World Food Books

The Adventures of Sweet Gwendoline
by John Willie

1974, English
Hardcover, 150 pages, 29 x 22 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by Belier Press / New York

$160.00 - Out of stock

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Rare 1974 hardcover volume published by Belier Press, New York, collecting in large format the illustrated comic strip stories of John Willie's iconic Sweet Gwendoline. A masterpiece of pioneering fetish illustration, Sweet Gwendoline follows a naïve, curvaceous blonde damsel in distress who repeatedly finds herself tied up, alongside Secret Agent U-89 and the villain Sir Dystic D'Arcy.Legacy, first serialized in Robert Harrison's girlie magazine Wink from June 1947 to February 1950, and became a cult classic and a major influence on modern fetish subculture and alternative comics. This first English edition was hugely popular and was later translated to French, German and Italian editions, and re–printed many times. The book opens with a foreword, biography, bibliography and John Willie correspondence, followed by the collected Sweet Gwendoline comic works, and a beautiful section to close of full–colour reproductions of John Willie's watercolour fetish works.

John Alexander Scott Coutts (1902–1962), better known by the pseudonym John Willie, was an artist, fetish photographer, cartoonist, specialty shoe designer, and the publisher and editor of the first 20 issues of the trail–blazing fetish magazine Bizarre. John Willie was not just a pivotal underground artist; he was a visionary who redefined the cultural boundaries of his time. Through Bizarre magazine and his creation of Sweet Gwendoline, he provided a space for people with unconventional desires to find community, expression, and acceptance in a society that often sought to repress them. His work balanced humor, fantasy, and artistry, pushing fetish culture into the limelight in a way that was both daring and sophisticated. His work has inspired countless artists ever since.

G–VG copy with tanning and foxing to block edges. First edition, fourth print.

File under: John Willie John Willie Belier Press / New York Fetishism / BDSM Illustration / Graphic Art / Bandes Dessinées Out-of-print / Rare Painting Counterculture Eros

OUT OF ACTIONS: Between Performance and The Object, 1949-1979
by Paul Schimmel

1998, English
Softcover, 408 pages, 31 x 22 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by Thames and Hudson / London

$55.00 - Out of stock

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First edition of Out of Actions: Between Performance and the Object, 1949-1979, edited by Paul Schimmel, published in 1998. with essays by Kristine Stiles, Guy Brett, Hubert Klocker, Shinichiro Osaki, and Paul Schimmel.

Published to coincide with the first major museum exhibition to examine the complex relationship linking the creative process, action or performance, and works of art in the postwar period. Featuring nearly one hundred and fifty artists and collaboratives from approximately twenty countries in Eastern and Western Europe, the Middle East, Asia, Japan, and North and South America—including figures associated with the New York School, Nouveaux Realistes, Fluxus, Viennese Actionists, Hi Red Center, Arte Povera, the Gutai group, happenings, process art, and performance art—the exhibition centered on how the possibilities and implications of using time and process as elements of art were realized by a number of international movements during this influential thirty-year period.

Covering three decades of significant and original art, this lavishly illustrated book features work by more than one hundred artists from across the world who have had a profound impact on the relationship between visual and performance art in the postwar era.

Includes the work of: Marina Abramović, Vito Acconci, Genpei Akasegawa, Laurie Anderson, Eleanor Antin, Rasheed Araeen, Mowry Baden, Artur Barrio, Jerzy Beres, Joseph Beuys, Mark Boyle & Joan Hills, George Brecht, Stuart Brisley, Robert Delford Brown, Rhett Delford Brown, Günter Brus, Chris Burden, James Lee Byars, John Cage, Marc Camille Chaimowicz, Lygia Clark, Pinchas Cohen Gan, Collective Action Group, Houston Conwill, Paul Cotton, COUM Transmissions, Guy de Cointet, Jim Dine, John Duncan, Felipe Ehrenberg, Roberto Evangelista, VALIE EXPORT, Robert Filliou, Rose Finn-Kelcey, Sherman Fleming, Lucio Fontana, Terry Fox, Howard Fried, Gideon Gechtman, Jochen Gerz, Gilbert & George, Alberto Greco, Ion Grigorescu, Victor Grippo, Red Grooms, Guerrilla Art Action Group, David Hammons, Al Hansen, Maren Hassinger, Lynn Hershman Leeson, Dick Higgins, Tatsumi Hijikata, Susan Hiller, Hi Red Center, Rebecca Horn, Tehching Hsieh, Joan Jonas, Kim Jones, Michel Journiac, Akira Kanayama, Tadeusz Kantor, Allan Kaprow, Mike Kelley, Jürgen Klauke, Yves Klein, Milan Knížák, Alison Knowles, Komar & Melamid, Jannis Kounellis, Shigeko Kubota, Tetsumi Kudo, Yayoi Kusama, Leslie Labowitz, Suzanne Lacy, John Latham, Jean-Jacques Lebel, Lea Lublin, George Maciunas, Leopoldo Maler, Piero Manzoni, Tom Marioni, Cusi Masuda, Georges Mathieu, Gordon Matta-Clark, Paul McCarthy, Bruce McLean, David Medalla, Cildo Meireles, Ana Mendieta, Gustav Metzger, Marta Minujín, Jan Mlčoch, Linda Montano, Charlotte Moorman, Robert Morris, Otto Muehl, Saburo Murakami, Natsuyuki Nakanishi, Bruce Nauman, Paul Neagu, Senga Nengudi, Joshua Neustein, Hermann Nitsch, Hélio Oiticica, Claes Oldenburg, Yoko Ono, Orlan, Raphael Montañez Ortiz, Lorenzo Pace, Nam June Paik, Gina Pane, Lygia Pape, Giuseppe Pinot Gallizio, Adrian Piper, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Jackson Pollock, William Pope.L, Robert Rauschenberg, Carlyle Reedy, Klaus Rinke, Ulrike Rosenbach, Dieter Roth, Zorka Ságlová, Niki de Saint Phalle, Alfons Schilling, Tomas Schmit, Carolee Schneemann, Rudolf Schwarzkogler, Bonnie Ora Sherk, Shōzō Shimamoto, Ushio Shinohara, Kazuo Shiraga, Barbara T. Smith, Daniel Spoerri, Petr Štembera, Wolfgang Stöerchle, Jirō Takamatsu, Atsuko Tanaka, Mark Thompson, Jean Tinguely, Rasa Todosijević, Kerry Trengove, Ulay, Ben Vautier, Wolf Vostell, Franz Erhard Walther, Peter Weibel, Franz West, Hannah Wilke, Emmett Williams, Zaj.

Their work encompasses sculpture, artists' publications, drawings, photographs, and the ephemera that arises from the performance, as well as documentary film and video stills.

Published in conjunction with a major touring exhibition organized by The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, Out of Actions illuminates the unique relationship between action, destruction, performance, and the creative process, in essays by acclaimed art historians. Covering an unprecedented range of material, the book offers the first critical comparisons of work that has previously been viewed as distinctly regional and unrelated.

With 450 illustrations, 200 in colour.

VG copy with light wear and "The Grid" written in red marker on the block side (?).

File under: Joseph Beuys Chris Burden John Cage Lygia Clark Yves Klein John Latham Bruce Nauman Hélio Oiticica Claes Oldenburg Yoko Ono Robert Rauschenberg Niki de Saint Phalle Carolee Schneemann Atsuko Tanaka Jean Tinguely Marina Abramovič Jerzy Bereś Zorka Saglova Raphael Montanez Ortiz Petr Stembera Wolfgang Stoerchle Rasa Todosijevic Vito Acconci Genpei Akasegawa Laurie Anderson Eleanor Antin Rasheed Araeen Mowry Baden Artur Barrio Mark Boyle & Joan Hills George Brecht Stuart Brisley Robert Delford Brown Rhett Delford Brown Günter Brus James Lee Byars Marc Camille Chaimowicz Pinchas Cohen Gan Collective Action Group Houston Conwill Paul Cotton COUM Transmissions Guy de Cointet Jim Dine John Duncan Felipe Ehrenberg Roberto Evangelista VALIE EXPORT Robert Filliou Rose Finn-Kelcey Sherman Fleming Lucio Fontana Terry Fox Howard Fried Gideon Gechtman Jochen Gerz Gilbert & George Alberto Greco Ion Grigorescu Victor Grippo Red Grooms Guerrilla Art Action Group David Hammons Al Hansen Maren Hassinger Lynn Hershman Leeson Dick Higgins Tatsumi Hijikata Susan Hiller Hi Red Center Rebecca Horn Tehching Hsieh Joan Jonas Kim Jones Michel Journiac Akira Kanayama Tadeusz Kantor Allan Kaprow Mike Kelley Jürgen Klauke Milan Knížák Alison Knowles Komar & Melamid Jannis Kounellis Shigeko Kubota Tetsumi Kudo Yayoi Kusama Leslie Labowitz Suzanne Lacy Jean-Jacques Lebel Lea Lublin George Maciunas Leopoldo Maler Piero Manzoni Tom Marioni Cusi Masuda Georges Mathieu Gordon Matta-Clark Paul McCarthy Bruce McLean David Medalla Cildo Meireles Ana Mendieta Gustav Metzger Marta Minujín Jan Mlčoch Linda Montano Charlotte Moorman Robert Morris Otto Muehl Saburo Murakami Natsuyuki Nakanishi Paul Neagu Senga Nengudi Joshua Neustein Hermann Nitsch Orlan Lorenzo Pace Nam June Paik Gina Pane Lygia Pape Giuseppe Pinot Gallizio Adrian Piper Michelangelo Pistoletto Jackson Pollock William Pope.L Carlyle Reedy Klaus Rinke Ulrike Rosenbach Dieter Roth Alfons Schilling Tomas Schmit Rudolf Schwarzkogler Bonnie Ora Sherk Shōzō Shimamoto Ushio Shinohara Kazuo Shiraga Barbara T. Smith Daniel Spoerri Jirō Takamatsu Mark Thompson Kerry Trengove Ulay Ben Vautier Wolf Vostell Franz Erhard Walther Peter Weibel Franz West Hannah Wilke Emmett Williams Zaj Paul Schimmel Kristine Stiles Guy Brett Hubert Klocker Shinichiro Osaki Thames and Hudson / London Group Shows / Collections Out-of-print / Rare Performance / Dance / Theater Transgressive / Visceral / Abject Sound / Music Fluxus Nouveau Réalisme / Zero / Kinetic Dada Art Sculpture / Installation Film / Video Conceptual Art Feminism Sociology / Politics Theory / Essay Painting Drawing

Pierre Klossowski

1991, Japanese
Hardcover (w. dust jacket and slipcase), 168 pages, 26 x 29.5 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by Libro Port Publishing Co. Ltd. / Tokyo

$160.00 - In stock -

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The incredible and rarely seen 1991 Japanese slipcased, hardcover edition of Jacques Henric's monographic volume on the great Pierre Klossowski. One of the most comprehensive books ever published on the artist, with beautiful large reproductions of artworks in colour and b/w heavily featured throughout, alongside Henric's text (here translated into Japanese from the original French) with a full catalogue of works and bibliography. First printing in original dust jacket, illustrated slipcase, beautifully printed in Italy and bound in Japan.

Jacques Henric (b. 1938) is a French literary critic, essayist and novelist.

Pierre Klossowski (1905-2001) was a significant and influential philosopher, writer, translator and artist who befriended Georges Bataille and formulated an original stance on many theological issues, as well as the philosophy of the Marquis de Sade. His first novel, Roberte, ce soir, appeared in 1954 as a limited edition containing six of his own erotic illustrations, after he rejected drawings by his younger brother, the painter Balthus. Following the encouragement of Robert Lebel, Andre Masson and Alberto Giacometti, Klossowski held his first exhibition in Paris in 1956, and subsequently produced numerous life-size drawings of erotic scenes imbued with mythological, allegorical and philosophical connotations. By the 1970s, he had won the acclaim of such eminent thinkers as Maurice Blanchot, Michel Butor, Gilles Deleuze, Michel Foucault and Felix Guattari. Of Klossowski, Gilles Deleuze once said, "That bodies speak has been known for a long time."

Fine As New copy of book and dj, preserved in Good slipcase with some wear and bumps.

File under: Pierre Klossowski Jacques Henric Pierre Klossowski Libro Port Publishing Co. Ltd. / Tokyo Painting Eros Drawing Art Out-of-print / Rare

Give My Regards To Eighth Street : Collected Writings of Morton Feldman
by Morton Feldman

2004, English
Softcover, 221 pages, 15.2 x 20.3 cm
Published by Exact Change / Boston

$32.00 - In stock -

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Morton Feldman wrote as he composed music, carefully placing one element after another, producing some of the avant-garde's most lucid considerations of what it means to make music

Morton Feldman (1926-87) is among the most influential American composers of the 20th century, a man whose music is known for its extreme quiet and delicate beauty (while Feldman himself was famously large and loud). Karlheinz Stockhausen once asked the composer what his secret was: I don't push the sounds around, Feldman replied. His writings resemble his music in their quiet steadiness, their oscillations between assertion and doubt. They are also funny and illuminating, not only about his own music but about the entire New York School of painters, poets and composers that coalesced in the 1950s, including Feldman's friends Jackson Pollock, Philip Guston, Mark Rothko, Robert Rauschenberg, Frank O'Hara and John Cage. Give My Regards to Eighth Street is an authoritative collection of Feldman's writings, culled from published articles, program notes, LP liners, lectures, interviews and unpublished writings. It is one of those rare books from which anyone can draw inspiration, no matter what the vocation or discipline.

Edited by B H Friedman

File under: Morton Feldman Exact Change / Boston Art Sound / Music Theory / Essay Painting

Toshio Saeki
Picture Scroll of Pathos (signed)

2004, Japanese
Hardcover (w. slipcase), 48 pages, 27 x 19 cm
Signed and numbered edition,
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by Seirin Kogeisha / Tokyo

$320.00 - In stock -

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Very rare first Japanese edition of Picture Scroll of Pathos by ero-guro master Toshio Saeki (1945—2019), limited to only 1000 copies, numbered and this special copy signed by Saeki inside the cover! A gorgeous and rarely seen collection of Saeki's early manga works and picture stories that were originally published in the early 70's and thought to be lost, here reproduced impeccably in black and white with stunning multi-panel colour fold-out spreads. Hardcover bound in illustrated slipcase. Most complete.

Toshio Saeki (1945—2019) was an illusive Japanese illustrator and painter, and icon of 1970s Tokyo counterculture, known for combining Japanese folklore, Yōkai spirits and elements of Western art with his own sophisticated aesthetics to create a unique, sensational world of eros, dark humour, and horror. Given the title “Erotic Engineer” by Timothy Leary, Saeki's provocative art broke all sexual taboos, questioned Japanese ideology and traditional views on love, desire and gender roles. Saeki’s surgically-precise graphic work is closely related to the Japanese cultural phenomenon ‘Erotic, Grotesque, Nonsense’ (ero, guro, nansensu).

“Toshio Saeki conjures death with a pen”—Shūji Terayama, 1969.

Fine copy with Fine dj, slipcase. Signed in bold silver pen by Saeki.

File under: Toshio Saeki Seirin Kogeisha / Tokyo Eros Ero Guro / Erotic / Grotesque Illustration / Graphic Art / Bandes Dessinées Drawing Painting Art Art Brut / Folk / Visionary / Fantastic Fetishism / BDSM Out-of-print / Rare Signed Books Transgressive / Visceral / Abject

Toshio Saeki
The Earliest Works of Toshio Saeki (signed)

2002, Japanese
Hardcover in slipcase w. illustrated paste-on, unpaginated, 21.5 x 15 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / fine
Published by Seirin Kogeisha / Tokyo

$380.00 - In stock -

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Signed copy of the first, limited, number-stamped edition of "The Earliest Works of Toshio Saeki" by the Japanese master of Ero guro, published by Seirin-Kogei-Sha in 2002 and long out-of-print. Before Saeki worked in his later palette of bright flat colours, he expressed the darker and more chaotic aspects of unbridled eroticism in stark black and white, with the occasional and dramatic splash of a single primary colour. In this lavishly illustrated book, Saeki's disturbing iconography reveals links to the past and simultaneously indicates the even more bizarre twists his work would take in the future. The Earliest Works also shows the early inspirations of Toshio Saeki, Tomi Ungerer's effect being a most clear one. Broken into three chapters: Earliest Works, Uncollected Works, and Unpublished Studies from 1969, the book also includes a chronological record and notes by Yuji Yamashita. An incredible book! Signed by Saeki in metallic silver to inside cover.

Toshio Saeki (1945—2019) was an illusive Japanese illustrator and painter, and icon of 1970s Tokyo counterculture, known for combining Japanese folklore, Yōkai spirits and elements of Western art with his own sophisticated aesthetics to create a unique, sensational world of eros, dark humour, and horror. Given the title “Erotic Engineer” by Timothy Leary, Saeki's provocative art broke all sexual taboos, questioned Japanese ideology and traditional views on love, desire and gender roles. Saeki’s surgically-precise graphic work is closely related to the Japanese cultural phenomenon ‘Erotic, Grotesque, Nonsense’ (ero, guro, nansensu).

“Toshio Saeki conjures death with a pen”—Shūji Terayama, 1969.

Perfect fine hardcover copy housed in fine slipcase, beautifully preserved.

File under: Toshio Saeki Seirin Kogeisha / Tokyo Signed Books Illustration / Graphic Art / Bandes Dessinées Painting Drawing Art Out-of-print / Rare Transgressive / Visceral / Abject Fetishism / BDSM Ero Guro / Erotic / Grotesque Eros Art Brut / Folk / Visionary / Fantastic

Nancy Grossman

1991, English
Softcover, 143 pages, 27 x 27 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by Hillwood Art Gallery / New York

$100.00 - Out of stock

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First edition of this monographic book on the incredible work of American artist, Nancy Grossman. Grossman is best known for her wood and leather heads, using the leather, as well as straps, zippers, and string, to create sculptures that appear bound and restrained. She describes her work as autobiographical, and while others have reviewed her work as seemingly sexual and reminiscent of sadism and masochism, Grossman says her work challenges the ideas of gender identity and gender fluidity and refer to her "bondage in childhood". She is also well known for her mixed-media wall assemblages, drawings, collages and paintings, all of which are illustrated throughout this catalogue of her work from the late 1960s-early 1990s. Produced to accompany the first comprehensive survey of Grossman's extensive provocative career that opened at the Hillwood Art Museum in 1991, this book also features texts throughout by feminist art historian, author, critic, educator, curator and co-founder of the Feminist Studio Workshop, Arlene Raven.

Good—VG copy. Some general wear.

File under: Nancy Grossman Arlene Raven Hillwood Art Gallery / New York Art Drawing Feminism Out-of-print / Rare Sculpture / Installation Fetishism / BDSM Painting

Francis Picabia
1999/2000 + 391

1999, English / French / Japanese
Softcover (2 Vols in curregated cardboard slip-case), 226 + 120 pages, 18 x 25 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by APT International / Tokyo Isetan Museum of Art / Tokyo

$150.00 - In stock -

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First Edition of this long out-of-print, comprehensive, beautifully produced Japanese two-volume publication on the life and work of the great French avant-garde painter, poet and typographist, Francis Picabia.

Published by APT International in 1999 for a major Japanese travelling exhibition on Francis Picabia, starting at the Isetan Museum of Art in Tokyo in 1999, then to Fukushima and Osaka throughout 1999-2000.

Two Volumes bound in french-fold wraps, both housed in protective corrugated cardboard slip-case with scarlet label wrapped around spine. Slipcase itself is now protected under plastic sleeve.

First volume (226 page) forms a comprehensive retrospective of Picabia's life and prolific and defying work across painting, drawing, printing, poetry and film. Extensive colour and b&w reproductions of a vast collection of his painting, illustration and publishing projects are presented alongside a folio of his poems and drawings, plus photo documentation of his studio and private/social life. Also includes a biography and bibliography, as well as an insightful conversation between Olga Picabia (Francis Picabia's widow), Pierre Calté (director of Comité Picabia), Hans Ulrich Obrist (independent curator) and Stefan Banz (independent curator), about Picabia's life (text in English and Japanese). Introductory essays in Japanese and French by Beverley Calte and Arnauld Pierre.

Second volume (120 pages) "391" is a very special book made up of collated facsimiles of the 19 issues of Picabia's famous Dada periodical, "391", dating 1917-1924. 391 first appeared in January 1917 in Barcelona, published and edited by Picabia, assisted in assembling by Olga Sacharoff, a Georgian emigre residing in Barcelona. The title of the magazine derives from Alfred Stieglitz's New York periodical 291 (to which Picabia had contributed), and bore no relation to its contents. Despite Picabia's renown as an artist, it was mostly literary in content, with a wide-ranging aggressive tone, possibly influenced by Alfred Jarry and Apollinaire. There were contributions by two men new to Dada: Man Ray and Marcel Duchamp. However 391 remained essentially the expression of the inventive, energetic and wealthy Picabia, who stated of it: "Every page must explode, whether through seriousness, profundity, turbulence, nausea, the new, the eternal, annihilating nonsense, enthusiasm for principles, or the way it is printed. Art must be unaesthetic in the extreme, useless and impossible to justify."

Francis Picabia (22 January 1879 – 30 November 1953) was a French avant-garde painter, poet and typographist. After experimenting with Impressionism and pointillism, Picabia became associated with Cubism. His highly abstract planar compositions were colourful and rich in contrasts. He was one of the early major figures of the Dada movement in the United States and in France. His was later briefly associated with Surrealism, but would soon turn his back on the art establishment.

Very Good copy in Good slipcase that has discoloured with sun-tanning to spine, corregation has some wear. Books VG both.

File under: Francis Picabia Man Ray Marcel Duchamp Arnauld Pierre Beverley Calte Francis Picabia Hans Ulrich Obrist Stefan Banz APT International / Tokyo Isetan Museum of Art / Tokyo Art Dada Out-of-print / Rare Painting Drawing Surrealism Fiction / Poetry

Francis Picabia
Éternel recommencement / Eternal Beginning

2025, English / French
Hardcover (clothbound), 224 pages, 29.5 x 25 cm
Published by Hauser & Wirth / Zurich

$110.00 - In stock -

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Documenting the great, late, neglected work of a modernist master.

Prefaced by Beverley Calté, president of the Comité Picabia, this book delves into Picabia’s practice between the years 1945 to 1952—an incredibly rich period during which Picabia created paintings unlike anything he had produced before, working alongside the growing Art Informel movement in Paris.

Essays by art historians Arnauld Pierre and Candace Clements shed new light on the hidden signs and symbols buried in his abstractions, the new painting techniques he employed, and the mysterious and fantastical reappearance of the “dot” in his work.

'Éternel recommencement / Eternal Beginning' is an essential resource, marking the first focused exploration of a crucial chapter of Picabia’s practice.

File under: Francis Picabia Francis Picabia Beverley Calté Arnauld Pierre Candace Clements Hauser & Wirth / Zurich Painting Dada Drawing Art

Man Ray
To create is divine

2026, English
Hardcover, 460 pages, 26.1 x 19.9 cm
Published by Larkin Erdmann Gallery / Zürich Walther König / Köln

$115.00 - In stock -

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This most comprehensive overview of Man Ray's art and life to date features around 150 works, each discussed in detail and fully catalogued. This book on Man Ray brings together works by the artist that range in date from his high school years to works made a few years before his death in 1976. Each work reproduced is discussed in a text by Francis M. Naumann, renowned expert on the work of Marcel Duchamp and Man Ray, and fully catalogued by Andrew Strauss, director of the Man Ray Expertise Committee in Paris. Together with colour photographs by Eric Lehmann of Man Ray's studio on the Rue Ferou in Paris, the book reflects the enjoyment and endless creativity of the famous surrealist.

Edited by Larkin Erdmann.

File under: Eric Lehmann Man Ray Marcel Duchamp Francis M. Naumann Andrew Strauss Larkin Erdmann Larkin Erdmann Gallery / Zürich Walther König / Köln Surrealism Art Sculpture / Installation Painting Drawing Dada

Rosemarie Trockel

2026, English
Softcover, 276 pages, 27.9 x 22.2 cm
Published by Walther König / Köln

$145.00 - In stock -

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Edited with text by Susanne Pfeffer. Text by Valeria Gordeev, Quinn Latimer, Christoph Menke, Cord Riechelmann, Ann-Charlotte Gunzel.

From “knitting pictures” to upside down palm trees and mannequin heads in glass boxes, Trockel’s caustic oeuvre defies classification.

Finally here, the enormous MMK catalogue! German multimedia artist Rosemarie Trockel rose to fame in the 1980s with her “knitting pictures” made with industrial weaving machines. In 1999 she was the first woman to exhibit at the German Pavilion at the Venice Biennale. The brutality and absurdity of normative regimes emerge openly in the work of Rosemarie Trockel. Definitions, restrictions, paternalism, and violence due to gender become visible and transparent. Her advance is a risky, courageous, combative, and humorous one. In all media—drawing and painting, photography, sculpture, installation, and film—Trockel’s sociological gaze is as much directed at social regimes and political structures as it is at nature. Her observations and studies of processionary caterpillars, starlings, chickens, or lice, while scientifically sound and precise, always include her own critical gaze as a vital component. She appropriates the ambivalences in her work, capturing them decidedly.

The comprehensive exhibition and catalogue displays works from all periods of Rosemarie Trockel’s oeuvre, from the 1970s to the new works created especially for the Museum für Moderne Kunst in Frankfurt.

File under: Rosemarie Trockel Susanne Pfeffer Valeria Gordeev Quinn Latimer Christoph Menke Cord Riechelmann Ann-Charlotte Gunzel Walther König / Köln Sculpture / Installation Art Painting Drawing Collage / Mail Art / Xerox Art Film / Video Photography Conceptual Art

Rosemarie Trockel
Post Menopause

2005, English / German
Softcover (w. folded poster dust-jacket), 192 pages, 22.5 x 27 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by Walther König / Köln

$320.00 - Out of stock

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Rare 2006 edition (w. original fold-out dust-jacket poster) of Rosemarie Trockel's Post Menopause catalogue (raisonné), published on the occasion of the major 2005—2006 exhibition Rosemarie Trockel: Menopause, at the Museum Ludwig, Köln, and MAXXI-Museo nazionale delle arti del XXI secolo, Rome.

This wonderful, major survey disappeared from print very fast, quickly becoming a valuable item in the mid-2000s. A catalogue raisonné of sorts, collecting Rosemarie Trockel's work from 1980—2005 (sculpture, wool works, drawings, publications, garments, photography, video — including many very rarely seen objects), Post Menopause remains one the best, most comprehensive, and Trockel-esque books produced on one of Germany's most important and influential conceptual artists. Not surprisingly, since Post Menopause was realised in close collaboration between Trockel herself with Museum Ludwig curator Barbara Engelbach, and designed by her regular design collaborator, and sometimes muse, the great graphic designer Yvonne Quirmbach. Extensive chronological cataloguing of all works, biography, bibliography, and bilingual (English and German) essays by Brigid Doherty, Silvia Eiblmayr, Barbara Engelbach, Kasper König, and Gregory Williams.

A highly recommended and invaluable resource on the artist.

Rosemarie Trockel (*1952) is widely regarded as one of the most important and influential conceptual artists in Germany. Her sculptures, collages, ceramics, knitted works, drawings and photographs are noted for their subtle social critique and range of subversive, aesthetic strategies—including the reinterpretation of “feminine” techniques, the ironic shifting of cultural codes, a delight in paradox, and a refusal to conform to the commercial and institutional ideologies of the art system.

VG/VG.

File under: Rosemarie Trockel Barbara Engelbach Brigid Doherty Gregory Williams Silvia Eiblmayr Walther König / Köln Art Out-of-print / Rare Sculpture / Installation Painting Photography Drawing Conceptual Art Film / Video

The Originality of the Avant-garde and Other Modernist Myths
by Rosalind E. Krauss

1986, English
Softcover, 319 pages, 175 x 229 mm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by The MIT Press / Massachusetts

$45.00 - Out of stock

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Co-founder and co-editor of October magazine, a veteran of Artforum of the 1960s and early 1970s, Rosalind Krauss has presided over and shared in the major formulation of the theory of postmodernism. In this challenging collection of fifteen essays, most of which originally appeared in October, she explores the ways in which the break in style that produced postmodernism has forced a change in our various understandings of twentieth-century art, beginning with the almost mythic idea of the avant-garde. Krauss uses the analytical tools of semiology, structuralism, and poststructuralism to reveal new meanings in the visual arts and to critique the way other prominent practitioners of art and literary history write about art. In two sections, "Modernist Myths" and "Toward Postmodernism," her essays range from the problem of the grid in painting and the unity of Giacometti's sculpture to the works of Jackson Pollock, Sol Lewitt, and Richard Serra, and observations about major trends in contemporary literary criticism.

Rosalind E. Krauss, University Professor at Columbia University and an editor and cofounder of October magazine, is the author of The Originality of the Avant-Garde and Other Modernist Myths (1985), The Optical Unconscious (1993), The Picasso Papers (1999), and Bachelors (1999), all published by the MIT Press, and coauthor (with Yve-Alain Bois) of Formless: A User's Guide (Zone Books, 1997).

"All of her observations are unfailingly original and provocative."—Art Documentation

Very Good copy of original 1986 edition, 1993 printing.

File under: Jackson Pollock Richard Serra Sol Lewitt Agnes Martin Marcel Duchamp Pablo Picasso Piet Mondrian Man Ray Robert Ryman Caspar David Friedrich Eugene Atget Auguste Rodin Gordon Matta-Clark Alberto Giacometti Max Ernst Rosalind E. Krauss The MIT Press / Massachusetts Art Sculpture / Installation Theory / Essay Out-of-print / Rare Painting Photography Minimal Art Conceptual Art Dada Surrealism

Pierre Klossowski
Retrospective 1950-1990

1990, French
Hardcover (clothbound w. dust jacket), 288 pages, 24 x 21 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by Centre National Des Arts Plastiques / Paris

$220.00 - Out of stock

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First beautiful hardcover edition of the comprehensive Pierre Klossowski catalogue raisonné published on the occasion of the major retrospective exhibition of his work held in Paris in 1990-1991 at CNAP. Profusely illustrated in colour and b/w with Klossowski's wonderful works, texts throughout by Catherine Grenier, Bernard Blistene, Claude Ritschard, Pascal Bonitzer, Marie-Dominique Wicker, Franco Cagnetta, André Masson, and Pierre Zucca (in French), a densely illustrated catalogue raisonné spanning his work dated 1952/53 through to 1990 (many not seen elsewhere), biography, exhibition history, and much more. Still the most in-depth book on Klossowski's oeuvre to date.

Pierre Klossowski (1905-2001) was a significant and influential philosopher, writer, translator and artist who befriended Georges Bataille and formulated an original stance on many theological issues, as well as the philosophy of the Marquis de Sade. His first novel, Roberte, ce soir, appeared in 1954 as a limited edition containing six of his own erotic illustrations, after he rejected drawings by his younger brother, the painter Balthus. Following the encouragement of Robert Lebel, Andre Masson and Alberto Giacometti, Klossowski held his first exhibition in Paris in 1956, and subsequently produced numerous life-size drawings of erotic scenes imbued with mythological, allegorical and philosophical connotations. By the 1970s, he had won the acclaim of such eminent thinkers as Maurice Blanchot, Michel Butor, Gilles Deleuze, Michel Foucault and Felix Guattari. Of Klossowski, Gilles Deleuze once said, "That bodies speak has been known for a long time."

Very Good in Very Good dust jacket with some tanning lines.

File under: Pierre Klossowski Catherine Grenier Bernard Blistene Claude Ritschard Pascal Bonitzer Marie-Dominique Wicker Franco Cagnetta André Masson Pierre Zucca Centre National Des Arts Plastiques / Paris Eros Drawing Painting Art Theory / Essay Out-of-print / Rare

Paul Thek
Artist's Artist

2009, English
Hardcover, 550 pages, 22 x 28 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / good
Published by The MIT Press / Massachusetts

$400.00 - Out of stock

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First edition of the scarce, highly sought after, and most comprehensive book ever published on American artist Paul Thek, published in 2009 by MIT Press. Edited by Harald Falckenberg and Peter Weibel, this enormous 550 page monograph contains more than 300 works by this groundbreaking artist, documenting his journey from legendary outsider to central figure in many contemporary art movements.

Paul Thek occupied a place between high art and low art, between the epic and the everyday. During his brief life (1933-1988), he went against the grain of art world trends, humanizing the institutional spaces of art with the force of his humor, spirituality, and character. Twenty years after Thek's death from AIDS, we can now recognize his influence on contemporary artists ranging from Vito Acconci and Bruce Nauman to Matthew Barney, Mike Kelley, and Paul McCarthy, as well as Kai Althoff, Jonathan Meese, and Thomas Hirschhorn. This book brings together more than 300 of Thek's works—many of which are published here for the first time—to offer the most comprehensive display of his work yet seen. The book, which accompanies an exhibition at ZKM ? Museum of Contemporary Art presenting Thek's work in dialogue with contemporary art by young artists, includes painting, sculpture, drawing, and installation work, as well as photographs documenting the room-size environments into which Thek incorporated elements from art, literature, theater, and religion. These works chart Thek's journey from legendary outsider to foundational figure in contemporary art. In their antiheroic diversity, Thek's works embody the art revolution of the 1960s; indeed, Susan Sontag dedicated her classic Against Interpretation to him. Thek's treatment of the body in such works as “Technological Reliquaries,” with their castings and replicas of human body parts, tissue, and bones, both evoke the aura of Christian relics and anticipate the work of Damien Hirst. The book, with more than 500 images (300 in colour) and nineteen essays by art historians, curators, collectors, and artists, investigates Thek's work on its own terms, and as a starting point for understanding the work of the many younger artists Thek has influenced.

Essays by Jean-Christophe Ammann, Margrit Brehm, Bazon Brock, Suzanne Delehanty, Harald Falckenberg, Marietta Franke, Stefan Germer, Kim Gordon, Roland Groenenboom, Axel Heil, Gregor Jansen, Mike Kelley, John Miller, Susanne Neubauer, Kenny Schachter, Harald Szeemann, Annette Tietenberg, Peter Weibel, Ann Wilson.

Good copy with heavy tanning to spine and covers (esp. fluro spot colour), some bumping to cover corners, light page edge tanning. Internally Very Good, clean throughout.

File under: Paul Thek Harald Falckenberg Peter Weibel Jean-Christophe Ammann Margrit Brehm Bazon Brock Suzanne Delehanty Marietta Franke Stefan Germer Kim Gordon Roland Groenenboom Axel Heil Gregor Jansen Mike Kelley John Miller Susanne Neubauer Kenny Schachter Harald Szeemann Annette Tietenberg Ann Wilson The MIT Press / Massachusetts Arte Povera Sculpture / Installation Out-of-print / Rare Painting Drawing Performance / Dance / Theater Art Art Brut / Folk / Visionary / Fantastic

Hans Bellmer: The Anatomy of Anxiety
by Sue Taylor

2002, English
Softcover, 310 pages, 23 x 18 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by The MIT Press / Massachusetts

$110.00 - In stock -

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First 2002 paperback edition of this out-of-print study on Bellmer.

"The German-born surrealist Hans Bellmer (1902-1975), best known for his life-size pubescent dolls, devoted an artistic lifetime to creating sexualized images of the female body-distorted, dismembered, or menaced in sinister scenarios. In this book Sue Taylor draws on psychoanalytic theory to suggest why Bellmer was so driven by erotomania as well as a desire for revenge, suffering, and the safety of the womb. Tracing a repressed homoerotic attachment to his father, castration anxiety, and an unconscious sense of guilt, Taylor proposes that a feminine identification informs all the disquieting aspects of Bellmer's art.

Most scholarship to date has focused on Bellmer's work of the 1930s, especially the infamous dolls and the photographs he made of them. Taylor extends her discussion to the sexually explicit prints, drawings, paintings, and photographs he produced throughout the ensuing three decades. The book includes a color frontispiece and 121 black-and-white images (eight published here for the first time), as well as appendixes containing several significant texts by Bellmer previously unavailable in English.

Sue Taylor is Assistant Professor of Art History at Portland State University, Oregon.

"While ultimately subscribing to the conventional wisdom that the misogynist implications of Bellmer's many sinister images can never be altogether dismissed, [Taylor] insists that we look beyond their manifest content towards their latent meanings. Her tone and method is thus a long way from the punitive... literalism and crudity of much Bellmer criticism."—R. S. Short, Times Literary Supplement

"An impressive book by any standards. Every page displays intelligence, erudition and visual acuity."—Metapsychology

VG copy, light edge wear, faint edge tanning.

File under: Hans Bellmer Sue Taylor The MIT Press / Massachusetts Eros Gender Studies / Sexuality Out-of-print / Rare Surrealism Sculpture / Installation Photography Transgressive / Visceral / Abject Fetishism / BDSM Painting

The Exhibition Catalogues of Austin Osman Spare: A Handbook for Collectors
Edited and compiled by Robert Ansell

2012, English
Hardcover (w. dust jacket), 318 pages, 22 x 16 cm
Ed. of 700,
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / fine
Published by Fulgur Press / UK

$390.00 - In stock -

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Rare copy of the quickly out-of–print During the Exhibition Catalogues of Austin O. Spare, published by Fulgur Press. First hardcover edition, limited to 700 copies.

Over the course of his creative life Spare produced more than 2000 drawings, watercolours and pastels. His exhibitions ranged from the fashionable West End of Edwardian London, to the earthy characterful taverns of post-War Southwark. This volume gathers together his very rare exhibition catalogues: from his first show at the Bruton Galleries in 1907, to his last at the Archer Gallery in 1955. These facsimiles present a wealth of scarce information, including:

Commentaries by Austin Spare.
Essays from Kenneth Grant, Dennis Bardens, Grace E. Rogers, John Smith, Oswell Blakeston, G.S. Sandilands and others.
Lists of pictures exhibited, each with a catalogue number, often with prices.
Dates and locations for his shows.

These facsimiles are illustrated with more than eighty pages of colour plates, carefully selected to represent the evolution of Spare’s work between 1902-1956, and his various styles throughout the period.

The original catalogues are also augmented with an introduction by Robert Ansell and several useful appendices, including:

Signatures and Monograms of the artist, 1902-1956
Notes on Framing by Austin O. Spare (1947)
Inventory of Pictures at 5 Wynne Road, 1956
Decorated Objects
Exhibition Invitation Cards
Hand out for the Guinea Exhibition (1932)

There is also a comprehensive index, which lists alphabetically nearly 2000 picture titles for Spare’s output 1907-1955, denoting exhibition, date and catalogue number.

This substantial volume represents an invaluable and essential resource for collectors of his work.

Austin Osman Spare (1886-1956) is one of the most influential and innovative figures in twentieth century occultism. A natural artist and psychic, Spare’s explorations of the creative focus gave rise to an ontology and body of work that departs radically from conventional occultism, both then and now. Ahead of his time, he was dismissed by Crowley early in his career, but found appreciation and understanding with the next generation, who embraced his ideas with alacrity.

Fine copy in NF dust jacket.

File under: Austin Osman Spare Austin Osman Spare Kenneth Grant Dennis Bardens Grace E. Rogers John Smith Oswell Blakeston G.S. Sandilands Robert Ansell Fulgur Press / UK Occult / Esoterica Painting Weird / Speculative / Science Fiction Out-of-print / Rare Art Drawing Eros

BISHOPS PUMP, vol.3 - MIA FARROW & ANDRÉ PREVIN. Bonus 6 Page Predella
by Victor Boullet

2025, English
Softcover (staple–bound), 20 pages, 21 x 15 cm
Published by Vvery Negative Gucci Production / London

$20.00 - In stock -

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BISHOPS PUMP, vol.3 - MIA FARROW & ANDRÉ PREVIN is a 20-page fanzine / artist publication created by artist Victor Boullet. Designed by Texas Knüller and produced by Vvery Negative, the publication was launched at NAP Contemporary, Australia on the occasion of the group exhibition 'The Elephant Table Exhibition', 2025, featuring Victor Boullet, Grace Anderson, Suzanne Archer, Christine Burgon, Josey Kidd-Crowe, Zoë Marni Robertson. The zine builds upon Boullet's suite of oil paintings titled "The Sgombro Predella of Mia Farrow and André Previn."

Victor Boullet (b. 1969, Oslo, Norway) lives and works between London and Oslo. He has held solo exhibitions at The Artist Room, London, (2024), Lubov, New York (2023); Gallery Castle, Los Angeles (2022); Anna Bohman Gallery, Stockholm (2019); La Collection Moderne, Oslo (2015); and Galerie Joseph Tang, Paris (2014). Group exhibitions include IN THESE GREAT TIMES (Kunstnernes Hus, Oslo), You Only Live Thrice (Malmö Konsthall), and Shaynaynay (Galerie Kamm, Berlin). His work has been featured in Frieze, Artforum, ArtReview, and Omkonst, and he is the recipient of numerous European grants.

File under: Victor Boullet Vvery Negative Gucci Production / London Art Painting

David Medalla
Parables of Friendship

2022, English / German
Softcover, 272 pages, 33 x 22 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by Museion / Bolzano Bonner Kunstverein / Bonn Walther König / Köln

$60.00 - In stock -

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This volume accompanies a major survey of work by Filipino artist, political activist and and pioneer of kinetic art David Medalla (1938–2020). The publication brings together previous unpublished writings of Medalla, interviews with the artists, alongside contributions by writers and academics including Purissima Benitez-Johannot, Eva Bentheva, Gavin Jantjets, David Morris, Rasheed Araeen, amongst others along with visual material from the Medalla archives, the archive of art historian Guy Brett and David Medalla.

Curated by Steven Cairns and Fatima Hellberg and presented by Museion together with the Bonner Kunstverein, and in close collaboration with the David Medalla Archive in Berlin, Parables of Friendship recounts the vital legacy, spirit, energy and radical nature of the artist’s work. Drawings, paintings, collages, sculptures, neon, kinetic and participatory artworks, and performances produced in a career spanning over seventy years.

Medalla’s work, characterized by an unbridled freedom of expression, explores the possibilities of exchange and intersection between art and life, mixing major contemporary themes such as ecology, cultural identity, sexuality and work ethics, with no concern whatsoever for the compartmentalisation that society imposes. A dandy and traveler, after arriving in Marseille from Manila, in the 1960s Medalla lived in London, Paris, Venice, Berlin, New York and Manila, including his experiences of travel and transition in his work, that is often ephemeral, transient and made from found materials, that further indicate the free spirit of his art.

Strongly influenced by 19th and 20th century European art and literature, and an active figure in Swinging London, Medalla was instrumental in the brief but pioneering experience of London’s Signals Gallery (1962-64), the experimental performance collective, The Exploding Galaxy (1967-68) and the politically engaged, Artists for Democracy, of which he was president (1974-1977). In collaboration with the artist Adam Nankervis (1994) he founded The Mondrian Fan Club and the London Biennale (2000), where processes of collaboration and exchange continued to take center stage.

As the title suggests, Parables of Friendship comprises both social engagement and transcendence, the two main characteristics of Medalla’s art. The diversity of his tireless production and his continuous search for connections reveal a search for the “oneness of the whole” through differences, and a deeply experiential and sentimental relationship with being. His work reflects paradoxes and traumas that are part of cultural identity, an identity that for him remains a multi-temporal and multi-directional process.

Editors: Steven Cairns, Fatima Hellberg and Bart van der Heide.

VG copy, light wear.

File under: David Medalla Steven Cairns Fatima Hellberg Bart van der Heide David Medalla Purissima Benitez-Johannot Eva Bentheva Gavin Jantjets David Morris Rasheed Araeen Museion / Bolzano Bonner Kunstverein / Bonn Walther König / Köln Art Sociology / Politics Collage / Mail Art / Xerox Art Painting Drawing Out-of-print / Rare

Lars Fredrikson

2019, English / French
Softcover (w. CD), 288 pages, 27 x 21 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / good
Published by Mousse / Milan

$50.00 - In stock -

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“If one were to highlight one single trait traversing Fredrikson’s entire work, it would perhaps be this dangerous and productive challenge: the absolute singularity of the invention / intervention, the extreme attentiveness and the avoidance of repetition; an intense tension . . . where ‘he nothing / the hand passes’ and ‘space is a sentence reassembled by the point.’”—Jonas Magnusson

Published on the occasion of Lars Fredrikson’s retrospective exhibition at the Musée d’Art Moderne et d’Art Contemporain in Nice, organized in collaboration with the Nouveau Musée National de Monaco and the artist’s son, this book is the first monograph dedicated to the radical Swedish painter, draftsman, sculptor, and precursor of sound art (1926–1997). Over his long career the artist produced a vast and multidisciplinary corpus of works that aimed to question our perception—the borders between the visible and the invisible, presence and absence, inside and outside. The publication plays on the multiple rebounds and echoes in Fredrikson’s works, in particular his nonlinear approach to art, his bodily exploration of vibrations, and his constant aim to grasp the invisible waves and frequencies that surround us—to render palpable the unseen that is actually right before our eyes.

Edited by Cristiano Raimondi, Floriane Spinetta, Hélène Guenin, Rébecca François
Texts by Éléonore Bak, Michael Doser, Léa Dreyer, Eva Fabbris, Rébecca François, Jonas Magnusson

Good copy. Knock to bottom of spine, not affecting interior content, small loss to print of cover edge. Otherwise VG copy. Includes CD (VG).

File under: Lars Fredrikson Éléonore Bak Michael Doser Léa Dreyer Eva Fabbris Rébecca François Jonas Magnusson Cristiano Raimondi Floriane Spinetta Hélène Guenin Mousse / Milan Art Sound / Music Sculpture / Installation Minimal Art Nouveau Réalisme / Zero / Kinetic Collage / Mail Art / Xerox Art Painting Out-of-print / Rare

Keiichi Tanaami
Aggressive Eroticism (Illustration NOW) with poster!

1974, Japanese
Hardcover (w. dust jacket, poster and obi), 127 pages, 29 x 22 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by Rippu Shobo / Japan

$300.00 - In stock -

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Rare copy of the best book on Japanese master graphic artist Keiichi Tanaami (1936—2024), one of the leading pop artists of postwar Japan. The first volume from the legendary Illustration NOW series published by Rippu Shobo between 1974—1975, this lavishly produced book collects the best of Tanaami's psychedelic "Aggressive Eroticism" from the 1960s—1970s, showcasing many of his most sexually provocative and anti-authoritarian/anti-war graphic works, printed beautifully with spot colour chapters and full-colour lavish reproductions. Most complete copy with fold-out poster and obi. Highly recommended volume on an artist seldom spoken of outside Japan.

Very Good copy in VG dust jacket w. obi and poster included.

File under: Keiichi Tanaami Rippu Shobo / Japan Illustration / Graphic Art / Bandes Dessinées Eros Pop Art Graphic Design / Typography Art Drawing Painting Out-of-print / Rare

Sadao Hasegawa

2022, English
Hardcover, 76 pages, 25 x 20 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / as new
Published by Baron / UK

$200.00 - In stock -

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Now out–of–print, the first posthumous book by Japanese artist Sadao Hasegawa (1945–1999), dedicated to Hasegawa’s rarely-published archive.

Hasegawa work is notable for incorporating Japanese, Indian, South-East Asian and African mythology, combined with homo-erotic depictions of hyper-masculine men, in acts of BDSM.

Beauty, eroticism and death are recurring themes in Hasegawa’s work; he was inspired by Nobel Prize nominee Yukio Mishima. After Hasegawa’s suicide in 1999, his family was going to dispose of the artists archive but discovered a portrait of Mishima painted on a stone, accompanied by a note requesting that the works be bequeathed to Gallery Naruyama, Tokyo, where the artist’s estate is today.

Whilst gaining acclaim in queer publications in the USA and Europe, with critics historicising Hasegawa’s work as an influence on contemporary Japanese queer culture, and the gay manga genre, Hasegawa's works have not been widely recognized: his only book is the highly collectable Paradise Visions (Kochi Studio, 1996).

The book also includes an essay by Dr Thomas Baudinette, author of Regimes of Desire: Young Men, Media and Masculinity in Tokyo (University of Michigan Press, 2021) and is designed by Sam Boxer, Art Director of Gut Magazine.

As New copy still–sealed.

File under: Sadao Hasegawa Baron / UK Eros Out-of-print / Rare LGBTQ+ Painting Fetishism / BDSM

Fabio Mauri
Catalogue Raisonné

2026, English
Hardcover (in box), 884 pages, 3705 colour photos, 38 x 31 cm
Published by Hauser & Wirth / Zurich Hatje Cantz / Berlin

$380.00 - In stock -

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Edited by Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev
Texts by: Francesca Alfano Miglietti, Laura Cherubini, Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, Giacomo Marramao, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Andrea Viliani

This catalogue raisonné of works by Italian artist Fabio Mauri (Rome, 1926–2009) is edited by Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev. Comprising an introductory essay by the author and images of over 3,600 works accompanied by extended captions, it constitutes the most comprehensive study of the artist’s oeuvre to date.

One of the leading figures of the post-war Italian avant-garde, artist Fabio Mauri’s practice encompasses performance, film, installation, found-object sculpture, mixed media works and theoretical writings to question readings of history and the associated power of language and ideology associated with the Second World War and the Holocaust. Sobering, direct, and poetically reflective, Mauri’s art addresses themes of communication and manipulation, and brings light to the ‘political dimension of the image,’ as it is projected and proliferated throughout contemporary society.

Born in Rome in 1926, Mauri’s youth was marked by the events of war and Fascism—traumas and horrors that would profoundly impact and influence his life and work. Raised among writers and painters, Mauri befriended intellectuals in Italy’s new avant-garde, among them the novelist Italo Calvino, philosopher and semiotician Umberto Eco, film director and aficionado Pier Paolo Pasolini, visual artist Jannis Kounellis, art historian Maurizio Calvesi and the writer Edoardo Sanguineti. ‘I patiently recompose,’ the artist commented, ‘with my own hands, the experience of the shameful. I explore its mental possibilities… I behave as if that reality (that history) had not had its final condemnation, but were still adding further data right up to our time today.’

The screen as a symbol emerges as early as 1957 and remains essential to the articulation of his work. Whether cinema, television or computer it allows for an exploration of meaning, images and codes. Through this Mauri proposes to his audience an examination, a critique and an experience of the ‘real.’

Mauri worked for the family company, the publishing house Bompiani, from 1957 to 1975 as director of the Milan and Rome headquarters. Along with Umberto Eco and Edoardo Sanguineti, he founded the magazine Quindici (1967) and the magazine for arts criticism, La citta di Riga in 1976. Such as his oeuvre, Mauri is undefinable practicing as artist, playwright, publisher, critic and teacher throughout his career. He never belonged to any specific artistic movement but kept a close proximity to various artists and discourses. Mauri has exhibited his work internationally in prominent institutions.

File under: Pier Paolo Pasolini Fabio Mauri Fabio Mauri Francesca Alfano Miglietti Laura Cherubini Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev Giacomo Marramao Hans Ulrich Obrist Andrea Viliani Pier Paolo Pasolini Hauser & Wirth / Zurich Hatje Cantz / Berlin Film / Video Sculpture / Installation Minimal Art Art Painting

Pierre Klossowski
Retrospective 1950-1990

1990, French
Softcover (w. dust jacket), 288 pages, 24 x 21 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by Centre National Des Arts Plastiques / Paris

$200.00 - Out of stock

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First edition of the comprehensive Pierre Klossowski catalogue raisonné published on the occasion of the major retrospective exhibition of his work held in Paris in 1990-1991 at CNAP. Profusely illustrated in colour and b/w with Klossowski's wonderful works, texts throughout by Catherine Grenier, Bernard Blistene, Claude Ritschard, Pascal Bonitzer, Marie-Dominique Wicker, Franco Cagnetta, André Masson, and Pierre Zucca (in French), a densely illustrated catalogue raisonné spanning his work dated 1952/53 through to 1990 (many not seen elsewhere), biography, exhibition history, and much more. Still the most in-depth book on Klossowski's oeuvre to date.

Pierre Klossowski (1905-2001) was a significant and influential philosopher, writer, translator and artist who befriended Georges Bataille and formulated an original stance on many theological issues, as well as the philosophy of the Marquis de Sade. His first novel, Roberte, ce soir, appeared in 1954 as a limited edition containing six of his own erotic illustrations, after he rejected drawings by his younger brother, the painter Balthus. Following the encouragement of Robert Lebel, Andre Masson and Alberto Giacometti, Klossowski held his first exhibition in Paris in 1956, and subsequently produced numerous life-size drawings of erotic scenes imbued with mythological, allegorical and philosophical connotations. By the 1970s, he had won the acclaim of such eminent thinkers as Maurice Blanchot, Michel Butor, Gilles Deleuze, Michel Foucault and Felix Guattari. Of Klossowski, Gilles Deleuze once said, "That bodies speak has been known for a long time."

Very Good in Very Good dust jacket.

File under: Pierre Klossowski Catherine Grenier Bernard Blistene Claude Ritschard Pascal Bonitzer Marie-Dominique Wicker Franco Cagnetta André Masson Pierre Zucca Centre National Des Arts Plastiques / Paris Art Painting Drawing Eros Out-of-print / Rare