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.
1991, English / German
Softcover, 200 pages, 25.5 x 21 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / good
Published by
Parkett / Zürich
$50.00 - Out of stock
1991 issue of Parkett (Vol. 30), deluxe issue created in collaboration with Sigmar Polke, lavishly illustrated with Polke's works alongside texts by Bice Curiger, Thomas McEvilley, Gary Garrels, Laszlo Glozer, Dave Hickey, Gabriele Wix, G. Roger Denson, Anne Rorimer, Laura Cottingham. And an Insert by Glenn Ligon. Spine by Niele Toroni. Additional texts are by Edward Leffingwell and Lawrence Weiner “When You Offer Stones You Get Stones,” Andrei Kowaljow “François Boucher.” Also feature articles: When You Offer Stones You Get Stones by Edward Leffingwell & Lawrence Weiner; François Boucher by Andrei Kowaljow; On curating exhibitions of site-specific public sculpture by Dan Cameron; Reflections on a space for creation by Gloria Moure; Michael Asher by Anne Rorimer; Overstepping, Les Infos du Paradis by Carin Kuoni; December, 1989: After the Fact by Richard Flood; and more.
Founded in the early 1980s in Zurich, with an office also in New York City, , Parkett was international art magazine that aimed to foster an open dialogue between the artistic communities of Europe and America, with the goal to actively and directly collaborate with important international artists whose oeuvre was explored in several essays by leading writers and critics in both German and English. By 2017, Parkett had published 100 volumes with some 180 monographs and over 1500 in-depth texts making it one of the most comprehensive libraries on contemporary art worldwide. Critics, curators, art historians, and other commentators join in the conversation contained within its pages. Many write on the collaborating artists; some write opinions under a variety of topic headings that recur issue to issue; others write on additional artists and ideas. The result is more of a curated event-between-covers than a typical art magazine with reviews and news items.
Average—Good copy with marking and wear.
2023, Japanese / English
Hardcover, 216 pages, 15 x 22 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / as new
Published by
Akaaka / Kyoto
$100.00 - In stock -
Photographer Masahisa Fukase (1934–2012) carved out a unique place in the history of Japanese photography in the 1960s by focusing on his personal life. He pointed his camera at those in his immediate surroundings: his wife, Yoko, his extended family, his cat. Yet, while exposing his own life through a loving gaze and carefree sense of humour, he simultaneously set about exploring the madness deep within himself. Fukase’s career was tragically cut short when he suffered a fall in 1992, subsequently suffering severe memory impairment and aphasia. He never took another photograph. This retrospective collection offers an intimate tribute to his entire oeuvre.
As New, now out-of-print.
1998, English / French
Softcover, 21.5 x 15.5 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Purple Institute / Paris
$280.00 - Out of stock
The scarce third issue (of eight total, published between 1998-2001) of Olivier Zahm's short-lived, erotically charged photography journal "Purple Sexe". This issue profusely illustrated throughout, containing portfolios by Anette Aurell, Vanessa Beecroft, Ben Cho, Claude Closky, Yasmine Eslami, Jason Farrer, Carolina Gonzales, Jamil Gs, Noritoshi Hirakawa, Bernadette Van-Huy, Richard Kern's photoshoot of Lucy McKenzie, Chris Moor, Justine Parsons, Jack Pierson, Terry Richardson, Katja Rahlwes, Francois Rotger, Gilles Tonelado, and more. Art Direction by Christophe Brunnquell.
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 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 and Purple Fashion. Purple Sexe remains one of the scarcest of the early Purple series', published in the same format as Purple Prose and Purple Fiction in late 1990s. A magazine devoted to sexuality, only 8 issues of Purple Sexe were ever published between 1998 - 2001, edited by Olivier Zahm and commencing the same year as Purple, which was a fusion of Purple Prose, Fiction, Fashion, and Sexe.
Very Good copy.
1999, English
Softcover, 21.5 x 15.5 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Purple Institute / Paris
$220.00 - Out of stock
The scarce fourth issue (of eight total, published between 1998-2001) of Olivier Zahm's short-lived, erotically charged photography journal "Purple Sexe". This issue profusely illustrated throughout, containing portfolios by Donald Christie, Mark Borthwick, Johnny Gembitsky, Terry Richardson, Katja Rahlwes, Marcelo Krasilcic, Martin Laporte, Jack Pierson, Thomas Schenk, Dike Blair, Richard Kern, and Viviane Sassen.
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 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 and Purple Fashion. Purple Sexe remains one of the scarcest of the early Purple series', published in the same format as Purple Prose and Purple Fiction in late 1990s. A magazine devoted to sexuality, only 8 issues of Purple Sexe were ever published between 1998 - 2001, edited by Olivier Zahm and commencing the same year as Purple, which was a fusion of Purple Prose, Fiction, Fashion, and Sexe.
Very Good copy.
1970
Hardcover, 80 pages, 30 x 30 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Heinz Peter / Berlin
$100.00 - Out of stock
The wonderful, cult 1970 "Vive Le Sex" photobook from Czech photographer, Ica Vilander, who is noted for being one of the few women to shoot nudes in the 1960s.
Vilander was born in 1921 in Brux, Czechoslovakia and later moved to Berlin in 1944, where she studied graphics and experimental photography. Working for the legendary Willy Fleckhaus designed Twen magazine, Vilander garnered a lot of attention internationally with her nude portraits and dynamic, graphic approach to photography, yet by 1980 she disappeared into photo history obscurity as she almost completely retired from public life. Her originals are very rare, as most were destroyed, but her wonderful published collections have become some of the more prized and elusive nude photobooks of the 1960s/1970s.
"Vive Le Sex", in its large square format and hardcover, is a perfect example of Vilander's joyous approach to photographing the nude male and female; mixing elements of collage with photography, dynamic cropping, and a free-spirited use of styling and props that reflected the hippie lifestyle that surrounded her family and friends, who were all regular subjects of her photos, alongside actors, musicians, artists.
First, only edition.
1972, English
Softcover (staple-bound w. card covers), 72 pages, 38.5 x 27.5 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Uitgeverij Bert Bakker / The Hague
$280.00 - Out of stock
The Virgin Sperm Dancer : An ecstatic journey of a boy transformed into a girl for one day only, and her erotic adventures in Amsterdam, magic centrum. This is the photographic story of Joop, a modern boy who wakes up one morning as Joopie, a succulent young lady who only has a day to enjoy the benefits of her new body before the metamorphosis is reversed. Joopie wastes no time and embarks on her erotic adventures, every step of which is documented in explicit detail. A rare, cult classic of the European sexual liberation movement of the early 1970's, conceived by the photographer Anna Beeke as an anti-pornographic statement and published as a special issue of Willem de Ridder's notorious and glorious "Suck" magazine.
"The makers of the Virgin Sperm Dancer cannot be held responsible for word burns and image jitters up to and including the first degree."
"The Virgin Sperm Dancer" features text by American expatriate and editor of Suck (as well as The Insect Trust Gazette, International Times, and The Fanatic) William Levy - known as the "Talmudic Wizard of Amsterdam", design by one of Holland's most innovative, risk taking designers, Beeke's husband Anthon Beeke, and wonderful black and white photographs Anna Beeke herself - credited as "Ginger Gordon". This joyous and provocative, uncensored and over-sized book is a tour of gender-bending counter-culture sex in and adjacent to Amsterdam's famed Vondelpark in 1972, complete with public sex and auto-eroticism, orgies and trans-sexual baked bread! "This charmingly liberated fairy story is gleefully hardcore - the point of the exercise, after all." — Martin Parr and Gerry Badger's "The Photobook: A History, volume III" (Phaidon Press, London, 2014). Also cited in Alessandro Bertelotti's "Books of Nudes" (Abrahams, New York, 2007).
Final instructions : "This is not a work of fiction or of one man. Keep your eye on it's bi-unity. I am smiling now. But if you don't think my story marvellous and you should happen to meet me, kindly pass as though we don't know each other."
"But for those readers with delicate lusts and whose curiosity reaches greater detail... When you finish this book roll the pages into thin tubes. Insert carefully into your rectal opening where this specially treated paper will dissolve and act as a chemical re-agent to push each and every word image into your blood-stream and finally into the deep memory of your brain... "
Very Good with light tanning and cover wear (some very small edge nicks and light creasing, pinching)
1990, Japanese
Softcover (w. dust jacket and obi strip), 269 pages, 13 x 21 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Ota Shuppan / Tokyo
$300.00 - In stock -
Rare first Japanese edition of Nobuyoshi Araki's most controversial book, and cited by Martin Parr and Gerry Badger (in The Photobook Vol.1) as Araki's best and most famous work. Includes original publisher's obi-strip issued with the first 1990 printing. Tokyo Lucky Hole is Araki's intimate document of Japan's sex industry in full flower. Before Shinjuku's infamous red-light district was closed in 1985, the Japanese photographer made this obsessive documentation of its every aspect: the pleasure-seekers and providers, street scenes, performances, peep-shows, parlours, parks, dungeons. Tokyo Lucky Hole reveals the core of Araki's art: the desire to create a portrait of Tokyo without the niceties (and prudishness) of convention. Through mirrored walls, bed sheets, bondage and orgies, this is the last word on an age of bacchanalia, infused with moments of humor, precise poetry, and questioning interjections. Text by Nobuyoshi Araki. Design by Katsumi Komagata.
Nobuyoshi Araki was born in Tokyo in 1940. Given a camera by his father at the ripe age of twelve, Araki has been taking pictures ever since. He studied photography and film at Chiba University and went into commercial photography soon after graduating. In 1970 he created his famous Xeroxed Photo Albums, which he produced in limited editions and sent to friends, art critics, and people selected randomly from the telephone book. Over the years, his bold, unabashed photographs of his private life have been the object of a great deal of controversy and censorship (especially in his native Japan), a fact that has not fazed the artist nor diminished his influence. To date, Araki has published over 400 books of his work.
Very Good copy with VG obi-strip.
1998, English / Japanese
2 vols. 106 pages/16 pages, 28 x 23 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Synergy Inc. / Tokyo
$140.00 - In stock -
First edition of this photographic survey of Daido Moriyama, published on the occasion of the 1998 retrospective exhibition at Tokyo's Parco Gallery. Long out-of-print, this evocative collection of photographic works by Moriyama spanning his entire career, 106 pages of almost entirely b/w photographs, with the exception of one colour plate, with an accompanying 16 page booklet essay in Japanese and English by art critic Sawaragi Noi, all housed in silver cardboard slipcase with embossed metal design, art directed and designed by Hideki Nakajima.
Very good copy with light wear.
2019, Japanese / English
Softcover, 80 pages, 18.3 x 30 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / fine
Published by
Akio Nagasawa Publishing / Tokyo
$200.00 - Out of stock
Beautiful limited edition of Mayfly, signed and numbered by Moriyama. Originally published in 1972 under the title Kagero, Mayfly is Daido Moriyama’s sole commission to produce a series of erotica. Mayfly is a series of Moriyama's "Kinbaku" photos that came about as a result of a collaboration with Dan Oniroku (1931-2011), author of S/M fiction whose books were often adapted into "pink" films produced by Nikkatsu studios, Japan’s oldest film studio. Kagero can be viewed as an extension of Provoke #2: Eros, an early landmark publication in Moriyama’s storied career.
"Traveling down memory lane and going back 50 years in time, I arrived at a small and nameless village at the cape of a certain peninsula. What I found there were five naked women, all equally tied up with ropes, and with dazed looks on their faces. So I got out my camera and spontaneously began to take photographs. It was a strange day; a day like an ephemeral vision."— Afterword by Daido Moriyama
While at a glance the work recalls the bondage photography of Nobuyoshi Araki, here runs perhaps a more sinister vein. This is not without reason, as Moriyama intended his pictures to represent the sadism of masculinity—clearly seen in scenes where male assistants tie their models in traditional Japanese bondage rope—and the inferiority complexes that often accompany such demands of domination. Here, Moriyama draws parallels between madness, libido, and ultimately, death. With these considerations in mind, the images have much in common with Hans Bellmer’s sculpture and drawings, and also sounds a resounding resonance with Marcel Duchamp’s final work, Étant Donnés. The parallel between nature and death remains constant, and it is without coincidence that the mayfly has often been used historically as a symbol of the ephemeral nature of life due to the insect’s extremely short lifespan. In this connection with both the pastoral and decay, Kagero bears some similarity to Sally Mann’s What Remains, an unsentimental observation of violence, death, and nature’s reclamation of the former. — publisher's blurb
Limited edition of 850 copies, this stunning edition comes wrapped in a card slipcase, within it a printed clamshell slipcase that opens to reveal 2 full pictures of 80 cm, housing the book, signed and numbered by Moriyama. Stunning.
1980, English / Japanese
Softcover (w. acetate jacket and obi-strip), 190 pages, 30 x 22 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Byakuya Shobo / Tokyo
$950.00 - In stock -
First edition. A seminal Japanese photo book and instant classic upon release, Flash up is one of the most remarkable photographic excursions into the seedy underbelly of 1970s Tokyo. Kurata (b. 1945—2020), one Japan’s formidable contemporary photographers who’s work is often referenced in the same circles as his "Provoke" teachers Daido Moriyama and Nobuyoshi Araki, won the fifth Kimura Ihei Award in 1980 for this, his first book, his acclaimed collection of photographs of creatures of the night — gangsters showing off their full-length tattoos, youth styling themselves after the Hells Angels, self-professed ultra-nationalists from the notorious Black Dragon Society, transvestites drawing in crowds of men, cabaret girls...
"The photographs of Seiji Kurata are striking for their violence. The viewer must be prepared to be hit by his flashgun along with the subjects. ‘Violence’, in this case, is not necessarily invoked by the scenes of blood-shed; rather, it is Kurata’s sharp-shooting ability to stop the flow of time, capture the moment, draw of details we would otherwise never see, then proffer them up before our eyes. Sometimes our response is to avert our eyes for fear of seeing too much. This is not to say that the images are not exaggerated; for after all, people tend only to see what they want to see. If there are those who find Kurata’s photographs ‘ugly’, it can only be said that he has succeeded in paradoxically pointing the finger at them: You who want to avoid ugliness, he says, this is reality and I have cut it out for you. [...] we must admit that the ugliness apparent in these photographs is our ugliness. Our failure to do so simply invites Kurata to deal us an extra-violent blow with his images."—Akira Hasegawa, from the afterword.
Included in Martin Parr & Gerry Badger, The Photobook, Vol. II.
Text in English and Japanese.
Very Good copy, wear and usual shrinkage to publisher's thick acetate dust jacket, VG original metallic obi-strip, Very Good book, light bump to one corner.
1987, Japanese / English
Softcover, 94 pages, 28 x 21 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Fiction Inc. / Tokyo
$100.00 - Out of stock
Stunning special edition of the great SALE2 periodical from Tokyo Japan, dedicated entirely to the work of fetish artist and publisher John Willie. This over-sized September 1987, no. 32, volume is profusely illustrated throughout with Willie's comic strips, photography, sketches, and his letters and writings, including fold-out photographic spreads. Perfectly compiled in the way SALE2 did so well, with elegant scrapbook style, dense with imagery, blown-up, full-bleed reproductions from many publications, alongside beautifully reproduced sequences and documents and first-time translations into Japanese. Littered with great Japanese adverts from the 1980s underground fetish scene too.
John Alexander Scott Coutts (1902 – 1962), better known by the pseudonym John Willie, was the artist, fetish photographer, editor, and publisher of the cult fetish magazine Bizarre. Born to a British family in Singapore, Coutts moved to Brisbane, Australia, in 1926, where he was introduced to the print media of a community of "shoe lovers" and fellow fetishists when he joined the High Heel Club. In Australia met his second wife, Holly Anna Faram, who shared an interest in bondage and high heels and became his muse and model. Through the club's mailing list, Willie was able to begin producing and selling his own illustrations and photography whilst working odd jobs, eventually establishing a company to produce exotic footwear, called "Achilles". In 1945, Willie moved to North America, while Holly chose to remain in Australia. First settling in Canada, it was here that he established his legendary Bizarre magazine, which ran from 1946 to 1959, introducing Willie to America's fetish underground. Willie is best known for his bondage comic strips, specifically "Sweet Gwendoline", which he drew in a distinct, now iconic style that influenced later artists such as Gene Bilbrew and Eric Stanton. Though distributed underground, Bizarre magazine and Willie's erotic art had a far-reaching impact on later fetish-themed publications and artists and experienced a resurgence in popularity, along with fetish model Bettie Page, beginning in the 1970s and 1980s, resonating to the current day.
Published regularly as a sort-of fanzine/journal/catalogue/pocket-book by Fiction, Inc., a specialty shop and publisher of fetish and erotica in Tokyo in the 1980-90s. Each issue covers different themes and features, heavy on fetishism.
Very Good copy, with some light wear to cover, inc. one crease to cover corner.
1969, Japanese
Softcover, 218 pages, 21 x 14.8 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / good
Published by
Misaki Shobo / Tokyo
$45.00 - Out of stock
Erotica September 1969, Japan's erotic magazine for bibliophiles, published in the 1960s—1970s by Misaki Bookstore. Each issue densely packed with illustrations, articles, news, and feature stories around the universe of Eros from around the world during a time of great sexual revolution. Covering all manner of sexual customs and subject matter from the arts and literature, film and manga, philosophy and radical politics, Erotica was Japan's leading erotic academic journal, featuring, amongst it's heavy historical and contemporary papers, the cutting-edge of Japanese and international erotic artists, from Hans Bellmer to Toshio Saeki.
Erotica September 1969 is themed "The Situation of Eros".
Good copy, wear/age.
1970, Japanese
Softcover, 250 pages, 21 x 14.8 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / good
Published by
Misaki Shobo / Tokyo
$30.00 - Out of stock
Erotica December 1970, Japan's erotic magazine for bibliophiles, published in the 1960s—1970s by Misaki Bookstore. Each issue densely packed with illustrations, articles, news, and feature stories around the universe of Eros from around the world during a time of great sexual revolution. Covering all manner of sexual customs and subject matter from the arts and literature, film and manga, philosophy and radical politics, Erotica was Japan's leading erotic academic journal, featuring, amongst it's heavy historical and contemporary papers, the cutting-edge of Japanese and international erotic artists, from Hans Bellmer to Toshio Saeki.
Erotica December 1970 is themed "The Eros of Theatre: The Aesthetics of Voluptuousness".
Good copy, light wear/age.
1994, Japanese
Softcover (w. dust jacket), 29.5 x 21 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Heart Deluxe / Tokyo
Outo Shobo / Tokyo
$400.00 - Out of stock
Very rare photo book by Japanese photographer Ikko Kagari, published in 1994 in Tokyo. Kagari made a number of these extraordinary, extremely questionable, surreptitious infrared photography collections in the 1980's—1990's, featuring secret "close-up photography" documenting clandestine sexual activities in public places — groping and upskirt photographs taken on packed Tokyo Metro commuter trains, in nightclubs, on escalators, couples making it in public toilets, parked cars and in parks with infrared strobe techniques reminiscent of Kohei Yoshiyuki's incredible Document Park *the two often featured side-by-side in books and journals). Chikan Rush (Molester Rush) is entirely made up of the infamous rush hour train carriage photography, and has become one of the most sought after. Cover-to-cover b/w reproductions of Kagari's grainy, blown-out infrared images that blur all lines between voyeur/participant and simulated/real, make for disorientating, sometimes claustrophobic, uneasy viewing. But they are also absolutely stunning, effective photo books that feel as conceptual as they do devious. Including many selections from Kagari's "Document Commuter Train" (1982), as featured in The Photobook: Vol. III, by Parr & Badger, Kagari's fleeting in flagrante scenes capture erotic desire and criminal impulse engulfed by the soft folds of entangled garment fabrics with stunning technique. He went so far as to publish a how-to book for amateurs! Thankfully the 2000s saw the introduction of women-only carriages on the Tokyo Metro, relegating such expertise to history.
NF copy with VG dust jacket. Only a small pressure mark to the back cover, otherwise Near Fine, beautifully preserved copy.
2005, Japanese
Softcover (w. dust jacket), 160 pages, 21.5 x 15.5 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / fine
Published by
Futami Shobo / Japan
$140.00 - Out of stock
Rare, controversial photo book of Ikko Kagari, publisher of a number of these extraordinary, extremely questionable, surreptitious infrared photography collections in the 1980's—1990's, including the controversial coveted classic "Molester Rush" and "Document Commuter Train". This 2005 collection was published by Futami Shobo, collecting his colour and b/w photography from the streets of Shinjuku and Kabuki-cho areas of Tokyo. Candid and voyeuristic, this is the side of Tokyo usually hidden from view — violence, despair, gluttony and perversion — street photography behind the veil. While many are sexual in nature, in the same vein as his earlier photo books documenting clandestine sexual activities in public places, others show various human dramas unfolding on the street, like unauthorised photo journalism capturing the violent and desperate side of Tokyo. Homicide, suicide, gang violence, overdoses and intoxication, homelessness... Human behaviour seldom published. File alongside the works of Kohei Yoshiyuki, Kiyotaka Tsurisaki, and ¡Alarma!.
Very Good—Near Fine copy.
1994, Japanese / English
Slipcase (w. obi), corrugated envelope, unpaginated book, 29.7 x 21 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
B-Sellers / Japan
$200.00 - Out of stock
First book edition of Scene of Death, a rare 1994 death photo collection, published by B-Sellers in Japan only, compiled by Noriaki Nakagawa, Hitomi Komukai, and Yoichi Shihata. An elaborate and beautiful production of the macabre. Housed in an illustrated slipcase with illustrated obi-strip and further within a stamped, labelled, corrugated envelope, housing the bound book containing 64 monochrome photographic plates reproducing images from "Atlas der Gerichtsmedizin", an absolutely fascinating collection by Weiman / Prokop, first published in 1963. Atlas der Gerichtsmedizin was originally a serious German scientific reference book for criminal investigators and those in the medical field — a photo book scrapbook of thousands of images of graphic human death scenes — suffocation and strangulation, drowning and death by water, death by burning and electrocution, crimes of passion, abuse and neglect, and more. In turn, this visual opus became a bible of reference imagery to a wave of musicians, artists and authors during the industrial avant-garde, from Throbbing Gristle to Paul Buck to Atrax Morgue. This meticulous and unique Japanese offering further influenced many Japanese artists in the 1990's.
"We believe the scenes of death is, in one sense, the most erotic of human nature. It is at the time of death that man no longer can attempt to control his inner self and therefore the real self appears vividly. Here we have opened the doors to a topic that is usually not only hidden but also shut out of the minds of man. Please share our excitement and take a glance into the world of hidden eroticism"—Scene of Death blurb.
Very Good copy throughout. some edge wear and damage to obi strip, light tanning to box.
1994 / 1995, Japanese / English
2 Vol. set, hardcovers (w. corflute envelope slipcases) in box, 196 + 182 pages, 32.5 x 23.5 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Sequoia / Tokyo
$500.00 - Out of stock
"I dedicate this book to all lives"
Very rare, highly collectible cult classic two-volume death photo book series, SCENE Vol. 1 and Vol. 2, published in 1994 and 1995 in Japan only. A lavish production, with both heavy books printed in hardcover filled with high-quality reproductions of anonymous, uncredited corpse photography, seemingly sociopolitical photo-journalism of human massacre stripped of text/language as a confronting stream of graphic images in conceptual photo book form. SCENE presents an unwavering, unapologetic exploration of a world usually hidden from view — the dead and death. Not for the faint of heart. Compiled by Kunio Shimizu and Yoichi Shibata for publisher Hirofumi Nagashima, each book is housed in elaborate button-and-tie-bound corflute envelopes, Vol. 1 in black, Vol. 2 in silver. Select plates have been featured in the pages of Kotaro Kobayshi’s underground publications TOO NEGATIVE and ULTRA NEGATIVE from the same period.
This extra special copy was issued as both volumes together in publisher's printed box with seldom seen single promo sheet included for each book (inserted into each book). The ultimate complete edition of this underground photo classic. HEAVY in every sense.
Both books 1990's dead stock with only standard storage wear from button-bind pressure to envelopes/wear to button metal, box with yellowed tape seal (opened) and general storage wear/age.
2024, English
Softcover, 104 pages, 26.6 x 22.8 cm
Published by
Walther König / Köln
$60.00 - Out of stock
“In early 2014, my father gave me a Polaroid camera that had been lying around his office unused for years and was set to be thrown out. The Polaroid Macro 5 was originally intended for dental and crime scene photography, but my own uses for the clunky device were unclear at first. Over the next few months, through experimentation and trial and error, a potential use gradually emerged. The camera quickly proved capable of capturing a feeling present in some of my (then) past images which I favoured most, but I was not able to readily recreate. The prior images captured ordinary materials or subjects, but resulted in images that appear elusive and abstract—transformed by the staging, the framing and the process of being photographed.”
Text and photographs by Yair Oelbaum.
Yair Oelbaum was born in 1988. He grew up in West Hempstead in Long Island and now lives in Milan, NY, where he works as a clinical social worker.
1992, Japanese
Hardcover (clothbound), 96 pages, 18 x 13.5 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / fine
Published by
Mole / Tokyo
$320.00 - Out of stock
Rare first edition of one of the greatest kinbaku photo books ever published, Bind by Akio Fuji. Published in 1992 by Mole Gallery, Tokyo, to accompany Fuji's exhibition of the same name, Bind is now a classic photo book of masterful aesthetic bondage photography, featuring the rope work of Chimo Nureki, gloriously reproduced in lush black and white plates bound in silver-foiled cloth hardcovers. Exquisite compositions capturing the two artists at the height of their powers, and an important book and exhibition for bringing the world of kinbaku to the recognition of the fine art world in Japan the 1990's.
Akio Fuji (b. 1959) is a pioneer of bondage photography in Japan, founding the legendary bondage enthusiast circle "Kinbiken" in Tokyo in 1985 with rope master Chimuo Nureki (who also produced the magazines Kitan Club and Uramado), developing into the cult kinbaku bulletin Kinbiken Communications, with core contributions by both Fuji and Nureki, Katsuya Kasui, Masami Akita (Merzbow), Yuri Sunohara, Asoji Muroi, Akira Minomura, and other members of the circle. The object of the group was to study the beauty of bondage, observing the techniques of master Nureki through a membership with one of the most distinctive facets of the club being that the bondage women participate as members themselves. Says Nureki, “One of the main reasons I started this circle was to provide a facility for masochistic women, who are often misunderstood and therefore despised.” Kinbiken Communications remain one of the most desirable kinbaku publications of this period, the photography from which is showcased here in Akio Fuji's debut collection, featured heavily in Masami Akita's compilation of the “History of Bondage Photography in Japan”.
Fine copy.
1972, Japanese
Softcover, 34 pages, 20 x 21.5 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Hanashi-no-Tokushu / Tokyo
$100.00 - In stock -
First edition of Japanese photographer Yoshihiro Tachiki's photo book "Erotica Larotica", published in 1972. This book is one of the early masterpieces of Tatsuki — a unique collaboration between the Austrian painter Dina Larot (b. Maria Elisabeth Lebzelten in 1942), a student of Kokoschka best-known for her paintings and drawings of "women" in Austria, and photographer Yoshihiro Tatsuki, best known for his photography of "women" in Japan. It consists of playful portraits and nudes of Lalo herself and her friends lavishly dressed and undressed photographed by Tachiki in Vienna, paired with SM-lesbian erotic drawings and paintings by Larot throughout, plus a few photographs from a Crazy Horse show in Paris in the mix.
Tatsuki was born into a family that operated an photographic portrait studio. While at Tokyo junior College of Photography, he exhibited photographs of his family at the Fuji Photo Salon. After graduation, he began working as a photographer at Ad Center under the art direction of graphic designer Seiichi Horiuchi. Tatsuki’s name entered the limelight when he was just 26 years old with the publication of "A Fallen Angel", an astonishing 56 pages feature of his photographs shots for Camera Mainichi. Since starting as a freelance photographer in 1969, he has worked on the front lines of the advertising, magazine, publishing, and motion picture industries. He has published a number of celebrated photo books on female subjects and is best-known for works such as GIRL, EVES, Private (Mariko Kaga), Aoi Toki, My America, and Portrait of Family.
Very Good copy in dust jacket. Light cover wear and pinch to spine, one page with crease to top corner.
1972, Japanese / English
Softcover (w. french folds and fold-out spreads), 160 pages, 22.8 x 29.8 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Ad Angen / Japan
$120.00 - In stock -
First 1972 edition of this erotic anthology from three important and provocative Japanese photographers from the time they were creating their most inspired work. Tatsuki is famous for his books Eves, Private (Mariko Kaga) and Girl (from the famous Chuo Koronsha series). Kanoh is famous for his books Shunga and the banned Fuck. Ichimura is famous for Salome and Come Up. All of these seminal works in Japanese photography were published in 1970 or 1971, as was this book, a collection that includes moments from some of the aforementioned works. The title indicates the uniting theme of the book - couples (and groups) in erotic scenes. Experts of the nude, the invited photographers here express Ukiyo-e's spring paintings through their own photographic visions of sexuality. Saturated and hypnotic, these psychedelic and dreamlike collections are joyous and occasionally confronting, surrealistic and occasionally grotesque, all vividly reproduced throughout with many gate-fold spreads. A great book.
Very Good copy.
1990, Japanese / French / English
2 volumes in cardboard slipcase (w. exhibition flyer); volume 1 68 pages (colour ill.) volume 2 196 pages (b/w ill.), 22.5 x 29.5 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / good
Published by
Sezon Museum of Art / Tokyo
$100.00 - Out of stock
Wonderful, visually exhaustive two-volume boxset catalogue for the traveling exhibition in Japan in 1990—1991, held on the centenary of Man Ray's birth.
Each volume of this Japanese publication on the American artist Man Ray serves as a wonderful index of his incredible lifetime of work. Born Emmanuel Radnitzky in 1890 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Man Ray was a renowned representative of avant-garde photography in the 20th century and is considered as the pioneer of Surrealist photography. A major contributor to the Dada and Surrealist movements, although his ties to each were informal, Man Ray produced major works in a variety of media including drawings, objects and films, but considered himself a painter above all. Volume One compiles many examples of his diverse non-photographic works, reproducing his many paintings, drawings, objects, prints and book editions in full colour. Volume Two (the heavier of the two volumes) focuses on his prolific photographic work, copiously illustrated with a huge catalogue of beautifully reproduced monochromatic works throughout his entire career — Paris, America, Dada, Surrealism and beyond — showcasing his significant contribution to the evaluation of photography as a form of modern art.
Accompanying texts by Merry Foresta, Lucien Treillard, Toshiharu Ito in Japanese, French and English. Primarily in Japanese language. Includes full biography, bibliography and catalogue of all works.
Good—VG copy. Light wear/age/foxing to slipcase and covers otherwise Very Good in general.
1991 exhibition flyer at Seibu laid in.
1970, English
Softcover (folio w. 37 loose leaf prints), 25.5 x 17.5 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
State University of New York Press / New York
The Art Gallery / Albany
$30.00 - Out of stock
Observation, a Magazine of the Visual Arts, Spring 1970, edited by Betsy Morris and Norah Wylie and published by SUNY at Albany/ The Art Gallery, Albany, New York. Observation is a visual survey of 37 (b/w w. one colour) prints of students and faculty at The State University of New York at Albany in 1970. Photography, ceramics, painting and print making, featuring the artworks of Shirley Penman, Helen Broc, Steven Lobel, et al.
Very Good copy with light general wear.
2024, English / French
Softcover, 296 pages, 13 x 19.6 cm
Published by
Éditions 1989 / Paris
$49.00 - In stock -
The first book devoted to the late African American writer and actress, Dorothy Dean, one of the few prominent African American women of New York City's bohemian heyday, close to Andy Warhol and Robert Mapplethorpe.
Edited by Anaïs Ngbanzo, this second release from Éditions 1989 features Dorothy Dean's unpublished writing and selected correspondence with Edie Sedgwick, Rene Ricard, and Taylor Mead, among other friends and artists. This volume also includes Dean's transcendent script of an unrealized film starring Factory actor, Ondine.
Lyrical, humorous, political, and brutally honest, Who Are You Dorothy Dean? is a tribute to one of the few prominent African American women of New York City's bohemian heyday.
Dorothy Dean (1932-1987) was an African American writer and actress. She entered the 1960s New York underground scene and quickly became one of its key, if overlooked, figures, starring in six of Andy Warhol's films and inspiring the likes of Robert Mapplethorpe and Robert Creeley. Presumably the first woman ever hired as fact-checker at The New Yorker, Dean held brief editorial and proofreading positions at publications such as Vogue before launching her very own bulletin of film reviews, the All-Lavender Cinema Courier, in 1976.
Texts by Dorothy Dean, Edie Sedgwick, Robert Creeley, Gerard Malanga, Rene Ricard, Taylor Mead, et al. Translated from the English (American) by Rachel Valinsky. Graphic design: Rick Myers.