World Food Books

Atomic Yggdrasil Tarot
Daniel A.I.U. Higgs

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

(more...)

(...less)

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.

File under: Daniel Higgs Thrill Jockey Record / Chicago Sound / Music Painting Art Performance / Dance / Theater Objects / Ephemera / A/V Out-of-print / Rare Occult / Esoterica SALE

Harmonies of Heaven and Earth : The Spiritual Dimension of Music from Antiquity to the Avant-Garde
By Joscelyn Godwin

1987, English
Hardcover (w. dust jacket), 208 pages, 24 x 16.5 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / fine
Published by Thames and Hudson / London

$90.00 - Out of stock

(more...)

(...less)

Scarce original 1987 hardcover edition of Harmonies of Heaven and Earth, published by Thames & Hudson, London. Joscelyn Godwin explores music's effects on matter, living things, and human behavior. Turning to metaphysical accounts of the higher worlds and theories of celestial harmony, the author follows the path of musical inspiration on its descent to Earth, illuminating the archetypal currents that lie beneath Western musical history.

The power of music is spiritual. It is, for many people, the principal point of access to a consciousness beyond that of ordinary life. Musicians and listeners alike can read analyses of the physics or the psychology, the technique or the history of music; but there is a contemporary need, as Joscelyn Godwin reveals in this challenging book, for informed discussion of the almost too obvious fact that there is something supernatural in musical experience. This is that universal dimension of which Plato, Kepler, Rameau and Novalis wrote, and of which Wagner said: 'I feel that I am one with this vibrating Force, that it is omniscient, and that I can draw upon it to an extent that is limited only by my own capacity." The spiritual power of music surfaces in folklore, myth and mystical experience, refusing as music always does- to be bound by narrow rationalism. It embraces Heaven as well as Earth, the music of the spheres as well as the music that is played and sung.

Joscelyn Godwin begins his closely argued study with music's perceived effects on matter, on plants, on animals and on human behaviour. He then turns inward, to the absorbing accounts that have been given of the higher worlds that are the birthplace of Harmony, and of the realm of pure Intelligence which lies both within and beyond. To hear music, however, we need composers and performers, and the argument then follows Harmony on its descent from Heaven to Earth. This descent takes place in the musician's inspiration, in the listener's experience, and in the world at large; for archetypal currents run beneath the surface of musical history, in the centuries that encompass the polyphony of Perotin or J.S. Bach and the psychic impact of Webern, Stockhausen and rock'n'roll. A self-contained final section embodies the fullest account ever given of ancient and modern theoretical systems of celestial harmony, from Pythagoras to Marius Schneider, Rudolf Steiner and Gurdjieff.

Joscelyn Godwin was born in Kelmscott, Oxfordshire, England on January 16, 1945. He was educated as a chorister at Christ Church Cathedral School, Oxford, then at Radley College (Music Scholar), and Magdalene College, Cambridge (Music Scholar; B.A., 1965, Mus. B., 1966, M.A. 1969). Coming to the USA in 1966, he did graduate work in Musicology at Cornell University (Ph. D., 1969; dissertation: "The Music of Henry Cowell") and taught at Cleveland State University for two years before joining the Colgate University Music Department in 1971. He has taught at Colgate ever since.

Near Fine in VG—NF dust jacket. Beautifully preserved, unread.

File under: Karlheinz Stockhausen Jean-Philippe Rameau Pérotin Johann Sebastian Bach Anton Webern Plato Johannes Kepler Rudolf Steiner Joscelyn Godwin Novalis George Gurdjieff Marius Schneider Thames and Hudson / London Theory / Essay Sound / Music Out-of-print / Rare Philosophy Art Renaissance / Neoclassicism / Romanticism Art Brut / Folk / Visionary / Fantastic Ancient / Medieval / Gothic Occult / Esoterica

Remedios Varo
La Obra De Remedios Varo

1964, Spanish
Softcover (staple-bound), 36 pages, 21.5 x 21.5 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by Museo de Arte Moderno / Mexico City Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes / Mexico City

$300.00 - In stock -

(more...)

(...less)

Very rare 1964 catalogue of surrealist Remedios Varo (1908—1963), recorded as the first book devoted solely to the work of Varo, published on the occasion of the major survey exhibition presented by the Museo Nacional de Arte Moderno and Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes, Mexico City, August 3—31, 1964. Profusely illustrated throughout with the paintings of Varo reproduced in colour and b/w, plus portrait of the artist. Introduction by Horacio Flores-Sanchez, essays by Raul Flores Guerrero and Carlos Pellicer. Texts in Spanish. A wonderful historical document of a visionary artist.

Remedios Varo (1908—1963)
During her childhood in Spain, Varo was influenced by her engineer father, who taught her to draw, and her strict Catholic schooling, against which she rebelled. Following her graduation from art school, she pursued Surrealism and political change. She moved to Paris in 1937, later finding that she could not return to Spain following the Spanish Civil War. Varo associated and exhibited with the Surrealists, exploring magic, alchemy, and analytical psychology. As World War II threatened Paris, Spanish refugees came under threat. Varo was arrested and held in early 1940. After her release, she fled Paris in the face of the Nazi invasion, and by late 1941 had secured passage to Mexico. In Mexico, Varo remained friends with fellow refugees from her European Surrealist circle, including artist Leonora Carrington, who became her closest friend and collaborator. In the late 1940s, as she supported herself through commercial illustration, Varo began to develop her mature personal style. During succeeding decades, she devoted increased time and energy to her art, and she delved further into the fantastical sources that captured her imagination. Her death of a heart attack in 1963 occurred as she was reaching new renown.

Very Good copy with light wear to boards. Previous owner inscription to inside front cover.

File under: Remedios Varo Horacio Flores-Sanchez Raul Flores Guerrero Carlos Pellicer Museo de Arte Moderno / Mexico City Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes / Mexico City Surrealism Out-of-print / Rare Art Painting Feminism Art Brut / Folk / Visionary / Fantastic Drawing Occult / Esoterica

Mount Analogue
René Daumal

1968, English
Softcover, 106 pages, 20.5 x 14 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by City Lights Books / San Francisco

$120.00 - Out of stock

(more...)

(...less)

Rare first City Lights 1968 English language edition of this classic allegorical adventure novel by early 20th-century French spiritual para-surrealist writer, critic, poet, and early, outspoken practitioner of pataphysics, René Daumal (1908-1944). Translated and introduced by Roger Shattuck.

A touchstone of Surrealism, Pataphysics, and Gurdjieffian mysticism, Mount Analogue was left unfinished (mid-sentence) at the author's early death from tuberculosis in 1944 and first published posthumously in French in 1952, and the book has inspired seekers of art and wisdom ever since - Alejandro Jodorowsky's 1973 film The Holy Mountain is a loose adaptation.

As Daumal writes, “Mount Analogue is the symbolic mountain—the way that unites Heaven and Earth, a way which must exist in material and human form, otherwise our situation would be without hope.”

Roger Shattuck’s 1959 translation, the first made into English, remains the best and closest in spirit to the deadly serious joking of the original.

VG copy with light tanning and foxing to book edges.

File under: Rene Daumal Roger Shattuck City Lights Books / San Francisco Surrealism Out-of-print / Rare Fiction / Poetry 'Pataphysics / Oulipo Occult / Esoterica Weird / Speculative / Science Fiction

Rasa, or Knowledge of the Self
by René Daumal

1982, English
Softcover, 108 pages, 20.2 x 13.4 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / good
Published by New Directions / New York

$70.00 - Out of stock

(more...)

(...less)

Rare first New Directions 1982 edition of Rasa, or Knowledge of the Self, by early 20th-century French spiritual para-surrealist writer, critic, poet, and early, outspoken practitioner of pataphysics, René Daumal (1908-1944). Translated with an introduction by Louise Landes Levi.

Rasa, or Knowledge of the Self; is the remarkable, and now very scarce, first gathering in English translation of essays and review articles on Hindu aesthetics and translations from the Sanskrit by the French writer Rene Daumal. A member of the Simplist group associated from 1928 to 1932 with the journal Le Grand feu ("The Great Game"), he began cultivating his East Indian studies as an extension of his active pursuit of the avant-garde. In 1932, he made the acquaintance of Uday Shankar, becoming secretary to the latter's Hindu dance troupe and accompanying it that year on its premier American tour. In his efforts to make Shankar's music and dance comprehensible to Western audiences, Daumal developed into a passionate spokesman for Indian culture, and his subsequent writings on the subject are far removed from the usual dry philological speculations of academic Orientalists. "To Approach the Hindu Poetic Art" differentiates between the Indian and European views of aesthetic experience, with special emphasis on the concept of rasa—that is, "taste" or "savor"—which Daumal sees at the heart of all Hindu art. Two essays—"On Indian Music" and "Concerning Uday Shankar"—were written at the time of Shankar's Western tour, while the selection of Daumal's "Oriental Book Reviews" deals with topics, such as The Tibetan Book of the Dead, which were only to spark general interest in the West decades later. The remaining sections of the collection are translations from the Sanskrit that attempt to resonate against language's deepest core.

Good copy with insect nibbles to cover edges.

File under: Uday Shankar Rene Daumal Louise Landes Levi New Directions / New York Surrealism Out-of-print / Rare Literary Theory / Semiotics / Language Whole Earth / Crafts Sound / Music Theory / Essay Occult / Esoterica Performance / Dance / Theater Art 'Pataphysics / Oulipo

Mount Analogue
by René Daumal

1986, English
Softcover, 118 pages, 20 x 13 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by Penguin Books / London

$30.00 - Out of stock

(more...)

(...less)

1986 King Penguin English language edition of this classic allegorical adventure novel by early 20th-century French spiritual para-surrealist writer, critic, poet, and early, outspoken practitioner of pataphysics, René Daumal (1908-1944). Translated and introduced by Roger Shattuck.

A touchstone of Surrealism, Pataphysics, and Gurdjieffian mysticism, Mount Analogue was left unfinished (mid-sentence) at the author's early death from tuberculosis in 1944 and first published posthumously in French in 1952, and the book has inspired seekers of art and wisdom ever since - Alejandro Jodorowsky's 1973 film The Holy Mountain is a loose adaptation.

As Daumal writes, “Mount Analogue is the symbolic mountain—the way that unites Heaven and Earth, a way which must exist in material and human form, otherwise our situation would be without hope.”

Roger Shattuck’s 1959 translation, the first made into English, remains the best and closest in spirit to the deadly serious joking of the original.

Good—VG copy with tanning to pages and single pinch to spine.

File under: Rene Daumal Roger Shattuck Penguin Books / London Surrealism Out-of-print / Rare Fiction / Poetry Weird / Speculative / Science Fiction 'Pataphysics / Oulipo Occult / Esoterica

Le Sang et La Rose No. 1, 1968

1968, Japanese / French
Softcover, 228 pages, 23 x 18 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by Tensei Shuppan / Tokyo

$110.00 - Out of stock

(more...)

(...less)

Revue de Érotologie, Homosexualité, Sadisme, Masochisme, Fétischisme, Narcissime, Infantilisme, Magie, Occultisme, Humour Noir, Complexe Psychisme. What more could you ask for? Le Sang Et La Rose is a masterpiece of the Japanese underground. A groundbreaking, powerful, yet short-lived Japanese arts and literary journal published in Tokyo from late 1968—mid 1969, published in a total of four luxurious, now collectible, volumes. The first three issues were edited by Tatsuhiko Shibusawa (1928—1987), a legendary, controversial Japanese novelist, art critic, translator of French writers such as Jean Cocteau, Georges Bataille and Marquis de Sade, and specialist in medieval demonology. The importance of this magazine to the Japanese avant-garde and radical culture cannot be overstated.

Born from a period of political, social and economical turmoil in Japan, Le Sang Et La Rose may be understood as a emblematic distillation and product of the late ‘60s student rebellion and anti-authoritarian underground culture. Wilfully politically subversive, the publication drew upon a vast range of perspectives - from criticism, literature, obscure esoteric sciences, art, eroticism, radical avant-garde and a historical-rooted Japanese counterculture; featuring literature, theory, art, photography, illustration and graphic design from the most innovative and subversive Japanese and international (predominately French) artists, authors and critics, spanning the themes above. As instigator, Tatsuhiko Shibusawa in effect formulated the magazine’s design to be a spiritual and political operative that would weaponize its readers minds. This stance was made clear in the 1969 manifesto text — "My 1969" — in which Shibusawa discuss' how he perceived the ‘60s as being the age of ideas, ideas as weapons, and outlined a distain towards systems of power, moralism, State oppression, sanitised and harmless liberalism, dogmatic academic sciences and an outright distrust for ideological, progressive literary scholars who advocate "freedom of expression", but have never caused friction with the judicial power. The magazine sketched out an aim to push towards a new kind of personal freedom, intellect, autonomy and moral compass. Here, the concept of ‘erotism’ — as discussed by Georges Bataille in his highly influential 1957 book "Erotism: Death and Sensuality" — acts as a critical force. 

Issue no. 1 (1968) sets the scene perfectly, opening with Japanese author Yukio Mishima depicted as Saint Sebastian by photographer Kishin Shinoyama in a pictorial feature "Les Morts Masculines", a photographic homage to Georges Bataille that also features the photography of Eikoh Hosoe, Ikkō Narahara, Masahisa Fukase, and Osamu Hayasaki, with models including Butoh founder Tatsumi Hijikata, actor Akira Mita, author Tatsuhiko Shibusawa, actor Jin Nakayama, playwright Jūrō Kara, and others. Other features include " All Japanese are Perverse" — stories by Japanese writers including Yukio Mishima, Taruho Inagaki, Yutaka Haniya, Shinji Sōya; Henry Miller's letters to Anais Nin; a colour gallery of artwork by Belgian painter Paul Delvaux; articles on Vampire fantasy in the arts (including many original illustrations; Witches (illustrated by James Ensor); Oriental Eros, Ancient Indian poetry; Kama Sutra; female bi-sexuality; the history of gay (Danshoku) theatre in Japan; the full-colour art gallery "Masturbation Machine", featuring avant-garde artists Natsuyuki Nakanishi, Masuo Ikeda, Setsu Nagasawa, Carlos Marchioli, Kuniyoshi Kaneko, Masakazu Horiuchi, Tadanori Yokoo, Koji Suzuki, Tommy Ungerer; the fully illustrated museum supplement "Pain and Pleasure : On Torture" by Tatsuhiko Shibusawa with artworks throughout history; pornographic stories by Guillaume Apollinaire and Nicolas Restif de la Bretonne (who coined the term "Pornographer"); fiction by Pierre Morion (pseudo. André Pieyre de Mandiargues); critic Jin'ichi Uekusa on the controversial writings of Roger Peyrefitte, illustrations by Ernst, Bellmer, Labisse, Fini, Lam, and much more.

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.

Good copy with some spine damage and tanning/wear.

File under: Max Ernst Léonor Fini Felix Labisse Wilfredo Lam Hans Bellmer Paul Delvaux Natsuyuki Nakanishi Masuo Ikeda Setsu Nagasawa Carlos Marchioli Kuniyoshi Kaneko Masakazu Horiuchi Tadanori Yokoo Koji Suzuki Tommy Ungerer Tatsumi Hijikata Tatsuhiko Shibusawa Eikoh Hosoe Ikkō Narahara Masahisa Fukase Osamu Hayasaki Kishin Shinoyama James Ensor Tatsuhiko Shibusawa Jin'ichi Uekusa Roger Peyrefitte Yukio Mishima Taruho Inagaki Yutaka Haniya Shinji Sōya Henry Miller Suehiro Tanemura Guillaume Apollinaire Andre Pieyre De Mandiargues Nicolas Restif de la Bretonne Jūrō Kara Tensei Shuppan / Tokyo Fiction / Poetry Japanese Photography Occult / Esoterica Philosophy Photography Art Illustration / Graphic Art / Bandes Dessinées Fetishism / BDSM LGBTQ+ Eros Ero Guro / Erotic / Grotesque Out-of-print / Rare Periodicals Counterculture Surrealism Symbolism / Decadence / Fin de siècle Transgressive / Visceral / Abject Ancient / Medieval / Gothic

Le Sang et La Rose No. 4, 1969

1969, Japanese
Softcover, 286 pages, 23 x 18 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by Tensei Shuppan / Tokyo

$140.00 - Out of stock

(more...)

(...less)

Revue de Érotologie, Homosexualité, Sadisme, Masochisme, Fétischisme, Narcissime, Infantilisme, Magie, Occultisme, Humour Noir, Complexe Psychisme. What more could you ask for? Le Sang Et La Rose was a groundbreaking, powerful, yet short-lived Japanese arts and literary journal published in Tokyo from late 1968—mid 1969, in a total of four luxurious, now collectible, volumes. The first three issues were edited by Tatsuhiko Shibusawa (1928—1987), a well-known and controversial Japanese novelist, art critic, and translator of French writers such as Jean Cocteau, Georges Bataille and Marquis de Sade, and this, the fourth final issue, and rarest of the four, edited by critic Masaaki Hiraoka and especially designed by self-taught painter, graphic designer and political activist, Kiyoshi Awazu (!)

Born from a period of political, social and economical turmoil in Japan, Le Sang Et La Rose may be understood as a emblematic distillation and product of the late ‘60s student rebellion and anti-authoritarian underground culture. Wilfully politically subversive, the publication drew upon a vast range of perspectives - from criticism, literature, obscure esoteric sciences, art, eroticism, radical avant garde and a historical-rooted Japanese counterculture; featuring literature, theory, art, photography, illustration and graphic design from the most innovative Japanese and international (predominately French) artists, authors and critics, spanning the themes above. Much like an instigator, Tatsuhiko Shibusawa in effect formulated the magazine’s design as principally to be a spiritual and political operative that would weaponize its readers minds. This stance was made clear in the 1969 manifesto text — "My 1969" — in which Shibusawa discuss' how he perceived the ‘60s as being the age of ideas, ideas as weapons, and outlined a distain towards systems of power, moralism, State oppression, sanitised and harmless liberalism, dogmatic academic sciences and an outright distrust for ideological, progressive literary scholars who advocate "freedom of expression", but have never caused friction with the judicial power. The magazine sketched out an aim to push towards a new kind of personal freedom, intellect, autonomy and moral compass. Here, the concept of ‘erotism’ — as discussed by Georges Bataille in his highly influential 1957 book "Erotism: Death and Sensuality" — acts as a critical force. 

Issue no. 4 includes photographic features by cinematographer Yasuhiro Yoshioka (Woman in the Dunes, Kwaidan, The Face of Another, Diary of a Shinjuku Thief), work by pioneering, self-taught visual artist and designer, Kiyoshi Awazu, Hans Bellmer, illustrations by the incredible Hiroshi Nakamura, sadomasochism in cinema, Ukiyo-e and Shunga art (erotic Japanese prints), writings by Tatsuhiko Shibusawa, Yukio Mishima, Taruho Inagaki, Jun’nosuke Yoshiyuki, Kôichi Iijima, Jûrô Kara, Ikuya Kato, Minoru Yoshioka, Masaaki Hiraoka, Tadanori Yokoo, and Ryûichi Tamura.   Much more....

Very Good copy.

File under: Yasuhiro Yoshioka Kiyoshi Awazu Hans Bellmer Hiroshi Nakamura Tatsuhiko Shibusawa Yukio Mishima Taruho Inagaki Jun’nosuke Yoshiyuki Kôichi Iijima Jûrô Kara Ikuya Kato Minoru Yoshioka Ryûichi Tamura Masaaki Hiraoka Tadanori Yokoo Tensei Shuppan / Tokyo Periodicals Art Illustration / Graphic Art / Bandes Dessinées Surrealism Ero Guro / Erotic / Grotesque Eros Photography Japanese Photography Out-of-print / Rare Philosophy Theory / Essay Fiction / Poetry Counterculture Fetishism / BDSM Symbolism / Decadence / Fin de siècle Occult / Esoterica Ancient / Medieval / Gothic

The Dance of Moon and Sun : Ithell Colquhoun, British Women and Surrealism

2023, English
Hardcover, 256 pages, 25.4 x 18 cm
Published by Fulgur Press / UK

$84.00 - In stock -

(more...)

(...less)

Essays on the art and writings of the long-neglected British occultist and Surrealist.

Straddling the worlds of Surrealism, occultism and modernist literature, Ithell Colquhoun (1906-88) was widely respected in her lifetime, but her transgressive, esoteric and poetic paintings and writings were long neglected until Richard Shillitoe's 2009 book Ithell Colquhoun: Magician Born of Nature initiated her revaluation--followed by Fulgur's 2016 publication Decad of Intelligence, the Tate's 2019 acquisition of more than 5,000 Colquhoun works and Amy Hale's 2020 biography. Colquhoun occupies a unique place within the lineage of occult Surrealist painters such as Leonora Carrington and Remedios Varo, as her presence in the 2022 Venice Biennale exhibition Milk of Dreams demonstrated.

This volume is the first critical examination of her diverse legacy, compiling papers from a 2018 conference on Colquhoun and her contemporaries Leonora Carrington, Leonor Fini and Stella Snead. Contributors explore themes of authorship and agency, Colquhoun's drawing practice, her Celtic motifs, British Surrealism and alchemy.

File under: Ithell Colquhoun Leonora Carrington Leonor Fini Stella Snead Tilly Craig Victoria Ferentinou Fulgur Press / UK Surrealism Art Brut / Folk / Visionary / Fantastic Feminism Painting Drawing Art Theory / Essay Occult / Esoterica

Infernal Proteus (A Musical Herbal)

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

(more...)

(...less)

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.

File under: Makoto Kawabata Steve Roden Aube Lotus Eaters In Gowan Ring Allerseelen Troum Michael Northam Apoptose The Anja Offensive / Oregon Sound / Music Objects / Ephemera / A/V Out-of-print / Rare Ecology / Earth Occult / Esoterica

Too Negative No. 3
February 1995

1995, Japanese
Softcover, 210 pages, 15 cm x 21 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by Tom Shobo / Japan

$140.00 - Out of stock

(more...)

(...less)

Too Negative   No. 3, February 1995. Now rare and highly collectible, Too Negative, the "Forbidden Picture Book", was a visceral and visually explosive glossy cult arts magazine that reflected the gory-depraved-beyond salvation-bad taste expressions visible in international subculture at the height of 1990s underground publishing, a time when art was pushing the limits of taste and morality. Edited solely by legendary Japanese publisher and gallery owner Kotaro Kobayashi and published by Tom Publication Inc. between 1994—2000, each thick, glossy volume takes on the aesthetics of a vibrant fashion magazine in the great Japanese "mook" format (the magazine book) packed cover to cover with themes of Eros and Thanatos, such as fetishism, erotica, medical/autopsy photography, death journalism, Japanese bondage, grotesque and neo-surrealist art, crime scene photography, tattooing/irezumi, piercing, and all things of the mondo, macabre, bizarro realm. Frequent collaborators and featured artists were Kiyotaka Tsurisaki, Joel-Peter Witkin, Trevor Brown, Kiyoshi Ikejiri, to name a few. With a Japanese publishing lineage that may be found in earlier bounding-pushing periodicals such as the 1920s erotic grotesque magazine Hentai Shiriou (Pervert Documents), Tasuhiko Shibusawa’s incredible 1960s avant-garde journal Le Sang Et La Rose, or Fiction Inc’s SALE2 journal published from 1980—mid 1990s, Too Negative, and affiliated periodicals such as ORG, Spiral, Schizo, etc. took their subjects to another level of extremism, even by Japanese standards.

Not for the faint hearted.

This issue features the Latin American corpse/death photography of Kiyotaka Tsurisaki, bondage and fetish photography by Kiyoshi Ikejiri, the artwork of Trevor Brown, the Police Hospital on Bangkok photographed by Kiyotaka Tsurisaki, tattoos, female bodybuilders, gynaecology photographs, loads of abnormal medical photography, fetish and bondage photoshoots, close-up genital photography, deranged art/collage, you name it.

Very Good - Fine copy.

File under: Kiyotaka Tsurisaki Trevor Brown Kiyoshi Ikejiri Tom Shobo / Japan Art Eros Out-of-print / Rare Periodicals Photography Japanese Photography Counterculture Illustration / Graphic Art / Bandes Dessinées Weird / Speculative / Science Fiction Transgressive / Visceral / Abject Fetishism / BDSM Ero Guro / Erotic / Grotesque Occult / Esoterica Film / Video

 Too Negative No. 6
August 1995

1995, Japanese
Softcover, 210 pages, 15 cm x 21 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by Tom Shobo / Japan

$140.00 - Out of stock

(more...)

(...less)

 Too Negative No. 6 August 1995. Now rare and highly collectible, Too Negative, the "Forbidden Picture Book", was a visceral and visually explosive glossy cult arts magazine that reflected the gory-depraved-beyond salvation-bad taste expressions visible in international subculture at the height of 1990s underground publishing, a time when art was pushing the limits of taste and morality. Edited solely by legendary Japanese publisher and gallery owner Kotaro Kobayashi and published by Tom Publication Inc. between 1994—2000, each thick, glossy volume takes on the aesthetics of a vibrant fashion magazine in the great Japanese "mook" format (the magazine book) packed cover to cover with themes of Eros and Thanatos, such as fetishism, erotica, medical/autopsy photography, death journalism, Japanese bondage, grotesque and neo-surrealist art, crime scene photography, tattooing/irezumi, piercing, and all things of the mondo, macabre, bizarro realm. Frequent collaborators and featured artists were Kiyotaka Tsurisaki, Joel-Peter Witkin, Trevor Brown, Kiyoshi Ikejiri, to name a few. With a Japanese publishing lineage that may be found in earlier bounding-pushing periodicals such as the 1920s erotic grotesque magazine Hentai Shiriou (Pervert Documents), Tasuhiko Shibusawa’s incredible 1960s avant-garde journal Le Sang Et La Rose, or Fiction Inc’s SALE2 journal published from 1980—mid 1990s, Too Negative, and affiliated periodicals such as ORG, Spiral, Schizo, etc. took their subjects to another level of extremism, even by Japanese standards.

Not for the faint hearted.

This issue,    Too Negative No. 6 August 1995, features corpse/death photography by Kotaro Kobayashi, fetish photography by Kiyoshi Ikejiri, Japanese neo-surrealist Sakuba Tomomi, upclose genital "non-retouching" collage/photography by Goro Asawa and Yoshiki Tsutsumi, death art by noise artist Raita Ishikawa, formaldehyde fetus photography by Kiyotaka Tsurisaki, genital piercing and modification, demented collage and collected imagery/medical/freak photography/illustration/porn, extreme anatomy imagery, lactating, pissing, western obesity porn / adipophilia, 'Bild Des Verbrechens In Ela Granti' crime scene photography from legend early 20th Century Japanese book, porn star John Holmes, artwork by Trevor Brown, plus much more.  

Very Good copy.

File under: Trevor Brown Kiyoshi Ikejiri Kotaro Kobayashi Kiyotaka Tsurisaki Tom Shobo / Japan Ero Guro / Erotic / Grotesque Eros Illustration / Graphic Art / Bandes Dessinées Occult / Esoterica Fetishism / BDSM Counterculture Transgressive / Visceral / Abject Periodicals Art Out-of-print / Rare Japanese Photography Photography Film / Video LGBTQ+

Erotic Art and Esotericism
by Toshiki Soma

2018, Japanese
2 Volumes, softcover (one w. dust jacket), 195 + 95 pages, 19 x 13 cm
Signed by author,
Published by Treville / Tokyo

$40.00 - Out of stock

(more...)

(...less)

A must-have book for Biblio enthusiasts. Pursuing the ultimate in erotic expression, dismantling the boundaries between pornography and art, and exploring the deepest mysteries of the desires of and , Erotic Art and Esotericism is the latest collection of reviews by Toshiki Soma. With extensive illustrations and explanations, Soma charts a "Spiritual Map of Contemporary Erotic Art (Microcosmos)" via the works and publications of Hans Bellmer, Pierre Molinier, Jean Benoit, Gérard Gachet, Sybille Ruppert, Jean-Marie Poumeyrol, H.R. Giger, Zdzisław Beksiński, Nik Douglas & Penny Slinger, Bob Carlos Clark, Hajime Sorayama... Soma then collects a diverse array of illustrated biblio reviews exploring esoteric and fetishistic book subjects such as Surrealism's relationship to murder, sensual plants, cannibalism, African power dolls, witches... reviewing a selection of erotic photography books, the literature of Arthur Machen, René Daumal, and Nakai Hideo, the illustrated books of Keizo Miyanishi, Hideshi Hino, Kazu Yuzuki, Chieko Minowa and much more.

This 2-volume set includes the "Erotic Art and Esotericism" (Booster Booklet), which expands on—in full colour—Soma's selections of artists surveyed, featuring hundreds of artworks and associated book-references. Artists include: Hans Bellmer, Pierre Molinier, Jean Benoit, Gérard Gachet, Sybille Ruppert, Jean-Marie Poumeyrol, H.R. Giger, Zdzisław Beksiński, Nik Douglas & Penny Slinger, Bob Carlos Clark, Hajime Sorayama, Seiu Ito, Kazutomo Fujino, Ayako Nakagawa, Petter Hegre, Henri Maccheroni, Jamie MacCartney, Richard Cerf, Gilles Berquet, Trevor Watson, Laszlo, Tony Ward, Laurent Bunaim...

Limited edition signed by the author.

File under: Hans Bellmer Pierre Molinier Jean Benoit Gérard Gachet Sybille Ruppert Jean-Marie Poumeyrol H.R. Giger Zdzisław Beksiński Nik Douglas & Penny Slinger Bob Carlos Clark Hajime Sorayama Seiu Ito Kazutomo Fujino Ayako Nakagawa Petter Hegre Henri Maccheroni Jamie MacCartney Richard Cerf Gilles Berquet Trevor Watson Laszlo Tony Ward Laurent Bunaim Toshiki Soma Treville / Tokyo Ero Guro / Erotic / Grotesque Eros Photography Japanese Photography Fiction / Poetry Illustration / Graphic Art / Bandes Dessinées Fetishism / BDSM Art Art Brut / Folk / Visionary / Fantastic Crime / Violence Surrealism Dada 'Pataphysics / Oulipo Drawing Occult / Esoterica Transgressive / Visceral / Abject Weird / Speculative / Science Fiction Signed Books

Consciousness Energy Grid

2023, English
Softcover, 20 x 15 cm
Published by Pilot Press / London

$16.00 - Out of stock

(more...)

(...less)

A pocket-sized zine containing the CIA's entire 'Gateway Process' document, a report written in 1983, and declassified in 2003, about using a series of exercises to produce states of expanded human consciousness such as astral projection, outer body experiments, and other altered states of mind.

File under: Pilot Press / London Counterculture Sociology / Politics Occult / Esoterica Theory / Essay Drugs / Psychedelia

The Great Mother : An Analysis of the Archetype
by Erich Neumann

1963 / 1974, English
Softcover, 565 pages, 21.5 x 14 cm
Out of print title / used / very good
Published by Princeton University Press / New York

$45.00 - Out of stock

(more...)

(...less)

Early 1974 Princeton printing of this landmark book exploring the Great Mother as a primordial image of the human psyche.

In this profound and enduring work the renowned analytical psychologist Erich Neumann draws on ritual, mythology, art, and records of dreams and fantasies to examine how this archetype has been outwardly expressed in many cultures and periods since prehistory. He shows how the feminine has been represented as goddess, monster, gate, pillar, tree, moon, sun, vessel, and every animal from snakes to birds. Neumann discerns a universal experience of the maternal as both nurturing and fearsome, an experience rooted in the dialectical relation of growing consciousness, symbolized by the child, to the unconscious and the unknown, symbolized by the Great Mother.

"Neumann's creative intuition has enabled him to read in these records of the past a content and meaning that throws a beam of light on the psychological history of [hu]mankind."—Journal of Analytical Psychology

Very Good copy with erasable light pencil marginalia.

File under: Erich Neumann Princeton University Press / New York Psychoanalysis Ancient / Medieval / Gothic Theory / Essay Whole Earth / Crafts Occult / Esoterica Health Art Brut / Folk / Visionary / Fantastic Ecology / Earth Out-of-print / Rare Philosophy Renaissance / Neoclassicism / Romanticism

Newton the Alchemist : Science, Enigma, and the Quest for Nature's "Secret Fire"
by William Newman

2019, English
Hardcover (w. dust jacket), 560 pages, 15.5 x 23.5 cm
Published by Princeton University Press / New York

$55.00 - Out of stock

(more...)

(...less)

The book that finally demystifies Newton's experiments in alchemy.

When Isaac Newton's alchemical papers surfaced at a Sotheby's auction in 1936, the quantity and seeming incoherence of the manuscripts were shocking. No longer the exemplar of Enlightenment rationality, the legendary physicist suddenly became "the last of the magicians." Newton the Alchemist unlocks the secrets of Newton's alchemical quest, providing a radically new understanding of the uncommon genius who probed nature at its deepest levels in pursuit of empirical knowledge.

In this evocative and superbly written book, William Newman blends in-depth analysis of newly available texts with laboratory replications of Newton's actual experiments in alchemy. He does not justify Newton's alchemical research as part of a religious search for God in the physical world, nor does he argue that Newton studied alchemy to learn about gravitational attraction. Newman traces the evolution of Newton's alchemical ideas and practices over a span of more than three decades, showing how they proved fruitful in diverse scientific fields. A precise experimenter in the realm of "chymistry," Newton put the riddles of alchemy to the test in his lab. He also used ideas drawn from the alchemical texts to great effect in his optical experimentation. In his hands, alchemy was a tool for attaining the material benefits associated with the philosopher's stone and an instrument for acquiring scientific knowledge of the most sophisticated kind.

Newton the Alchemist provides rare insights into a man who was neither Enlightenment rationalist nor irrational magus, but rather an alchemist who sought through experiment and empiricism to alter nature at its very heart.

File under: William Newman Isaac Newton Princeton University Press / New York Theory / Essay Occult / Esoterica

The Illustrated Anthology of Sorcery, Magic and Alchemy
by Émile Grillot de Givry

1991, English
Hardcover (w. dust jacket), 394 pages, 29 x 23 cm
Out of print title / used / very good
Published by Zachary Kwinter / London

$65.00 - Out of stock

(more...)

(...less)

1991 edition of The Illustrated Anthology of Sorcery, Magic and Alchemy by noted scholar of the occult, Émile-Jules Grillot de Givry, first published in French in 1929 and in English in 1931 and again 1963. This reprint volume is published in the original size giving full value to the hundreds of illustrations. From raising the dead and foretelling the future to possession, curses, Kabbalah, alchemy, and more, this historical tour of the occult offers a captivating exploration of sorcery and ceremonial magic. Prepared by a noted French historian, it ventures into virtually all of the classical arts, with illustrations derived from paintings, illuminated manuscripts, sculpture, and architecture, as well as a vast body of literature that includes many rare and beautiful manuscripts from private collections.

Émile Jules Grillot called Émile-Jules Grillot de Givry (1874—1929) was a French Catholic man of letters and occultist, Freemason and pacifist, translator into French of numerous alchemical works including those of Paracelsus.

Very Good copy.

File under: Émile Grillot de Givry Zachary Kwinter / London Art Occult / Esoterica Out-of-print / Rare Ancient / Medieval / Gothic Ecology / Earth Health

The Source Family Scrapbook
By Isis Aquarian; Edited by Jodi Wille

2022, English
Hardcover, 200 pages, 29.5 x 27.5 cm

$95.00 - In stock -

(more...)

(...less)

FAMILY: THE SOURCE FAMILY SCRAPBOOK provides an immersive view into the public and private world of the Southern California occult commune The Brotherhood of the Source. This lavishly illustrated book reproduces 200 original scrapbook pages assembled by family historian Isis Aquarian from 1972-1977, documenting the group's dramatic rise and fall, from their time living together in the Hollywood Hills operating their wildly popular Source vegetarian restaurant on the Sunset Strip to their exodus to Hawaii and San Francisco as the group began to unravel. Copious unpublished photographs, newspaper clippings, letters, manifestos, album art and flyers, augmented by descriptive captions by Isis Aquarian, reveal the Source Family's astonishing trajectory, from controversial leader Father Yod's spiritual awakening to the group's wild musical and social experimentations, to the provocations that led to the group's paradise lost. These pages provide a revelatory, firsthand view into the widely misunderstood phenomenon of new religious movements and cults of the 1960s and 70s.

File under: The Source Family Father Yod Jodi Wille Isis Aquarian Sound / Music Performance / Dance / Theater Ecology Ecology / Earth Whole Earth / Crafts Counterculture Drugs / Psychedelia Animal Rights / Veganism Occult / Esoterica Sociology / Politics Photography

Revolutionary Demonology
by Gruppo di Nun; Forward by Amy Ireland

2023, English
Softcover, 345 pages, 20.8 x 14.8 cm
Published by Urbanomic / Cornwall

$45.00 - In stock -

(more...)

(...less)

The End Times are here. The Digital Middle Ages approaches, the plague reaps its deadly harvest, climate apocalypse is around the corner, and fanaticism, fascism, and madness are rampant.

The idea that we might gain the upper hand over the dark abyss into which the planet is tumbling is a form of magical thinking, labouring under the delusion that it can subdue eternity with relentless bloodlust, brutish exploitation, abuse of power, and violence. Revolutionary Demonology responds to this ritual of control, typical of what esoteric tradition calls the ‘Dogma of the Right Hand’, by instead reactivating the occult forces of a Left Hand Path that strives for the entropic disintegration of all creation, so as to make peace with the darkness and nourish the Great Beast that will finally break the seals of Cosmic Love.

Unpredictable and fascinating, genuinely bizarre, at times hallucinatory, sullying politics, philosophy, cybertheory, religion, and music alike with its fevered touch, this ‘anthology of occult resistance’ collects together the communiqués of an arcane group who are already being hailed as the first morbid blossoming of ‘Italian Weird Theory’: a rogue contingent of theorists, witches, and sorcerers who heretically remix gothic accelerationism with satanic occultism and insurrectional necromancy.

Foreward by Amy Ireland.

Gruppo di Nun is a collective of psycho-activists based in Italy, dedicated to organizing forms of covert resistance to heteropatriarchal dogma.
Amy Ireland is a theorist and experimental writer based in Melbourne, Australia.

File under: Amy Ireland Gruppo di Nun Urbanomic / Cornwall Philosophy Occult / Esoterica Sociology / Politics Theory / Essay

The Golem
Gustav Meyrink

1972, English
Softcover, 288 pages, 18.5 x 10.5 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / good
Published by Mudra / Prague—San Francisco

$35.00 - Out of stock

(more...)

(...less)

Lovely first 1972 English edition of Gustav Meyrink's gothic masterpiece The Golem, published by Mudra, Prague / San Francisco, with an afterword by poet and social activist, Jack Hirschman.

First published in serial form as Der Golem in the periodical Die weissen Blätter in 1913–14, The Golem, also known as the Satan from Prague, is a haunting Gothic tale of stolen identity and persecution, set in a strange underworld peopled by fantastical characters. The red-headed prostitute Rosina; the junk-dealer Aaron Wassertrum; puppeteers; street musicians; and a deaf-mute silhouette artist.

Lurking in its inhabitants’ subconscious is the Golem, a creature of rabbinical myth. Supposedly a manifestation of all the suffering of the ghetto, it comes to life every 33 years in a room without a door. When the jeweller Athanasius Pernath, suffering from broken dreams and amnesia, sees the Golem, he realises to his terror that the ghostly man of clay shares his own face...

The Golem, though rarely seen, is central to the novel as a representative of the ghetto's own spirit and consciousness, brought to life by the suffering and misery that its inhabitants have endured over the centuries. Perhaps the most memorable figure in the story is the city of Prague itself, recognisable through its landmarks such as the Street of the Alchemists and the Castle.

"A superbly atmospheric story set in the old Prague ghetto featuring The Golem, [...] this extraordinary book combines uncanny psychology of doppelganger stories with expressionism and more than a little melodrama... Meyrink's old Prague - like Dicken's London - is one of the great creations of City writing, an eerie, claustrophobic and fantastical underworld where anything can happen."—Phil Baker, The Sunday Times

Gustav Meyrink (1868—1932) was the pseudonym of Gustav Meyer, an Austrian author, novelist, dramatist, translator, and banker, most famous for his novel The Golem. He has been described as the "most respected German language writer in the field of supernatural fiction".

Good copy with heavy cover wear.

File under: Gustav Meyrink Jack Hirschman Mudra / Prague—San Francisco Weird / Speculative / Science Fiction Out-of-print / Rare Fiction / Poetry Occult / Esoterica

Treasury of Fantasy : Heroic Adventures in Imaginary Lands
Edited by Cary Wilkins

1981, English
Hardcover (w. dust jacket), 504 pages
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by Avenel Books / New York

$30.00 - In stock -

(more...)

(...less)

First 1981 hardcover edition of A Treasury of Fantasy: Heroic Adventures in Imaginary Lands, published in 1981, edited by Cary Wilkins. An anthology collecting eleven stories by William Morris, Mrs. Andrew Lang, Francisco de Moraes, Johann Ludwig Tieck, John Ruskin, George Mac Donald, Lord Dunsany, H.P. Lovecraft, Robert E. Howard, and Ursula K. Leguin. Illustrated throughout by various illustrators. Dust jacket illustration by Russ Hoover.

Very Good copy, Good dust jacket.

File under: Russ Hoover Ursula K. Le Guin Robert E. Howard H. P. Lovecraft Lord Dunsany John Ruskin William Morris George Mac Donald Johann Ludwig Tieck Francisco de Moraes Avenel Books / New York Weird / Speculative / Science Fiction Occult / Esoterica Out-of-print / Rare Fiction / Poetry

The Magus
by John Fowles

1974, English
Softcover, 567 pages, 19 x 13 cm
Out of print title / used / good
Published by Pan / London

$25.00 - Out of stock

(more...)

(...less)

1974 Pan paperback edition of John Fowles' The Magus, first published in 1966.

This daring literary thriller, rich with eroticism and suspense, is one of John Fowles's best-loved and bestselling novels and has contributed significantly to his international reputation as a writer of the first degree. At the center of The Magus is Nicholas Urfe, a young Englishman who accepts a teaching position on a remote Greek island, where he befriends a local millionaire. The friendship soon evolves into a deadly game, in which reality and fantasy are deliberately manipulated, and Nicholas finds that he must fight not only for his sanity but for his very survival.

Good copy, general wear and ageing.

File under: John Fowles Pan / London Weird / Speculative / Science Fiction Transgressive / Visceral / Abject Out-of-print / Rare Fiction / Poetry Occult / Esoterica

Body Exotica : Sexual Atrocity
by Masami Akita (Merzbow)

1993, Japanese
Hardcover (w. dust jacket and obi-strip), 230 pages, 13.6 cm x 19.4 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by Seikyūsha / Tokyo

$90.00 - In stock -

(more...)

(...less)

First hardcover edition of "Body Exotica : Sexual Atrocity", written by Merzbow's Masami Akita and published only in Japan in 1993. Covering subjects such as body manipulation and decoration, Japanese genital museums, German anarcho-pacifist Ernst Friedrich's Anti-War imagery, Daisy and Violet Hilton, amputee love, clothing and deformity, "freaks", fetishism, abnormal sex customs, corpse and medical photography, and much more, all with b/w illustrations, "Body Exotica : Sexual Atrocity" could be considered the sister book to Akita's "Terminal Body Play", issued the same year. Merzbow is a noise project created in Tokyo, Japan in 1979 under the direction of noise technician Masami Akita. As well as a legendary underground noise artist, Akita is a prolific writer in Japan and frequently writes on the arts, music, erotica, esoterica, modern architecture, and animal rights, with articles on emerging subcultures and underground extreme cultures appearing in publications like SM Sniper, Studio Voice and Fool's Mate. His development of the Merzbow aesthetic ran parallel with a series of investigative books in which he catalogued and introduced a vast amount of hermetic types of music, sexual practices and autonomous creativity to a fairly conservative (but not close-minded) Japanese audience. "Body Exotica" is one of these very books.

First edition, Japanese text, VG copy with VG "textured" and illustrated dust jacket and original publisher's obi-strip inserted (not-pictured).

File under: Masami Akita (Merzbow) Masami Akita (Merzbow) Seikyūsha / Tokyo Eros Ero Guro / Erotic / Grotesque Counterculture Art Transgressive / Visceral / Abject Occult / Esoterica Fetishism / BDSM LGBTQ+ Performance / Dance / Theater Theory / Essay Out-of-print / Rare

Lords of Chaos : The Bloody Rise of the Satanic Metal Underground
By Michael Moynihan & Didrik Søderlind

1998, English
Softcover, 385 pages, 15.24 x 22.86 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / average
Published by Feral House / Los Angeles

$35.00 - Out of stock

(more...)

(...less)

First edition of the definitive published account of Black Metal, published by Feral House in 1998. The Bloody Rise of the Black Metal Mafia Murder, suicide, occult sacrifices, church-burnings and fascism terrorism preoccupy the musicians and followers of Black Metal: a dark and psychotic version of heavy metal music. This extraordinary book penetrates the inner circle of the Black Metal leaders, reveals the truth behind the stories, and includes an interview with Varg Vikerness of the group Burzum, currently imprisoned for the murder of another Black Metal musician.

"With Lords of Chaos Michael Moynihan and Didrik Soderlind paint a portrait of a fantastic realm where Satanism, neo-paganism and National Socialism energized a musical scene in which fantasy was actualized in the burning of medieval churches in Norway ...a uniquely valuable history of Black Metal music in general and of the Norwegian scene in particular as it is viewed by the participants themselves. Lords of Chaos is a compelling work deserving of a wide readership on both sides of the Atlantic." -- Dr. Jeffrey Kaplan, author of Radical Religion in America.

Average—Good copy with considerable wear, creasing.

File under: Varg Vikerness (Burzum) Burzum Mayhem Black Sabbath Coven Black Widow Bathory Mercyful Fate Celtic Frost Sarcófago Hellhammer Venom Emperor Michael Moynihan Didrik Søderlind Anton LaVey Tomas "Samoth" Haugen Feral House / Los Angeles Sound / Music Out-of-print / Rare Art Counterculture Occult / Esoterica