World Food Books' programme is largely produced on Kulin Nation land. We acknowledge the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation as the first and continuing custodians of this land, and pay respect to their Elders past, present, and emerging.
World Food Books is an arts and special interests bookshop in Naarm / Melbourne. Founded in 2010, World Food Books is devoted to the presentation of a rotating, hand-selection of international art, design, literary and counterculture publications with an emphasis on the anti-traditional, the experimental, the avant-garde, the heretic, the marginal.
Presenting new titles alongside rare and out-of-print books, catalogues and journals spanning the fields of modern and contemporary art, design, photography, illustration, film, literature, poetry, cultural theory, philosophy, sexuality, popular and underground culture in its many radical forms, World Food Books wishes to encourage adventurous, thoughtful and open-minded reading, looking, writing, and exchange of publishing and ideas, both current and historical.
As well as our bookshop, located in Melbourne's historical Nicholas Building, all of our inventory is available internationally via our online mail-order service.
World Food Books semi-regularly co-ordinates "Occasions", a programme of exhibits and events at the bookshop and in partnership with other hosts (such as museums and art galleries) that develop out of the activities, relationships and content of the bookshop itself.
World Food Books
The Nicholas Building
37 Swanston Street
Room 5, Level 6
Melbourne 3000
Australia
SHOP HOURS:
OPEN 12—5 THU—FRI
WEB-SHOP OPEN 24/7.
World Food Books
Postal Address:
PO Box 435
Flinders Lane
Victoria 8009
Australia
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All prices in AUD (Australian dollars)
Pick-Ups
Please note: The bookshop is closed until February 1, 2024.
Pick-up orders can be collected in our bookshop during opening hours after this date. Please collect any Pick-up orders within 3 weeks of ordering as we have limited storage space. Orders will be released back into stock if not collected within this time. No refunds can be made for pick-ups left un-collected.
Return Policy
All sales are final. We do accept returns (for refund, exchange) for items received in error. All our orders are packed with special care using heavy-duty padding and cardboard book-mailers or bubble mailers (for smaller books), using reinforcement where required. We cannot take responsibility for any lost, stolen or damaged parcels.
Insurance
Should you wish to insure your package, please email us directly after placing your order and we can organise this at a small extra expense. Although all standard/express tracked packages are very safe and dependable, we cannot take responsibility for any lost, stolen or damaged parcels. We recommend insurance on valuable orders.
Interested in selling your old books, catalogues, journals, magazines, comics, fanzines, ephemera? We are always looking for interesting, unusual and out-of-print books to buy. We only buy books in our fields of interest and specialty, and that we feel we can resell.
We base these prices on desirability, market value, in-print prices, condition and our current stock levels. We offer cash, store credit, and can take stock on consignment. All
about 25% of the price we expect to get when we sell them, or 30% in store credit. We base these prices on desirability, market value, in-print prices, condition and our current stock levels.
Sell your books any day of the week. You can drop them off and return later. If you have a lot of books, we can visit your Sydney home.
We buy books that we feel we can resell. We offer about 25 % of the price we expect to get when we sell them, or 30% in store credit. We base these prices on desirability, market value, in-print prices, condition and our current stock levels.
Philadelphia Wireman
03 August - 01 September, 2018
World Food Books is proud to announce our next Occasion, the first presentation of sculptures by Philadelphia Wireman in Australia.
The Philadelphia Wireman sculptures were found abandoned in an alley off Philadelphia’s South Street on trash night in 1982. Their discovery in a rapidly-changing neighbourhood undergoing extensive renovation, compounded with the failure of all attempts to locate the artist, suggests that the works may have been discarded after the maker’s death. Dubbed the "Philadelphia Wireman" during the first exhibition of this work, in 1985, the maker’s name, age, ethnicity, and even gender remain uncertain. The entire collection totals approximately 1200 pieces, all intricately bound together with tightly-wound heavy-gauge wire (along with a few small, abstract marker drawings, reminiscent both of Mark Tobey and J.B. Murry). The dense construction of the work, despite a modest range of scale and materials, is singularly obsessive and disciplined in design: a wire armature or exoskeleton firmly binds a bricolage of found objects including plastic, glass, food packaging, umbrella parts, tape, rubber, batteries, pens, leather, reflectors, nuts and bolts, nails, foil, coins, toys, watches, eyeglasses, tools, and jewellery.
Heavy with associations—anthropomorphic, zoomorphic, and socio-cultural responses to wrapped detritus—the totemic sculptures by Philadelphia Wireman have been discussed in the context of work created to fulfil the shamanistic needs of alternative religions in American culture. Curators, collectors, and critics have variously compared certain pieces to sculpture from Classical antiquity, Native American medicine bundles, African-American memory jugs, and African fetish objects. Reflecting the artist’s prolific and incredibly focused scavenging impulse, and despite—or perhaps enhanced by—their anonymity, these enigmatic objects function as urban artefacts and arbiters of power, though their origin and purpose is unknown. Philadelphia Wireman, whatever their identity, possessed an astonishing ability to isolate and communicate the concepts of power and energy through the selection and transformation of ordinary materials. Over the course of the past two decades, this collection has come to be regarded as an important discovery in the field of self-taught art and vernacular art.
Presented in collaboration with Fleisher-Ollman Gallery, Philadelphia, and Robert Heald, Wellington.
Susan Te Kahurangi King
02 February - 10 March, 2018
Susan Te Kahurangi King (24 February 1951 - ) has been a confident and prolific artist since she was a young child, drawing with readily available materials - pencils, ballpoint pens and felt-tip markers, on whatever paper is at hand. Between the ages of four and six Susan slowly ceased verbal communication. Her grandparents William and Myrtle Murphy had developed a special bond with Susan so they took on caring responsibilities for extended periods. Myrtle began informally archiving her work, carefully collecting and storing the drawings and compiling scrapbooks. No drawing was insignificant; every scrap of paper was kept. The King family are now the custodians of a vast collection containing over 7000 individual works, from tiny scraps of paper through to 5 meter long rolls.
The scrapbooks and diaries reveal Myrtle to be a woman of great patience and compassion, seeking to understand a child who was not always behaving as expected. She encouraged Susan to be observant, to explore her environment and absorb all the sights and sounds. Myrtle would show Susan’s drawings to friends and people in her community that she had dealings with, such as shopkeepers and postal workers, but this was not simply a case of a grandmother’s bias. She recognised that Susan had developed a sophisticated and unique visual language and sincerely believed that her art deserved serious attention.
This was an unorthodox attitude for the time. To provide some context, Jean Dubuffet coined the term Art Brut in 1945 to describe work created by self-taught artists – specifically residents of psychiatric institutions and those he considered to be visionaries or eccentrics. In 1972 Roger Cardinal extended this concept by adopting the term Outsider Art to describe work made by non-academically trained artists operating outside of mainstream art networks through choice or circumstance. Susan was born in Te Aroha, New Zealand in 1951, far from the artistic hubs of Paris and London that Dubuffet and Cardinal operated in. That Myrtle fêted Susan as a self-taught artist who deserved to be taken seriously shows how progressive her attitudes were.
Susan’s parents Doug and Dawn were also progressive. Over the years they had consulted numerous health practitioners about Susan’s condition, as the medical establishment could not provide an explanation as to why she had lapsed into silence. Dawn educated herself in the field of homeopathy and went on to treat all twelve of her children using these principles – basing prescriptions on her observations of their physical, mental and emotional state.
Doug was a linguist with an interest in philosophy who devoted what little spare time he had to studying Maori language and culture. To some extent their willingness to explore the fringes of the mainstream made them outsiders too but it was their commitment to living with integrity and their respect for individuality that ensured Susan’s creativity was always encouraged.
Even though Susan’s family supported her artistic pursuits, some staff in schools and hospitals saw it as an impediment to her assimilation into the community and discouraged it in a variety of ways. Her family was not always aware of this and therefore did not fully understand why Susan stopped drawing in the early 1990s. However, rather than dwell on the challenges that Susan faced in pursuit of her artistic practice, they prefer to highlight her achievements. In 2008 Susan began drawing again in earnest, after an almost 20 year interruption, and her work is now shown in galleries around the world.
Susan grew up without television and has been heavily influenced by the comics she read as a child. She is absolutely fearless in the appropriation of recognizable characters, such as Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse, in her work. She twists their limbs, contorts their faces, compresses them together, blends them into complex patterned backgrounds - always imbuing them with an incredible energy. Although Susan often used pop culture characters in her work they are not naive or childlike. These are drawings by a brilliant self-taught artist who has been creating exceptional work for decades without an audience in mind.
Mladen Stilinović
"Various Works 1986 - 1999"
02 February 16 - September 10, 2016
Various works 1986 - 1999, from two houses, from the collections of John Nixon, Sue Cramer, Kerrie Poliness, Peter Haffenden and Phoebe Haffenden.
Including: Geometry of Cakes (various shelves), 1993; Poor People’s Law (black and white plate), 1993; White Absence (glasses, ruler, set square, silver spoon, silver ladel with skin photograph and wooden cubes), 1990-1996; Exploitation of the Dead (grey and red star painting, wooden painting, black spoon with red table, red plate), 1984-1990; Money and Zeros (zero tie, paintings made for friends in Australia (Sue, John, Kerrie), numbers painting), 1991-1992; Words - Slogans (various t-shirts) - “they talk about the death of art...help! someone is trying to kill me”, “my sweet little lamb”, “work is a disease - Karl Marx”; Various artist books, catalogues, monographs, videos; Poster from exhibition Insulting Anarchy; "Circular" Croatian - Australian edition; Artist book by Vlado Martek (Dostoyevsky); more.
Thanks to Mladen Stilinović and Branka Stipančić.
Jonathan Walker
Always Will Need To Wear Winter Shirt Blue + Ochre Small Check Pattern
21 August - 21 September, 2015
Untitled
I am not a great reader of poetry but I always return to the work of Melbourne poet, Vincent Buckley (1925- 1988). Perhaps I find his most tantalising piece to be not a finished poem but a fragment left on a scrap of paper discovered on his desk after the poet’s death.
The poetry gathers like oil
In the word-core, and spreads
It has its music meet,
Its music is in movement.
This fragment is more the shell left behind from a volatile thought than a finished poem. I find the last two lines honest but awkward whereas the first two lines work like an arrow. Most likely he could not find a resolution so it was left. Still, in its present form, it remains an eloquent testimony to the ultimate failure of a medium to express mobile thought and sensation, in Buckley’s case, through verbal language. It’s an important matter because this is something all artists have to deal with regardless of the medium.
I have never written a poem, however, I am forever copying fragments from books on paper scraps in a vain effort to fix certain notions in my head. At first, they function as bookmarks that are sometimes returned to when I open the book. But before long, as they accumulate, they fall out littering the table interspersed with A4 photocopies, bills, books and medications.
To return to Buckley’s fragment, the first two lines very much evoke how I paint nowadays. As you age, detail diminishes and patches of light become more luminous and float. I feel the most honest way of dealing with this is by smearing the oil paint on the canvas with the fingers and working close-up, blind. Only if the patches coalesce into an approaching image can the work gain a life.
-
Jonathan Walker was born in Melbourne, Australia and brought up on a dairy farm in Gippsland. In the 1970’s he studied painting at RMIT and won the Harold Wright Scholarship to the British Museum, London. During the 1980’s he exhibited at Pinacotheca Gallery, Richmond and had work shown at the NGV and Heidi City Art Gallery. Over the same period he designed the cover for the “Epigenesi” LP by Giancarlo Toniutti, Italy and conducted a mail exchange work with Achim Wollscheid, Germany. The work with artists through the post resulted in an article published in the bicentenary issue of Art and Australia 1988. He showed in artist run spaces such as WestSpace in the 90’s and 2000’s, and until 2012, taught painting at Victoria University, which is where we (Colleen Ahern and Lisa Radford) as organisers of the exhibition, among many others, had the privilege of being his student.
Walker’s knowledge was imparted to students through the careful selection of music, literature, and artists found in books that he himself had ordered for the library. Walker’s strategy was the generosity of sharing his vast knowledge with references specific to each student and their context.
Walker’s paintings share a similar focus and intimacy.
This exhibition presents a small selection of recent paintings alongside a publication that includes Walker’s writing. Observational and analytical, Walker’s work is a type of material notation — the time of day, colour and how it is blended, the both specific and fleeting location of a reflection on lino or the question of whether a chair leg should be included in a painting.
Please join us on Friday August 21 between 6-8pm to celebrate the opening of the exhibition.
Curated by Colleen Ahern and Lisa Radford.
B. Wurtz
Curated by Nic Tammens
March 26 - April 4, 2015
B.Wurtz works from a basement studio in his home on Manhattan’s Lower East Side.
This local fact is attested to by the plastic shopping bags and newsprint circulars that appear in his work. As formal objects, they don’t make loud claims about their origins but nonetheless transmit street addresses and places of business from the bottom of this long thin island. Like plenty of artists, Wurtz is affected by what is local and what is consumed. His work is underpinned by this ethic. It often speaks from a neighborhood or reads like the contents of a hamper:
“BLACK PLUMS $1.29 lb.”
“Food Bazaar”
“USDA Whole Pork Shoulder Picnic 99c lb.”
“RITE AID Pharmacy, with us it’s personal.”
“H. Brickman & Sons.”
“Sweet Yams 59c lb."
Most of the work in this exhibition was made while the artist was in residence at Dieu Donne, a workshop dedicated to paper craft in Midtown. Here Wurtz fabricated assemblages with paper and objects that are relatively lightweight, with the intention that they would be easily transportable to Australia. This consideration isn’t absolute in Wurtz’s work, but was prescriptive for making the current exhibition light and cheap. Packed in two boxes, these works were sent from a USPS post office on the Lower East Side and delivered to North Melbourne by Australia Post.
Wurtz appears courtesy of Metro Pictures, New York.
Thanks to Rob Halverson, Joshua Petherick, Sari de Mallory, Matt Hinkley, Helen Johnson, Fayen d'Evie, Ask Kilmartin, Lisa Radon, Ellena Savage, Yale Union, and "Elizabeth".
John Nixon
"Archive"
December 15 - January 20, 2014
The presentation of John Nixon's archive offered a rare showcase of this extensive collection of the artist's own publications, catalogues, posters, ephemera, editions and more, from the mid 1980s onwards, alongside a selection of his artworks.
Organized by John Nixon, Joshua Petherick and Matt Hinkley.
"Habitat"
at Minerva, Sydney (organised by Joshua Petherick and Matt Hinkley)
November 15 - December 20, 2014
Lupo Borgonovo, Janet Burchill & Jennifer McCamley,
Lewis Fidock, HR Giger, Piero Gilardi, Veit Laurent Kurz,
Cinzia Ruggeri, Michael E. Smith, Lucie Stahl, Daniel Weil, Wols
Press Release:
“...It contained seven objects. The slender fluted bone, surely formed for flight, surely from the wing of some large bird. Three archaic circuitboards, faced with mazes of gold. A smooth white sphere of baked clay. An age-blackened fragment of lace. A fingerlength segment of what she assumed was bone from a human wrist, grayish white, inset smoothly with the silicon shaft of a small instrument that must once have ridden flush with the surface of the skin - but the thing’s face was seared and blackened.”
William Gibson, “Count Zero”, 1986
"Autumn Projects Archive"
Curated by Liza Vasiliou
March 6 - March 15, 2014
World Food Books, in conjunction with the Virgin Australia Melbourne Fashion Festival 2014, presented the Autumn Projects archive, consisting of a selection of early examples in Australian fashion with a particular interest in collecting designers and labels from the period beginning in the 1980’s, who significantly influenced the discourse of Australian Fashion.
Curated by Liza Vasiliou, the exhibition provided a unique opportunity to view pieces by designers Anthea Crawford, Barbara Vandenberg, Geoff Liddell and labels CR Australia, Covers, Jag along with early experimental collage pieces by Prue Acton and Sally Browne’s ‘Fragments’ collection, suspended throughout the functioning World Food Books shop in Melbourne.
H.B. Peace
presented by CENTRE FOR STYLE
November 14, 2013
"Hey Blinky, you say chic, I say same"
Anon 2013
H.B. Peace is a clothing collaboration between great friends Blake Barns and Hugh Egan Westland. Their pieces explore the divergences between 'character’ and ‘personality’ in garments....etc
Special Thanks to Joshua Petherick and Matt Hinkley of WFB and Gillian Mears
and a Very Special Thank you to Audrey Thomas Hayes for her shoe collaboration.
Janet Burchill & Jennifer McCamley
"Aesthetic Suicide"
May 10 - June 8, 2013
The first of our occasional exhibitions in the World Food Books office/shop space in Melbourne, "Aesthetic Suicide" presented a body of new and older works together by artists Janet Burchill & Jennifer McCamley, including videos, prints, a wall work, and publications.
During shop open hours videos played every hour, on the hour.
1992, Japanese / English
Softcover (w. dust jacket), 108 pages, 30 x 30.5 mm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Bundgeishunju / Tokyo
$190.00 - In stock -
Beautiful first edition of this great photobook by Japanese photographer Joji "Geroge" Hashiguchi (b. born in Kagoshima in 1949). Starting in June 1990 on Iriomote Island, Okinawa, and ended in Tokyo in September 1992, Couple is Hashiguchi’s series of 103 portraits of couples living in Japanese at the beginning of the 1990s. Following on from his previous acclaimed collections, 17-year-old map (1988) and Father (1990), Couples follows Hashiguchi’s same method of portraiture. In addition to its value as an archaeological record, Hashiguchi's point of view always captures the social landscape behind it. Working as a sociological ethnographer with a survey approach, Hashiguchi produces a unique overview of Japanese society with a sense of considerable sociocultural diversity in light of stereotypic reductions of Japan as a homogeneous entity.
Texts in English and Japanese.
Very Good copy.
1996/1997, Japanese / English
Softcover (w. dust jacket + obi), 224 pages, 30 x 30 cm
Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Media Factory / Tokyo
$130.00 - In stock -
First edition, 1997 (2nd) printing of this wonderful photo book by Japanese photographer Joji "Geroge" Hashiguchi (b. born in Kagoshima in 1949), another in his acclaimed collections that also includes Seventeen's Map (1988), Father (1990) and Couples (1992) following Hashiguchi’s striking method of portraiture. "Work" is an extensive sociological typology consisting of documentary black and white portraits of Japanese people in their working environments across Japan spanning 1991—1995, from bartenders to pyrotechnicians, deep sea divers to mortuary cosmetologists, mostly shot as full-length portraits, paired with sociological data and interviews. Hashiguchi often choses two subjects from the same workplace based on age — one being older and the other younger — and the questions asked to each subject range from the length of career, current/starting salary to what the subject had for breakfast and dreams for from the future. Texts in both Japanese and English. Working as a sociological ethnographer with a survey approach, Hashiguchi produces a unique overview of Japanese society with a sense of considerable sociocultural diversity in light of stereotypic reductions of Japan as a homogeneous entity. One of his finest.
Very Good copy with VG dust jacket and average obi (creases and tears).
1997, Japanes / English
Hardcover (w. dust jacket + obi), 107 pages, 30.7 x 30.7 cm cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Media Factory / Tokyo
$130.00 - In stock -
First 1997 edition of this wonderful photo book by Japanese photographer Joji "Geroge" Hashiguchi (b. born in Kagoshima in 1949), another in his acclaimed collections that also includes Seventeen's Map (1988), Father (1990) and Couples (1992) following Hashiguchi’s striking method of portraiture. "Dream" is a moving sociological typology consisting of documentary black and white portraits of Japanese people in their older years across Japan, mostly shot as full-length portraits, paired with sociological data and interviews. Texts in both Japanese and English. Working as a sociological ethnographer with a survey approach, Hashiguchi produces a unique overview of Japanese society with a sense of considerable sociocultural diversity in light of stereotypic reductions of Japan as a homogeneous entity.
This volume represents the most recent in a continuing series of photographic collections which I began with the purpose of coming to a better knowledge of Japan and the Japanese people. Previous collections included Seventeen's Map in 1988, followed by Father in 1990, Couple in 1992, and Work 1991-1995 in 1996. To compile each of these volumes, I traveled throughout Japan, making a record of the broad spectrum of people living in each region, while also recording the times I myself live in, and its scenes. This fifth volume in that series I have called Dream (Yume). When I was a child, I thought that when I reached twenty I would be an adult, and when that happened, something would change making life a bit easier to live. When I actually turned twenty, however, my body and consciousness seemed to be ruled by some heaviness that was yet different from that of my teens, and once again I thought: things will somehow work out when I become thirty. Somewhere past my mid-thirties, I finally realized something, namely, that the process of life is actually unending. When I had that realization, I began to think of the meaning and weight of those increasing years. Becoming older is generally voiced in negative terms within Japanese society, and each time I heard that, I would shake my head, thinking, "it just can't be true."—Joji "Geroge" Hashiguchi
Very Good copy with VG dust jacket and good obi (creases and tears).
1971, German
Hardcover, 92 pages, 20.5 x 16 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / good
Published by
Softpress / Frankfurt
$70.00 - Out of stock
"Alle reden vom Sex – Wir zeigen ihn" ("Everyone talks about Sex — We show it")
First edition of this 1971 photo book of hippie sex from the German underground press. Housed in illustrated gloss hardcover, Softlove is filled with full-bleed lush explicit colour photography, from couple to orgy, in a bubble room to a mirrored infinity room, all printed on thick paper stock in saturated 1970's colour.
Good copy with light edge wear to printed boards.
1970, German
Hardcover, 104 pages, 20.5 x 16 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / good
Published by
Softpress / Frankfurt
$50.00 - Out of stock
First edition of this 1970 photo book of hippie sex from the German underground press. Housed in illustrated gloss hardcover, Sommerlove is filled with full-bleed lush explicit colour photography of an outdoor gathering without inhibition, all printed on thick paper stock in saturated 1970's colour. Sex in the sun!
Good copy with light edge wear to printed boards and a tape repaired split to the top of spine.
2013, English
Hardcover, 240 pages, 23.2 x 30 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Prestel / Munich
$500.00 - In stock -
Very collectible first hardcover edition of the first book of photography by Henrik Purienne, published in 2013 and immediately out-of-print.
"Voyeuristic, sun-drenched, and natural, the photographs of fashion photographer Henrik Purienne convey a sexuality that's as nostalgic as it is au courant, at once tender and sultry." Fronted by friend and model Sonja van den Heever, his first book presents a hand-selection of over 200 pages of photographs. Shot mostly in his trademark grainy 35mm film, Purienne's soft-hued and ingeniously lit images often include scratches and other imperfections that belie the sophistication of his technique, evoking the joys of life and the natural beauty of his subject "[...] with unmade faces, hair unruly and clothing, if any, unfussy [...]" in her truest form. Featured across the pages of Lui, Purple, Playboy, and Vogue, and in campaigns for Maison Margiela and Louis Vuitton, "Purienne's images afford us immeasurable scope for desire. [...] We can see and feel the heat through his images."—Tess Martin, Krass Journal No.1
Very Good copy, interior As New, cover with bumping to top of spine and light bump to top corner, none affecting interior pages as heavy boards are overhung.
1998, English / Japanese
Softcover, 128 pages, 30.5 x 22.5 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Little More / Tokyo
$200.00 - Out of stock
Controversial inaugural (December 1998) issue of Richardson magazine, the short-lived cult 1990's art/sex magazine published by Little More in Japan, edited by Andrew Richardson (of Richardson label, fashion stylist w. Supreme, CK, Valentino, etc.) and art direction by Laura Genninger of STUDIO 191 (designer of AnOther Magazine, etc.). Navigating the murky boundaries between art and obscenity, an honourable pursuit in Japan, this first issue features the double-cover (censored and non-censored) of adult film star Jenna Jameson shot by Glen Luchford, along with J.J. photo feature and interview, Richard Prince’s “Spiritual America” text and photography/artworks inc. the infamous 11-year-old Brooke Shields piece, "Be Broken" erotic artwork gallery by Harmony Korine, "Love Letter to Amerika" from Takashi Homma, Terry Richardson photography, "Cunt" fiction by Stewart Home, photos by French cinematographer (Gummo, Ulysse, Boy Meets Girl, etc.) Jean-Yves Escoffier, Japanese V-Cinema and pink star Nao Saejima, Stewart Home on Cosey Fanni Tutti, many works of photography and text by American photojournalist and writer Erika Langley, erotic photography by skater Ed Templeton of photographer and wife Deanna Templeton, vintage erotica collection by photographer Bela Borsodi, poetry and more! Riddled with bans and confiscations due to explicit un-censored imagery by Japanese censorship standards.
Texts in both English and Japanese.
Very Good copy.
2006, English
Hardcover (debossed faux leather bound + 7"), 26 x 23 cm
600 numbered copies,
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / fine
Published by
Hysteric Glamour / Tokyo
$120.00 - In stock -
Published in 2006 by fashion brand Hysteric Glamor in a numbered edition of 600 copies, bound in padded debossed faux leather hardcover with a 7" record, "the book is a monograph of my late 1970s photographs of my friends, the avant-garde rock group Destroy All Monsters."—Sue Rynski, Detroit photographer. Described by legendary critic Lester Bangs as "anti-rock", Destroy All Monsters was an influential Detroit rock band formed in 1973 by University of Michigan art students Mike Kelley, Jim Shaw, legendary femme fatale Niagara, and filmmaker Cary Loren, existing to 1985 with shifting personnel and sporadic performances since. Performing their first concert at a comic book convention in Ann Arbor, Michigan, on New Year's Eve of 1973, the group combined elements of punk, psych, metal and noise rock with a heavy dose of experimentation and performance art, influenced as much by ESP-Disk, Sun Ra and The Velvets, as monster movies and Futurism. The cult group earned a measure of notoriety through their coveted DAM Magazine, also due to members of The Stooges and MC5 joining the band, and Sonic Youth singer/guitarist Thurston Moore compiling a three compact disc set of the group's music in 1994.
"Born in 1954, year of the birth of rock and roll, I grew up immersed in the high energy music of my hometown Detroit. This loud, physical, emotional music took hold and became a part of me."—Sue Rynski
A stunning book published by Hysteric Glamor director Nobuhiko Kitamura, with editorial direction by : Osamu Wataya, Michitaka Ota (Sokyusha), and Koichi Hara. 7" includes the tracks "Rocking the Cradle" and "Little Boyfriend" by Destroy All Monsters.
Near Fine copy.
1985, Japanese
Softcover, 260 pages, 19 x 13 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / fine
Published by
Data House / Tokyo
$200.00 - Out of stock
Possibly the most fun you can cram into 260-odd pages! A now very collectible volume edited by none other than Japanese master of erotic superrealism, Hajime Sorayama, Pink Department Store is a wild book digest of visual sex — straight out of 1985! A compendium of remarkable erotic imagery packed into this one-stop look-book of kink compiled by Sorayama, all reproduced in full-colour on beautiful warm raw paper stock, designed by Hisao Iguchi. From the Tokyo sex clubs, phone-booths and toilet stalls, Shibari photography to pink film posters, x-rated manga to wildlife fornication, leather daddys to dominatrixes, Pink Department Store is a safari through graphic perversion and joyous visual innuendo. Alongside archival material and international works the book generously features an abundance of works by over 100 contemporary Japanese illustrators and photographers, including Aimei Ozaki, Harumi Yamaguchi, Takashi Nemoto, Yosuke Onishi, Suehiro Maruo, Hajime Sorayama, Mizumaru Anzai, Yokoyama Akira, Keiichi Ota, Akira Ishigaki, Kaoru Ueda, Teruhiko Yumura, Yoshiharu Ebisu, Arata Taga, to name but a few. There is also a directory list to contact them all!
Very Good—NF copy in VG original dust jacket and rarely preserved publisher's obi-strip.
1984, English
Hardcover (w. dust jacket), 142 pages, 26 x 36 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
James Fraser / Sydney
$300.00 - In stock -
Rare first 1984 hardcover edition of one of the greatest Australian photo-books, William Yang's "Sydney Diary."
Absolutely stunning large-format book of Yang's photography from the late 1970s-early 1980s, documenting the Sydney party scene, gay community, and general Australian cultural atmosphere of the period, from the beach to the runway to the disco via the further reaches of sex, drugs (including the incredible "poppers" spread), celebrity and political demonstration. It is a collection of "friendships lost and found, fragile landscapes, modern icons, images of the incessant pursuit of pleasure, of innocence and experience, ecstasy and desire. In the many ways of looking at this work some will find only sensation, a lurid catalogue from a provincial paparazzi. Certainly it has an appeal to the sensations, a visceral power. But to me this book represents much more. It is a unique exploration of the human spirit, a confession from a guilty romantic, a solitary journey through the land of the dispossessed." - Jim Sharman (Introduction)
William Yang (b. 1943, Mareeba, Queensland. Lives and works Sydney, New South Wales) is principally known as a photographer exploring issues of cultural and sexual identity, integrating this practice with writing, performance and film. Starting out as a playwright, Yang turned to photographing parties and social events as a way of making money. His 1977 exhibition, Sydneyphiles, and 1984 book Sydney Diary, recorded the emergent gay community and Sydney party scene of the 1970s and 1980s. In the 1980s, Yang began to explore his Chinese heritage, and his photographic themes expanded to include landscapes and the Chinese in Australia. Yang began performing monologues with slide projections in theatres in 1989, integrating his skills as a writer and a visual artist. These slide shows were recognised as a unique form of performance theatre and have since become his preferred way of showing his work. Yang has toured Australia and the world with shows such as Sadness, Friends of Dorothy, The North, Blood Links and Shadows.
Very Good copy of the now very rare Australian photo-book, in original illustrated dust jacket (VG, with some tanning).
2023, English
Hardcover (debossed boards w. buckrum spine with cover photo-plate), 160 pages, 20 x 16 cm
2nd Ed.,
Out of print title / as new
Published by
IDEA / London
$140.00 - Out of stock
Talented and influential photographer Davide Sorrenti tragically died in 1997 at the age of just twenty leaving behind him a rich archive documenting nineties downtown New York through his extraordinary photographs, scrapbooks, graffiti drawings, tear sheets and contact sheets. Polaroids 1994-1997 is a book of instantly unforgettable Polaroid photographs taken by Davide Sorrenti between the years of 1994–1997, designed and edited by Francesca Sorrenti.
"Almost 25 years have gone by since his passing and still the love for his persona and his work lives on. While locked down this year, I was looking at his Polaroids and reminiscing about a lifetime gone. I realized that a collection of these moments should be the next book. The second book to uncover the archive of this young man, my son, who produced all these Polaroids, photographs – and the diaries and fashion work – in such a short period of time." (Francesca Sorrenti).
Raw-cut Eskaboard hardback with black buckram spine and debossed print.
As New copy of 2nd edition (1000 copies). All editions out-of-print.
2023, English / German
Hardcover, 240 pages, 35 x 26 cm
Published by
Scheidegger und Spiess / Zürich
$190.00 - In stock -
A unique visual foray into the fantastic worlds of artist H.R. Giger.
The art of H.R. Giger (1940-2014), Swiss-born creator of the legendary monster in Ridley Scott's movie Alien, is currently experiencing a renaissance and is featured in exhibitions as well as in magazines around the globe. This lavish large-format volume offers never-before-seen insights into Giger's private house and garden, both of which are populated by biomechanical sculptures, airbrush paintings, Alien furniture, objects, prints, and self-portraits. French photographer Camille Vivier—best known for her work for Stella McCartney and Cartier—enjoyed exclusive access to the artist's Zurich home and studio for this book, where she worked on her own as well as with models in a series of photo sessions.
Vivier's around 200 photographs form an atmospheric tribute to the arguably most distinguished representative of Fantastic Realism. In addition to images of Giger's studio and his life-size sculptures, Vivier has also documented some hundred objects and artworks, as well as his famous Alien-style garden railroad.
An essay by French publicist Farbrice Paineu places H.R. Giger's art in the wider context of pop culture and the genre of horror movies.
Edited by Beda Achermann.
Text in English and German.
2002, Japanese
Softcover (w. dust jacket) in slipcase, 600 pages, 25 x 19 cm
Signed and numbered edition of 300,
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Getsuyosha / Tokyo
$580.00 - In stock -
"There is no place for which words such as "melting pot" or "purgatory" are more suited than the town of Shinjuku...."—Daido Moriyama
Signed and numbered very first, limited edition, first Japanese printing of Daido Moriyama's 'Shinjuku', his collection of stark b/w, full-bleed photographs shot in Tokyo's shinjuku district, one of the photographer's most famous, and published in this incredible 600 page volume in 2002 by Getsuyosha, Tokyo. Re-printed in many various editions, this is the true 2002 first premium print-run of only 300 copies and published in Japan. This special edition was followed by the regular Japanese edition w/o slipcase/sign, then followed by the Nazraeli Press US re-print of 500 copies mimicking this edition that is often considered the first appearance. Numbered on the slipcase (this copy being no. "51 / 300") and signed by Daido Moriyama with his characteristic silver ink to the first photographic endpaper, this copy also includes the preserved fold-out poster / booklet insert (50 x 36 cm) with text by Moriyama in Japanese and English. One of his finest.
"The current town of Shinjuku shows sign of becoming a near future city. The real and virtual, pleasure and pathos are entangled night and day, and this becomes a huge stadium where the gathering crowds wander, holding their raggle taggle desires. There is no place for which words such as "melting pot" or "purgatory" are more suited than the town of Shinjuku.... When we try lining up in a row cheap words stained with finger marks such as chaos, deluge, greed, vulgarity, vice, indecency, etc., every single one of them epitomizes Shinjuku, and I unintentionally start laughing. This is also an impressive point, as no matter how or where you search in the world, you wouldn't be able to find a city that is this weird. From the eastern JR train line, in other word this side where it seems like a stew in simmering and boiling, to the phantom landscape of high rise buildings that seem like a mirage over the west side, Shinjuku vividly exhibits all the shadiness, toughness, and considerable disconsolateness that a city has, like a truly unfathomable mathematical functional relationship, like a modern Babylon. I and Shinjuku, as well as my attraction to it and shooting photos of it, must have some kind of similar character somewhere."—Daido Moriyama
Very Good copy in Good slipcase. Well preserved book in DJ, with a single spine crease, binding solid, crisp book. Slipcase with light wear and marking, closed splitting.
1999, English
Softcover, unpaginated, 28 x 21 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Hermès / Paris
$150.00 - Out of stock
Very rare English edition of the iconic in-house magazine of the French fashion house, Hermès, highlighting the Fall-Winter 1999-2000 collection designed by Martin Margiela. This very special early MM/Hermès photo collection is comprised of portraits of women in Hermès photographed by Mark Borthwick, Joanna Van Mulder, Tim Richmond, Luc Perenom, and others.
Very Good copy with light corner creases.
1998, Japanese
Softcover (staple bound), 80 pages, 26 x 18.5 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / good
Published by
Street Editorial Office / Tokyo
$90.00 - Out of stock
Rare very early issue of FRUiTS, the Legendary Japanese Street Style Magazine. Founded in 1997 by photographer and publisher of STREET magazine, Shoichi Aoki, the photographer spent two decades documenting Tokyo’s cool kids and the constantly evolving experimental styles that blossomed on the curbs of the youthful Harajuku district, until after 20 years and 233 issues Aoki ceased publication, declaring there were “no more fashionable kids to photograph”. Harajuku is now a moribund, globalised shadow of the parade of self-expression it once was, and FRUiTS has become an even more essential time-capsule of a cultural phenomenon like no other. Made up entirely of full-bleed photographs by Aoki exclusively documenting the kaleidoscope of playful and devoted fashions of the Harajuku girls, and guys, each issue of FRUiTS was the antithesis of high fashion luxury. The magazine primarily focused on individual styles found outside the fashion-industry mainstream, as well as subcultures specific to Japan, such as lolita and ganguro, and local interpretations of larger subcultures like punk, rave and goth. Made for the local market only, FRUiTS became a treasure in the West and an enormous influence on alternative culture the world over. Like Aoki's STREET, FRUiTS has become an essential style goldmine, creating a immensely valuable photographic document of the times like no other magazine of our times.
Good copy with some edge wear and a closed tear to cover/masthead.
1998, Japanese
Softcover (staple bound), 80 pages, 26 x 18.5 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / good
Published by
Street Editorial Office / Tokyo
$90.00 - Out of stock
Rare very early issue of FRUiTS, the Legendary Japanese Street Style Magazine. Founded in 1997 by photographer and publisher of STREET magazine, Shoichi Aoki, the photographer spent two decades documenting Tokyo’s cool kids and the constantly evolving experimental styles that blossomed on the curbs of the youthful Harajuku district, until after 20 years and 233 issues Aoki ceased publication, declaring there were “no more fashionable kids to photograph”. Harajuku is now a moribund, globalised shadow of the parade of self-expression it once was, and FRUiTS has become an even more essential time-capsule of a cultural phenomenon like no other. Made up entirely of full-bleed photographs by Aoki exclusively documenting the kaleidoscope of playful and devoted fashions of the Harajuku girls, and guys, each issue of FRUiTS was the antithesis of high fashion luxury. The magazine primarily focused on individual styles found outside the fashion-industry mainstream, as well as subcultures specific to Japan, such as lolita and ganguro, and local interpretations of larger subcultures like punk, rave and goth. Made for the local market only, FRUiTS became a treasure in the West and an enormous influence on alternative culture the world over. Like Aoki's STREET, FRUiTS has become an essential style goldmine, creating a immensely valuable photographic document of the times like no other magazine of our times.
Good copy with some edge wear.
1995, English / Japanese
Hardcover (w. obi strip), 80 pages, 21.5 x 15.5 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / fine
Published by
Treville / Tokyo
Pan-Exotica / Tokyo
$140.00 - In stock -
First 1995 hardcover edition of Hans Bellmer's surrealist masterpiece, The Doll, a beautiful photo book published only in Japan, comprised entirely of all of the known photographic images of "La Poupee" — Hans Bellmer's articulated, anatomically amorphous Surrealist doll, reconfigured and captured through Bellmer's intimate hand-painted photographic images. "La Poupee" acquired iconic status as perhaps the purest exemplification of the Surrealist ideal of "convulsive beauty." Bellmer constructed his first doll in the early 1930s. André Breton and Paul Eluard described it as "the first and only Surrealist object with a universal, provocative power". Wordless, this lovely volume is photographs-only, reproduced in colour and black and white. Designed by Jun Takechi.
German artist Hans Bellmer (1902—1975) was one of the most subversive artists associated with Surrealism, famous—notorious, even—for his erotic engravings, objects and photographs. Many of Bellmer's works were inspired by the literary works of Comte de Lautréamont and Georges Bataille, amongst others.
VG—Fine copy with obi.
1994, English
Hardcover, 72 page,s 20.5 x 16.5 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Art Gallery of New South Wales / Sydney
$18.00 - In stock -
Hardcover catalogue published on the occasion of the exhibition of Susan Norrie at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, 1994, profusely illustrated with accompanying texts by Victoria Lynn, Gregory Burke, Ingrid Periz. Includes chronology, catalogue.
Susan Norrie (b. 1953) is Sydney-based artist who has developed a practice which utilises art, documentary and film genres. Her projects are concerned with the environment, human rights and survival. In 2007 she represented Australia at the 52nd Venice Biennale.
Very Good copy, light cover wear.
1980, Japanese
Softcover (staple-bound), 36.5 x 25.5 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Ryuko Tsushin / Japan
$80.00 - In stock -
Wonderful early issue of Japan's Studio Voice magazine, with original cover artwork by Aquirax Uno, published in 1980 in the early over-sized, tabloid format established by Andy Warhol's Interview magazine. When it was first launched in 1976, Studio Voice was the Japanese edition of Warhol's Interview, bridging New York and Tokyo culture. The arts, music, fashion, photography, film, literature, model news, style news, reviews... The Japanese Interview, say no more!
Very Good copy, some cover/spine wear.
1992, English / French
Softcover (staple-bound), 64 pages, 24.5 x 19 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Purple Institute / Paris
$580.00 - In stock -
The true beginning of Purple — the very rare first issue of Elein Fleiss and Olivier Zahm's Purple Prose, published in 1992. Founded as a reaction against the superficial glamour of the 1980’s, Purple Prose embraced the immediate fanzine aesthetics of what became referred to as 1990's anti-fashion, a far cry from what we now identify with Purple Fashion with.
Purple Prose 1, Automne 1992, features contributions by Dike Blair, Andrea Zittel, Joshua Decter, Henry Bond, Daniel Lemer, Jutta Koether, Andrea Zittel, Roddy Bogawa, Jon Moritsugu, Jacques Boyreau, Jan Avgikos, Martin Kippenberger, Patrick Van Caeckenbergh, Edgar Heap of Birds, David Robbins, Jean-Christophe Menu, Vitaly Glabel, Kitten (pre—Free Kitten: Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth and Pussy Galore's Julia Cafritz), Patrick Bouchitey, Jean-Luc Vilmouth, François Roche, and many more.
Soon after the birth of Purple Prose, Zahm created spin-off publications like Purple Sexe, Purple Fiction and what we now know and love, Purple Fashion. Zahm aimed at fusing together his two worlds, fashion and art, in creating Purple Fashion.
Before entering the world of fashion, Zahm worked as an art critic with widespread recognition for his work as a curator as well as his participation in over 150 exhibitions featuring international contemporary art. In 1994, Zahm and Fleiss curated “The Winter of Love,” a hit show for the Museum of Modern Art in Paris that they later took to P.S.1 in New York. In responding to the superficial glamour of the 1980s, Zahm co-founded Purple Prose magazine. In the introduction of Purple Anthology, Zahm shares why he chose to create Purple Prose:
"We launched Purple Prose in the early 1990s without any means, and without any experience, because we wanted to make a magazine that was radically different. We wanted to support the artists around us that no one else supported, much less talked about. [..] It would be a form of opposition of our own".
Very Good—Near Fine copy, light wear.
1993, French / English
Softcover (staple-bound), 80 pages, 24.5 x 18 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Purple Institute / Paris
$220.00 - Out of stock
The very scarce second issue of Elein Fleiss and Olivier Zahm's Purple Prose, the Parisian literary art zine that began the world of Purple. Founded in 1992 as a reaction against the superficial glamour of the 1980’s, Purple Prose embraced the immediate fanzine aesthetics of what became referred to as 1990's anti-fashion, a far cry from what we now identify with Purple Fashion with.
Purple Prose 2 (Winter 1993) features: Martine Aballea, Olivier Badot, Pierre Bismuth, Dike Blair, Olivier Blanckart, Henry Bond, Cocto, Tommaso Corvi-Mora, Liz Dalton, Peter Fleissig, Anne Frémy, Vitaly Glabel, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Isabelle Graw, John S. Hall, Markus Hansen, Lothar Hempel, Thomas Johnson, Bernard Jolsten, Isaac Julien, Jutta Koether, Ariel Kyrou, Simon Lee, Christophe Lemaire, Michel Maffesoli, Eva Marisaldi, Barbara Osborn, Valerie Pigato, Jeff Rian, David Robbins, François Roche, Julia Scher, R. U. Sirius, Liz Stirling, Tom Verlaine, Jean-Luc Vilmouth, Jacques-Arthur Weil.
Soon after the birth of Purple Prose, Zahm created spin-off publications like Purple Sexe, Purple Fiction and what we now know and love, Purple Fashion. Zahm aimed at fusing together his two worlds, fashion and art, in creating Purple Fashion.
Before entering the world of fashion, Zahm worked as an art critic with widespread recognition for his work as a curator as well as his participation in over 150 exhibitions featuring international contemporary art. In 1994, Zahm and Fleiss curated “The Winter of Love,” a hit show for the Museum of Modern Art in Paris that they later took to P.S.1 in New York. In responding to the superficial glamour of the 1980s, Zahm co-founded Purple Prose magazine. In the introduction of Purple Anthology, Zahm shares why he chose to create Purple Prose:
"We launched Purple Prose in the early 1990s without any means, and without any experience, because we wanted to make a magazine that was radically different. We wanted to support the artists around us that no one else supported, much less talked about. [..] It would be a form of opposition of our own".
Very Good—Near Fine copy, light wear.
2004, English / French
Softcover (staple-bound), 21 x 27.5 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Purple Institute / Paris
$190.00 - In stock -
Rare copy of the first issue of The Purple Journal, featuring Elein Fleiss, Jeffrey Rian, Dorothée Perret, Mark Borthwick, Gérard Duguet-Grasser, Laetitia Benat, Marina Faust, Allen Ginsberg, Susan Cianciolo, Henry Roy, Lizzi Bougatsos, Anders Edström, Maurizio Cattelan, Takashi Homma, Michel Zumpf, Chikashi Suzuki, Barbet Schroeder, Alain Lacroix, Jonathan Boulting, Maison Martin Margiela, Cora Maghnaoui, Claude Lévêque, Beth Yahp, Cosmic Wonder, Angela Hill, Ferdinand Gouzon, Comme des Garçons, Curtis Winter, Beth Yahp, Ferdinand Gouzon, Curtis Winter, Manon de Boer, Christophe Brunnquell, Sébastien Jamain, Tiphaine Samoyault, Helmut Lang, Veronique Branquinho, Sébastien Jamain, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Sharon Mesmer, Gérard Duguet-Grasser, and much more. Includes the special Paris supplement (16 pages).
"This is our first issue: joy, hope. Starting out or beginning again (the journal Hélène and the magazine Purple)-anyway, it's a first appearance. A path we'll travel together, we, the editors, and you, the readers. We will show reality as we see it through encounters with people, places, landscapes, artworks. Writing and photographs, original voices. The journey is not mapped out in advance, we'll discover it (as it reveals itself) with the changing seasons."—the editors
In 1992 Olivier Zahm and his partner Elein Fleiss printed the first issue of Purple Prose, a Parisian literary art zine that over the years has evolved into Purple Fashion Magazine. Soon after the birth of Purple Prose, Zahm and Fleiss created spin-off publications like les cahiers purple, Purple Sexe, Purple Fiction, and of course, Purple Fashion. Zahm aimed at fusing together his two worlds, fashion and art, in creating Purple Fashion.
Very Good copy, light wear/age/rippling to page edges.
1970, French
Softcover, 166 pages, 14 x 21 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
André Balland / Paris
$180.00 - Out of stock
"One and one make two, but two breasts, side by side, do not necessarily make a chest.
The game consists of reuniting the 480 twins Topor has sadistically scattered throughout this book, and then, in each small square below the printed figure, enter the number of the breast that you believe to be its companion, then ... to go check at the end of the volume the correctness of your solution.
If you have friends, it's better to write with a pencil. You can erase.
But, how do we know if we have friends?"
First edition of this scarce artist book by Roland Topor, published in Paris in 1970 by André Balland. Topor's titillating absurdist conceptual photo-book/game is a fine and curiously unusual example of his perverse humour and more absurdist Fluxus leanings. A fantastic book only ever printed in this one edition. 480 colour illustrations.
Roland Topor was one of the most unique and versatile French artists of the second half of the 20th century, working prolifically as a provocative and spirited illustrator, author, humorist, satirist, play-write, actor, poet, painter, performer, sculptor, and much more. Son of a Parisian painter and sculptor of Polish-Jewish descent, in 1941, Topor's father was arrested and sent to camp Pithiviers. Two years later, the family moved to Savoy, where they baptised their son to hide his real identity. After the war, he studied art at the Institute of Beaux-Arts in Paris. He discovered surrealism, Hieronymus Bosch and the scatological plays of Alfred Jarry, which would influence his work and his attitude to life in general.
In 1958, he published his first work in magazines such as Bizarre and later Elle. Three years later, he joined the anarchic group of artists who created the controversial magazine Hara-Kiri, publishing his surreal juxtapositions of people, animals, plants and objects. Topor seldom used words in his illustrations, leaving all power to the visual. In February 1962, Topor, Alejandro Jodorowsky, Olivier O. Olivier, Jacques Sternberg, Christian Zeimert, Abel Ogier and Fernando Arrabal founded the "Mouvement Panique" ("Panic Movement"). This collective focused on creating absurd and bewildering performances to reject the commercialization of surrealism. The founders created many provocative and surreal works in the next decade before Jodorowsky dissolved the movement in 1973. However, Topor continued making scandalous plays afterwards, including 'Le Bébé de Monsieur Laurent' (1975) and 'Vinci avait raison' (1976).
In print, Topor's history is legendary. In 1964 Topor published his debut novel 'Le Locataire Chimérique' ('The Tenant', 1964), a psychological horror story about a man moving in an apartment where he is gradually pestered into madness by the other inhabitants. The work was adapted to film in 1976 by Roman Polanski and both the book as well as the picture are cult classics to this day. His 1980s pamphlet '100 Bonnes Raisons Pour Me Suicider' ('100 Good Reasons To Commit Suicide') is another example of his taste for black comedy. The most unique and unusual book in Topor's oeuvre must be 'Souvenir' (1972), a kind-of Fluxus obscurity featuring a text with all the sentences scratched out to the point of being unreadable. When the artist was interviewed on Dutch television by Adriaan van Dis to read some extracts from it Topor accepted the request by holding his hand in front of his mouth and mumble through it. In 1966 Topor illustrated 'Topographie Anécdotée du Hasard' (Anecdoted Topography of Chance) by Swiss assemblage artist Daniel Spoerri. Following a rambling conversation with his friend Robert Filliou in 1961, Daniel Spoerri one day mapped the objects lying at random on the table in his room, adding a rigorously scientific description of each. These objects subsequently evoked associations, memories and anecdotes from both the original author and his friends Filliou, Emmett Williams, Dieter Roth and Roland Topor. Considered a "quasi-autobiographical tour de force", incredible book was published in 1966 by the Something Else Press in New York City. Topor added sketches of each object. Acknowledged as one of the most important and entertaining artists’ books of the postwar period, An Anecdoted Topography of Chance is a unique collaborative work by four artists associated with the Fluxus and Nouveau Réalisme movements.
Topor also had an interest in film. He designed the posters of movies such as 'L'Ibis Rouge' (1975), 'Ai no borei' ('The Empire of Passion', 1978) and 'Die Blechtrommel' ('The Tin Drum', 1979). His drawings can also be seen during the opening titles of Fernando Arrabal's experimental film 'Viva La Muerte' (1971) and during the magic lantern sequence in Federico Fellini's 'Il Casanova di Fellini' (1976). He also worked as an actor, appearing in Dusan Makavejev's 'Sweet Movie' (1974) and as Dracula's assistant Renfield in Werner Herzog's horror remake of 'Nosferatu' (1979). The latter film has also immortalized his notorious hysterical and chilling laugh.
Together with René Laloux, he created the animated shorts 'Les Temps Morts' (1964) and 'Les Escargots' ('The Snails', 1965) and the full length animated feature 'La Planète Sauvage' ('Fantastic Planet', 1973). The latter work was based on Stefan Wul's science fiction novel 'Oms en Série' and takes place on a surreal planet where gigantic blue aliens treat humans as pets. 'La Planète Sauvage' won the special jury prize at the Festival of Cannes and has achieved cult status over the years.
Topor was a frequent guest in the philosophical radio show 'Des Papous dans la tête' (1984) at France Culture. Together with his good friend and playwright Jean-Michel Ribes, he wrote scripts for the satirical TV sketch series 'Merci Bernard' (1982-1984) on France 3 and 'Palace' (1988-1989) on Canal +. They wrote the theatrical play 'Batailles' (1983) about people of different social classes stranded on a raft, which was a satirical allegory of capitalism. Another collaborative project was the comedy film 'La Galette du Roi' (1985). In 1975 he recorded an album with his Belgian friend Freddy De Vree called 'Panic (The Golden Years)'. It features Topor being interviewed by De Vree on the Flemish public radio channel BRT 3. Apart from talking he also recites some nonsensical songs, including the Dutch nursery rhyme 'Iene miene mutte' and the tongue twister 'De kat krabt de krullen van de trap.' Topor also wrote two songs, 'Je m'aime' and 'Monte dans mon ambulance', which were set to music by François d'Aime and recorded by Japanese singer Megumi Satsu in 1980.
In the 1980s, Topor published in Le Petit Psikopat Illustré, an alternative review, and also teamed up with Belgian film director Henri Xhonneux to create the cult children's series 'Téléchat', a news show featuring anthropomorphic animals and objects and marionets presenting news. The program received various awards, including the 1984 award for best French broadcast for children and adolescents at the Festival of Cannes. It was also nominated for an Emmy in 1985.
Topor and Xhonneux joined forces again in 1989 to create the film 'Marquis', which was loosely based on the life and work of the notorious Marquis de Sade. The actors performed in animal masks and De Sade's penis was made into a separate puppet with a human face and the ability to talk. Due to the unusualness of its execution it became a cult favorite.
Very good copy of first edition.
2019, English
Softcover, 144 pages, 29 x 20 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / as new
Published by
MACK / London
$480.00 - Out of stock
Sealed copy of the first edition of the highly sought-after Showcaller, the first photo book exploring the work of emerging artist Talia Chetrit. It brings together a broad range of her work made between 1994 and 2018 and is linked to a retrospective museum exhibition at the Kölnischer Kunstverein in early 2018. The title Showcaller is a theatrical term which references the performative aspects of Chetrit’s work, the power dynamic between subject and photographer, and, ultimately, between the photographer and her audience.
The earliest works included were made when Chetrit was a teenager and she adroitly collapses and shuffles images from across 24 years and neutralises the space between family portraits, teenage friends, intimate sex pictures, self-portraits, staged murder pictures, still-lives, and street photographs, to name just a few of the subjects and genres her work adopts. Her focus lies on researching and unveiling the basic social, conceptual and technical conditions of the genre of photography. Her work is imbued with a desire to control the physical and historical limitations of the camera, to trace its manipulative potential, and to question the relationship between photographer and subject.
Now out-of-print. As New, sealed copy.