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:
THU—SAT 12—6 PM
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
Pick-up orders can be collected in our bookshop during opening hours after order date. Please collect any Pick-up orders within 2 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. If you cannot make it in to the bookshop in this time-frame, please choose postage option.
Return Policy
All sales are final. We do accept returns (for refund or 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.
2024, English
Softcover, 352 pages, 25 x 19 cm
Published by
TGIGIFFY / UK
$85.00 $65.00 - In stock -
Huggy Bear was a UK riot grrrl band that existed from 1991-1994. Outcast and outraged, they made a howling, squalling mess of punk, all the menace and freedom of flocking birds. The handful of records, zines, and memories that document this brief, bonfire lifespan sketch a blueprint for how to be in the world, for how to understand the forces of capitalism and patriarchy and capitulation and still resist. Huggy Bear was a group that let things be complicated, that considered themselves complicit, but never took that as a reason to surrender. There’s no band more important.
Killed (of Kids) is a book by the five members of Huggy Bear. It reproduces all seven zines made by the band during their lifespan alongside photos, correspondence, flyers and ephemera from their three year existence. This archive is joined by new text drawn from two years of interviews with the band members, carefully assembled into an extensive dialogue about intention, surprise, distress, encouragement.
Throughout Huggy Bear’s lifespan, they rejected major label advances and shunned contact with the music press. Following the band’s final concert, the members largely withdrew from public life. The subsequent 30 years has seen their legend bloom. And just as the warnings and incitements of their music continue to grow in relevance, the curiosity and distortion has also grown. Killed (of Kids) documents the chances taken, the psychic drains, the unique connections and the aftermaths of Huggy Bear. The book is a real reflection of the sharp edges and dissatisfaction and love that has always lived in the songs and the words. It is not a “rock biography.” There’s no swagger or grand narrative. It’s all small delight and protective energy. Drastic liberation. A reiteration of Huggy Bear’s propositions: It is always possible for people to trust their collaborators. It is always possible to make a song (book/painting/poem/dance/etc) about something that you’ve never heard anyone make a song about before. It is always possible to refuse to answer their questions.
As New SALE item due to bumped corners from transit.
2025, English
Softcover, 460 pages, 26 x 20.3 cm
Published by
Primary Information / New York
$85.00 - In stock -
Started in 1989 by designer and writer Robert Ford, THING magazine was the voice of the Queer Black music and art scene in the early 1990s. Ford and his editors were part of the burgeoning House music scene, which originated in Chicago’s Queer underground, and some of the top DJs and musicians from that time were featured in the magazine, including Frankie Knuckles, Gemini, Larry Heard, Rupaul, and Deee-Lite. THING published ten issues from 1989-1993, before it was cut short by Ford’s death from AIDS-related illness. All ten issues of THING are collected and published here for the first time.
As House music thrived, THING captured the multidisciplinary nature of the scene, opening its pages to a wide range of subjects: poetry and gossip, fiction and art, interviews and polemics. The HIV/AIDS crisis loomed large in its contents, particularly in the personal reflections and vital treatment resources that it published. An essay by poet Essex Hemphill was published alongside the gossip columnist Michael Musto and Rupaul dished wisdom alongside a diary from the March on Washington for Lesbian, Gay, and Bi Equal Rights and Liberation. Joan Jett Blakk’s revolutionary presidential campaign is contained in these pages, as are some of the most underground, influential literary voices of the time, such as Dennis Cooper, Vaginal Davis, Gary Indiana, Marlon Riggs, David Wojnarowicz, and even David Sedaris.
THING was very much in dialogue with the club kids in New York and other Queer publishing ventures, but in many ways, it fostered an entirely unique perspective—one with more serious ambitions. In a moment when the gay community was besieged by the HIV/AIDS crisis and a wantonly cruel government, the influence and significance of this cheaply-produced newsprint magazine vastly exceeded its humble means, presenting a beautiful portrait of the ball and club culture that existed in Chicago with deep intellectual reflections. THING was a publication by and for its community and understood the fleetingness of its moment. To reencounter this work today, is to reinstate the Black voices who were so central to the history of HIV/AIDS activism and Queer and club culture, but which were often sidelined by white Queer discourse. In many ways, THING offered a blueprint for the fundamental role a magazine plays in bringing together a community, its tagline summing up the bold stakes of this important venture: “She Knows Who She Is.”
The magazine included contributions from Trent D. Adkins, Joey Arias, Aaron Avant Garde, Ed Bailey, Freddie Bain, Basscut, Belasco, Joan Jett Blakk, Simone Bouyer, Lady Bunny, Bunny & Pussy, Derrick Carter, Fire Chick, Chicklet, Stephanie Coleman, Bill Coleman, Lee Collins, Gregory Conerly, Mark Contratto, Dennis Cooper, Dorian Corey, Ed Crosby, The Darva, Vaginal Davis, Deee-Lite, Tor Dettwiler, Riley Evans, Evil, The Fabulous Pop Tarts, Mark Farina, Larry Flick, Robert Ford, Scott Free, David Gandy, Gemini, Gabriel Gomez, Roy Gonsalves, Chuck Gonzales, Tony Greene, André Halmon, Lyle Ashton Harris, Larry Heard, Essex Hemphill, Kathryn Hixson, Sterling Houston, Ishmael Houston-Jones, Gary Indiana, Candy J, Jamoo, Jazzmun, Gant Johnson, Owen Keehnen, Lady Miss Kier, Spencer Kincy, Iris Kit, Erin Krystle, Steve LaFreniere, Larvetta Larvon, Marc Loveless, Lypsinka, Malone, Marjorie Marginal, Terry A. Martin, Rodney McCoy Jr., Alan Miller, Bobby Miller, Michael Musto, Ultra Naté, Willi Ninja, Scott “Spunk” O’Hara, DeAundra Peek, Earl Pleasure, Marlon Riggs, Robert Rodi, Todd Roulette, RuPaul, Chantay Savage, David Sedaris, Rosser Shymanski, Larry Tee, Voice Farm, Lawrence D. Warren, Martha Wash, LeRoy Whitfield, Stephen Winter, David Wojnarowicz, and Hector Xtravaganza.
Managing Editors: James Hoff and Sam Korman
Designer: Rick Myers
Copy Editor: Allison Dubinsky
2025, English
Softcover, 412 pages, 20.2 x 15 x 20.2 cm
Published by
Blank Forms / New York
$65.00 - In stock -
This volume explores the early electronic work of French composer Éliane Radigue, whose radical approach to feedback, analog synthesis, and composition on tape has long evaded historical and technical interpretation. Combining key texts, newly translated primary documents, in-depth interviews, and commissioned essays, this compendium interrogates the composer's idiosyncratic compositional practice, which both embraces and confounds the iterative nature of magnetic tape, the subtleties of amplification, and the very experience of listening.
Among these entries is an in-depth overview by cellist Charles Curtis, a close collaborator of Radigue's, examining the composer's earliest experiments with feedback techniques and analog synthesis, her eventual shift to composing for unamplified instruments and live performers, and her unique aesthetic configurations of time and presence. A number of detailed conversations between the composer and researchers Georges Haessig, Patrick de Haas, Ian Nagoski, and Bernard Girard provide crucial insights into her working methods at different points throughout her career. Religious studies scholar Dagmar Schwerk reflects upon Radigue's profound 1988 synthesizer work, Kyema, in the context of Tibetan Buddhist thought and its history, while texts by musicians Daniel Silliman and Madison Greenstone examine, in notably different ways, the technical characteristics of Radigue's sound practice. Sketches for unrealized work, contemporary reviews, concert programs, and other ephemera mapping the performance history of Radigue's early work are presented together for the first time. The anthology concludes with a roundtable discussion between Curtis, Greenstone and Anthony Vine, untangling the knot of paradoxes at the center of Radigue's artistic practice to trace the thread of her continued "ethos of resistance."
1985, English
Hardcover (clothbound), 136 pages, 23.5 x 15.5 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Pendragon Press / New York
$180.00 - In stock -
Very rare first 1985 hardcover English translation of the thesis defence of Romanian-born Greek-French avant-garde composer Iannis Xenakis (1922—2001), tape recorded for a "Doctorat d'État" at the Sorbonne in Spring 1976 before composer Olivier Messiaen, art critic Michel Ragon, philosopher Olivier Revault d'Allonnes, philosopher Michel Serres, and philosopher Bernard Teyssèdre (all dialogues recorded within). Translated to English for the first time by Sharon Kanach.
In this fascinating essay Iannis Xenakis succeeds in unraveling the intricate web between the arts and sciences, thereby demonstrating their interdependency as in the components of an alloy. A complete list of works and bibliography are included. In this translation Xenakis explains not only his musical and theoretical writings - but also the role of mathematics as a philosophical catalyst in both his musical and architectural works. He discusses in detail his unique use of computers as a graphic tool in the composition of some of his scores. Unexpected aspects of his character are gracefully revealed in these highly readable exposés.
Xenakis is responding to a panel of noted French masters from the various disciplines in which he has worked and cleverly manages to answer specific questions in one field while simultaneously addressing perhaps less-initiated exponents from other, seemingly unrelated areas. He succeeds in unraveling the intricate web between the arts and sciences, thereby demonstrating their inter-dependency as in the components of alloys.
Very Good copy with some very light marks to cloth covers. Please note this is the first 1985 printing, rather than the later 1994 printing, also scarce.
1970, English
Softcover, 318 pages, 19.5 x 11.5 cm
Out of print title / used / good
Published by
Paladin / London
$25.00 - In stock -
1970 edition of this "brilliant inquiry into the psychology of artistic creativity ranges across the arts of cavemen and children, the music of Mozart and John Cage, the painting of Michelangelo and Robert Rauschenberg. It examines the role of the unconscious critical processes in the formal organisation of a work of art, and traces a central theme, that of the 'dying god', the psychological core of our greatest literature, painting and music."
"This is one of the most intelligent books ever written about the psychology of artistic creativity, and it is as relevent to the present situation of psychology as it is to the present situation of art... I know of no other book which so much conduces to a reasoned optimism about the future of art and, indirectly, about the future of human affairs."—John Russell SUNDAY TIMES
"... the fruits of a lifetime's rigorous thought and research... an important book, likely to have a permanent place alongside the work of E. H. Gombrich... outstanding virtues as a pioneer in the theory and understanding of art."—Anthony Curtis SUNDAY TELEGRAPH
G—VG copy, general wear and toning.
1974, English
Hardcover (w. dust jacket), 125 pages, 22 x 14 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Latimer / London
$300.00 - In stock -
Rare first 1974 hardcover edition of Stockhausen Serves Imperialism by Cornelius Cardew, published by Latimer, London.
The American composer and writer John Cage, born 1912, and the German composer Karlheinz Stockhausen, born 1928, have emerged as the leading figures of the bourgeois musical avant-garde. They are ripe for criticism. The grounds for launching an attack against them are twofold: first to isolate them from their respective schools and thus release a number of younger composers from their domination and encourage these to turn their attention to the problems of serving the working people, and second, to puncture the illusion that the bourgeoisie is still capable of producing “geniuses.” —Cornelius Cardew
Originally published in 1974, Stockhausen Serves Imperialism is a collection of essays by the English composer Cornelius Cardew that provides a Marxist critique of two of the more revered avant-garde composers of the post-war era: Karlheinz Stockhausen and John Cage.
A former assistant to Stockhausen and a champion of Cage in England, Cardew provides a cutting rebuke of the composers’ works and ideological positions, which he saw as reinforcing an imperialist order rather than spotlighting and serving the struggles of the working class. The author also provides constructive criticism of his contemporaries Christian Wolff and Frederic Rzewski for utilizing politically progressive content, yet failing to work in a musical form that would appeal to the proletariat. Cardew’s music does not escape his own scrutiny: the book contains critiques and repudiations of his canonical compositions from the 1960s and early 1970s, Treatise and The Great Learning. After abandoning the avant-garde, Cardew devoted his work to the people’s struggle, creating music in service of his radical politics until his mysterious death in 1981.
Very Good copy in VG dust jacket. Light tanning to jacket, internally tanned due to paper type. Beautifully preserved unread copy.
2009, English / Spanish
Hardcover (w. dust jacket), 199 pages, 31 x 26 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / as new
Published by
MoMA / New York
Museo Nacional Centro De Arte Reina Sofia / Madrid
$65.00 $50.00 - In stock -
First edition hardcover comprehensive catalogue on the avant-garde Latin American artists León Ferrari and Mira Schendel, published on the occasion of the major travelling exhibition organised by Luis Pérez-Oramas at MoMA, New York; Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid; and the Fundação Iberê Camargo, Porto Alegre, 2009—2010. Profusely illustrated with essays by Luis Perez-Oramas, Andrea Giunta, and Rodrigo Naves.
León Ferrari (Argentine, b. 1920) and Mira Schendel (Brazilian, b. Switzerland, 1919–1988) are considered among the most significant artists working in Latin America during the second half of the twentieth century. Their works address language as a major visual subject matter: the visual body of language, the embodiment of voices as words and gestures, and language as a metaphor of the worldly aspect of human existence through the eloquence of naming and writing. They produced their works in the neighboring countries of Argentina and Brazil throughout the 1960s and 1980s, when the question of language was particularly central to Western culture due to the central role taken by post-structuralism, semiotics, and the philosophy of language. Although their drawings, sculptures, and paintings are contemporary with the birth of Conceptualism, they are distinctively different, and have not yet been exhibited in their entirety in the United States.
As New.
1989 / 1994, English
Softcover, 47 pages, 27.5 x 21 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / good
Published by
MediaKaos / San Francisco
Alecto Enterprises / San Francisco
$200.00 - In stock -
Very rare 1994 MediaKaos/Alecto Enterprises edition of Esoterrorist: Selected Essays 1980-1988 by Genesis P-Orridge, first published in 1989 by OV-Press in a limited edition of 500 copies. Thick screen-printed recycled cardboard covers. “The ideas of Genesis P-orridge, founder and spokesman of the legendary Throbbing Gristle and Psychic TV, are exposed for the first time. Genesis expands upon the theories on music, control, behavior, and the occult as introduced by the Temple ov Psychic Youth. No library of contemporary culture or the occult is complete without this revolutionary, revelationary work!”
Heavily illustrated throughout with Genesis' collage artworks and other illustrations.
"ESOTERRORIST is the product of one Brain's fascinating roller coaster ride along the fringes of culture and sexuality, a virtual mapping of the evolution of an ORIGINAL Cyber-Shaman. Genesis lets us assume that every "thing" is interconnected, interactive, interfaced and intercultural. His essays are all ways experimental, in that thee potential results are not a given, SPLINTERING consensual realities to TEST their substance utilising thee tools ov collision, collage, coumposition. decomposition, progression systéms, "random" chance, juxtaposition, cut-ups, hyperdelic vision and any other method available that melts linear conceptions and reveals holographic webs and fresh spaces. Genesis exposes control systems, explores the recesses of our psyches and leaps tall buildings in a single bound! Genesis uses X-ample to X-plain multi-faceted ideas, meditations, alternatives and processes that Individuals can use to X-termmate control. A "must read" for all trance/ dance/virtual/shamanic/multimedia/flux/tantrik/chaos/ processers, as well as everytwo else. I can think of no other contemporary book that packs more speculation per page. If you read only one book this year, make it this one and become an interactive particle in the ESOTERRORIST web so you WILL continue to exchange information instantaneously regardless of any separation in Time and Space. ESOTERRORIST is a living tome of contemptiorary, post-ritualised fundamentals whose words fuse into the very being ov the reader. Trans-form & Trans-gress within the fabric of ESOTERRORIST.
Joe Matheny; Timothy Leary; Genesis P-Orridge; Joe Rapoza.....?"
(from the back cover)
Good copy with general light tanning and handling wear and pinching creases to thick printed boards. Fragile binding on this edition but this copy all still nicely bound and no loose pages, which is rare.
1997, English
Softcover, 288 pages, 28 x 22 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
UNSW Press / Sydney
$140.00 - In stock -
First and only edition of the book of the Ubu Films group. Formed by Albie Thoms, David Perry, Aggy Read and John Clark in Sydney 1965, it was Australia's first group devoted to making, exhibiting and distributing experimental films. Throughout the 1965-1970 period, Ubu produced Australia's first lightshows, published this country's first underground newspaper (Ubunews), and persistently advocated for the reform of censorship laws and the need for government support for the arts.
Flamboyant, controversial and resolutely independent, Ubu Films instigated an extensive network of Australia's underground activity at aa time when Australia's cultural and political landscape was in transition. For only a brief period, Ubu established a viable proposition that film, performance, painting and political action could coalesce into a vibrant interactive community. What follows is the story of its rise and fall.
Reproducing Ubu ephemera (posters, programmes, handbills, Ubunews articles and newspaper pages), countless newspaper and magazine articles, reviews and cartoons advocating and denouncing the many activities (film, performance, music, publishing, etc.) of Ubu, legal documents, behind the scenes photography, film-stills, biographies, film lists and intimate reflections - this amazing, visually-dense and informative chronological volume that is essential reading for anyone interested in Australia's history of underground film, but also for independent film-making in general.
Edited by Peter Mudie.
Peter Mudie is a Canadian born filmmaker, artist and academic. Previously a member of filmmaker cooperatives in London, Toronto and Vienna, he has exhibited his work in galleries and film festivals around the world since 1980. He has written a number of monographs on avant-garde and experimental film (including Dusting the Other; Albie Thoms and David Perry: Films/Dialogues; Below the Centre/ Unterhalb des Mittelpunkts; and Michael Snow: Filmworks). He has presented a number of international touring film exhibitions, in Australia and overseas ―― currently he lives in Perth and lectures in Fine Arts at the University of Western Australia.
Very Good copy.
1982, Japanese
Softcover (w. obi), 198 pages, 21.2 x 14.7 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
JICC Publishing Bureau / Japan
$200.00 - In stock -
Very rare copy of the 1982 Japanese-only LONDON BOOK, researched and photographed by Naoya Nakamura, published in Japan by JICC shuppan. Wrapped in bi-lingual cover adorned with Annabella Lwin of Bow Wow Wow, the London Book is a rare time capsule and guide-book of photographs and interviews (Derek Jarman, Anton Corbijin, Malcolm McLaren, etc.) covering the London post punk scene, divided in various essential categories — film, music, fashion, art, drugs, sex — introducing all the record stores, fashion boutiques, sex shops, night clubs, pubs, markets, cafes, magazines, etc. (Rough Trade, Club for Heroes, World's End, Frisco...) and snapping all the shop assistants, punters, protagonists and London youth, from Oxford Street, Hackney, Notting Hill.... Packed with clippings, archival artwork, advertising, behind the scene photographs (shop interiors, design studios...), maps and directories.
Very Good copy with light tanning/discolouration with rarely preserved publisher's obi (Good with some spine wear and fading)
2024, English
Softcover, 176 pages, 21.4 x 14.6 xcm
Published by
The New York Review of Books / New York
$38.00 $22.00 - In stock -
An illuminating selection of writings on a wide variety of topics—everything from technique, music theory, and daily routine to spirituality and systemic racism—from the personal journals of Sonny Rollins, master of the tenor saxophone and "jazz's greatest living improviser" (The New York Times).
Sonny Rollins is one of the towering masters of American music, a virtuoso of the saxophone, and an unequaled improviser whose live performances are legendary and who has reshaped modern jazz time and time again over the course of a career lasting more than sixty years. A turning point in that legendary career came in 1959, when Rollins stepped back from performing and recording to begin a new regime of musical exploration, which saw him practicing for hours, sometimes all through the night, on the Williamsburg Bridge. This was also the moment when he started the notebook that would become a trusted companion in years to come-not a diary so much as a place to ponder art and life and his own search for meaning in words and in images.
At once quotidian and aphoristic, the notebooks mingle lists of chores and rehearsal routines with ruminations on nightclub culture, racism, and the conundrums of the inner life. And always there is the music-questions of embouchure, fingering, and technique; of harmony and dissonance; of his own and others' art and the art of jazz. "Any definition," Rollins insists, "which seeks to separate Johann Sebastian Bach from Miles Davis is defeating its own purpose of clarification. . . .The Musings of Miles is then the Bouncing of Bach both played against each other."
Edited and introduced by the critic and jazz scholar Sam V.H. Reese, The Notebooks of Sonny Rollins provides an unequaled glimpse into the mind and workshop of a musical titan, as well as a wealth of insight and inspiration to readers.
2025, English
Softcover, 200 pages, 20.3 x 12.7 cm
Published by
Semiotext(e) / Los Angeles
$38.00 - In stock -
A masterful study of the elusive French composer, on the centenary of his death.
Composer, pianist, and writer Erik Satie was one of the great figures of Belle Époque Paris. Known for his unvarying image of bowler hat, three-piece suit, and umbrella, Satie was a surrealist before surrealism and a conceptual artist before conceptual art. Friend of Cocteau and Debussy, Picabia and Picasso, Satie was always a few steps ahead of his peers at the apex of modernism. There's scarcely a turn in postwar music, both classical and popular, that Satie doesn't anticipate. Moving from the variety shows of Montmartre's Le Chat Noir to suburban Arcueil, from the Parisian demimonde to the artistic avant-garde, cult critic Ian Penman's masterful Erik Satie Three Piece Suite is an exhilarating and playful three-part study of this elusive and endlessly fascinating figure, published to mark the centenary of Satie's death.
1973, English
Softcover (staple-bound), 30 pages, 25.5 x 18 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / good
Published by
Universal Edition / London
$35.00 - Out of stock
1973 Universal Edition publication of Morton Feldman's "The Viola in My Life (IV)", commissioned for the Venice Biennale 1971.
The cycle The Viola in My Life was begun in July 1970 in Honolulu (composed especially for Karen Phillips, resident performer at Hawaii University) and consists of individual compositions utilising various instrumental combinations with the viola.
“The compositional format is quite simple. Unlike most of my music, the complete cycle of The Viola in My Life (I-IV) is conventionally notated as regards pitches and tempi. I needed the exact time proportions underlying the gradual and slight crescendo characteristic of all the muted sounds the viola plays. It was this aspect that determined the rhythmic sequence of events.” (Feldman)
The attention demanded by Feldman’s music – so soft that it can almost not be heard – is so uniform that it suggests the idea of a surface. We are never quite sure where the sounds are coming from. Time, articulated in most music by rhythm, is perceived as being static. Each sound floats in space, is entirely independent of what has gone before and what has yet to come. Sounds do not progress but merely accumulate in the same place.
The Viola in My Life is a gorgeous succession of delicate sounds in which Feldman, through the interaction of sound and silence, conjures up a desolate magic on a plane where time is somehow altered, transformed.
Morton Feldman (1926-1987) was one of the most original composers of the 20th century, a member of the so-called New York School of composers which also included John Cage, Christian Wolff, and Earle Brown. He was also connected to painters, writers, and poets of the New York School as well, including Mark Rothko, Philip Guston and Franz Kline, Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, and notably Frank O'Hara. Throughout his career he attempted to locate sound at the moment the listener becomes conscious of its presence. Focusing on the listener's attention on the sounds themselves, Feldman created the "marvelous illusion" of sounds shaping into coherent music through the act of perceiving them, rather than through the act of composing. Each work appears to assemble itself for the listener as they experience it.
Good—VG copy with light handling/pinching wear, tanning, some rust staining from paperclip to the top of score from by performer, likely previous owner Australian composer of concert, jazz, and commercial music, Donald Banks (1923—1980). Banks studied composition privately with Mátyás Seiber in the UK, was associated with Gunther Schuller, Tubby Hayes, Milton Babbitt and Luigi Dallapiccola, scored Hammer horror films, and, back in Australia during the 1970s, was Head of Composition and Electronic Music Studies at the Canberra School of Music and Head of the School of Composition Studies at the New South Wales Conservatorium of Music.
1987, English
Softcover (staple-bound), 50 pages + program ephemera, 27.5 x 21 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / good
Published by
Performing Arts / Los Angeles
$60.00 - Out of stock
Special John Cage Celebration/Los Angeles Festival issue of Performing Arts Magazine, September 1987. Most of the magazine is dedicated to a huge program feature on the Celebration for John Cage event on the occasion of his 75th birthday with the participation of John Cage, Morton Feldman, Merce Cunningham, Herbert Henck, Malcolm Goldstein, Joel Abdella, John Bergamo, Stephen L. Mosko, David Tudor, John Wyre, Michael Marks, Joan La Barbara, Jim Hildebrandt, Stuart Fox, Julie Feves, Sharon Schroeder, Todor Pelev, Vicky Velich, Frans van Rossum, William Powell, Takehisa Kosugi, Gaylord Mowrey, Matthew Cooker, Bob Becker, Pam Henderson, Vanessa Kibbe, Miles Anderson, Susan Allen, David Stenske, Jeff von der Schmitt, Eeda Kitto, Ed Mann, Bryan Pezzone, Florence Titmus, William Cahn, Frances Moore, Laura Kuennen, Novi Novog, Michele Rudnick, M. C. Richards, Lynn Grants, Nicholas England, Ken Larson, Erika Duke, Robin Engelman, Sheri Wright, Patrick Neher, Grete Sultan, Michael Pugliese, Rachel Rudich, Lynn Angebrandt, Larry Stein, Cynthia Blackstone, Ruth Johnson, Jesse Read, Jeffrey Gauthier, Gregg Johnson, Louis Fudale, Russell Hartenberger, Laura Kuhn, Lucille Botte, Jerry Danielson, L. Winn Le Vert, Kurt Snyder... Includes a overview of Cage by Dutch musicologist and dean of music at California Institute Of The Arts (1983-1990), Frans Van Rossum, along with accompanying texts for each composition performed with biographies for each performing artist, a Cage chronology, discography, full list of compositions, Cage artworks, writings and much more, all illustrated with photographs. There is also additional magazine contents featuring Maguy Marin, The Wooster Group, Michael Clark, Morton Subotnick's electronic opera, "Hungers", and much more related to the festival.
Bonus inclusion of a fold-out durational program for the John Cage "musicircus" event at The Embassy Theatre, Saturday September 12, 1987: "90 Performances Live and Recorded; 188 Minutes" and a program update for the performance of Cage's "Inlets" due to the sudden passing of Morton Feldman ("No one can replace Morton Feldman"). All related to the same Cage celebration.
Average—Good copy w. rubbing to magazine cover and pulling at staples, still all intact w. clean contents and inserts.
2007, English
Softcover, 99 pages, 23 x 30 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Miguel Abreu Gallery / New York
$190.00 - In stock -
Incredible, long out-of-print catalogue published on the occasion of Agapē, organized by Alex Waterman at Miguel Abreu Gallery June 3 – July 28, 2007, an exhibition of experimental music scores and an accompanying concert series that will address aspects of the social acts of translation and collective interpretation in musical performance. The show will feature a sequence of scores marking the evolution of notation in music, spanning from Anna Magdalena Bach’s unaccompanied cello suites to the long awaited Trios WHITE ON WHITE by Robert Ashley (1963). Printed by Will Holder in consultation with Alex Waterman, this work will be, for the first time, both formed and performed as originally intended by Ashley.
Throughout the two-month event, each score appearing on the gallery walls will be performed in a series of scheduled concerts. The performances will engage the task of reading in relation to the various acts of writing, composing, translating, and committing works to memory. The aural tradition and story-telling will also be explored in addition to issues pertaining to editing, copying, and the transmission /performance of scores and written words. On July 28th, the exhibition will close with The Bachelor Party, an evening led by Will Holder celebrating the 120th birthday of Marcel Duchamp.
Among Alex Waterman’s guests will be experimental cellist, Charles Curtis; Fluxus artist, Alison Knowles; language poet and political economist, Bruce Andrews; writers, designers and publishers, Will Holder and Stuart Bailey; poet and sound artist, Chris Mann as well as composers Christian Wolff, Anthony Coleman, Pauline Oliveros and Robert Ashley.
With contributions by Robert Ashley, Alex Waterman, Bruce Andrews, John Law, Charles Curtis, Elaine Radigue, Christian Wolff, The Brothers Grimm, Herbert Read, Frances Stark, James Saunders, Cornelius Cardew, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Will Holder, Alvin Lucier, Chris Mann and others.
"Agape is the drawing together of poets, philosophers, writers, composers, and musicians in an attempt to address the role of reading as a social act through an exhibition and concert series."—from the preface by Alex Waterman
"[A] composition is not an end product, not in itself a useful commodity. The end-product of an artist’s work, the ‘useful commodity’ in the production of which he plays a role, is ideological influence… The production of ideological influence is highly socialized involving (in the case of music), performers, critics, impresarios, agents, managers, etc., and above all (and this is the artist’s real ‘means of production’) an audience…"—Cornelius Cardew
Very Good copy. Tanning to page edges due to paper type.
2025, English
Softcover, 92 pages, 25 x 17 cm
Published by
Self Published / Melbourne
$40.00 - In stock -
A white motel on a stretching red dirt bordered highway, its edges are rounded and key lime curtains are trimmed with 90’s lint. I wish she was wearing a light blue midi linen skirt and white collared boxed sleeve shirt, hidden by a simple white apron, but really, Kmart leggings and a daily washed flannel shirt. At night, before 4 pints of Carlton she rustles her tired legs into a mini skirt and slips freshly rinsed feet into the leather upper sole of pumps borrowed from the lovely box blonde in Room 203.
Just borrowing, borrowing a few other things too.
She is paid to clean and wipe and dust but she is drawn to a kind of collecting, a hoarding of whatever information can be found in the salmon silk lining of a businessman’s suitcase.
—Text by Lili Ward
𝑆𝑒𝑡 𝑖𝑛 𝑎 𝑚𝑜𝑡𝑒𝑙 𝑖𝑛 𝑟𝑒𝑔𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑎𝑙 𝐴𝑢𝑠𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑙𝑖𝑎, 𝑂𝑛𝑙𝑦 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑆𝑢𝑟𝑓𝑎𝑐𝑒 𝑖𝑠 𝑎 𝑐𝑜𝑙𝑙𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑜𝑓 𝑗𝑜𝑢𝑟𝑛𝑎𝑙 𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑟𝑖𝑒𝑠, 𝑖𝑙𝑙𝑢𝑠𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑠 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑓𝑖𝑙𝑚 𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑙𝑙𝑠 𝑏𝑦 𝑎𝑛 𝑢𝑛𝑛𝑎𝑚𝑒𝑑 𝑐𝑙𝑒𝑎𝑛𝑒𝑟. 𝑇ℎ𝑟𝑜𝑢𝑔ℎ 𝑎 𝑠𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑒𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑓𝑟𝑎𝑛𝑘 𝑣𝑖𝑔𝑛𝑒𝑡𝑡𝑒𝑠, 𝑡ℎ𝑒 ℎ𝑜𝑡𝑒𝑙 𝑏𝑒𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑠 𝑎 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑑𝑢𝑖𝑡 𝑓𝑜𝑟 ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑖𝑛𝑛𝑒𝑟 𝑤𝑜𝑟𝑙𝑑, ℎ𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑙𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑡𝑒𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑦 𝑡𝑜 𝑛𝑎𝑟𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑣𝑖𝑠𝑒 𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑙𝑖𝑣𝑒𝑠 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑙𝑖𝑣𝑒𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑜𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑟𝑜𝑢𝑔ℎ 𝑜𝑏𝑗𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑠. 𝑇ℎ𝑟𝑜𝑢𝑔ℎ 𝑎 𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒 𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑜𝑛𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑔𝑢𝑒𝑠𝑡𝑠, 𝑠ℎ𝑒 𝑤𝑎𝑡𝑐ℎ𝑒𝑠 𝑎 𝑓𝑖𝑙𝑚 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑎𝑙𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑠 ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑠𝑝𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑣𝑒. 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑗𝑜𝑢𝑟𝑛𝑎𝑙 𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑠 𝑎𝑠 𝑎 𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑐𝑒𝑎𝑏𝑙𝑒 𝑚𝑎𝑝 𝑜𝑓 𝑢𝑛𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑠𝑐𝑖𝑜𝑢𝑠 𝑠𝑦𝑚𝑏𝑜𝑙𝑠 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑠𝑦𝑛𝑐ℎ𝑟𝑜𝑛𝑖𝑐𝑖𝑡𝑦.
Book by Isabella Martin and Lola Hewison
2025, English
Softcover + compact disc, 92 pages, 25 x 17 cm
Published by
Self Published / Melbourne
$50.00 - In stock -
A white motel on a stretching red dirt bordered highway, its edges are rounded and key lime curtains are trimmed with 90’s lint. I wish she was wearing a light blue midi linen skirt and white collared boxed sleeve shirt, hidden by a simple white apron, but really, Kmart leggings and a daily washed flannel shirt. At night, before 4 pints of Carlton she rustles her tired legs into a mini skirt and slips freshly rinsed feet into the leather upper sole of pumps borrowed from the lovely box blonde in Room 203.
Just borrowing, borrowing a few other things too.
She is paid to clean and wipe and dust but she is drawn to a kind of collecting, a hoarding of whatever information can be found in the salmon silk lining of a businessman’s suitcase.
—Text by Lili Ward
𝑆𝑒𝑡 𝑖𝑛 𝑎 𝑚𝑜𝑡𝑒𝑙 𝑖𝑛 𝑟𝑒𝑔𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑎𝑙 𝐴𝑢𝑠𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑙𝑖𝑎, 𝑂𝑛𝑙𝑦 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑆𝑢𝑟𝑓𝑎𝑐𝑒 𝑖𝑠 𝑎 𝑐𝑜𝑙𝑙𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑜𝑓 𝑗𝑜𝑢𝑟𝑛𝑎𝑙 𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑟𝑖𝑒𝑠, 𝑖𝑙𝑙𝑢𝑠𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑠 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑓𝑖𝑙𝑚 𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑙𝑙𝑠 𝑏𝑦 𝑎𝑛 𝑢𝑛𝑛𝑎𝑚𝑒𝑑 𝑐𝑙𝑒𝑎𝑛𝑒𝑟. 𝑇ℎ𝑟𝑜𝑢𝑔ℎ 𝑎 𝑠𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑒𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑓𝑟𝑎𝑛𝑘 𝑣𝑖𝑔𝑛𝑒𝑡𝑡𝑒𝑠, 𝑡ℎ𝑒 ℎ𝑜𝑡𝑒𝑙 𝑏𝑒𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑠 𝑎 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑑𝑢𝑖𝑡 𝑓𝑜𝑟 ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑖𝑛𝑛𝑒𝑟 𝑤𝑜𝑟𝑙𝑑, ℎ𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑙𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑡𝑒𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑦 𝑡𝑜 𝑛𝑎𝑟𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑣𝑖𝑠𝑒 𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑙𝑖𝑣𝑒𝑠 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑙𝑖𝑣𝑒𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑜𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑟𝑜𝑢𝑔ℎ 𝑜𝑏𝑗𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑠. 𝑇ℎ𝑟𝑜𝑢𝑔ℎ 𝑎 𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒 𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑜𝑛𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑔𝑢𝑒𝑠𝑡𝑠, 𝑠ℎ𝑒 𝑤𝑎𝑡𝑐ℎ𝑒𝑠 𝑎 𝑓𝑖𝑙𝑚 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑎𝑙𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑠 ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑠𝑝𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑣𝑒. 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑗𝑜𝑢𝑟𝑛𝑎𝑙 𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑠 𝑎𝑠 𝑎 𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑐𝑒𝑎𝑏𝑙𝑒 𝑚𝑎𝑝 𝑜𝑓 𝑢𝑛𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑠𝑐𝑖𝑜𝑢𝑠 𝑠𝑦𝑚𝑏𝑜𝑙𝑠 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑠𝑦𝑛𝑐ℎ𝑟𝑜𝑛𝑖𝑐𝑖𝑡𝑦.
Book by Isabella Martin and Lola Hewison
Includes accompanying limited edition compact disc of imagined soundtrack to the film in the book by Fin Healy, Raven Mahon, Lola Hewison, Isabella Martin; Mastered by Raven Mahon and Mikey Young.
2003, English
Softcover (staple-bound), 88 pages, 28 x 21.5 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
e/i / New Jersey
$20.00 - In stock -
Second issue of e/i magazine, featuring Evan Parker, Zoviet France, 808 State, Mother Mallard (David Borden etc.), canadian electronica, Robert Moog, Electric Birds, Pulseprogramming, 150+ reviews, and more.
e/i magazine was a glossy print electronic music magazine published out of New Jersey between 2003—2006. "e/i was an attempt to establish on the newsstand what I hoped would be the most comprehensive, definitive, intelligently written and artfully designed magazine covering all manners of music electronic, experimental and otherwise. Our editorial mandate was to shatter genre margins while encompassing the past, the present and the future, extolling a broad swathe of artists who challenged the very notions of sound and vision."
VG copy with some light wear/spine pinching.
1996, English
Softcover (staple-bound), 82 pages, 29.5 x 21 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / good
Published by
Immerse / London
$40.00 - In stock -
Rare first issue of Immerse magazine from London, featuring Controlled Bleeding, Autechre, Tomato vs Underworld, Shinjuku Thief, Meat Beat Manifesto, Staalplaat, Download, Jenny Randles (former British UFO Research Association), Stan Brakhage, cryptozoology, CM von Hausswolff, Black Lung, Carl Stone, filmmaker Nigel Wingrove, and much more.
London's Immerse "sound(e)scapes" magazine lasted only three issues, was published by a group of enthusiasts on a limited budget, and yet it perfectly encapsulates a moment when esoteric counterculture, experimental electronic music, weird literature, irreverent"techno chaos" graphic design, and even fortean paranormal experience and conspiracy theory collided and mutated from the depths of the 1980s industrial underground via 1990s cyber-punk toward the spectre of Y2K. Collectively edited by Mathew F. Riley, Leigh Neville, and Neil Gardner, the "(sub)cultural" magazine was first and foremost an incredible music magazine devoted to techno, ambient, atmospherica, industrial, noise, jazz, electronica, but also covered film, fiction, design, subculture, the paranormal, basically anything that took the collective's fancy. Sleek (and occasionally schizo) design with guest design features from Tomato, The Designers Republic, v23, etc. each issue's cover features photography by Toby McFarlan Pond of sensory enhancement technology – respiratory equipment, nightvision binoculars, audio monitoring equipment. The covers really set the tone. Packed with in-depth features on artists and labels — interviews, discographies, profiles, artist pages, film and literature features, esoterica, loads of reviews, and much more.
Good—VG copy with some edge wear/spine pinching.
1996, English
Softcover (staple-bound), 82 pages, 29.5 x 21 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Immerse / London
$40.00 - In stock -
Rare second issue of Immerse magazine from London, featuring Alter Ego, Mego, Thomas Ligotti, Blast First, T.Power, Witchman, v23, New Albion Records, Kenneth Anger vs Alistair Crowley, and much more.
London's Immerse "sound(e)scapes" magazine lasted only three issues, was published by a group of enthusiasts on a limited budget, and yet it perfectly encapsulates a moment when esoteric counterculture, experimental electronic music, weird literature, irreverent"techno chaos" graphic design, and even fortean paranormal experience and conspiracy theory collided and mutated from the depths of the 1980s industrial underground via 1990s cyber-punk toward the spectre of Y2K. Collectively edited by Mathew F. Riley, Leigh Neville, and Neil Gardner, the "(sub)cultural" magazine was first and foremost an incredible music magazine devoted to techno, ambient, atmospherica, industrial, noise, jazz, electronica, but also covered film, fiction, design, subculture, the paranormal, basically anything that took the collective's fancy. Sleek (and occasionally schizo) design with guest design features from Tomato, The Designers Republic, v23, etc. each issue's cover features photography by Toby McFarlan Pond of sensory enhancement technology – respiratory equipment, nightvision binoculars, audio monitoring equipment. The covers really set the tone. Packed with in-depth features on artists and labels — interviews, discographies, profiles, artist pages, film and literature features, esoterica, loads of reviews, and much more.
VG copy
2010, English
Softcover, 448 pages, 26 x 18.5 x 26 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / fine
Published by
Lars Müller / Zürich
$350.00 - In stock -
Very rare copy of the first edition of Windfall Light: The Visual Language, edited by Lars Müller and published in 2010.
ECM Since its founding in 1969, ECM has been dedicated primarily to jazz and contemporary classical music and is a leading international label in both these fields. ECM has also received acclaim for its unique cover designs, which have always been an integral part of its productions. Over the years, the collaboration between Manfred Eicher, the label's founder and producer, and designers including Barbara Wojirsch, Dieter Rehm and Sascha Kleis has produced an aesthetic of the cover that initiates a dialogue between the photographic image and the music. After the highly acclaimed “Sleeves of Desire” of 1996, which offered an overview of ECM cover art, this volume presents the covers that have been created since then. These covers are arranged here in the form of a visual score that invites personal interpretations and individual discoveries. The entire collection of ECM cover art chronicles a program that has written modern music history — it is also a manifesto declaring the congruence of the visible and the audible in the form of the CD.
A veritable art book, beautifully designed and printed, “Windfall Light” is an insightful exploration of ECM’s visual aesthetics. This 448 page soft-cover book includes approximately 1300 colour and black and white illustrations, as well as penetrating essays by leading writers.
The volume includes a fully-illustrated catalogue of all of ECM's releases to date, incorporating all of the artwork featured in “Sleeves of Desire”, and offering an invaluable resource to collector's and enthusiasts of one of the world's most significant record labels.
Near Fine copy.
1976 / ?, English
Softcover, 24 pages, 28 x 21.5 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
David Dunn / California
$65.00 - Out of stock
Privately issued full colour facsimile of the 1976 graphic score for "String Quartet #2; two violins, viola, cello and 2-channel tape" by Harry Partch's assistant and Harry Partch Ensemble member, Californian experimental composer and researcher David Dunn. Signed and dated (in the print) 4/76.
Composer David Dunn was born in 1953 in San Diego, California. He was an assistant to the American composer Harry Partch and remained active as a performer in the Harry Partch Ensemble for over a decade. He has worked in a wide variety of audio media inclusive of traditional and experimental music, installations for public exhibitions, video and film soundtracks, radio broadcasts, and bioacoustic research. His compositions and soundscape recordings have appeared in many international forums, concerts, broadcasts, and exhibitions. In addition to his multiple books, recordings and soundtracks, he has been anthologized in over 50 books and journals. Much of his current work is focused upon the development of listening strategies and technologies for environmental sound monitoring in both aesthetic and scientific contexts. He lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Very Good copy, light wear and light rusting to staple.
1990, English
Softcover (single staple-bound), 26 pages, 28 x 21.5 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
David Dunn / California
$35.00 - Out of stock
Privately issued in 1990 by Harry Partch's assistant and Harry Partch Ensemble member, Californian experimental composer and researcher David Dunn. First book of a series of 4 staple-bound publications that document the work of Dunn's collected works in his own words. With introductions by composers Norman Lowrey and Kenneth Gaburo, this first book entitled "Music, Language and Environment" catalogues Dunn's recording projects with personal texts, performance info and personnel, including fellow artists Chris Mann, Bill Viola, Warren Burt, Phil and Mary Edelstein, Robert Paredes, and many more. Further publications covered Dunn's writings, scores, etc.
"PREFACE:
The materials gathered within this collection reflect a period of thought and investigation roughly spanning two decades. While this research might appear to constitute some sort of linear development, my experience has been more akin to the rotation of a geometric object: I have been examining a set of issues and ideas from various perspectives as facets of some larger process of questioning. Hopefully the individual compositions or essays can be evaluated within an intellectual context of their status as research reports rather than as isolated works of art. This at least has been my intention. Towards this aim I have not statements or concepts which I now reject. My criteria for inclusion of material has been based upon the verity of representation of my investigative process.
Some of the various essays, recordings and scores have been previously published in a variety of journals and anthologies. I wish to thank these publications for their interest and support: The Aerial, Crawl Out Your Window, IS Journal, Interval, Kunstforum, Leonardo, Lingua Press, Music Works, News of Music, Perspectives of New Music, Post Neo, Stereoplay, and Words and Spaces: University Press of America.
—David Dunn 10/90"
Composer David Dunn was born in 1953 in San Diego, California. He was an assistant to the American composer Harry Partch and remained active as a performer in the Harry Partch Ensemble for over a decade. He has worked in a wide variety of audio media inclusive of traditional and experimental music, installations for public exhibitions, video and film soundtracks, radio broadcasts, and bioacoustic research. His compositions and soundscape recordings have appeared in many international forums, concerts, broadcasts, and exhibitions. In addition to his multiple books, recordings and soundtracks, he has been anthologized in over 50 books and journals. Much of his current work is focused upon the development of listening strategies and technologies for environmental sound monitoring in both aesthetic and scientific contexts. He lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Very Good copy, light wear and light rusting to staple.
1984, English
Softcover (staple-bound), 100 pages, 22 x 18 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Bard College / New York
$35.00 - In stock -
Rare 1984 issue of the small press photocopied contemporary music magazine issued by the Music Department of Bard College, edited by Sarah Johnson. Each issue with wraparound covers listing a calendar of events (films, concerts, theatre), the contents packed with essays, transcribed lectures, conversations, historical articles, record reviews, reading lists, compositions, visual scores, text art, sound poetry, and various artworks, facsimiles and reproductions.
G—VG copy with general tanning, wear and foxing.