 25 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / good
Published by
Terrazzo / Milan
$150.00 - Out of stock
TERRAZZO was a very special biannual publication on architecture and design, edited and published between 1988–1995 by Barbara Radice, a prominent Italian author, design critic and member of the Memphis Milano design group. In conjunction with Ettore Sottsass, Christoph Radl, Anna Wagner and Santi Caleca, Radice created a unique and thoughtful periodical that focused on contemporary works of design and architecture, within Italy and abroad, touching on a vast array of disciplines in each issue, including literature, poetry, history, science, philosophy, art and anthropology. Like no other magazine.
TERRAZZO 5 Fall 1990 features : DOLCE STIL NUOVO by Andrea Branzi, TOYO ITO
Let it breathe by Toyo Ito, JOSH SCHWEITZER interview by Viola Marquez, ITALIAN RADICAL ARCHITECTURE AND DESIGN 1966 - 1973 by Emilio Ambasz (ARCHIZOOM - 9999 - GIANNI PETTENA - ETTORE SOTTSASS ― SUPERSTUDIO - UFO - ZZIGGURAT)
Good copy with light moisture waving to the top right corner towards back of publication with marking visible on the final pages. Light tanning, light wear, common partial glue separation from cover, otherwise really nice copy with original obi.