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 BREAK UNTIL NOV 10
WEB-SHOP OPEN 24/7
(ORDER SHIPPING RESUMES NOV 10)
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
Pick-up orders can be collected in our bookshop during opening hours after order date. Please collect any Pick-up orders within 2 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. If you cannot make it in to the bookshop in this time-frame, please choose postage option.
Return Policy
All sales are final. We do accept returns (for refund or 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.
1984, Japanese
Softcover (w. dust jacket), 98 pages (w. fold-outs), 42 x 30 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Treville / Tokyo
$220.00 - In stock -
First Japanese edition of H.R. Giger's Necronomicon from 1984. Beginning with a hommage from Salvador Dali and introduction by Clive Baker, the first in this series of oversized and visually overwhelming Giger-designed volumes takes us through the early history of one of the most brilliant fantasy artists of the century. From his "Passegen" series, his work for theatre, posters, album artwork, environments, personal works, is designs for Alejandro Jodorowsky's DUNE, and much more, all beautifully reproduced in full-colour and black and white, full-bleed spreads, including fold-out pages. These Giger folio books have become very desirable, collectable editions in their various printings around the world, the series encompassing the work of one of the world's most unique and influential visionaries of the macabre. This is volume 1 of 2 of "HR Giger's Necronomicon" where Al Azred's legendary magical book of the most wonderful abominations and perversions, "Necronomicon" (made infamous in the pages of HP Lovecraft's "Cthulhu" mythology), becomes a visual reality!
With an introduction by Clive Baker and numerous texts by HR Giger as well as texts by Fritz Billeter and Simon Vinkenoog and a tribute from Salvador Dali. Note: Japanese language edition.
First Japanese edition, published by Treville, Tokyo, in 1984. Very good copy throughout with Very Good dust jacket. Some edge wear with fragile, oversized edition.
1987, Japanese
Softcover (w. dust jacket), 98 pages (w. fold-outs), 42 x 30 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Treville / Tokyo
$180.00 - In stock -
First Japanese edition of H.R. Giger's Necronomicon II, the second oversized and visually overwhelming Giger-designed collection that takes us further through the incredible history of one of the most brilliant fantasy artists of the century. Reproducing Giger's award-winning work for the film ALIEN, his paintings, environments, sculptural works, his work for never shot film "The Tourist", collaborations with Blondie's Debbie Harry, his "New York City" series from the late 1970's and much more, all beautifully reproduced in full-colour and black and white, full-bleed spreads, including fold-out pages. Also includes interviews, texts, biography. These Giger folio books have become very desirable, collectable editions in their various printings around the world, the series encompassing the work of one of the world's most unique and influential visionaries of the macabre. This is volume 2 of 2 of "HR Giger's Necronomicon" where Al Azred's legendary magical book of the most wonderful abominations and perversions, "Necronomicon" (made infamous in the pages of HP Lovecraft's "Cthulhu" mythology), becomes a visual reality!
First Japanese edition, published by Treville, Tokyo, in 1987. Very good copy throughout with Very Good dust jacket. Some light wear to over-sized book.
1969, Japanese
Hardcover (w. dust jacket) in slipcase, unpaginated, 22 x 16 cm
Signed and numbered edition,
Published by
Gentosha / Tokyo
$280.00 - In stock -
Extremely rare signed first 1969 edition of Japanese illustrator Ken Katayama's masterpiece artbook, Beautiful Days, in limited edition hardcover, numbered and slipcased. Beautiful Days is the most crystallised embodiment of one of the most unique artistic visions of fantasy illustration one could ever find, and the first collection ever published by the artist, when, after discovering the erotic works on the fringe of Surrealism he gave up becoming a painter and gave himself over to the obscene impulses of drawing. "There, so to speak, masturbation became a picture. Until then, I never thought that masturbation could become a painting"—excerpt from Ken Katayama's postscript. Katayama's magnificently, obsessive graphite-rendered world making is, like that of Lewis Carroll before him, made up almost entirely of children; children in states of blank-faced entrancement, possession and naked abandon; groping, lost and frozen in a psychosexual schoolhood theatre. Unlike anything else, aspects of Katayama's bewildering, often sadomasochistic, fairytale visions recall the tales of de Sade, Bataille, Klossowski, Carroll's Alice; the unconscious pictures of Balthus, Hans Bellmer, or Leonor Fini; the architectural dreamscapes of Delvaux or the Metaphysical painters; even the dark psychological renderings of fellow Japanese artist Yoshifumi Hayashi — a haunted landscape of eroticised adolescent memories with recurring motifs of free flowing urination and defecation, violently strewn newspapers, urinals, and apparitions of cat-people. Nothing like it! The work even inspired an experimental film of boyhood memories directed by the provocative film-maker Nakamura Masanobu in 1970.
Signed in 1969 by Katayama.
"If you
keep your hands in your pockets
in your pocket
what are you hiding
that's how I got it
darkness in my pocket, days of dust
I opened the old album and showed
beautiful days other days"
Virtually unknown outside his native Japan, Katayama (b. 1940, Tokyo) studied at the Musahino Art University and in the 1960s and 1970s begin contributing illustrations to underground art and literary magazines such as Black Notebook, Featured Story and fetish magazines such as SM Select, amongst many others. He published art books such as Angel Hour, Lost Child's Top, Match Taker, The Cat in Boots, and many more, and went on to become a successful children's story book illustrator, publishing many works throughout the 1980s—90s.
Very Good copy, beautifully preserved in Very Good slipcase. Signed and numbered first edition. The most complete, finest edition of this work.
2025, English
Softcover staple-bound), 24 pages, 13 x 19 cm
Published by
Innen Books / Zürich
$40.00 - In stock -
Innen Books zine of airbrush illustrations by Japanese artist Yosuke Onishi, the iconic cover illustrator of cult fetish magazine SM Sniper. Onishi began working as a designer in the mid-1960s before turning to illustration in 1976. Using both airbrush techniques and elaborate brushwork, his highly detailed, photograph-like pictures push the boundaries of illustration.
Edited by Hiroshi Iguchi and Hi Bridge Books
1990 / 1991, Japanese
Softcover (w. dust jacket), 210 pages, 21 x 14.8 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / fine
Published by
Kubo Shoten / Japan
World Comics / Japan
$190.00 - Out of stock
Very rare original first Japanese book collection of Bondage Fairies before they were known as "Bondage Fairies". The infamous cult classic eromanga first appeared in Japan in 1990 as "Insect Hunter", but it was quickly banned from sale by the Tokyo Metropolitan Ordinance. Here is the very first collection of "Insect Hunter" by Kondom, published by Kubo Shoten way back in 1990, collecting over 150 pages of the first of the original series, in the original Japanese language. Includes colour galleries.
Created by manga artist Teruo Kakuta under the pen name "Kondom", a multilingual pun, meaning "little insect" in Japanese and "condom" in English, Bondage Fairies is an erotic series about highly sexual female forest fairies, who work as police officers protecting the forest, whilst engaging in a wild array of anthropomorphized, inter-species sexual acts. The series began in Japan in 1990 as Insect Hunter, but it was quickly banned from sale by the Tokyo Metropolitan Ordinance. Under a new title, the manga was serialized in manga magazine Lemon Kids. The series is among the earliest sexually explicit manga (eromanga) commercially translated and published uncensored in the United States where the earliest editions date from 1994 (Venus Press). Eros Comix subsequently published a multi-volume series of the collected Bondage Fairies, and subsequent stories, now all very collectible. Translated to Swedish, German, French, and Italian, Bondage Fairies is one of the most popular underground adult Japanese comics outside Japan.
Near Fine copy in original NF dust jacket. Second 1991 printing of the first 1990 edition.
1969, English
Softcover (staple-bound), 24 pages, 24.5 x 17 cm
Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Apex Novelty / California
$55.00 - Out of stock
Zap Comix No. 0, first published in the later half of 1968 only weeks after Zap Comix No. 2, was intended to be the first book in Robert Crumb's mighty Zap series, were it not for the fact that publisher Brian Zahn had kept Crumb's artwork for Zap #0 when he traveled to India in 1968 and lost it. Luckily, Crumb had made xeroxes which he managed to locate months later, allowing it to be put it to be put to print. Packed with Crumb's comics, including Mr. Natural, Ducks Yas Yas, Itzy and Bitzy, Freak Out Funnies, City of The Future and much more. There were many precursors to the underground comix revolution in 1968, but none had a fraction of the impact that Robert Crumb's Zap Comix had when it came out in San Francisco early 1968.
An early printing by Apex Novelties, roughly a 7th-8th print run, indicated by the "75 cents" on the cover.
Very Good copy, light wear.
1983, English
Softcover, 18 pages, 26.5 x 19 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Black Sparrow Press / Santa Rosa
$70.00 - In stock -
First 1983 edition in first printing of Bukowski's short story illustrated by Robert Crumb, Bring Me Your Love, published by Black Sparrow Press, Santa Rosa. Charles Bukowski's acerbic wit shines through in this dark short story about a cheating lover who visits his lover in a mental asylum, accompanied by the illustrations of the mighty R. Crumb.
The American writer Charles Bukowski and the infamous cartoon illustrator Robert Crumb collaborated on two books during the early 1980s. Bring me your Love was the first of these publications, and was followed the following year by There’s no Business, which was also published by the Black Sparrow Press in 1984. Bring Me Your Love focuses on a protagonist common to many Bukowski stories - a man named Harry whose wife is in a mental hospital, and who spends his free time drinking and having sex. Crumb’s comic and graphic drawings compliment Bukowski’s short tale with illustrations showing Gloria punching herself in the face; Harry and Nan ‘going good’ in the motel room, and the same pair grappling on the floor, semi-clothed, both reaching for the telephone receiver. Crumb and Bukowski later came together for a third and final time in 1998, with a posthumous collection of Bukowski’s previously unpublished diaries. “He was a very difficult guy to hang out with in person” Crumb once wrote of Bukowski, “but on paper he was great.” Bring Me Your Love is must-have for every Bukowski collection.
“The Walt Whitman of Los Angeles.”―Joyce Carol Oates, bestselling author
“He brought everybody down to earth, even the angels.”―Leonard Cohen, songwriter
Published in a limited edition of 5000 copies with the pink endpapers. Re-printed many times by Harper Collins, Ecco, etc. but this was the first Black Sparrow run.
Very Good copy, light wear.
1998, Japanese
Hardcover (w. dust jacket), 104 pages, 30.3 x 23.2 cm
Signed by artist,
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Asahi Shimbun / Japan
$200.00 - Out of stock
First 1998 hardcover edition of Kuniyoshi Kaneko's Vicious Angel, one of the finest volumes by Japanese painter, illustrator and photographer Kuniyoshi Kaneko (1936—2015), this copy with signed by the artist to the first blank page. Increasingly rare, Vicious Angel collects in one place the famous literary illustration of Kaneko, including Lewis Carroll's "Alice in Wonderland" and "Alice's Dream," George Bataille's "Story of The Eye" and "Madame Edwarda," and many others works spanning the 1970s to the 1990s. Kaneko's unique figurative drawings of young men and women in enigmatic, metaphysical scenes of surreal, stylised erotic abandon, channel the spirits of Cocteau, Bellmer, and Balthus; his controversial interpretations graced the pages and covers of these literary classics as they entered the Japanese consciousness. Free of convention, Kaneko's dreamlike scenarios were very often of same-sex, homo-erotic, even fetishistic nature, and his artwork, encouraged by editor and writer Shibusawa Tatsuhiko (1928—1987), became a staple in the underground publishing scene of 1970's Tokyo. Vicious Angel includes a biography, photographic portraits, bibliography, and an introductory essay by Kuniyoshi Kaneko entitled "In honor of the Holy God".
VG copy in CG dust jacket, light edge wear.
1984, Japanese
Hardcover (w. dust jacket) in slipcase (w. obi), 110 pages, 31cm x 24 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / fine
Published by
Shogakukan / Tokyo
$180.00 - In stock -
First 1984 edition of Kuniyoshi Kaneko's Theatre of Eros, one of the finest monographic volumes on Japanese painter, illustrator and photographer Kuniyoshi Kaneko (1936—2015), this copy with signed dedication by the artist (dated "1984.1.2") to the first blank page. Profusely illustrated throughout in colour and b/w with Kaneko's figurative paintings and drawings of young men and women in enigmatic, metaphysical scenes of surreal, stylised erotic beauty, channeling the spirits of Cocteau and Balthus, including his famous illustrations for Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland, his illustrations for Orpheus, an array of his beloved oil on canvas and pastel and paper works, plus much more. Free of convention, Kaneko's dreamlike scenarios were very often of same-sex, homo-erotic, even fetishistic nature, and his artwork, encouraged by editor and writer Shibusawa Tatsuhiko (1928—1987), became a staple in the underground publishing scene of 1970's Tokyo. Theatre of Eros includes an extensive, illustrated biography, many photographic portraits, and a conversation with Japanese essayist and poet Mutsuo Takahashi (b. 1937). Takahashi was one of the most prominent poets of postwar Japan, known for his bold poetic work of male-male eroticism.
A beautifully preserved complete copy with original publisher's obi, and inserted with a file of various Kaneko Japanese media press clippings, 1984 Seibu gallery Theatre of Eros exhibition flyer, and the complete pages of an amazing photographic feature on Japanese pop star (and YMO-founder Haruomi Hosono collaborator) Miharu Koshi art directed and designed by Kaneko himself.
F copy in NF slipcase and obi.
2014, Japanese / English
Hardcover (w. hardcase + obi), 222 pages, 26.8 x 17.2 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Toshokankokai / Tokyo
$460.00 - In stock -
Now very rare out-of-print collection, and hands-down one of the best, "Yumenozoki (Glimpse of a Dream), The Art of Toshio Saeki" collects over 150 vividly coloured works of bewitching cruelty and gruesome beauty by Toshio Saeki, all of which were originally published in cult underground fetish magazine SM Select, between 1972—1984. Published only in Japanese in this hardcover and slipcased edition, includes two bilingual essays (Japanese / English) by Michiko Kitamura and Jun Miura, biography, and complete listing of artworks with original publication dates. An incredible volume of these important artworks that made Saeki a master in the Tokyo underground publishing scene, seen for the first time together, scaled-up and exquisitely reproduced in all their ero-guro glory. Highly recommended. First edition.
Toshio Saeki (1945—2019) was an illusive Japanese illustrator and painter, and icon of 1970s Tokyo counterculture, known for combining Japanese folklore, Yōkai spirits and elements of Western art with his own sophisticated aesthetics to create a unique, sensational world of eros, dark humour, and horror. Given the title “Erotic Engineer” by Timothy Leary, Saeki's provocative art broke all sexual taboos, questioned Japanese ideology and traditional views on love, desire and gender roles. Saeki’s surgically-precise graphic work is closely related to the Japanese cultural phenomenon ‘Erotic, Grotesque, Nonsense’ (ero, guro, nansensu).
“Toshio Saeki conjures death with a pen”—Shūji Terayama, 1969.
Very Good copy in VG slipcase w. VG obi.
1981, English
Softcover, 48 pages, 40 x 28 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Charles E. Tuttle / Tokyo
$140.00 - In stock -
Scarce first Japanese edition (entirely in English language), published in Tokyo by Charles Tuttle, of this beautifully produced over-sized 1981 book by H. R. Giger. Foreword by Timothy Leary.
In 1981, a year after being awarded the Oscar for Best Achievement for Visual Effects for Alien, the book H.R. GIGER N.Y. CITY was published. This series of post Alien works, the result of an intense period of non-stop painting, literally day and night, were inspired by Giger's trip to New York City and a template which his colleague Cornelius de Fries, brought back from one of his excursions into the electronic industry. The stencil was actually a sheet of scrap metal from which electrical components had been punched out. Alongside these incredible works are drawings, articles, press clippings, posters and polaroids from Giger's time in New York City.
Fantastic Swiss surrealist painter, sculptor and set designer Hans Rudolf “Ruedi” Giger was born in 1940, the son of a chemist. He spoke of a father who viewed art as a "breadless profession", and strongly encouraged his son to enter into pharmaceutics. Despite this, in 1962, he moved to Zürich, where he studied Architecture and industrial design at the School of Applied Arts until 1970. Giger's style and thematic execution have been hugely influential. His design for the Alien was inspired by his painting Necronom IV and earned him an Oscar in 1980. His books of paintings, particularly Necronomicon and Necronomicon II (1985) and the frequent appearance of his art in Omni magazine continued his rise to international prominence. Giger is also well known for artwork on several music recording albums. His most distinctive stylistic innovation is that of a representation of human bodies and machines in a cold, interconnected relationship, he described as "biomechanical". His paintings often display fetishistic sexual imagery. His main influences were painters Ernst Fuchs and Salvador Dalí. He was also a personal friend of Timothy Leary. Giger suffered from night terrors and his paintings are all to some extent inspired by his experiences with that particular sleep disorder, making his first paintings as a means of art therapy. In 1998 Giger acquired the Château St. Germain in Gruyères, Switzerland, and it now houses the H. R. Giger Museum, a permanent repository of his work.
Good—Very Good copy, tight binding with some cover wear and corner wear, some sunning to edges.
2025, English
Hardcover, 272 pages, 30 x 23 cm
Published by
Image Comics / US
$75.00 - In stock -
"Vaughn was one of the lights of America."—Moebius
Collecting for the first time, in chronological order, underground comix legend Vaughn Bodē's charmingly risqué strips and "Bodé Broads" from Cavalier magazine ("the kind men like.")
Originally written and drawn in the 1970s, this volume represents a time capsule in erotic humor as only a master of the form could create it. This beautiful hardbound book also collects Bodē's hard-to-find three-page strips and other rarities.
With a foreword and additional new art from Vaughn's son, Mark Bodē. Underground comix enthusiasts, Bodē aficionados and fans of adult humor won't want to miss this uncensored and digitally remastered omnibus.
Vaughn Bodē (1941 – 1975) was an American underground cartoonist and illustrator known for his character Cheech Wizard and his artwork depicting voluptuous women. In 1963, at age 21, and while living in Utica, New York, Bodē self-published Das Kämpf, considered one of the first underground comic books. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, he illustrated covers and interior art for the science fiction digests Amazing Stories, Fantastic, Galaxy Science Fiction, Witzend and Worlds of If. Discovered by fellow cartoonist Trina Robbins, Bodē moved to Manhattan in 1969 and joined the staff of the underground newspaper the East Village Other. Beginning in 1968 and continuing until his untimely death from autoerotic asphyxiation in 1975, Bodē entered a prolific period of creativity, introducing a number of strips and ongoing series, most of which ran in underground newspapers or erotic magazines. Bodē described his sexuality as "auto-sexual, heterosexual, homosexual, mano-sexual, sado-sexual, trans-sexual, uni-sexual, omni-sexual." A contemporary of animator Ralph Bakshi, Bodē has been credited as an influence on Bakshi's animated films Wizards and The Lord of the Rings. Bodē has a huge following among graffiti artists, with his characters remaining a popular subject of the culture. Bodē was inducted into the Will Eisner Award Hall of Fame for comics artists in 2006.
1973, English
Softcover, 128 pages, 18 x 11 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Dell / New York
$65.00 - Out of stock
"Up from the underground! The most outrageous, erotic, and mind-boggling cartoon adventures you'll ever see!"
First edition of this paperback collection of comics featuring an assortment of Junkwaffel lizards and busty Bodé girls originally produced by Vaughn Bodē for Cavalier Magazine in the 60's and early 70's and published following his legendary "Cartoon Concert" tour. Beginning in 1972, Bodē toured with a show called the "Cartoon Concert," that featured him vocalizing his characters while their depictions were presented on a screen behind him via a slide projector. Touring comic book conventions and becoming very popular on the college lecture circuit, Bodē even performed it at The Louvre, in Paris.
Vaughn Bodē (1941 – 1975) was an American underground cartoonist and illustrator known for his character Cheech Wizard and his artwork depicting voluptuous women. In 1963, at age 21, and while living in Utica, New York, Bodē self-published Das Kämpf, considered one of the first underground comic books. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, he illustrated covers and interior art for the science fiction digests Amazing Stories, Fantastic, Galaxy Science Fiction, Witzend and Worlds of If. Discovered by fellow cartoonist Trina Robbins, Bodē moved to Manhattan in 1969 and joined the staff of the underground newspaper the East Village Other. Beginning in 1968 and continuing until his untimely death from autoerotic asphyxiation in 1975, Bodē entered a prolific period of creativity, introducing a number of strips and ongoing series, most of which ran in underground newspapers or erotic magazines. Bodē described his sexuality as "auto-sexual, heterosexual, homosexual, mano-sexual, sado-sexual, trans-sexual, uni-sexual, omni-sexual." A contemporary of animator Ralph Bakshi, Bodē has been credited as an influence on Bakshi's animated films Wizards and The Lord of the Rings. He warned Bakshi against working with Robert Crumb on the animated film adaptation of Crumb's strip Fritz the Cat. Bodē has a huge following among graffiti artists, with his characters remaining a popular subject of the culture. Bodē was inducted into the Will Eisner Award Hall of Fame for comics artists in 2006.
Very Good copy, tightly bound.
1985, Japanese
Softcover, 290 pages, 21 x 15 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / fine
Published by
Sanwa / Tokyo
$450.00 - Out of stock
"People often talk about humanity and humanism, but what makes humans decisively different from animals is that they betray, deceive, and destroy others. Humanity means being cruel."—Masaaki Aoyama
Super rare, first and only issue of cult magazine of erotic obscenity, Witches' Sabbath ("Super Pervert, End of the Century, Abuse History"), published in 1985 by Sanwa Publications as a special edition of SM Mania and edited by Masaaki Aoyama (1960-2001), a legendary cult writer, editor and pioneer in the genre of "Kichiku" (cruel) publishing who had a major influence on Japanese subculture in the 1980s and 1990s.
In 1995, after a prolific career in underground publishing, Aoyama edited the first issue of the "brutal" subculture magazine "Dangerous No. 1," which sparked a huge craze for bad taste culture in Japan, with the opening introduction declaring "There are no taboos when it comes to fantasies!". Ten years earlier, at 25 years old, he edited Witches' Sabbath, a call to "Destroy All Orders", a magazine devoted to "Decadence, Ultra-Abnormality, and Maltreatment"; Aoyama's unique, devilish manifestation of a particular convergence of subcultural 1980s Tokyo — punk and industrial music, splatter horror films, underground manga, SM publishing, and occultism. "The Worst Truth of the 20th Century".
Aoyama was deeply attracted to the culture of monsters, the world of the abnormal, the cruel and dark impulses of human-kind. His publishing ventures centred around his fascination with destructive and socially maladjusted people, perversions, social taboos, "freaks" and subjects turned against public order and morality. Profusely illustrated throughout with colour photo galleries, Aoyama, with contributors including Merzbow's Masami Akita, horror manga artists Suehiro Maruo and Hideshi (Guinea Pig) Hino, manga critic and activist Shinichiro Kurimoto, Hisao Nakano, Mongoose Nagayama, Dan Takasugi, Ken Hirukogami, and others, present features on all manner of heterodox culture, everything from an illustrated guide to corpse photography, splatter horror movies, scatology, how-to seppuku/harakiri (Japanese ritualistic suicide by disembowelment), horror manga (new artworks by Maruo, Hino, comic by Jimmie Morita, and others), infant mania, drugs, necrophilia, Industrial Records (Throbbing Gristle, Monte Cazazza, SPK, etc,), Zeitlich Vergelter, Ron Geesin, sadistic crime history, deformities, Georges Bataille, devil pregnancy kinbaku, sorcery, bestiality, witch hunting, SM readers confessions, the latest in fetish publishing, D-Cup extravaganza (big breast video and magazine publishing), and much more. A special Nazi issue was planned for the next issue, but the magazine was discontinued after this first issue.
An important publication in the history of Japan's "Kichiku" (cruel) publishing. Cover artwork by Ran Akiyoshi.
Not for the faint of heart. Strictly mature audiences only.
From the Editor's notes: "[...] That's because my original path was escapist fairy tales, and whether it was manga, photography, or bookmaking, what I wanted to depict was the world of children. There's no doubt that the purest things and madness are side by side... What is abnormal and what is normal? In this day and age when everything man has created is being torn down and all boundaries are being removed, humans are being led astray by the enormous concepts they have created. Is Witches' Sabbath just a pornographic book? Is Masaaki Aoyama just crazy? It has only just begun."
Masaaki Aoyama (1960-2001) was pioneer of the Japanese underground publishing scene. When he was in the third grade of elementary school, his father bought him a copy of Hiroshi Minamiyama's book "Supernatural Mysteries," which sparked his interest in the supernatural and the occult. Although he never studied, he displayed his prodigy qualities from an early age whilst simultaneously becoming addicted to masturbation. His intense quest for knowledge and perversion continued into his adult life. A self-proclaimed hedonist, Aoyama was hailed as a rare genius editor that had a profound, almost traumatic impact on people. Aoyama openly discussed and pursued a wide range of specialised topics, from drugs, lolicon, scat, and freaks to cult movies, progressive rock, punk, techno, the occult, heretical thought, and the spiritual world. He worked prolifically, editing and writing articles for mini-comics, books and magazines such as Hentai, Hey! Buddy, Billy, Witches' Sabbath, Philiac, Eccentric, amongst a seemingly endless list of fringe "pervert" publications that proliferated after the emergence of vending machine books in the 1970s. In 1992, Aoyama wrote Japan's first practical drug manual, "Dangerous Drugs," a "bible for junkies" which sold over 100,000 copies. In 1995, he edited the first issue of the "brutal" subculture magazine "Dangerous No. 1," which quoted the words of cult guru Hassan I-Sabah: "There is no truth. Everything is permitted." The magazine, which was packed with an exhaustive range of deviant, perverted, and bad taste content, became a huge hit, selling over 250,000 copies in total, sparking a craze for "Kichiku" (cruel) publishing in Japan in the late 19th century.
"No taboos in delusions"—Dangerous No. 1 introduction.
The trend of consuming things that are generally viewed as objects of loathing or pity from a mondo perspective was accelerated all over the world during the nihilist 1990's, but it was particularly popularised in Japan. From V-Zone video culture to comic books like Garo and the works of Kei (Takashi) Nemoto, Suehiro Maruo and Hideshi Hino, to subculture magazines that stimulated spectacle-based curiosity, crime and voyeurism, such as GON!, BUBKA, Sekimatsu Club, TOO NEGATIVE, End of the Century, Weekly Murder Casebook, Bessatsu Takarajima. Around the same time, Aoyama was diagnosed with multifocal posterior pigment epitheliopathy (MPPE), an extremely rare eye disease affecting around 50 people nationwide in Japan, which later became one of the factors that led him to become interested in spiritual matters. Aoyama, the mastermind behind this new genre of "Kichiku" (cruel), bad taste publishing, became disillusioned with the vulgar taste that was being mass-produced as a result of the boom. Aoyama felt the genre lost its substance as a counterculture or literary movement and had been absorbed into popular culture, the historical lineage of erotic underground publishing had become dissolved with the boom of extreme content on the internet. Without moralising, he had stared directly into the abyss. The dark truths he sought fed his own deviancy and addictions. Aoyama became depressed and reclusive. In 1997, Sakakibara Seito, an avid reader of Danger No. 1, committed the Kobe child murders. This led to bookstores removing all bad taste subculture books from their shelves. In 1999, "The Complete Works of Aoyama Masaaki” was published, marking the end of "Kichiku" publishing. Aoyama sought the light and pursued a new theory of happiness related to the spiritual world based on psychoneuroimmunology, molecular biology, and Buddhist resignation. In an interview with the magazine BURST, he declared, "the brutal genre is no longer fresh. From now on, I'll go for the soothing genre." He hanged himself at his home in Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture on June 17, 2001, at the age of 40.
Near Fine collector's copy!
1994, Japanese
Softcover, 210 pages, 15 cm x 21 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Tom Shobo / Japan
$120.00 - Out of stock
The rare inaugural issue of Too Negative (No. 1 October 1994). Now rare and highly collectible, Too Negative, the "Forbidden Picture Book", was a visceral and visually explosive glossy cult arts magazine that reflected the gory-depraved-beyond salvation-bad taste expressions visible in international subculture at the height of 1990s underground publishing, a time when art was pushing the limits of taste and morality. Edited solely by legendary Japanese publisher and gallery owner Kotaro Kobayashi and published by Tom Publication Inc. between 1994—2000, each thick, glossy volume takes on the aesthetics of a vibrant fashion magazine in the great Japanese "mook" format (the magazine book) packed cover to cover with themes of Eros and Thanatos, such as fetishism, erotica, medical/autopsy photography, death journalism, Japanese bondage, grotesque and neo-surrealist art, crime scene photography, tattooing/irezumi, piercing, and all things of the mondo, macabre, bizarro realm. Frequent collaborators and featured artists were Kiyotaka Tsurisaki, Joel-Peter Witkin, Trevor Brown, Kiyoshi Ikejiri, to name a few. With a Japanese publishing lineage that may be found in earlier bounding-pushing periodicals such as the 1920s erotic grotesque magazine Hentai Shiriou (Pervert Documents), Tasuhiko Shibusawa’s incredible 1960s avant-garde journal Le Sang Et La Rose, or Fiction Inc’s SALE2 journal published from 1980—mid 1990s, Too Negative, and affiliated periodicals such as ORG, Spiral, Schizo, etc. took their subjects to another level of extremism, even by Japanese standards.
Not for the faint hearted.
This issue, Too Negative No. 1 October 1994, features the corpse/death photography of Kiyotaka Tsurisaki, fetish photography of Kiyoshi Ikejiri, Trevor Brown artwork, AIDS body theory by Keiji Nakayama, SM photography by David Pearson, Japanese big girl nude portraits by photographer Yurie Nagashima, Yasumasa Yonehara photography, hermaphrodite masterbation, antique Japanese hermaphrodite genital studies and various early medical drawings, erotic assemblage, medical/anatomy photography, you name it.
Very Good copy.
1994, Japanese
Softcover, 210 pages, 15 cm x 21 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Tom Shobo / Japan
$140.00 - Out of stock
Too Negative No. 2 December 1994, featuring the first publication of corpse photographer Kiyotaka Tsurisaki.
Now rare and highly collectible, Too Negative, the "Forbidden Picture Book", was a visceral and visually explosive glossy cult arts magazine that reflected the gory-depraved-beyond salvation-bad taste expressions visible in international subculture at the height of 1990s underground publishing, a time when art was pushing the limits of taste and morality. Edited solely by legendary Japanese publisher and gallery owner Kotaro Kobayashi and published by Tom Publication Inc. between 1994—2000, each thick, glossy volume takes on the aesthetics of a vibrant fashion magazine in the great Japanese "mook" format (the magazine book) packed cover to cover with themes of Eros and Thanatos, such as fetishism, erotica, medical/autopsy photography, death journalism, Japanese bondage, grotesque and neo-surrealist art, crime scene photography, tattooing/irezumi, piercing, and all things of the mondo, macabre, bizarro realm. Frequent collaborators and featured artists were Kiyotaka Tsurisaki, Joel-Peter Witkin, Trevor Brown, Kiyoshi Ikejiri, to name a few. With a Japanese publishing lineage that may be found in earlier bounding-pushing periodicals such as the 1920s erotic grotesque magazine Hentai Shiriou (Pervert Documents), Tasuhiko Shibusawa’s incredible 1960s avant-garde journal Le Sang Et La Rose, or Fiction Inc’s SALE2 journal published from 1980—mid 1990s, Too Negative, and affiliated periodicals such as ORG, Spiral, Schizo, etc. took their subjects to another level of extremism, even by Japanese standards.
Not for the faint hearted.
This issue, Too Negative No. 2 December 1994, features the corpse/death photography of Kiyotaka Tsurisaki, fetish photography of Kiyoshi Ikejiri, Kotaro Kobayashi, Setsuko Chiba, the artwork of Trevor Brown, photography of Nancy Burson, doll art by Katan Amano, loads of vintage medical, autopsy and death photography, tattoo and piercing fetish, freak postcards, sex dolls, and much more.
Very Good copy with some cover/extremities wear.
1998, English
Softcover (staple-bound), 32 pages, 30 x 21 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Australia Post / Melbounre
Australia Post / Melbourne
$20.00 - In stock -
Rare exhibition catalogue published on the occasion of Designing Australia : Modernity And The Stamp 1936-1998, Postmaster Gallery Australian Philatelic Centre Melbourne, 25 April—6 July 1998, curated by Sally Gray.
In 1997 independent curator, author and scholar in art, design and urban studies, Sally Gray proposed an exhibition concept to Australia Post focusing on Australian modernism as expressed in the graphic design of Australian stamps. She researched and selected examples of proto-modern, modernist and post-modern graphic design for Australian stamps. The preliminary designs and finished printed stamp designs were shown in the Postmaster Gallery at the Australian Philatelic Centre in Melbourne. The catalogue included commissioned essays on styles of representation on stamps, Australian graphic design history and changing perceptions about national visual identity.
Illustrated throughout in colour and b/w with works by Gert Sellheim, Sydney Ball, Eric Thake, Erica McGilchrist, Brian Sadgrove, Garry Emery, John Coburn, Mimmo Cozzolino, Phil Ellett, Alex Stitt, and many others.
VG copy.
1980, English
Hardcover (w. dust jacket), 224 pages, 30 x 23 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Fleetbooks / New York
$30.00 - Out of stock
"Unblushing color, is the sexual world around us painted by outstanding artists of the twentieth century. In this extraordinary book, the modern world, the flesh, and the devil are captured as never before."
Foreword by Henry Miller.
Within it are 163 newly photographed works of art, each one faithfully reproduced, unretouched, in four color lithography. On these oversized pages is reflected the erotic life of our times from never before published Picasso watercolors of 1901-02 to the initial publication of recent works by George Segal, Andy Warhol, Larry Rivers, R.B. Kitaj, Tom Wesselman and many others.
1980 hardcover survey by Bradley Smith, '20th Century Masters of Erotic Art' is a lavishly illustrated (colour and b/w) collection of erotic works from private and public collections and museums. "Within it are 163 newly photographed works of art, each one faithfully reproduced, unretouched, in four-color lithography. On these oversized pages is reflected the erotic life of our times from never before published Picasso watercolors of 1901-02 to the initial publication of recent works by George Segal, Andy Warhol, Larry Rivers, R.B. Kitaj, Tom Wesselman and many others." Featuring further works by Leonor Fini, Otto Dix, Ernst Fuchs, Fernando Botero, Hans Bellmer, André Masson, Mel Ramos, Friedrich Schröder Sonnenstern, Paul Wunderlich, Richard Lindner, Elias Friedensohn, Roberto Matta, Graham Ovenden, Francisco Toledo, Carlos Revilla, Egon Schiele, Leonard Foujita, Henk Pander, Pablo Picasso, Alexander Calder, Max Ernst, Félix Labisse, Paul Delvaux, Salvador Dalí, and many other painters and illustrators who have conveyed human sexuality through fantasy, romance, symbolism, and super realism, contributing to the development of diverse erotic themes in art becoming more prominent and accepted in the modern era. We've since regressed.
Good copy in Good DJ, wear to dj extremities.
1979, English
Softcover, 64 pages, 22 x 14 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Whispers Press / New York
$45.00 - Out of stock
First edition of Whispers October, 1979 (Vol 4, No.1/2, Whole Numbers 11/12). Special Fritz Leiber issue with stories by Leiber, Roger Zelazny, Brian Lumley and others. Front and back cover art by Stephen Fabian.
Whispers was a 1970s horror and fantasy fiction magazine. Named after a fictitious magazine referenced in the H. P. Lovecraft story "The Unnamable", Whispers began as an attempt by editor, publisher and avid horror collector Stuart David Schiff to produce a modest semi-professional magazine that hoped to revive the legendary Weird Tales in a small way. The magazine was also a followup to August Derleth's The Arkham Collector, which had ceased after Derleth's death. The magazine won the first "Howard" or World Fantasy Award for non-professional publishing in 1975. Whispers went on to become an important elaborate showcase for dark fantasy fiction and artwork of the 1970s, featuring Manly Wade Wellman, Fritz Leiber, Robert Bloch, Ramsey Campbell, Karl Edward Wagner, and David Drake. A string of anthologies were published through the 1980s.
Very Good copy.
1985, English
Softcover, 176 pages, 22 x 14 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Whispers Press / New York
$45.00 - Out of stock
First edition of Whispers March 1982, a double issue (Vol. 4, Nos. 3/4, Whole Numbers 15/16), Special Ramsey Campbell issue includes three stories by Campbell and an article about him by Dr. Jeffrey M. Elliott. Also contains stories by Karl Edward Wagner, Ray Russell, Michael Shea, William F. Nolan, and others. Front cover by John Stewart, rear cover by Hannes Bok, with interior illustrations by Lee Brown Coye, John Stewart and others.
Whispers was a 1970s horror and fantasy fiction magazine. Named after a fictitious magazine referenced in the H. P. Lovecraft story "The Unnamable", Whispers began as an attempt by editor, publisher and avid horror collector Stuart David Schiff to produce a modest semi-professional magazine that hoped to revive the legendary Weird Tales in a small way. The magazine was also a followup to August Derleth's The Arkham Collector, which had ceased after Derleth's death. The magazine won the first "Howard" or World Fantasy Award for non-professional publishing in 1975. Whispers went on to become an important elaborate showcase for dark fantasy fiction and artwork of the 1970s, featuring Manly Wade Wellman, Fritz Leiber, Robert Bloch, Ramsey Campbell, Karl Edward Wagner, and David Drake. A string of anthologies were published through the 1980s.
Very Good copy.
1984, English
Softcover, 176 pages, 22 x 14 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Whispers Press / New York
$45.00 - Out of stock
First edition of Whispers December 1984 (Vol. 5, Nos. 1/2, whole number 21/22). Fiction by Fritz Leiber, Dennis Etchinson, Tanith Lee, Hugh B. Cave, and others. Front and back cover art by Anatoly Ivanov.
Whispers was a 1970s horror and fantasy fiction magazine. Named after a fictitious magazine referenced in the H. P. Lovecraft story "The Unnamable", Whispers began as an attempt by editor, publisher and avid horror collector Stuart David Schiff to produce a modest semi-professional magazine that hoped to revive the legendary Weird Tales in a small way. The magazine was also a followup to August Derleth's The Arkham Collector, which had ceased after Derleth's death. The magazine won the first "Howard" or World Fantasy Award for non-professional publishing in 1975. Whispers went on to become an important elaborate showcase for dark fantasy fiction and artwork of the 1970s, featuring Manly Wade Wellman, Fritz Leiber, Robert Bloch, Ramsey Campbell, Karl Edward Wagner, and David Drake. A string of anthologies were published through the 1980s.
Very Good copy.
1972, Japanese
Hardcover (w. dust jacket), unpaginated, 21.5 x 15.5 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Tankikai / Tokyo
$180.00 - Out of stock
Very rare and incredible 1972 hardcover collection of Kinbaku (Japanese Bondage) art edited by Mikasa Shobo and published with Tankikai, Tokyo. Cover to cover artworks by Japanese underground masters who have refined the beauty of masochism and carried on the legacy of Japanese Shibari-e eroticism as pioneered by Seiu Ito into the 1960s-70s. Beautiful b/w reproductions of rare artworks by Ayako Nakagawa, Yoji Muku, Akira Kito, Akira Kasuga, Kohinata Ichiyume, Ishizuka Yoshiyuki, Okishiji, Yamada Akihiro, and many more.
Seldom seen, highly recommended.
VG copy in VG dust jacket with minor wear to extremities of DJ.
1981, English
Hardcover (w. dust jacket), 96 pages, 28.5 x 22.5 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Liber / Fribourg
Crescent Books / New York
$35.00 - In stock -
Hardcover volume published in 1981, profusely illustrated throughout. Text by Marc de Smedt exploring the customs and traditions of human sexuality in Eastern Asian art.
The people of ancient China were fond of making love. They saw it as a way of harmonizing the energies of heaven and earth, and thus of continuing nature's cycle of creation. So love became an art, the art of living, the art of untying the body's knots. It was also an integral part of religion. Thus to the great indignation of their enemies, the Taoists combined sexual practices with their techniques of meditation. [...]
VG—VG dust jacket.
2014, English
Hardcover, 256 pages, 22 x 26 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Prestel / Munich
Barbican Art Gallery / London
$45.00 - In stock -
The relationship between architecture and photography is the focus of this book that features the work of eighteen influential artists, from the 1930s to the present day. Architecture has long been a subject matter for photographers, who utilize the medium not just to document the built world, but also to reveal wider truths about society.
Featuring the architectural photography of Berenice Abbott, Iwan Baan, Bernd and Hilla Becher, Hélène Binet, Walker Evans, Luigi Ghirri, Andreas Gursky, Lucien Hervé, Nadav Kander, Luisa Lambri, Simon Norfolk, Bas Princen, Ed Ruscha, Stephen Shore, Julius Shulman, Thomas Struth, Hiroshi Sugimoto and Guy Tillim
This book features chapters devoted to various artists and includes 220 colour and duotone images. Each chapter opens with a text introducing the artists’ work, followed by reproductions of their photographs. Arranged chronologically, the book documents the birth of the skyscraper against the backdrop of the Great Depression; the rise of the modernist tradition in America, post-colonial Africa, and India; the effects of industry on 1960s Europe; the increasing suburbanization of America and Europe; and the consequences of today’s mass urbanization in Asia, the Middle East, and South America. Far-reaching and penetrating, this volume reflects on the ongoing dialogue between photography and architecture.
Published to accompany the exhibition held at the Barbican Art Gallery, London, 25 September 2014-11 January 2015.
Alona Pardo is an Associate Curator at Barbican Art Gallery in London. She has curated numerous projects at the Barbican as well as at South London Gallery and the Austrian Cultural Forum in London. Elias Redstone is the author of Shooting Space: Architecture in Contemporary Photography and the curator of Archizines. He has served as a curator of the Architecture Foundation in London, the London Festival of Architecture and the Polish Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale. David Campany is a writer and curator. His books include Walker Evans: the magazine work, Gasoline, Jeff Wall: Picture for Women, Photography and Cinema and Art and Photography.
NF—VG copy, light cover wear otherwise As New.