World Food Books' programme is largely produced on Kulin Nation land. We acknowledge the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation as the first and continuing custodians of this land, and pay respect to their Elders past, present, and emerging.
World Food Books is an arts and special interests bookshop in Naarm / Melbourne. Founded in 2010, World Food Books is devoted to the presentation of a rotating, hand-selection of international art, design, literary and counterculture publications with an emphasis on the anti-traditional, the experimental, the avant-garde, the heretic, the marginal.
Presenting new titles alongside rare and out-of-print books, catalogues and journals spanning the fields of modern and contemporary art, design, photography, illustration, film, literature, poetry, cultural theory, philosophy, sexuality, popular and underground culture in its many radical forms, World Food Books wishes to encourage adventurous, thoughtful and open-minded reading, looking, writing, and exchange of publishing and ideas, both current and historical.
As well as our bookshop, located in Melbourne's historical Nicholas Building, all of our inventory is available internationally via our online mail-order service.
World Food Books semi-regularly co-ordinates "Occasions", a programme of exhibits and events at the bookshop and in partnership with other hosts (such as museums and art galleries) that develop out of the activities, relationships and content of the bookshop itself.
World Food Books
The Nicholas Building
37 Swanston Street
Room 5, Level 6
Melbourne 3000
Australia
SHOP HOURS:
CLOSED FOR SUMMER
RE—OPENING JAN 16
WEB-SHOP OPEN 24/7
ORDERS SHIP FROM JAN 6
World Food Books
Postal Address:
PO Box 435
Flinders Lane
Victoria 8009
Australia
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
Please note: The bookshop is closed until February 1, 2024.
Pick-up orders can be collected in our bookshop during opening hours after this date. Please collect any Pick-up orders within 3 weeks of ordering as we have limited storage space. Orders will be released back into stock if not collected within this time. No refunds can be made for pick-ups left un-collected.
Return Policy
All sales are final. We do accept returns (for refund, exchange) for items received in error. All our orders are packed with special care using heavy-duty padding and cardboard book-mailers or bubble mailers (for smaller books), using reinforcement where required. We cannot take responsibility for any lost, stolen or damaged parcels.
Insurance
Should you wish to insure your package, please email us directly after placing your order and we can organise this at a small extra expense. Although all standard/express tracked packages are very safe and dependable, we cannot take responsibility for any lost, stolen or damaged parcels. We recommend insurance on valuable orders.
Interested in selling your old books, catalogues, journals, magazines, comics, fanzines, ephemera? We are always looking for interesting, unusual and out-of-print books to buy. We only buy books in our fields of interest and specialty, and that we feel we can resell.
We base these prices on desirability, market value, in-print prices, condition and our current stock levels. We offer cash, store credit, and can take stock on consignment. All
about 25% of the price we expect to get when we sell them, or 30% in store credit. We base these prices on desirability, market value, in-print prices, condition and our current stock levels.
Sell your books any day of the week. You can drop them off and return later. If you have a lot of books, we can visit your Sydney home.
We buy books that we feel we can resell. We offer about 25 % of the price we expect to get when we sell them, or 30% in store credit. We base these prices on desirability, market value, in-print prices, condition and our current stock levels.
Philadelphia Wireman
03 August - 01 September, 2018
World Food Books is proud to announce our next Occasion, the first presentation of sculptures by Philadelphia Wireman in Australia.
The Philadelphia Wireman sculptures were found abandoned in an alley off Philadelphia’s South Street on trash night in 1982. Their discovery in a rapidly-changing neighbourhood undergoing extensive renovation, compounded with the failure of all attempts to locate the artist, suggests that the works may have been discarded after the maker’s death. Dubbed the "Philadelphia Wireman" during the first exhibition of this work, in 1985, the maker’s name, age, ethnicity, and even gender remain uncertain. The entire collection totals approximately 1200 pieces, all intricately bound together with tightly-wound heavy-gauge wire (along with a few small, abstract marker drawings, reminiscent both of Mark Tobey and J.B. Murry). The dense construction of the work, despite a modest range of scale and materials, is singularly obsessive and disciplined in design: a wire armature or exoskeleton firmly binds a bricolage of found objects including plastic, glass, food packaging, umbrella parts, tape, rubber, batteries, pens, leather, reflectors, nuts and bolts, nails, foil, coins, toys, watches, eyeglasses, tools, and jewellery.
Heavy with associations—anthropomorphic, zoomorphic, and socio-cultural responses to wrapped detritus—the totemic sculptures by Philadelphia Wireman have been discussed in the context of work created to fulfil the shamanistic needs of alternative religions in American culture. Curators, collectors, and critics have variously compared certain pieces to sculpture from Classical antiquity, Native American medicine bundles, African-American memory jugs, and African fetish objects. Reflecting the artist’s prolific and incredibly focused scavenging impulse, and despite—or perhaps enhanced by—their anonymity, these enigmatic objects function as urban artefacts and arbiters of power, though their origin and purpose is unknown. Philadelphia Wireman, whatever their identity, possessed an astonishing ability to isolate and communicate the concepts of power and energy through the selection and transformation of ordinary materials. Over the course of the past two decades, this collection has come to be regarded as an important discovery in the field of self-taught art and vernacular art.
Presented in collaboration with Fleisher-Ollman Gallery, Philadelphia, and Robert Heald, Wellington.
Susan Te Kahurangi King
02 February - 10 March, 2018
Susan Te Kahurangi King (24 February 1951 - ) has been a confident and prolific artist since she was a young child, drawing with readily available materials - pencils, ballpoint pens and felt-tip markers, on whatever paper is at hand. Between the ages of four and six Susan slowly ceased verbal communication. Her grandparents William and Myrtle Murphy had developed a special bond with Susan so they took on caring responsibilities for extended periods. Myrtle began informally archiving her work, carefully collecting and storing the drawings and compiling scrapbooks. No drawing was insignificant; every scrap of paper was kept. The King family are now the custodians of a vast collection containing over 7000 individual works, from tiny scraps of paper through to 5 meter long rolls.
The scrapbooks and diaries reveal Myrtle to be a woman of great patience and compassion, seeking to understand a child who was not always behaving as expected. She encouraged Susan to be observant, to explore her environment and absorb all the sights and sounds. Myrtle would show Susan’s drawings to friends and people in her community that she had dealings with, such as shopkeepers and postal workers, but this was not simply a case of a grandmother’s bias. She recognised that Susan had developed a sophisticated and unique visual language and sincerely believed that her art deserved serious attention.
This was an unorthodox attitude for the time. To provide some context, Jean Dubuffet coined the term Art Brut in 1945 to describe work created by self-taught artists – specifically residents of psychiatric institutions and those he considered to be visionaries or eccentrics. In 1972 Roger Cardinal extended this concept by adopting the term Outsider Art to describe work made by non-academically trained artists operating outside of mainstream art networks through choice or circumstance. Susan was born in Te Aroha, New Zealand in 1951, far from the artistic hubs of Paris and London that Dubuffet and Cardinal operated in. That Myrtle fêted Susan as a self-taught artist who deserved to be taken seriously shows how progressive her attitudes were.
Susan’s parents Doug and Dawn were also progressive. Over the years they had consulted numerous health practitioners about Susan’s condition, as the medical establishment could not provide an explanation as to why she had lapsed into silence. Dawn educated herself in the field of homeopathy and went on to treat all twelve of her children using these principles – basing prescriptions on her observations of their physical, mental and emotional state.
Doug was a linguist with an interest in philosophy who devoted what little spare time he had to studying Maori language and culture. To some extent their willingness to explore the fringes of the mainstream made them outsiders too but it was their commitment to living with integrity and their respect for individuality that ensured Susan’s creativity was always encouraged.
Even though Susan’s family supported her artistic pursuits, some staff in schools and hospitals saw it as an impediment to her assimilation into the community and discouraged it in a variety of ways. Her family was not always aware of this and therefore did not fully understand why Susan stopped drawing in the early 1990s. However, rather than dwell on the challenges that Susan faced in pursuit of her artistic practice, they prefer to highlight her achievements. In 2008 Susan began drawing again in earnest, after an almost 20 year interruption, and her work is now shown in galleries around the world.
Susan grew up without television and has been heavily influenced by the comics she read as a child. She is absolutely fearless in the appropriation of recognizable characters, such as Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse, in her work. She twists their limbs, contorts their faces, compresses them together, blends them into complex patterned backgrounds - always imbuing them with an incredible energy. Although Susan often used pop culture characters in her work they are not naive or childlike. These are drawings by a brilliant self-taught artist who has been creating exceptional work for decades without an audience in mind.
Mladen Stilinović
"Various Works 1986 - 1999"
02 February 16 - September 10, 2016
Various works 1986 - 1999, from two houses, from the collections of John Nixon, Sue Cramer, Kerrie Poliness, Peter Haffenden and Phoebe Haffenden.
Including: Geometry of Cakes (various shelves), 1993; Poor People’s Law (black and white plate), 1993; White Absence (glasses, ruler, set square, silver spoon, silver ladel with skin photograph and wooden cubes), 1990-1996; Exploitation of the Dead (grey and red star painting, wooden painting, black spoon with red table, red plate), 1984-1990; Money and Zeros (zero tie, paintings made for friends in Australia (Sue, John, Kerrie), numbers painting), 1991-1992; Words - Slogans (various t-shirts) - “they talk about the death of art...help! someone is trying to kill me”, “my sweet little lamb”, “work is a disease - Karl Marx”; Various artist books, catalogues, monographs, videos; Poster from exhibition Insulting Anarchy; "Circular" Croatian - Australian edition; Artist book by Vlado Martek (Dostoyevsky); more.
Thanks to Mladen Stilinović and Branka Stipančić.
Jonathan Walker
Always Will Need To Wear Winter Shirt Blue + Ochre Small Check Pattern
21 August - 21 September, 2015
Untitled
I am not a great reader of poetry but I always return to the work of Melbourne poet, Vincent Buckley (1925- 1988). Perhaps I find his most tantalising piece to be not a finished poem but a fragment left on a scrap of paper discovered on his desk after the poet’s death.
The poetry gathers like oil
In the word-core, and spreads
It has its music meet,
Its music is in movement.
This fragment is more the shell left behind from a volatile thought than a finished poem. I find the last two lines honest but awkward whereas the first two lines work like an arrow. Most likely he could not find a resolution so it was left. Still, in its present form, it remains an eloquent testimony to the ultimate failure of a medium to express mobile thought and sensation, in Buckley’s case, through verbal language. It’s an important matter because this is something all artists have to deal with regardless of the medium.
I have never written a poem, however, I am forever copying fragments from books on paper scraps in a vain effort to fix certain notions in my head. At first, they function as bookmarks that are sometimes returned to when I open the book. But before long, as they accumulate, they fall out littering the table interspersed with A4 photocopies, bills, books and medications.
To return to Buckley’s fragment, the first two lines very much evoke how I paint nowadays. As you age, detail diminishes and patches of light become more luminous and float. I feel the most honest way of dealing with this is by smearing the oil paint on the canvas with the fingers and working close-up, blind. Only if the patches coalesce into an approaching image can the work gain a life.
-
Jonathan Walker was born in Melbourne, Australia and brought up on a dairy farm in Gippsland. In the 1970’s he studied painting at RMIT and won the Harold Wright Scholarship to the British Museum, London. During the 1980’s he exhibited at Pinacotheca Gallery, Richmond and had work shown at the NGV and Heidi City Art Gallery. Over the same period he designed the cover for the “Epigenesi” LP by Giancarlo Toniutti, Italy and conducted a mail exchange work with Achim Wollscheid, Germany. The work with artists through the post resulted in an article published in the bicentenary issue of Art and Australia 1988. He showed in artist run spaces such as WestSpace in the 90’s and 2000’s, and until 2012, taught painting at Victoria University, which is where we (Colleen Ahern and Lisa Radford) as organisers of the exhibition, among many others, had the privilege of being his student.
Walker’s knowledge was imparted to students through the careful selection of music, literature, and artists found in books that he himself had ordered for the library. Walker’s strategy was the generosity of sharing his vast knowledge with references specific to each student and their context.
Walker’s paintings share a similar focus and intimacy.
This exhibition presents a small selection of recent paintings alongside a publication that includes Walker’s writing. Observational and analytical, Walker’s work is a type of material notation — the time of day, colour and how it is blended, the both specific and fleeting location of a reflection on lino or the question of whether a chair leg should be included in a painting.
Please join us on Friday August 21 between 6-8pm to celebrate the opening of the exhibition.
Curated by Colleen Ahern and Lisa Radford.
B. Wurtz
Curated by Nic Tammens
March 26 - April 4, 2015
B.Wurtz works from a basement studio in his home on Manhattan’s Lower East Side.
This local fact is attested to by the plastic shopping bags and newsprint circulars that appear in his work. As formal objects, they don’t make loud claims about their origins but nonetheless transmit street addresses and places of business from the bottom of this long thin island. Like plenty of artists, Wurtz is affected by what is local and what is consumed. His work is underpinned by this ethic. It often speaks from a neighborhood or reads like the contents of a hamper:
“BLACK PLUMS $1.29 lb.”
“Food Bazaar”
“USDA Whole Pork Shoulder Picnic 99c lb.”
“RITE AID Pharmacy, with us it’s personal.”
“H. Brickman & Sons.”
“Sweet Yams 59c lb."
Most of the work in this exhibition was made while the artist was in residence at Dieu Donne, a workshop dedicated to paper craft in Midtown. Here Wurtz fabricated assemblages with paper and objects that are relatively lightweight, with the intention that they would be easily transportable to Australia. This consideration isn’t absolute in Wurtz’s work, but was prescriptive for making the current exhibition light and cheap. Packed in two boxes, these works were sent from a USPS post office on the Lower East Side and delivered to North Melbourne by Australia Post.
Wurtz appears courtesy of Metro Pictures, New York.
Thanks to Rob Halverson, Joshua Petherick, Sari de Mallory, Matt Hinkley, Helen Johnson, Fayen d'Evie, Ask Kilmartin, Lisa Radon, Ellena Savage, Yale Union, and "Elizabeth".
John Nixon
"Archive"
December 15 - January 20, 2014
The presentation of John Nixon's archive offered a rare showcase of this extensive collection of the artist's own publications, catalogues, posters, ephemera, editions and more, from the mid 1980s onwards, alongside a selection of his artworks.
Organized by John Nixon, Joshua Petherick and Matt Hinkley.
"Habitat"
at Minerva, Sydney (organised by Joshua Petherick and Matt Hinkley)
November 15 - December 20, 2014
Lupo Borgonovo, Janet Burchill & Jennifer McCamley,
Lewis Fidock, HR Giger, Piero Gilardi, Veit Laurent Kurz,
Cinzia Ruggeri, Michael E. Smith, Lucie Stahl, Daniel Weil, Wols
Press Release:
“...It contained seven objects. The slender fluted bone, surely formed for flight, surely from the wing of some large bird. Three archaic circuitboards, faced with mazes of gold. A smooth white sphere of baked clay. An age-blackened fragment of lace. A fingerlength segment of what she assumed was bone from a human wrist, grayish white, inset smoothly with the silicon shaft of a small instrument that must once have ridden flush with the surface of the skin - but the thing’s face was seared and blackened.”
William Gibson, “Count Zero”, 1986
"Autumn Projects Archive"
Curated by Liza Vasiliou
March 6 - March 15, 2014
World Food Books, in conjunction with the Virgin Australia Melbourne Fashion Festival 2014, presented the Autumn Projects archive, consisting of a selection of early examples in Australian fashion with a particular interest in collecting designers and labels from the period beginning in the 1980’s, who significantly influenced the discourse of Australian Fashion.
Curated by Liza Vasiliou, the exhibition provided a unique opportunity to view pieces by designers Anthea Crawford, Barbara Vandenberg, Geoff Liddell and labels CR Australia, Covers, Jag along with early experimental collage pieces by Prue Acton and Sally Browne’s ‘Fragments’ collection, suspended throughout the functioning World Food Books shop in Melbourne.
H.B. Peace
presented by CENTRE FOR STYLE
November 14, 2013
"Hey Blinky, you say chic, I say same"
Anon 2013
H.B. Peace is a clothing collaboration between great friends Blake Barns and Hugh Egan Westland. Their pieces explore the divergences between 'character’ and ‘personality’ in garments....etc
Special Thanks to Joshua Petherick and Matt Hinkley of WFB and Gillian Mears
and a Very Special Thank you to Audrey Thomas Hayes for her shoe collaboration.
Janet Burchill & Jennifer McCamley
"Aesthetic Suicide"
May 10 - June 8, 2013
The first of our occasional exhibitions in the World Food Books office/shop space in Melbourne, "Aesthetic Suicide" presented a body of new and older works together by artists Janet Burchill & Jennifer McCamley, including videos, prints, a wall work, and publications.
During shop open hours videos played every hour, on the hour.
1985, German
Original screen print on felt, 10.2 x 14.6 x 3.2 cm
Published by
Edition Staeck / Heidelberg
$90.00 - In stock -
Joseph Beuys’s “Filzpostkarte,” reflects the artist’s esteem for the postcard because of its double function as a vehicle for communication and as a simple artistic medium. He, therefore transferred a multitude of materials, important to his work - like wood, copper and even sulphur - into the form of a postcard.
Filzpostkarte (by Joseph Beuys) is not just the title of the item, it is also a play with words: Filpostkarte – felt postcard, and Feldpostkarte – a postcard sent to and from soldiers on in the battlfield.
Reference: Joseph Beuys: The Multiples, Schellmann, 539.
2023,
LP Album
Ed. of 225,
Published by
Hakkı / US
$50.00 - Out of stock
Recorded in 2022-23 and issued in a limited pressing of 225 copies, Pry is the wonderful follow-up to Kai Althoff’s 1996 LP as Engelhardt/Seef/Davis coop. It goes somewhat like this :
"Pry, played out of speakers buried beneath an inch of earth, a scratching, elegiac prayer for an ethereal dancehall. Its drums wheeze and chug, frantic in moments and determinedly cold and mechanical in others. Its sound, squeezed through a cavity almost too narrow to contain its contents, is sparsely accompanied by an enraptured voice who habitually falls out of language, though with no seeming effect on its concentration or intention.
But then there’s a drop off (first mistaken for a breakdown), stranding you in a different concert than you thought you had been in moments before.
The newfound sparseness stings and rattles in its intensity. While the vanished sounds reverberate deeper in the soil, the green, mournful hymn strokes you into a more settled, but still shaken state."
—Helena Morell
1988, English
Softcover (staple-bound), 24 pages, 29.7 x 21 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Toho / Tokyo
$80.00 - Out of stock
The original Japanese film brochure for the 1988 anime movie release of Katsuhiro Otomo's Akira, published by TOHO EIGA in Tokyo. Only available in Japan in the cinema merchandise stands upon the film's release, this glossy booklet is heavily illustrated throughout with stills and production imagery, featuring an introduction to the world of Neo-Tokyo, profile on Akira's creator Otomo, timeline of the complex narrative events and all the characters in the film, cast, sound information (Shōji Yamashiro, Geinoh Yamashirogumi collective, etc.), film staff, voices, and many other productions details. Also catalogues for Akira merchandise, posters, books, models, and more... Tremendously thorough for its size! All texts in native Japanese. A wonderful piece of printed history to Otomo's dystopian cyber-punk masterpiece.
Akira was released in 1988 in Japan and directed by Katsuhiro Otomo, produced by Ryōhei Suzuki and Shunzō Katō, and written by Otomo and Izo Hashimoto, based on Otomo's 1982 manga of the same name. It is widely regarded by critics as one of the greatest films ever made, especially in the animation, action and science fiction genres, as well as a landmark in Japanese anime.
Very Good copy, with only light wear.
1969, English / Dutch
Illustrated 10-page fold-out (w. loose leaf inserts), 27 × 83 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Stedelijk Museum / Amsterdam
$240.00 - In stock -
Extremely rare early Paul Thek Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam catalogue, published in 1969. Designed by Wim Crouwel (Total Design) in the form of a 10-page illustrated leporello fold-out of Thek's installations and sculptures and published with SM no. 460. One of the hardest of all Stedelijk Museum catalogues to find, this copy comes complete with the often missing SM biographical/interview/text insert, and also the loose strip inlay with text advertising ‘a document made by Paul Thek and Edwin Klein’ (published that same year), making it a most complete copy available.
Very Good-Fine with all included, preserved in plastic sleeve.
An American sculptor, painter, and installation artist, Paul Thek (1933-1988) is primarily known for hyper-realistic works of human body parts executed in fleshlike beeswax and for his strongly symbolic, room-size installations constructed from transitory materials. A major figure on the 1960s New York art scene, Thek also spent time in Europe, where he paved the way for artists adopting collaborative strategies. Although he gained a large following and was featured in more than one hundred solo and group exhibitions, the anti-establishment "artist's artist" was practically forgotten at the time of his death from AIDS related illness in New York City in 1988, aged 54.
1978, French
Offset poster (74.5 x 50.5 cm)
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Galerie Claude Bernard / Paris
$180.00 - Out of stock
Gorgeous vintage exhibition poster from the late 1970s for an exhibition of drawings by Balthus (Polish-French, born Balthasar Klossowski de Rola, 1908—2001) held at the Galerie Claude Bernard, Paris, 1978—1979. Issued by the gallery in a beautiful offset print, printed by Moderne de Lion, Paris, it reproduces a drawing of a standing nude female figure with gold metallic ink for the texts.
A stunning collector's item, ready to frame.
Dimensions : 74.5 x 50.5 cm
Very Good condition, well preserved.
2021, English
Cloth bound, resin coated silver gelatin paper, silver gelatin emulsion, ink on paper, and 12 pages, saddle stitched, ink on paper, 25.2 x 20 cm
Ed of 15 + 5APs,
Published by
Self-Published / Melbourne
$660.00 - In stock -
unfixed: σκιά σκιά σκιά ombra ombra ombra shadow shadow shadow is a self published artist book that was released to coincide with Rudi Williams' eponymous solo exhibition at Sutton Gallery, Melbourne; 10 July — 10 September, 2021. The work is informed by Williams' view that each image is an artefact of experience, translated through photographic processes. This recent iteration of an ongoing work combines photographs from her archive with unfixed silver gelatin paper to create a book that responds to the environment it is viewed in as well as being a record of the works included in her 2021 exhibition.
unfixed: σκιά σκιά σκιά ombra ombra ombra shadow shadow shadow is a constantly changing object. The light sensitive cover and internal light sensitive pages will darken and absorb touch when viewed. After multiple viewings the pages will separate from the delicate cloth binding.
Signed edition
8/15
2016, English
Leporello folding postcard set
Edition of 100,
Published by
Self-Published / Melbourne
$20.00 - Out of stock
Rudi Williams’ work investigates liminal reflections and anomalies that challenge the viewer’s logic of memory and space through the installation of photographic objects, projections and analogue photographic techniques. Returning to negatives taken in cultural institutions at various stages during her life, she manipulates traditional processes to reveal the abnormalities, scars, and mysteries that unite incongruent interpretations of experience. — Michelle Mountain
On the 15th of November 2012, Rudi Williams visited the Vatican Museum in Rome for the first time where she encountered a room that contained a series of display cabinets. The objects in the cabinet had been removed but the traces of the objects remained, burned into the backing velvet of the display cabinet, like a liminal photograph.
Edition of 100.
This concertina postcard depicts the documents Williams made of the Vatican Museum display cabinets in 2012, with photographs taken in 2016 at the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne. The publication was made to accompany her solo exhibition Echo held at Caves Gallery in 2016.
1995, English
Offset Lithographic poster (87 x 67 cm)
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / fine
Published by
Unknown
$350.00 - In stock -
Stunning, rare 1995 colour offset lithographic poster of Sigmar Polke's "Modern Art (Moderne Kunst)" from 1968, printed on heavy stock in 1995. Unknown publisher, likely a German museum edition. A striking reproduction of this iconic Polke painting.
Dimensions : 87 x 67 cm
Fine condition, immaculately preserved, ready to frame.
Sigmar Polke (1941–2010)
Characterized by wit and endless inventiveness, German artist Sigmar Polke created an oeuvre that is wildly diverse in its exploration of mediums and materials. Inspired by his fascination with science and alchemy, Polke innovated techniques in painting and photography by manipulating chemical processes. Life in post-war Germany led the artist to establish Capitalist Realism, an ironic exploration of consumerism using the imagery of popular culture and advertising, evident in his 1976 collage on paper Supermarkets aus dem Zyklus, Wir Kleinbürger (translated as “Supermarkets from the Cycle, We Petty Bourgeoisie”), featuring iconic Superman figures shopping in a brand-laden supermarket.
2007, English
Hardcover (w. audio cd), 48 pages, 24 x 16 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / as new
Published by
Thrill Jockey Record / Chicago
$10.00 $5.00 - Out of stock
First, out-of-print edition. Baltimore's Higgs is best known for his work as the lyricist and frontman of Lungfish, whose work on Dischord spans three decades. This release is a limited edition CD + full colour 48-page hardcover book of Daniels's paintings and writings and the second release in the Thrill Jockey book series (the first being "Hokane" by Aki Tsuyuko). The CD of guitar and piano drones, jew's harp, and banjo recorded by Daniel is inserted in the front cover of the book.
As New.
1999, English / German
Hardcover (w. audio cd), 144 pages, 16 x 24 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / fine
Published by
Kehrer Verlag / Heidelberg
$25.00 - In stock -
First, out-of-print edition of this hardcover book and CD on the Canadian composer and sound artist Robin Minard, one of the most outstanding artists in his field. Having left the concert hall in the mid-1980's, Minard creates sound installations for public spaces. Working in the context of an environment increasingly polluted with noise, Minard aimes to stimulate the sense of hearing and to regain neglected synesthetic abilities. Including two compositions on CD, this book contains the most comprehensive documentation of Minard's sound installations and compositions since the 1980's.
Edited by Bernd Schulz; texts by Bernd Schulz, Barbara Barthelmes, Helga de la Motte-Haber. All texts in both English and German.
Fine copy.
English / German
Softcover (+ CD), 188 pages, 18 x 18 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / as new
Published by
Errant Bodies / Berlin
Smart Art Press / Michigan
$70.00 - Out of stock
First English edition, long out-of-print. CD included.
Site of Sound is an anthology focusing on current trends in experimental music, sound art and audio theories, featuring writings, visual works, interviews and artist projects by leading experimental composers, sound-artists, and architects whose work concerns itself with architectural and acoustic space, sound sculpture, field/environmental investigation and recording, and site-specificity. Complementing this are theoretical, fictional and diaristic writings by contemporary authors, cartographers and ecologists."—publisher's statement.
Edited by Brandon LaBelle and Steve Roden. Artists and contributors include Alison Knowles, Achim Wollscheid, Jalal Toufic, Hildegard Westerkamp, Phillip Corner, Christina Kubisch, Giancarlo Toniutti, Jake Tilson, Brandon LaBelle, Rolf Julius, Leif Elggren, CM von Hausswolff, Steve Peters, Ralf Wehowsky, David Dunn, Christof Migone, Loren Chasse, Moniek Darge, Michael Brewster, Max Eastley, Tim Robinson, Steve Roden, Rupert Loydell, Tom Marioni, Pierre Koenig, the Stalacpipe Organ at Luray Caverns, WrK, Minoru Sato, Toshiya Tsunoda, and Jio Shimizu. Includes audio CD featuring many of the featured works.
As New.
1999, German
Softcover + CD, 230 pages, 20.5 x 18 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Kunsthalle Wien / Vienna
$30.00 - In stock -
First edition w. CD, published in 1998 to accompany the exhibition Crossings – Art to Hear and See, Kunsthalle Wien, curated by Cathrin Pichler and Edek Bartz. "CROSSINGS" is about the meeting of music and visual arts. An encounter that was expressed in many facets and forms in the 20th century, featuring works by: Mario Airò, Richard Artschwager, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Joseph Beuys, Angela Bulloch, John Cage, Henning Christiansen, Martin Creed, Jeremy Deller, Stan Douglas, Daniel Egg, Angus Fairhurst, Jochen Gerz, Douglas Gordon, Franz Graf, Dan Graham, Henrik Hakansson, Russel Haswell, Carl Michael von Hausswolff, Dick Higgins, Gary Hill, Noritoshi Hirakawa, Arto Lindsay, Stephan von Huene, Lee Jaffe, Mike Kelley, Jon Kessler, Milan Knízák, Bernhard Leitner, Hans-Peter Litscher, Christian Marclay, Charles Long, Alvin Lucier, Paul D. Miller aka DJ Spooky that Subliminal Kid, Bruce Nauman, Max Neuhaus, Flora Neuwirth with Olga Neuwirth & NICJOB, Yoko Ono, Albert Oehlen, Nam June Paik, Paul Panhuysen, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Stephen Prina, Alan Rath, Gerwald Rockenschaub, Sarkís, Christoph Steinbrener, Wolfgang Stengel, Ned Sublette, Lawrence Weiner, Peter Weibel.
Very Good with audio CD featuring many of the artists above.
2002, English
Hardcover + 4 CD, 96 pages, 23.5 x 16 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
The Anja Offensive / Oregon
$45.00 - Out of stock
First hardcover edition of this luxurious hardcover book and 4 x CD cross-pollination of sound and botany, published in 2022 by Anja Offensive in Oregon. 40 artists are invited to choose a plant, herb or tree they resonate with and craft a song to honour it. From free folk to industrial, neoclassical to dark ambient, each artist contributes to 4 discs with a playtime averaging 67 minutes per disc, as well as artwork, texts, passages, lyrics, quotations, credits to the lavish full-colour art book — a directory of artistic botanical dedications. Includes Makoto Kawabata, Steve Roden, Aube, Lotus Eaters, In Gowan Ring, Allerseelen, Troum, Michael Northam, Apoptose, and many more.
Very Good—Fine copy, all CDs fine.
unknown, English
Softcover (screw post binding), 108 pages, 28 x 21.5 cm
Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
? / ?
$140.00 - In stock -
Super rare production storyboard bootleg publication for the original 1984 Blade Runner, illustrated throughout by Sherman Labby with typed and handwritten notes, original notes from the production team and bearing the photocopied signature of production manager John W. Rogers. These storyboards were confidential and not allowed to be re-xeroxed, but leaked copies were bootlegged and leaked into fan market places. An incredible insight into the making of one of the greatest films of all time.
Sherman Labby (1929—1998) was a legendary American storyboard artist and production illustrator. After many years as a magazine illustrator, and like many in his craft, his first motion-picture work was in animation at studios such as Filmation, Hanna-Barbera, and Marvel. He worked as a storyboard artist on such shows as Star Trek: The Animated Series, Groovie Goolies, The Batman/Superman Hour, The New Adventures of Batman, The New Adventures of Gilligan, The Secret Lives of Waldo Kitty, and Will the Real Jerry Lewis Please Sit Down, and the animated TV series of Journey to the Center of the Earth, Fantastic Voyage, and Godzilla. His best-known live-action credits include Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978), The Wanderers, The Incredible Shrinking Woman, Blade Runner, 2010, The Witches of Eastwick, Broadcast News, Lethal Weapon 2, The War of the Roses, Thelma & Louise, Bram Stoker's Dracula, Made in America, Free Willy, The Horse Whisperer, and What Dreams May Come.
Near Fine copy.
1969, English
Softcover (folded publication), 20 pages, 21.5 x 17 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Philip N. West / Carlton
$100.00 - In stock -
Very rare copy of the mighty Underground, published and edited by Philip N. West of Australian Free Press. This issue (Volume 2, Number 2), published in Carlton in 1969. An unyielding anti-Vietnam war, anti-state/pig corruption, pro-freedom of expression and opinion publication that directly reports on anti-dissent government repression, the jailing, sentencing, and fining of poets, protestors, and activists in Melbourne, suspicious deaths, Australian politics, human-rights, and other "Private Eye" matters concerning the abuses of power. Here we have reports on anti-conscription arrests, including re-print of Victorian Police offence notice for the distribution of "Why Register for National Service" pamphlet, an introduction and guide to Australian Free Universities, "Don't Go: The Ballad of Ho Chang by I. Lerik (an anti-Vietnam war piece), "how-to" chemical fire bottles, an Intelligent Guide to Sexual Contraception (anti-abortion laws and luxury taxes and profiteering on contraceptives), The League for Spiritual Discovery, poetry, a cartoon by the legendary Ron Cobb, and much more. A wonderful historical piece of Australian counterculture publishing from the anti-war movement.
Philip West (1947-1994) was most likely one of the first underground countercultural journalists in Australia. He published Psychedelic Stir, Underground and similar small magazines and newsletters from 1967, contributed to Revolution "Australia's First Rock Magazine", and others, reporting on subjects such as the Vietnam War protest movements and marijuana laws. He later edited the Alternate News Service both in Australia and from overseas as well as being the first publisher to document the Pentagon Papers controversy in book form. In the last years he worked as a night news editor at SBS dealing with international stories.
Very Good copy with light ageing, softening to edges.
1969, English
Softcover (folded pamphlet), 16 pages, 26 x 10.5 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Philip N. West / Carlton
$90.00 - In stock -
Very rare copy of the mighty Underground, published and edited by Philip N. West of Australian Free Press. This issue (Volume 2, Number 5), published in Carlton on March 21, 1969, was prepared "while awaiting the police to take us away at Melbourne University", jailed for non-payment of fines arising out of leaflet distribution. An unyielding anti-Vietnam war, anti-state/pig corruption, pro-freedom of expression and opinion publication that directly reports on anti-dissent government repression, the jailing, sentencing, and fining of poets, protestors, and activists in Melbourne, suspicious deaths, Australian politics, human-rights, and other "Private Eye" matters concerning the abuses of power. Free-Zarb!
A wonderful historical piece of Australian counterculture publishing from the anti-war movement.
Philip West (1947-1994) was most likely one of the first underground countercultural journalists in Australia. He published Psychedelic Stir, Underground and similar small magazines and newsletters from 1967, contributed to Revolution "Australia's First Rock Magazine", and others, reporting on subjects such as the Vietnam War protest movements and marijuana laws. He later edited the Alternate News Service both in Australia and from overseas as well as being the first publisher to document the Pentagon Papers controversy in book form. In the last years he worked as a night news editor at SBS dealing with international stories.
Very Good copy with light ageing, softening to edges.
1982, English
Offset-lithographic printed poster (80 x 60 cm)
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / fine
Published by
O.K.Harris / New York
$190.00 - In stock -
Very rare early John Kacere exhibition poster, printed in Sweden on the occasion of a New York solo exhibition at O.K.Harris, 1982. Beautiful offset-lithographic printing on thick white stock featuring one of Kacere's iconic photorealist oil paintings. A real collector's item.
Dimensions : 80 x 60 cm
Fine copy. Crisp and unmarked, old "as new" preserved stock from the original Swedish print house. Online orders come carefully rolled in thick tubing.
John C. Kacere (23 June 1920 – 5 August 1999) was an American artist. Originally an abstract expressionist, Kacere adopted a photorealist style in 1963. Nearly all of his iconic paintings depict the midsection of the female body. Although he rejected the term, Kacere is considered one of the original photorealists. Kacere's first painting in this style was in 1969, involving the midsection of a woman dressed in lingerie. It was over three times life size. Kacere continued this type of painting throughout the rest of his career, making it an icon of the photorealism movement. Though figurative paintings, Kacere's works have often been considered still lifes or even landscapes.
1982, English
Offset-lithographic printed poster (80 x 60 cm)
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / fine
Published by
O.K.Harris / New York
$190.00 - Out of stock
Very rare early John Kacere exhibition poster, printed in Sweden on the occasion of a New York solo exhibition at O.K.Harris, 1982. Beautiful offset-lithographic printing on thick white stock featuring one of Kacere's iconic photorealist oil paintings. A real collector's item.
Dimensions : 80 x 60 cm
Fine copy. Crisp and unmarked, old "as new" preserved stock from the original Swedish print house. Online orders come carefully rolled in thick tubing.
John C. Kacere (23 June 1920 – 5 August 1999) was an American artist. Originally an abstract expressionist, Kacere adopted a photorealist style in 1963. Nearly all of his iconic paintings depict the midsection of the female body. Although he rejected the term, Kacere is considered one of the original photorealists. Kacere's first painting in this style was in 1969, involving the midsection of a woman dressed in lingerie. It was over three times life size. Kacere continued this type of painting throughout the rest of his career, making it an icon of the photorealism movement. Though figurative paintings, Kacere's works have often been considered still lifes or even landscapes.
1982, English
Offset-lithographic printed poster (80 x 60 cm)
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / fine
Published by
O.K.Harris / New York
$190.00 - In stock -
Very rare early John Kacere exhibition poster, printed in Sweden on the occasion of a New York solo exhibition at O.K.Harris, 1982. Beautiful offset-lithographic printing on thick white stock featuring one of Kacere's iconic photorealist oil paintings. A real collector's item.
Dimensions : 80 x 60 cm
Fine copy. Crisp and unmarked, old "as new" preserved stock from the original Swedish print house. Online orders come carefully rolled in thick tubing.
John C. Kacere (23 June 1920 – 5 August 1999) was an American artist. Originally an abstract expressionist, Kacere adopted a photorealist style in 1963. Nearly all of his iconic paintings depict the midsection of the female body. Although he rejected the term, Kacere is considered one of the original photorealists. Kacere's first painting in this style was in 1969, involving the midsection of a woman dressed in lingerie. It was over three times life size. Kacere continued this type of painting throughout the rest of his career, making it an icon of the photorealism movement. Though figurative paintings, Kacere's works have often been considered still lifes or even landscapes.
2000, English / German
Softcover w. CD in printed bag, 104 pages, 23 x 17 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Raster-Noton / Chemnitz
$50.00 $25.00 - In stock -
Deluxe edition of raster-noton.oacis, the experimental audio-visual book and CD project published in 2000 by Raster-Noton, the legendary electronic music label founded in Germany in 1996, on the occasion of taktlos-bern event, 15-16 September 2000, Dampfzentrale, Bern. Edition of 3000 copies. Acoustics and optics, raster-noton.oacis goes beyond the momentary. The texts by top writers like Susanne Binas, Rob Young (The Wire), Pinky Rose, Peter Kraut (NZZ) and Martin Pesch (e.g. Frieze, Spex, Kunstforum) examine how raster-noton works on the cutting edge of electronic music, computer graphics and video animation, with which supreme ease the label moves between pop/club culture and the fine arts. Archives all discographies and performances throughout the 1990s, with graphics and photographic illustrations throughout in colour/bw. Softcover book housed in printed plastic bag — creative cover flap includes enhanced CD with audiotracks from the artists and multimedia data for Macintosh to adequately complete this state-of-the-art project. Includes tracks by Carsten Nicolai, Olaf Bender, and others via projects Noto, Impulse, Byetone, Komet, CoH, Alva Noto...
Award for "Best Books of Switzerland" 2000.
Very Good all round, some wear to bag, otherwise all perfectly preserved.
1999, English / Swedish
Hardcover (in illustrated slipcase w. dust jacket + 2 CD), 337 pages, 29 x 16 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Sveriges Radios Förlag / Stockholm
$190.00 - In stock -
Under the motto: "Manipulate the world - take care of the world", Fahlström set up a variety of meeting-places in which participants were invited to take part in an interdiciplinary game of purposeful discovery. He introduced elements of popular culture into his work early on and made substantial contributions to a critical assessment of the "medialisation" of art. In this, the most extensive book about Öyvind Fahlström to date, Teddy Hultberg charts the artist´s predominant lines of creative development and shows how his cross-genre endeavours were based on a few central ideas: character forms, signs, games and life materials.
The present study focuses on two innovative and extraordinary compositions for radio: "Birds in Sweden" (1963) and "The Holy Torsten Nilsson" (1966). These works can be heard on the two accompanying CD records and are also included here in written form. Some unique and hitherto unpublished visual and textual material, the result of several years of research by Teddy Hultberg, is also included in the book.
Now long out-of-print, this first 1999 edition (in bi-lingual English / Swedish) comes housed in illustrated, die-cut slipcase, with hardcovers and illustrated dust jacket. All Very Good—Fine in condition.
1995, English
Softcover (staplebound), 28 pages, 34 x 30 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Morpheus International / US
$60.00 - In stock -
It was a good year, 1995, and with each month a new full-colour depiction of H.R. Giger's universe of the grotesque fantastic. 15 large-format reproductions, including never before published works, his hommage to Gustave Moreau, Biomechanoids and Biomechanical Landscapes, designs for the unreleased films "The Tourist" and "Dune" (by Jodorowsky). Unused copy ready for the wall.
Very Good copy with light wear.
1992, English
Softcover, leporello fold-out double-sided card, 15.5 x 11.5 cm (15.5 x 34.5 cm unfolded)
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / fine
Published by
Feature Inc. / New York
$90.00 - Out of stock
Very rare show card/fold-out catalogue published on the occasion of the duel exhibition of drawings by Tom of Finland (1920—1991) and G.B. Jones (b. 1965) at Feature, New York, July 10 — August 9, 1991. Titled "Tom of Finland — Drawings and Sketches" and "G.B. Jones — Tom-Girl Drawings", the exhibition, in commemoration of Touko Valio Laaksonen (Tom of Finland) who passed away the same year, is previewed in this lovely little double-sided leporello fold-out catalogue, with three works from each artist, and cover work by Tom of Finland, along with work and exhibition information.
Touko Valio Laaksonen (8 May 1920 – 7 November 1991), best known by his pseudonym Tom of Finland, was a Finnish artist known for his stylized highly masculine homoerotic fetish art, and his influence on late twentieth century gay culture. He has been called the "most influential creator of gay pornographic images" by cultural historian Joseph W. Slade. Over the course of four decades, he produced some 3500 illustrations.
G.B. Jones (b. 1965) is a Canadian artist, filmmaker, and founding member of Canadian queer punk band Fifth Column (K Records/Outpunk/Kill Rock Stars/et al). She published legendary queercore fanzine J.D.s (Juvenile Delinquents) with fellow queer filmmaker Bruce LaBruce, which regularly featured her iconic Tom Girl drawings. According to novelist Dodie Bellamy, G.B. Jones' drawing "co-opts the male-on-male objectifying gaze of gay erotica and converts it to a female-on-female gaze." Depicting autonomous women through fantasies of bikers, punks and degenerates in the style of and situations similar to those drawn by Tom of Finland, her Tom Girls are "unapologetic, thrillingly anti-assimilationist."
Fine copy, beautifully preserved.
1996, English
5 offset colour post card set, 15 x 10 cm ea
1st Edition, Out of print title / as new
Published by
? / ?
$120.00 - Out of stock
Very rare set of five postcards by French photographer Irina Ionesco, published in 1996.
Irina Ionesco (1935—2022) is a French photographer famous for her unique style of dramatically lit, baroque, erotic female portraits, influenced by the Decadent movement and the dream-like psycho-erotic imagery of Surrealism. At a young age she was sent to Romania where she was raised by her family who were circus performers. From the ages of 15 to 22 she performed as a contortionist. She traveled and painted for several years before discovering photography and gained wide attention when she exhibited her work at the Nikon Gallery in Paris in 1974, leading to her work being published in magazines, books, and exhibited at galleries across the globe. Working primarily as a fashion photographer, Ionesco stirred controversy with her nude portraits—much like Garry Gross would later cause with his sexualized photographs of a young Brooke Shields. Ionesco’s work often features women in elaborate dress, bejewelled, gloved, and in other finery, but also adorning themselves with symbolic pieces such as chokers and other fetishistic props, posing provocatively, partially disrobed as objects of sexual possession. Irina Ionesco is most famous for her photographs using her young daughter, Eva, as her model and muse, a decision that remains controversial to this day.
As New—Fine complete set.