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:
THU—FRI 12—6 PM
WEB-SHOP OPEN 24/7
World Food Books
Postal Address:
PO Box 435
Flinders Lane
Victoria 8009
Australia
Art
Theory / Essay
Architecture / Interior
Graphic Design / Typography
Photography
Fashion
Eros
LGBTQ+
Fiction / Poetry
Weird / Speculative / Science Fiction / Horror
Transgressive / Visceral / Abject
Symbolism / Decadence / Fin de siècle
Film / Video
Painting
Sculpture / Installation
Performance / Dance / Theater
Drawing
Sound / Music
Curatorial
Group Shows / Collections
Periodicals
Out-of-print / Rare
Posters / Ephemera / Discs
Signed Books
World Food Books Gift Voucher
World Food Book Bag
Australian Art
Australian Photography
Japanese Photography
Conceptual Art
Minimal Art
Dada
'Pataphysics / Oulipo
Fluxus
Concrete Poetry
Pop Art
Surrealism
Arte Povera
Arte Informale / Haute Pâte / Tachism
Nouveau Réalisme / Zero / Kinetic
Situationism / Lettrism
Collage / Mail Art / Xerox Art
Art Brut / Folk / Visionary / Fantastic
Illustration / Graphic Art / Bandes Dessinées
Furniture
Italian Radical Design / Postmodernism
Textiles
Ceramics / Glass
Counterculture
Protest / Revolt
Anarchism
Socialism / Communism / Capitalism
Literary Theory / Semiotics / Language
Feminism
Fetishism / BDSM
Drugs / Psychedelia
Crime / Violence
Animal Rights / Veganism
Occult / Esoterica
Ecology / Earth / Alternative Living
Whole Earth / Crafts
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.
1997, English / Japanese
Softcover, 100 pages, 37 x 26 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / fine
Published by
Sakuhinsha / Tokyo
$190.00 - In stock -
First Japanese edition of Japanese master of erotic fantasy illustration Hajime Sorayama's classic NAGA, published in 1997. The long awaited arrival of the latest collection Sorayama's erotic illustrations, NAGA, which was completed after his previous best-seller, GYNOIDS. This lavish over-sized volume is illustrated cover-to-cover with 65 of Sorayama's works gathered on the central mythological theme of NAGA — the serpent gods. A celebration of feminine beauty, presented in dramatic, glossy full-colour throughout. This edition with beautiful production, including textured, patterned Japanese paper-stocks and incredible reproductions.
Hajime Sorayama is revered for his erotic airbrushed illustrations of humanoid robots that explore ideals of femininity and beauty. Drawing on pinup pictures, Sorayama published the first book of his signature “Sexy Robot” series of chromium-plated figures in 1983. Decades later, these striking works have sold for more than $500,000. Sorayama started his career in advertising before freelancing in Hollywood, where he helped to produce visuals for sci-fi films. His illustrations gained widespread attention in 1995, when Penthouse began featuring them in a monthly column. While Sorayama has enjoyed a particular cult status for his sensual cyborgs —who appear empowered rather than objectified —he has also received mainstream commercial attention. Sony enlisted him to produce the first designs for its robotic dog AIBO, which won the grand prize for Japan’s Good Design Award in 1999. Sorayama has also worked with fashion titans such as Thierry Mugler and Dior on projects that have extended his illustrations into the realm of wearables, sculpture, and performance.
Very Good copy.
2006, Japanese / French
Hardcover (w. slipcase), 26.5 x 19 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Seirin Kogeisha / Tokyo
$350.00 - In stock -
Now very rare out-of-print collection "1970, Toshio Saeki" by the Japanese master of Ero guro, published in 2006 by Seirin Kogeisha. Published in this hardcover, slipcased, numbered edition of 2000 copies, "1970, Toshio Saeki" reproduces a fine selection of colour and b/w works of the erotic bizarre, accompanied by captions and postface by Saeki himself, in Japanese and French.
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.
1992, Japanese
Softcover, 192 pages, 13 x 18 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Fiction Inc. / Tokyo
$90.00 - In stock -
Issue No.42 of the great SALE2 periodical from Tokyo Japan, founded in 1984 by Makoto Orui, who later became art director for Purple magazine in France and Rockin’on magazine in Japan. SALE2 was active for about 14 years during the 1980s—1990s, published regularly as a sort-of fanzine/journal/catalogue/pocket-book by Fiction, Inc., a specialty shop and publisher of fetish and erotica in Tokyo in the 1980-90s. With Orui's distinct design SALE2 developed an exclusive curated editorial set on ‘erotisism and its spiritual philosophy’, with each issue exploring different themes and features, heavy on fetishism and erotic art.
Issue No.42, the "Transformation" issue features collected writings and images around the themes of body transformation, transsexuality, including Pierre Molinier, Mari Akasaka, Kyoko Okazaki, Toyen, Hans Bellmer and Unica Zürn, Henri Maccheroni, Robert Chouraqui, Greybuck's The Equestrians illustrations, Sophia Lamar, plus loads of other images/catalogues of bondage and fetish related arts, and much more...
Very heavily illustrated throughout with erotic photography and artwork, all texts in Japanese.
Very Good copy with tanning to pages.
1986, Japanese
Softcover, 160 pages, 13 x 18 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Fiction Inc. / Tokyo
$90.00 - In stock -
Issue No.28 of the great SALE2 periodical from Tokyo Japan, founded in 1984 by Makoto Orui, who later became art director for Purple magazine in France, published regularly as a sort-of fanzine/journal/catalogue/pocket-book by Fiction, Inc., a specialty bookshop and publisher of fetish and erotica in Tokyo in the 1980—90s. Each issue covers different themes and features, heavy on fetishism.
Issue No.28, the "Fetishism" issue features collected writings and images around the theme of fetish by John Willie, Bizarre Magazine, Pierre Molinier, Irina Ionesco, Bernard Faucon (his incredible Summer Camp series), Irwing Klaw, Centurians Publishing Inc. bondage catalogues, Andy Warhol and much more... What's more, this issue comes complete with a green synthetic feather to kickstart your own sensual adventures.
Very heavily illustrated throughout with erotic photography and artwork, all texts in Japanese.
1991, Japanese
Softcover (w. dust jacket + obi), 128 pages, 26 x 18.5 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Heibonsha / Tokyo
$65.00 - In stock -
Wonderful photo-book chronology of the world of Shūji Terayama (1935—1983) and his experimental theatre troupe Tenjō Sajiki (with Kujō Kyōko, Yutaka Higashi, Tadanori Yokoo, Fumiko Takagi, ...), a major phenomenon on the Japanese Angura ("underground") theater scene of the 1960s and 70s. Terayama's activities encompass a who's-who of the Japanese avant-garde arts and literature of the time. This book visually documents it all; the filmography, performances, installations, happenings, exhibitions, posters, publications, and all else that resonated from Japan’s most revered and provocative avant-garde film-maker and his collaborators. Profusely illustrated with hundreds of illustrations in colour, duo and b/w with Japanese commentary, biographies and chronology. A wonderful, visually mind-blowing reference for anyone interested in the work of Terayama, Tenjō Sajiki, Surrealist performance, or Japanese avant-garde underground (Angura) theatre.
Shūji Terayama (1935 — 1983) was a Japanese avant-garde poet, dramatist, writer, film director, and photographer. His works range from radio drama, experimental television, underground (Angura) theatre, countercultural essays, to Japanese New Wave and "expanded" cinema. In 1967 Terayama founded Tenjō Sajiki with Kujō Kyōko, Yutaka Higashi, Tadanori Yokoo, and Fumiko Takagi, a Japanese experimental theater troupe. A major phenomenon on the Japanese Angura ("underground") theater scene, the group produced a number of stage works marked by experimentalism, folklore influences, social provocation, grotesque eroticism and the flamboyant fantasy characteristic of Terayama's oeuvre. Terayama is considered one of the most productive and provocative creative artists to come out of Japan, with a wide-reaching influence on many artists from the 1970s onward.
Very Good—Near Fine
1998, Japanese
Softcover (w. dust jacket), 224 pages, 21 x 15 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / fine
Published by
Ohta Shuppan / Tokyo
$190.00 - Out of stock
"IT'S UNBELIEVABLE!! IT'S REAL UNDERGROUND"
Very rare, long out-of-print full anthology re-print of the even longer out-of-print cult classic Japanese ero manga, "Invasion of Sex Monsters From Outerspace" that was originally only published between 1967-1968 by artists Ryuji Shima, Kaname Suganuma and author Ken Kondo in a bi-monthly true story manga magazine. At the forefront of Mondo Erotica, "Invasion...", the book, collects all of the comic stories in full bizarro glory, without alteration — with all of its politically-incorrect exploitation rampage madness kept true to the originals, with all of the kinky monsters and their many special powers and perversions, plus additional artwork galleries, commentaries and essays by Yoshihiro Yonezawa tracing the history of the underground era of Japanese Bizarre comics that blossomed in the hippie counterculture of the mid-1960s and the broader history of post-war Erotica.
"HUNDREDS OF MONSTERS ARE COMING!!!!"
Fine copy, light tanning to page edges.
1964 , French
Hardcover, 192 pages, 30.5 x 24.5 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Pont Royal Del Duca - Laffont
Paris
$100.00 - Out of stock
First 1964 hardcover edition of Histoire de l'insolite (History of the Unusual) by Romi. Preface by Philippe Soupault, artistic design by Pierre Chapelot. An incredible visual survey of the weird and wonderful from the history of occultism to the absurd, the cabinet of curiosities to the voyages of science fiction, demonology to psychosis, the Fin de siècle, Futurists, Surrealists, Dadaists, Pataphysicians, the visionaries, the mediums, the curios, the macabre, the bizarre. Profusely illustrated in mono and duotone with many pasted-in lush colour plates, this is a beautiful visual reference of the fantastic throughout history. Chapters include (translated from French): The Sources of the Unusual - A Legendary Bestiary - Fantastic Voyages - The Design to Surprise - Unusual Enterprises, featuring Alfred Jarry, Giuseppe Arcimbaldo, P.T. Barnum, Edward Lear, Hélène Smith, Raymond Roussel, Alessandro Cagliostro, Stanislao Lepri, Hieronymus Bosch, Ferdinand Cheval, and hundreds of other artists, poets, mystics and unknowns. With a preface by none other than Surrealist founder, Dadaist, writer, poet, novelist, critic, political activist, Philippe Soupault (1897-1990).
Very Good copy, highly recommended.
1979, Japanese / English / Italian
Softcover (w. illustrated wax dust jacket), 320 pages, 26 x 21 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Kodansha Int / Tokyo
$400.00 - In stock -
Very rare first edition copy of the best, most comprehensive book on the work of renowned Japanese graphic designer, sculptor, and poster artist Shigeo Fukuda (1932-2009), published in Tokyo in 1979. Fukuda was known for his striking optical illusions and provocative socially conscious work, particularly his anti-war and environmentalist posters. He was a pioneer in Japanese graphic design and the first Japanese designer inducted into the Art Director's Club Hall of Fame. This 350 page survey of his greatest works to date is profusely illustrated in vivid colour and b/w with his logo and display designs, posters, stage designs, environmental design, toys, illustration and graphic art, sculptures, picture books, calendars, ceramics, textiles, and so much more. Multi-lingual texts in Japanese and English/Italian by none other than Paul Rand, Bruno Munari, André Francis, and Yusuke Nakahara, plus a full chronology and list of works, all beautifully wrapped in the original publisher's wax paper jacket illustrated by Fukuda and original title bookmark/obi insert, all seldom preserved. THE book on this iconic Japanese designer.
Very Good copy in Good dust-jacket with wear and tear to spine/general age/tanning.
1996/2003, English / Japanese
Softcover (w. dust jacket and obi), 176 pages, 21 x 30 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Treville / Tokyo
Pan-Exotica / Tokyo
$300.00 - Out of stock
The second volume of Toshio Saeki's erotic nightmare masterpiece, "Chimushi II" was published in 1996 by Treville, only available in Japan, and now very collectible in every edition. A lavishly illustrated book collection of every darkest sexual depravity rendered in vibrant colour by Japanese master of Ero guro, Toshio Saeki, published by Treville and Pan-Exotica, here in the 2003 softcover edition. In the introduction, Timothy Leary writes, "We salute the style and grace with which you tease our secret sensualities. And teach us how our dark, twisted images and fearful fantasies are created by our own minds."
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.
Good—Very Good copy, with light wear/bumping to cover extremities, interior Fine. With Average obi inserted.
1997, English
Softcover, 56 pages, 30 x 21 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Last Gasp / San Fransisco
$60.00 - Out of stock
First 1997 English-language edition of Erich von Gotha's A Very Special Prison, published by Last Gasp, San Fransisco. Dark and disturbing Sadean sadomasochistic masterpiece of bandes dessinées érotiques, first published in France in the 1980s.
Adults only!
Erich von Götha (b. 1924, Wimbledon, London) is the pseudonym of the British illustrator, comic book artist, aconteur, and English gentleman Robin Ray. Robin Ray has gained fame with his erotic and, above all, sadomasochist content. He studied drawing and painting for four years at St Martins art school in London and enjoyed a career in London advertising agencies as designer and copywriter. He took time off for three years to teach graphic design at Ealing School of Art. A chance meeting with the English human rights activist, sex therapist, consultant, campaigner, writer and adult model Tuppy Owens led to the "Sex Maniac's Diary", a remarkable and successful publication which amazingly sold mainly to women, for which EvG became the illustrator from 1975 to 1984. His relationship and ongoing friendship with Tuppy was enormously influential and helped lead to his artistic contributions to erotic publications. But it is "Torrid", entirely conceived and realised by EvG, that is the substantial overture to the comic strip (Bande Dessinée) extravaganza that was to follow. This ground-breaking publication, carried by the creative freedom of the 1970's sexual revolution of the 1970's, and pushing the legal boundaries in its path, spanned 1979 to 1986, all while EvG was running a successful advertising firm. However, his most famous work is The Troubles of Janice, set in the time of the Marquis de Sade. It has appeared in four albums; the first album appeared in 1980, and they represented a close collaboration with the French campaigning writer, historian and collector Bernard Joubert. A luxury edition of all four was published in 2008 by Dynamite. English versions of "Janice" and "Twenty", his other 'serial' story were published in the Noughties by the Erotic Print Society. Since the 80s he has produced many erotic paintings for friends and fans and has several books published by "Larmes d'Eros" in Paris. He continues to produce prints and execute commissions of an erotic nature usually with a mythological theme. He has had solo exhibitions in the Mondo Bizzarro Gallery in Bologna, titled Sweat Tears & Reflections and In "Larmes d'Eros" in Paris on the publication of "The Secret Notebooks of Janice".
VG copy.
1999, English
Softcover, 56 pages, 30 x 21 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Last Gasp / San Fransisco
$60.00 - Out of stock
First 1999 English-language edition of Erich von Gotha's The Troubles of Janice Part 1, published by Last Gasp, San Fransisco. The first book of von Gotha's classic story set in the time of the Marquis de Sade, and a masterpiece of bandes dessinées érotiques, first published in France in 1980.
Adults only!
Erich von Götha (b. 1924, Wimbledon, London) is the pseudonym of the British illustrator, comic book artist, aconteur, and English gentleman Robin Ray. Robin Ray has gained fame with his erotic and, above all, sadomasochist content. He studied drawing and painting for four years at St Martins art school in London and enjoyed a career in London advertising agencies as designer and copywriter. He took time off for three years to teach graphic design at Ealing School of Art. A chance meeting with the English human rights activist, sex therapist, consultant, campaigner, writer and adult model Tuppy Owens led to the "Sex Maniac's Diary", a remarkable and successful publication which amazingly sold mainly to women, for which EvG became the illustrator from 1975 to 1984. His relationship and ongoing friendship with Tuppy was enormously influential and helped lead to his artistic contributions to erotic publications. But it is "Torrid", entirely conceived and realised by EvG, that is the substantial overture to the comic strip (Bande Dessinée) extravaganza that was to follow. This ground-breaking publication, carried by the creative freedom of the 1970's sexual revolution of the 1970's, and pushing the legal boundaries in its path, spanned 1979 to 1986, all while EvG was running a successful advertising firm. However, his most famous work is The Troubles of Janice, set in the time of the Marquis de Sade. It has appeared in four albums; the first album appeared in 1980, and they represented a close collaboration with the French campaigning writer, historian and collector Bernard Joubert. A luxury edition of all four was published in 2008 by Dynamite. English versions of "Janice" and "Twenty", his other 'serial' story were published in the Noughties by the Erotic Print Society. Since the 80s he has produced many erotic paintings for friends and fans and has several books published by "Larmes d'Eros" in Paris. He continues to produce prints and execute commissions of an erotic nature usually with a mythological theme. He has had solo exhibitions in the Mondo Bizzarro Gallery in Bologna, titled Sweat Tears & Reflections and In "Larmes d'Eros" in Paris on the publication of "The Secret Notebooks of Janice".
VG copy.
1998 / 2009, English
Hardcover (w. dust jacket), 72 pages, 32 x 24.5 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Morpheus International / US
$150.00 - In stock -
"Beksinski's powerfully unique paintings are such as I have never before seen"—H.R. Giger
Wonderful, scarce and collectible monograph capturing 30 years of the work of the great Polish painter Zdzisław Beksiński, published by Galerie Morpheus in Las Vegas. First issued in 1998, this lavishly illustrated hardcover monograph reproduces Beksiński's surreal dystopian paintings spanning his entire career, alongside an introduction by James Cowen, texts by Tadeusz Nyczek, and great quotes and reflections throughout by Beksiński himself.
Zdzisław Beksiński (1929 – 2005) was a Polish painter, photographer and sculptor. Beksiński had no formal training as an artist. Born in Sanok, he studied architecture in Kraków and worked as a construction site supervisor before turning to his passion for art, sculpting with construction site materials for his medium. His early photography would be a precursor to his paintings, often referred to as dystopian surrealism. Beksiński claimed, "I wish to paint in such a manner as if I were photographing dreams". Beksiński undertook painting with a passion, working intensely whilst listening to classical music and quickly becoming a leading figure in contemporary Polish art. In the late 1960s, Beksiński entered what he himself called his "fantastic period", which lasted up to the mid-1980s, during which he created his famed images of desolate, surrealistic landscapes with intricate depictions of anxious, abstracted figures and architecture in states of decay, mutation and decomposition. Although Beksiński's art was often dark, he himself was known to be a pleasant person with a keen sense of humour. Modest and somewhat shy, he avoided public events such as the openings of his own exhibitions and almost never visited museums or exhibitions in general. He always credited music as his main source of inspiration. Beksiński avoided concrete analysis of the content of his work, saying "I cannot conceive of a sensible statement on painting". Beksiński was stabbed to death at his Warsaw apartment in February 2005 by a 19-year-old acquaintance from Wołomin, reportedly because he refused to lend the teenager money.
"In the medieval tradition, Beksinski seems to believe art to be a forewarning about the fragility of the flesh – whatever pleasures we know are doomed to perish – thus, his paintings manage to evoke at once the process of decay and the ongoing struggle for life. They hold within them a secret poetry, stained with blood and rust." — Guillermo del Toro, Mexican film director
Very Good—Fine copy of the later expanded edition, now long out-of-print. With VG—Fine dust jacket.
1997, English
Softcover, 116 pages, 21 x 29 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Morpheus International / US
$70.00 - In stock -
First 1997 edition of H.R. Giger's Retrospective 1964-1984, presenting over 150 artworks, spanning 20 years in the career of the world's most renowned fantasy artist, gathered chronologically in this one rich and detailed volume. Carefully rendered reproductions of Giger's paintings, drawings, designs, videos, sculptures, costumes and furniture are accompanied by his own commentary and portraits of the artist at work and with Dali, Fuchs, Harry and other colleagues.
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 of the first 1997 English edition with light general corner/cover wear.
1978, Japanese / English
Softcover (w. dust jacket, obi-strip, poster), 112 pages, 40.5 x 27.8 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Kodansha Int / Tokyo
$250.00 - Out of stock
Stunning, very first 1978 Japanese edition of the wonderful over-sized collection of posters by legendary Japanese graphic artist Tadanori Yokoo. Published by Kodansha, only in Japan, this large, lavish volume is comprised entirely of beautiful full page reproductions of Yokoo's major poster works spanning his entire career to date (1978), in which his iconic photo-montage and print-making had a distinct psychedelic, erotic and esoteric spirit that captured international attention. A true avant-garde of the Japanese scene, this rich volume includes his famous works for the theatre company Tenjō Sajiki (w. director Shuji Terayama), exhibition and concert posters, and much more. Each work is accompanied by text by Koichi Tanigawa, and an introduction by world-renowned illustrator and graphic designer Milton Glaser, who had a close relationship with Yokoo.
Includes original publisher's obi-strip and the rarely preserved fold-out Yokoo poster! A Very Good and most complete copy of this first collectible edition. Highly recommended.
Tadanori Yokoo (横尾 忠則), born in Nishiwaki, Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan, in 1936, is one of Japan's most successful and internationally recognized graphic designers and artists. He began his career as a stage designer for avant garde theatre in Tokyo. In the late 1960s he became interested in mysticism and psychedelia, deepened by travels in India. Because his work was so attuned to 1960s pop culture, he has often been (unfairly) described as the "Japanese Andy Warhol" or likened to psychedelic poster artist Peter Max, but Yokoo's complex and multi-layered imagery is intensely autobiographical and entirely original, heavily reflecting Japan's cultural history and iconography. By the late 60s he had already achieved international recognition for his work and was included in the 1968 "Word & Image" exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Four years later MoMA mounted a solo exhibition of his graphic work organized by Mildred Constantine. Yokoo collaborated extensively with Shūji Terayama and his theater Tenjō Sajiki. He has also starred as a protagonist in Nagisa Oshima's film Diary of a Shinjuku Thief. In 1968 Yukio Mishima claimed, "Tadanori Yokoo's works reveal all of the unbearable things which we Japanese have inside ourselves and they make people angry and frightened. He makes explosions with the frightening resemblance which lies between the vulgarity of billboards advertising variety shows during festivals at the shrine devoted to the war dead and the red containers of Coca Cola in American Pop Art, things which are in us but which we do not want to see."
2024, English / French
Hardcover, 128 pages, 24 x 29.5 cm
Published by
Arsenicgalerie / Paris
$78.00 - Out of stock
The first monograph on the Japanese artist of desire.
In this lavishly illustrated book, Xavier-Gilles Néret analyzes the work of Yoshifumi Hayashi from an existential and philosophical as well as artistic perspective, drawing on his interviews with the Japanese artist who, for almost half a century, has shamelessly asserted the importance of sexual desire and the body in all its material dimensions.
From his erotic drawings of callipagous women to his sexualized landscapes, from his vulvar and ithyphallic flowers to his "still lifes" teeming with life, Hayashi pursues his quest for the mysteries of matter through the subtle play of light in the gradations of lead pencil, of which he has become a virtuoso alchemist, to fuel irrepressible desire and "repassionate life".
Yoshifumi Hayashi (born 1948 in Fukuoka, Japan) is an artist specializing in scenes of female erotica. In 1974 he moved to Paris, where he began to produce pencil drawings. At first his main influence was the metaphysical world of De Chirico, but soon his focus shifted to the lower half of the female anatomy… Hayashi's art comes straight from the darkest depths of his subconscious and the artist lays his innermost paranoias, fetishes and obsessions. Despite this profoundly personal quality his work is also highly and objectively erotic.
Text by Xavier-Gilles Néret.
Foreword by Catherine Robbe-Grillet.
1972, Japanese
Softcover (french folds w. slipcase), approx 150 pages, 19 x 13 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Rosicrucian Society / Tokyo
$140.00 - Out of stock
First 1972 Japanese slipcased edition of Roland Topor's classic collection 'Les Masochists', published by Rosicrucian Society, Tokyo, and edited by renowned Japanese critic, author, scholar of demonology, and translator Tatsuhiko Shibusawa. First published in Paris in 1960 by controversial Belgian-born French publisher Éric Losfeld (Éditions Le Terrain Vague), 'Les Masochistes' presents one of Topor’s most acclaimed early collections of illustrations of people engaged in acts of masochism. A perfect precursor to the dark humour that Topor would make a fantastic career of. A beautiful production of this series, this Japanese edition in illustrated cardboard slipcase features the full 'Les Masochists' series plus a further Topor masterpiece collection of incredible works that followed 'Les Masochistes' and were the feature of his first art books, all edited together with an afterword by Shibusawa. Includes introduction by Jacques Sternberg, translated from French to Japanese.
Roland Topor (1938—1997) was one of the most unique and versatile French artists of the second half of the 20th century, working prolifically as a provocative and spirited illustrator, author, humorist, satirist, poet, painter, performer, sculptor, playwright, film and TV writer, filmmaker and actor, and much more. A founder of the Panic Movement, an art collective formed by Fernando Arrabal, Alejandro Jodorowsky, and Roland Topor in Paris in 1962, Topor was known for the surreal and absurdist nature of his work.
Tatsuhiko Shibusawa (1928—1987), was a well-known and controversial Japanese novelist, art critic, and translator of French writers such as Jean Cocteau, Georges Bataille and Marquis de Sade. In 1960 he and his publisher, Kyōji Ishii, were trialled for public obscenity over the publishing of Shibusawa's translation of de Sade's Juliette into the Japanese language. What was to be known as the "Sade Trial" took 9 years and although many of Japan's leading authors testified for the defense, in 1969 the Japanese Supreme Court ruled them guilty and charged. This did not deter Shibusawa, whose essays on black magic, demonology and eroticism were popular reading in Japan, and in 1981 he was awarded the 9th Izumi Kyoka Literature Prize.
Very Good copy in VG slipcase, some tanning to spine edge.
1997, Japanese
Softcover (w. dust jacket), 104 pages, 21 x 29.5 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Treville / Tokyo
$150.00 - Out of stock
Scarce copy of the now out-of-print Biomannerism book, first edition, published in Japan by Treville in 1997. An incredible selection of international artists linked through their exploration of new aesthetics of erotic metamorphosis between the organic and synthetic compiled with texts by Stéphan Lévy Kuentz. Features lavishly illustrated chapters dedicated to the works of artists Daniel Ouellette, Michel Henricot, Sibylle Ruppert, Joe Hackbarth, Tsutomu Otsuka, Beksinski, Yoshifumi Hayashi, Jean-Marie Poumeyrol, H. R. Giger.
"The erotic Biomannerism movement is a creature of the cyberage, an expression of technophobia and fear of mutation. The artists represented here come from the U.S., France, Germany, Japan, and Switzerland, but they share a Kafkaesque view of the human condition, which they express in twisting, writhing, bulging, disintegrating images of the human form. Inspiration flows from Michelangelo, Dali, da Vinci, Rubens, and Duchamp, as well as Blade Runner, Frankenstein, and Intel."
Very Good in VG dust jacket.
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 - Out of 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
$220.00 - 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.
1984, English / Japanese
Softcover (w. metallic obi + poster), 96 pages, 27.2 x 21.4 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Doremi Music / Japan
$180.00 - Out of stock
The super rare Visual of Heavy Metal (The Heavy Metal Music Encyclopedia), published in Japan in one small edition in 1984! No text fluff, this book is cover-to-cover blazing full-colour reproductions of Heavy Metal album art, published at the height of metal's international break-out. NWOBHM, Speed Metal, Hard Rock, Glam Metal, Thrash... UK, USA, Sweden, France, Australia, Canada... Iron Maiden, Ethel The Frog, Mercyful Fate, Anvil, Exciter, Girl School, Black Sabbath, Samson, The Rods, Venom, Mother's Finest, Killer Dwarfs, Alkatrazz, Praying Mantis, Riot, Cloven Hoof, Gotham City, Raven, Witchfynde, Ostrogoth, Satan Jokers, Satan, Demon Eyes, Chateaux, Blaspheme, Fist, Sortilège, Pink Fairies, Anthrax, Queensrÿche, Heavy Pettin, Alaska, Helstar, Ratt, AC/DC, Jack Starr, Gamma, H-Bomb, Virgin Steele, Black Alice, Spider Force, Dio, Maccoy, Tygers Of Pan Tang, Band Of Joy, Scorpions, Wild Dogs, Kiss, Def Leppard, Alvin Lee, Heaven, Sledgehammer, Electric Sun, Colosseum II, Harman Rarebell, Tank, Pantera, Tokyo Blade, The Michael Schenker Strife Group, Budgie, Wolf, Nazareth, Status Quo, Judas Priest, Icon, Torch, British Lions, Rush, Pandemonium, Crucifixion, Thin Lizzy, Victim, Accept, Trouble Manillaroad, Witch Killer, Crawler, Faithful, Breath, Gary Moore, Trance, Silver Mountain, Slayer, Hawkwind, Helix, The Handsome Beats, Motorhead, Tank, Warrior, Manowar, Picture, Ufo, Rainbow, Alcatrazz, High Power, Warning, Battle Axe, Victim, W.A.S.P., Tsunami, Metallica, Cirith Ungol, Molly Hatchet, Biscaya, Meat Loaf, Bernie Tormé, Talas, Sinner, Chariot, Alien, Thor, Mad Max, Sad Iron, Grave Digger, Mass, Rick Derringer, Santer, Warning, Witchfinder, Be Bop Deluxe, Force, Blue Oyster Cult, Dark Wizard, Twisted Sister, Faithful Breath, Dark Heart, Thunder Fire, Cutty Sark, Night Wing, Cross Fire, Demon, Ostrogoth, Spartan Warrior, Voivod, Joshua, Omen, Elf, Uriah Heep, John Cale, Ian Gillan Band, Cozy Powell, Status Quo, Ted Nugent, Krokus, White Snake, Twisted Sister, Triumph, Wild Dogs, Steeler, Culprit Exciter Randy Hansen, Chris Spedding, Mama's Boys, Acid, Legs Diamond, Le Mans, Killer, Holocaust, Coney Hatch, Dark Star, Waysted, Brian May, Vic Vergat, Robin Trower, Quiet Riot, Ozzy Ozbourne, Gary Moore, Axewitch, Pretty Maids, Grim Reaper, Blade Runner, Black Angels, Captain Beyond, and so many more! Compiled by Masateru Makino. No text, only catalogue data for each LP, full index, appendix, colophon. An excellent reference and visual onslaught.
Very Good copy with gold obi (obi has damage) and promotional book shop poster inserted.
2025, English
Softcover, 16 silk-screened pages, 21 x 15 cm
Published by
Self-Published / Naarm
$60.00 - In stock -
Screen printed A5 zine by Oriette Wood with writing from Anonymous woman #1 is an ode to all the transvestite/transsexual/crossdressing publications that had shone the light before. This collection of poetry and prints draws upon sissification, trans exultation, obscurity and playfulness. Although there is particular reference to Virginia Prince’s magazine ‘Transvestia’, there are so many others like it that shared stories, educated and connected people to the community.
Oriette Wood is a Naarm/Melbourne based transgender printmaker and seamstress, her works explore the erotics of trans bodies, taking inspiration from influential fetish artists, cross-dressing forums, and personal fantasies.
2025, English
Softcover (thread-sewn), 12 hand-bound silkscreened pages, 30 x 21.5 cm
Numbered Ed. of 11,
Published by
Self-Published / Naarm
$220.00 - In stock -
'Cats Versus Dogs' is hand bound and screen-printed zine collection of prints published in a numbered edition of 11, self-published by Laurette Chiappa (Bicy) and Oriette Wood. “After meeting at our local screen printing studio (Troppo), this collaborative work started as a personal joke as we had conflicting opinions on which of these two domestic animals was best, drawing scenes in defence and attack of one another. Each print guiding and questioning the roles each animal plays in our lives, while technically teaching us a lot about multi-colour overlays, layouts, and binding. Over the course of a month and a half we drew, printed and bound the books.”
Oriette Wood is a Naarm/Melbourne based transgender printmaker and seamstress, her works explore the erotics of trans bodies, taking inspiration from influential fetish artists, cross-dressing forums, and personal fantasies.
Laurette Chiappa (Bicy) is printmaker and tattoo artist from Toulouse, living and working in Naarm/Melbourne. Her works inquire what and where 'home' is using tattooing and ornamental design as reference.
Limited edition of 11 copies
1979, English / Polish
Hardcover (w. dust jacket), 216 pages, 27.5 x 26 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / fine
Published by
Krajowa Agencja Wydawnicza / Warsaw
$180.00 - In stock -
Rare first edition of this wonderful hardcover volume, published in 1979 by Krajowa Agencja Wydawnicza in Warsaw. Beautifully designed by one of the leading graphic artists in the field of Polish posters, Hubert Hilscher, this 200+ page book remains the finest document dedicated to the "Plakat Polski" (Polish Poster) of the 1970s - an exceptional period for the medium. Lavishly illustrated throughout in colour and b&w with over 400 of the best examples spanning 1970-1978, the book opens with an introduction in both Polish and English, English captions throughout, and includes detailed artist and work indexes in the back. Includes Political and Social Posters, Theatre and Concert Posters, Film Posters, Exhibition and Commercial Posters, Tourist and Sports Posters, and Circus Posters. This stunning book is a must for anyone interested in the subject, or graphic design and illustration from this period in general.
Features the work of Maciej Urbaniec, Franciszek Starowieyski, Józef Mroszczak, Leszek Hołdanowicz, Karol Śliwka, Romuald Socha, Elzbieta Procka, Jan Młodożeniec, Włodzimierz Terechowicz, Wiktor Górka, Roman Cieślewicz, Jerzy Czerniawski, René Mulas, Maria Ihnatowicz, Jan Lenica, Janusz Grabiański, Mieczysław Wasilewski, Hubert Hilscher, Jan Kotarbinski, Waldemar Świerzy, Tomasz Rumiński, Jerzy Treliński, Roman Rosyk, Tadeusz Piskorski, Andrzej Krajewski, Danuta Żukowska, Jan Jaromir Aleksiun, Marcin Mroszczak, Jan Sawka, Henryk Tomaszewski, Doroty Kabiesz, Tomasz Jura, Jerzy Flisak, Marek Freudenreich, Marian Stachurski, Witold Janowski, and many more.
Beginning in the 1950s and through the 1980s, the Polish School of Posters combined the aesthetics of painting with the succinctness and simple metaphor of the poster. It developed characteristics such as painterly gesture, linear quality, and vibrant colours, as well as a sense of individual personality, humour, and fantasy. It was in this way that the Polish poster was able to make the distinction between designer and artist less apparent. Posters of the Polish Poster School significantly influenced the international development of graphic design in poster art. Their major contribution is in their use of the power of suggestion through allusion. Using strong and vivid colours from folk art, they combine printed slogans, often hand-lettered, with popular symbols, to create a concise inventive metaphor. As a hybrid of words and images, these posters created a certain aesthetic tension that projected the art form in this period on European design. In addition to aesthetic aspects, these posters were able to reveal the artist's emotional involvement with the subject. They did not solely exist as an objective presentation, rather they were also the artist's interpretation and commentary on the subject and on society.
To this day, "Plakat Polski" remain as influential as ever on the world of graphic design, typography, illustration and even painting, and are widely collected and exhibited around the world.
Very Good—NF copy in VG—NF dust jacket.
2003, English / Japanese
Softcover (die-cut, embossed stiff slipcase w. internal illustrated card fold-out sleeve), 92 pages, 22 x 30 cm
Signed by artist,
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Treville / Tokyo
$450.00 - In stock -
First, deluxe edition of this rare Hajime Sorayama book published by Treville especially for the exhibition 'Hajime Sorayama - The Exhibition' at Ginza Graphic Gallery in 2003. Now out-of-print and collectible, this extra special copy is also signed by Sorayama himself on the cover "cleavage". Housed in an embossed, die-cut corset slipcase, with an illustrated, fold-out "pin-up" doubled-sided internal sleeve, both made from stiff card, this catalogue is profusely illustrated throughout with Japanese airbrush master Hajime Sorayama's erotic, futuristic, hyper-realistic illustrations with a heavy emphasis on latex and bondage mistresses. Includes his own commentary throughout (in English and Japanese), plus a special look inside his atelier.
Hajime Sorayama (b. 1947) is a Japanese illustrator famed for his precisely detailed, erotic portrayals of feminine robots and fetish pin-ups, and also well-known for his design work on the original Sony AIBO. He describes his highly detailed style as "superrealism", which he says "deals with the technical issue of how close one can get to one's object."
Very Good copy.