World Food Books

The Conspiracy of Art: Manifestos, Interviews, Essays
by Jean Baudrillard

2005, English
Softcover, 248 pages, 22.86 x 15.2 cm
Published by Semiotext(e) / Los Angeles

$36.00 - In stock -

Cutting-edge theorist Jean Baudrillard on the complicitous dance of art, politics, economics, and media; includes "War Porn," on Abu Ghraib as a new genre of reality TV.

The images from Abu Ghraib are as murderous for America as those of the World Trade Center in flames. The whole West is contained in the burst of sadistic laughter of the American soldiers, as it is behind the construction of the Israeli wall. This is where the truth of these images lies. Truth, but not veracity. As virtual as the war itself, their specific violence adds to the specific violence of the war. In The Conspiracy of Art, Baudrillard questions the privilege attached to art by its practitioners. Art has lost all desire for illusion- feeding back endlessly into itself, it has turned its own vanishment into an art unto itself. Far from lamenting the "end of art," Baudrillard celebrates art's new function within the process of insider-trading. Spiraling from aesthetic nullity to commercial frenzy, art has become transaesthetic, like society as a whole.

Conceived and edited by life-long Baudrillard collaborator Sylvère Lotringer, The Conspiracy of Art presents Baudrillard's writings on art in a complicitous dance with politics, economics, and media. Culminating with "War Porn," a scathing analysis of the spectacular images from Abu Ghraib prison as a new genre of reality TV, the book folds back on itself to question the very nature of radical thought.

File under: Jean Baudrillard Jean Baudrillard Sylvère Lotringer Semiotext(e) / Los Angeles Theory / Essay Philosophy Art Sociology / Politics

The Impossible
by Georges Bataille

2001, English
Softcover, 188 pages, 20.4 x 13.97 cm
Published by City Lights Books / San Francisco

$36.00 - In stock -

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Translations by Robert Hurley.

In a philosophical erotic narrative, an essay on poetry, and in poems Georges Bataille pursues his guiding concept, the impossible. The narrator engages in a journey, one reminiscent of the Grail quest; failing, he experiences truth. He describes a movement toward a disappearing object, the same elusive object that moved Theresa of Avila and Catherine of Siena to ecstasy.

"Humanity is faced with a double perspective: in one direction, violent pleasure, horror and death – precisely the perspective of poetry – and in the opposite direction, that of science or the real world of utility. Only the useful, the real, have a serious character. We are never within our rights in preferring seduction to it: truth has rights over us. Indeed it has every right. And yet we can, and indeed we must respond to something which, not being God, is stronger than every right, that impossible to which we accede only by forgetting the truth of all these rights." —Georges Bataille

Georges Bataille (1897-1962) was a French intellectual and literary icon who wrote essays, novels, and poems exploring philosophical and sociological subjects such as eroticism and surrealism. City Lights published more of Bataille's works including Erotism, The Tears of Eros, and Story of the Eye.

File under: Georges Bataille Robert Hurley City Lights Books / San Francisco Surrealism Eros Out-of-print / Rare Philosophy Theory / Essay Fiction / Poetry

Visions of Excess : Selected Writings 1927-1939
by Georges Bataille

1985, English
Softcover, 304 pages, 23 x 15.2 cm
Published by University of Minnesota Press / Minnesota

$68.00 - In stock -

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Since the publication of Visions of Excess in 1985, there has been an explosion of interest in the work of Georges Bataille. The French surrealist continues to be important for his groundbreaking focus on the visceral, the erotic, and the relation of society to the primeval. This collection of prewar writings remains the volume in which Bataille’s positions are most clearly, forcefully, and obsessively put forward.

This book challenges the notion of a “closed economy” predicated on utility, production, and rational consumption, and develops an alternative theory that takes into account the human tendency to lose, destroy, and waste. This collection is indispensable for an understanding of the future as well as the past of current critical theory.

Edited by Allan Stoekl
Translated by Allan Stoekl, Carl R. Lovitt, and Donald M. Leslie Jr.
Introduction by Allan Stoekl

Georges Bataille (1897-1962), a librarian by profession, was founder of the French review Critique. He is the author of several books, including Story of the Eye, The Accused Share, Erotism, and The Absence of Myth.

Allan Stoekl is professor of French and comparative literature at Pennsylvania State University and author of Agonies of the Intellectual.

File under: Georges Bataille Allan Stoekl University of Minnesota Press / Minnesota Surrealism Theory / Essay Eros Art Philosophy

Overexposed: Perverting Perversions
by Sylvère Lotringer

2007, English
Softcover, 213 pages, 23 x 15 cm
Published by Semiotext(e) / Los Angeles

$44.00 - Out of stock

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A report on the administration of deviant desire in specialized clinics that documents the way our postmodern society exposes sexuality to the point of overexposure.

Do you ever get aroused by your patient's fantasies? Do you discover through them something about your own sexuality?
–About my sexuality?
You are exposed to a lot of fantasies.
–Oh yes. Quite frankly, I think it has a satiation effect on me. I've been a sex researcher for ten years, and sometimes I get fed up with it, you know. I talk to people about sex all day long, and it does get to be a drag.
–from Overexposed

The most perverse perversions are not always those one would expect. Originally conceived as an American update to Foucault's History of Sexuality, Overexposed is even more outrageous and thought-provoking today than it was twenty years ago when first published by a commercial publisher. By a strange reversal, rather than being punished, deviant desire now is administrated in specialized clinics under medical supervision. Sexual excess is being turned into a "boredom therapy" claiming to rid patients of their own desires by forcing them to indulge them past the point of satiety. But are perversions still perverse when they are vindicated unconditionally? At once clinical, bewildering, and deeply poignant, Overexposed shows how science can pervert itself by identifying too closely with its object. This insider's exposition of controversial cognitive behavioral methods (carried out with instruments straight out of A Clockwork Orange–penile transducer? pupillometer?) is a hallucinatory document on the manner in which our postmodern society exposes sexuality to the point of overexposure–in order to exterminate it.

"Overexposed is a most remarkable work... A brilliant piece of undercover reporting, from the strangest of strange lands."–J.G. Ballard

"Overexposed is a voyage through hell. A gleaming, air-conditioned, sanitary, and polite hell where a triumphant psychotechnology replaces the old-fashioned shackles of the Law and 'cures' the sex-offender by boring to death his desire. Sylvère Lotringer's account of this charnel house of behaviorisim is deft, witty, and precise."–Joel Kovel

"The sexualization of postwar American culture has produced results that would astonish Freud, Reich, or even Kinsey. Modern techniques of behavior modification now cast doubt on the sources of individual eroticism. Overexposed is an engrossing description of sexual conditioning condoned by the state. A fascinating book."–William Burroughs

File under: SylveÌre Lotringer Semiotext(e) / Los Angeles Theory / Essay Gender Studies / Sexuality Eros Philosophy Psychoanalysis Philosophy / Psychoanalysis LGBTQ+

Wonders and the Order of Nature 1150–1750
by Lorraine Daston & Katherine Park

1998, English
Softcover, 512 pages, 28 x 18.5 cm
Published by Zone Books / New York

$70.00 - In stock -

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Wonders and the Order of Nature is about the ways in which European naturalists from the High Middle Ages through the Enlightenment used wonder and wonders, the passion and its objects, to envision themselves and the natural world. Monsters, gems that shone in the dark, petrifying springs, celestial apparitions — these were the marvels that adorned romances, puzzled philosophers, lured collectors, and frightened the devout.

Drawing on the histories of art, science, philosophy, and literature, Lorraine Daston and Katharine Park explore and explain how wonder and wonders fortified princely power, rewove the texture of scientific experience, and shaped the sensibility of intellectuals. This is a history of the passions of inquiry, of how wonder sometimes inflamed, sometimes dampened curiosity about nature’s best-kept secrets. Refracted through the prism of wonders, the order of nature splinters into a spectrum of orders, a tour of possible worlds.

Wonders and the Order of Nature was awarded the 1999 Pfizer Prize by the History of Science Society and the 1999 Roland H. Bainton Prize for History and Theology by the Sixteenth Century Conference.

“A handsome and endlessly intriguing book.” –Washington Post

“Park and Daston’s splendid book opens up a whole new perspective, not only on the modern aspects of the collections … but on the larger history to which they belong. Their rich illustrations and detailed, learned captions, ingeniously laid out in dialogue with the erudite text, bring the reader into a series of spaces where natural objects were laid out for display and study, from the court banquet to the early laboratory.” — New York Review of Books

“A handsome and endlessly intriguing book.” —Washington Post

File under: Katherine Park Lorraine Daston Katherine Park Zone Books / New York Art Theory / Essay Out-of-print / Rare Occult / Esoterica Renaissance / Neoclassicism / Romanticism Ancient / Medieval / Gothic Weird / Speculative / Science Fiction

Spicilege
By Marcel Schwob

2022, English
Softcover, 224 pages, 13.5 x 20.3 cm
Published by Wakefield Press / Cambridge

$36.00 - In stock -

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Exquisitely crafted essays on medieval criminal slang, ancient Greek prostitution, laughter, anarchy and more from the endlessly influential Marcel Schwob.

"All over the world," wrote Jorge Luis Borges, "there are devotees of the writer Marcel Schwob who constitute little secret societies." Spicilege, Schwob's last book published under his name, constitutes the handbook to these societies--to Schwob's work, to himself as erudite scholar and author, and to the twilight of the era of French Symbolism. Schwob was, as Paul Léautaud described him, a "living library," and the critical biographies gathered in the essays of Spicilege display a few of the volumes in that library: his groundbreaking research on François Villon (work that remains a cornerstone to our knowledge of Villon), his passion for Robert Louis Stevenson and his encounters with such less-remembered writers as George Meredith. But it is the carefully developed ideas in these essays and the eccentric yet thorough scholarship that draws them together that are of particular interest today: the understanding of criminal slang in the Middle Ages; the study of prostitution in ancient Greece; the folklore inspired by a Flaubert story; a complex critique of individuality that effectively laid the groundwork for Jarry's "pataphysics"; as well as ruminations on perversity, laughter, biography, love, terror and pity, and art and anarchy.

Marcel Schwob (1867-1905) was a scholar of startling breadth, an incomparable storyteller and a secret influence on generations of writers, from Apollinaire and Borges to Roberto Bolaño and J. Rodolfo Wilcock.

Translated by Alex Andriesse.

File under: Marcel Schwob Alex Andriesse Wakefield Press / Cambridge Fiction / Poetry Weird / Speculative / Science Fiction Theory / Essay Symbolism / Decadence / Fin de siècle

House Of Psychotic Women (Expanded Edition)
by Kier-la Janisse

2025, English
Softcover, 448 pages, 22.5 x 19.2 cm
Published by FAB Press / UK

$80.00 - In stock -

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In 2012, a book debuted that would go on to canonical status and usher in a new way of writing about film. Kier-La Janisse's HOUSE OF PSYCHOTIC WOMEN is an autobiographical exploration of female neurosis in horror and exploitation films that examines hundreds of films through a daringly personal lens. In this pioneering work, anecdotes and memories interweave with film history, criticism, trivia and confrontational imagery to create a reflective personal history and a consideration of female madness, both onscreen and off.

To mark its 10th anniversary, Kier-La Janisse and FAB Press have reteamed to produce an expanded edition the book, featuring new writing on 100 more films - many of which were inspired in part by the book itself - and hundreds of new images. This hardcover expanded edition is now available in softcover.

Cinema is full of neurotic personalities, but few things are more transfixing than a woman losing her mind onscreen. Horror as a genre provides the most welcoming platform for these histrionics: crippling paranoia, desperate loneliness, masochistic death-wishes, dangerous obsessiveness, apocalyptic hysteria. Unlike her male counterpart - 'the eccentric' - the female neurotic lives a shamed existence, making these films those rare places where her destructive emotions get to play.

This sharply-designed book, including a 48-page full-colour section, is packed with 680 rare stills, posters, pressbooks and artwork throughout, that combine with family photos and artifacts to form a titillating sensory overload, with a filmography that traverses the acclaimed and the obscure in equal measure. Films covered include The Entity, The Corruption of Chris Miller, Singapore Sling, 3 Women, Toys Are Not for Children, Repulsion, Let's Scare Jessica to Death, The Haunting of Julia, Secret Ceremony, Cutting Moments, Out of the Blue, Mademoiselle, The Piano Teacher, Possession, Antichrist and hundreds more!

Compendium of Female Neurosis. A cross-section of horror and violent exploitation films that feature disturbed or neurotic women as primary or pivotal characters.
Alice, Sweet Alice; All the Colors of the Dark; Alucarda; Anima persa; Antichrist; Asylum; The Attic; Audition; Autopsy; The Baby; Bad Dreams; Bad Guy; Bas-fonds; Bedevilled; The Beguiled; La Belle Bête; The Bird with the Crystal Plumage; Black Narcissus; Black Swan; The Blood Spattered Bride; The Blue Eyes of the Broken Doll; Born Innocent; Boy Meets Girl; The Brave One; The Bride; The Brood; Burnt Offerings; Butcher, Baker, Nightmare Maker; Can Go Through Skin; A Candle for the Devil; Carrie; La casa muda; Cat People; La cérémonie; Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things; Christiane F.; The Collector; The Corruption of Chris Miller; Les cousines; "Criminally Insane"; The Curse of the Cat People; Cutting Moments; Daddy; Dead Creatures; Defenceless: A Blood Symphony; Dementia; Descent; The Devil's Widow; The Devils; Diabel; Die! Die! My Darling!; The Dinner Party; Dirty Weekend; Dr. Jekyll and His Women; Don't Deliver Us from Evil; Don't Look Now; Don't Torture a Duckling; Doppelganger; Dracula's Daughter; Dream Home; The Entity; The Escapees; Eyes of a Stranger; Fatal Attraction; Feed; Five Across the Eyes; Footprints; Forbidden Photos of a Lady Above Suspicion; Four Flies on Grey Velvet; Freeze Me; The Frightened Woman; Frightmare; Funeral Home; Gently Before She Dies; The Geography of Fear; The Girl Next Door; The Glass Ceiling; Goodbye Gemini; A Gun for Jennifer; Handgun; Happy Birthday to Me; Hard Candy; The Haunting (1963); The Haunting (2009); The Haunting of Julia; Haute tension; Heavenly Creatures; The Honeymoon Killers; A Horrible Way to Die; I Never Promised You a Rose Garden; Images; In My Skin; The Innocents; Inside; The Isle; Julie Darling; Kichiku; The Killer Nun; Kissed; Knife of Ice; The Ladies Club; The Last Exorcism; The Legend of Lylah Clare; The Legend of the Wolf Woman; Let's Scare Jessica to Death; A Lizard in a Woman's Skin; Love Me Deadly; The Loved Ones; Macabre; The Mad Room; Mademoiselle; Madhouse (1974); Madhouse (1981); Madness; The Mafu Cage; Man, Woman and Beast; Marnie; Martyrs; Masks; May; Misery; Morris County; Morvern Callar; Mother's Day; Ms.45; Mumsy, Nanny, Sonny & Girly; Nabi: The Butterfly; Neighbor; Neither the Sea Nor the Sand; Nekromantik; Nekromantik 2; Next of Kin; The Night Porter; A Night to Dismember; Nightbirds; Nightmares; La nuit des traquées; The Other Hell; The Other Side of the Underneath; Out of the Blue; Paranoia; Paranormal Activity; The Perfume of the Lady in Black; Persona; Phenomena; The Piano Teacher; Pigs; Play Misty for Me; Possession; Pretty Poison; Prey; Psycho Girls; The Rapture; The Rats Are Coming! The Werewolves Are Here!; Rebecca; Red Desert; Red Sun; Red White & Blue; The Reincarnation of Peter Proud; Repulsion; Road to Salina; Roman's Bride; Santa Sangre; Schizo; Scissors; Scream 4; Séance on a Wet Afternoon; Secret Ceremony; The Secret Life of Sarah Sheldon; Shock; Singapore Sling; Sinner; Sisters (1973); Sisters (2006); Slaughter Hotel; The Snake Pit; Sombre; Spider Baby; The Stendhal Syndrome; Straight On Till Morning; Strait-Jacket; The Strange Possession of Mrs. Oliver; The Strange Vengeance of Rosalie; Symptoms; Szamanka; That Cold Day in the Park; They Call Her One Eye; 3 Women; To Let; Toys Are Not for Children; Trance; Trilogy of Terror; Trouble Every Day; Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me; The Uninvited; Venom; Venus Drowning; The Washing Machine; What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?; The Whip and the Body; Whoever Slew Auntie Roo?; Windows; The Witch Who Came from the Sea; The Woman; Woman Transformation; Wound PLUS MORE THAN 100 EXTRA FILM REVIEWS EXCLUSIVE TO THIS NEW EDITION

Kier-La Janisse is a film writer, programmer, producer and founder of The Miskatonic Institute of Horror Studies. She is the author of A Violent Professional: The Films of Luciano Rossi (2007) and has been an editor on numerous books including Warped & Faded: Weird Wednesday and the Birth of the American Genre Film Archive (2021), Yuletide Terror: Christmas Horror on Film and Television (2017) and Satanic Panic: Pop-Cultural Paranoia in the 1980s (2015). She was a producer on David Gregory’s Tales of the Uncanny (2020) and wrote, directed and produced the award-winning documentary Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched: A History of Folk Horror (2021) for Severin Films, where she is a producer and editor of supplemental features. She is currently at work on several books including a monograph about Monte Hellman’s Cockfighter.

File under: Kier-La Janisse FAB Press / UK Weird / Speculative / Science Fiction Transgressive / Visceral / Abject Theory / Essay Film / Video

Correctomundo: Selected Writings 2001–2026
by Bruce Hainley

2026, English
Hardcover, 222 pages (+ photo insert), 19.5 x 12.8 cm
Published by Clementin Seedorf / Cologne CTMS / Cologne

$75.00 - In stock -

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Initiated by the artist Yvo Cho, the book brings together fifteen of Hainley’s luminous essays on artists including André Cadere, Julie Becker, Trisha Donnelly, Vincent Fecteau, Gary Indiana, Monica Majoli, David Hammons, and Andy Warhol, among others. To mark the release of the book, an exhibition opened at Clementin Seedorf in Cologne, featuring works and ephemera by artists on whom Hainley has written, alongside works by Devin T. Mays and Christine Pichini.

Bruce Hainley is the author of "Under the Sign of [sic]: Sturtevant’s Volte-Face", "Foul Mouth", and "Really, No Biggie", among other publications. He co-authored "Art—A Sex Book" with John Waters and edited Gary Indiana’s "Vile Days: The Village Voice Art Columns 1985–1988", as well as "Commie Pinko Guy", published to accompany the first European survey of Larry Johnson’s work. Hainley has also curated numerous exhibitions at national and international institutions, most recently at Clementin Seedorf, Cologne; Misako & Rosen, Tokyo; and, with Shahryar Nashat, The Renaissance Society, Chicago. Bruce Hainley lives and works in Houston, Texas.

The first edition comprises 400 copies in a suede hardcover binding. It was designed by CTMS (Christopher Tröster & Max Schropp). Co–published by Clementin Seedorf and CTMS, Cologne, 2026. Copy-editing by Jennifer Krasinski. Proofreading by B A Briggs.

File under: André Cadere Julie Becker Trisha Donnelly Vincent Fecteau Gary Indiana Monica Majoli David Hammons Andy Warhol Bruce Hainley Gary Indiana Clementin Seedorf / Cologne CTMS / Cologne Art Theory / Essay

James Ensor and Still Life in Belgium: 1830-1930, Rose, Rose, Rose a mes yeux
by Sabine Taevernier and Bart Verschaffel

2024, English
Softcover, 192 pages, 27 x 22 cm
Published by Yale University Press / New Haven

$120.00 - Out of stock

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A unique journey with James Ensor through the history of still life in Belgium in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries

Still life played an important role within the work of Belgian expressionist and symbolist painter James Ensor (1860–1949). The quality and significance of his intriguingly complex still lifes become clear when placed within the broader development of the genre in Belgium between 1830 and 1930.

The book offers an overview of the nineteenth-century Belgian academic tradition of decorative painting, with intriguing work by lesser-known painters such as Jean Robie, Hubert Bellis, Frans Mortelmans, and Henri De Braekeleer, as well as forgotten female artists such as Berthe Art and Alice Ronner. In the early twentieth century, artists such as Louis Thevenet continued to develop the genre of still life in a traditional manner, while innovators such as the late James Ensor, Léon Spilliaert, Marthe Donas, Walter Vaes, and Gustave Van de Woestyne created highly personal interpretations.

This book is published on the first exhibition ever entirely devoted to James Ensor's still lifes at Mu.ZEE (Ostend).

File under: Jean Robie Hubert Bellis Frans Mortelmans Henri De Braekeleer Berthe Art Alice Ronner Louis Thevenet James Ensor Léon Spilliaert Marthe Donas Walter Vaes Gustave Van de Woestyne Sabine Taevernier Bart Verschaffel Yale University Press / New Haven Painting Drawing Group Shows / Collections Curatorial Theory / Essay Art Symbolism / Decadence / Fin de siècle

Tosquelles: Healing Institutions
Edited by Joana Maso

2026, English
Softcover, 344 pages, 25.4 x 17.78 cm
Published by Semiotext(e) / Los Angeles

$46.00 - Out of stock

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A landmark anthology of Francesc Tosquelles's intellectual, clinical, and political writings, many available in English translation for the first time.

Edited by Joana Maso, translated by Robert Hurley and Mara Faye Lethem

Often consigned to legend, the life of Francesc Tosquelles reads as an adventure story of clinical, political, and collective experimentation around healing institutions. Joining the Saint-Alban-sur-Limagnole psychiatric hospital in Nazi-occupied France, Tosquelles invented what would become “institutional psychotherapy” with poets, film critics, photographers, and psychiatrists including Jean Oury, Agnès Masson, Frantz Fanon, Tristan Tzara, and Paul Éluard.

This first anthology of Tosquelles’s writings shines a light on his forgotten history, from his engagement as a psychiatrist during the Spanish Civil War alongside anti-Franquist and anti-Stalinist communists, to his progressive return to Catalonia following his role in the “cultural revolution” of “institutional psychotherapy” in France. Through translations of texts never before available in English, Tosquelles’s powerful voice reminds us how important politicized relations to institutions are in our times of sick institutions, scapegoating of strangers, and globalized war.

File under: Joana Maso Francesc Tosquelles Robert Hurley (Translator) Mara Faye Lethem Semiotext(e) / Los Angeles Psychoanalysis Philosophy / Psychoanalysis Philosophy Socialism / Communism / Capitalism Sociology / Politics Theory / Essay Protest / Revolt

François Truffaut
Diana Holmes and Robert Ingram

1998, English
Softcover, 225 pages, 20 x 13 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / fine
Published by Manchester University Press / Manchester

$35.00 - In stock -

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This volume is one of a series designed to situate and explain the films of French directors, demonstrating the important, often seminal, contribution they have made to cinema world-wide.

Truffaut rose to fame in 1959 with his first feature-length film Les 400 coups, a semi-autobiographical narrative shot in the low-budget neo-realist style of the emerging Nouvelle Vague. He went on to make twenty-three films in just twenty-six years, films that have entertained, provoked debate and, occasionally, caused controversy.

This fresh appraisal of his work provides a useful sociopolitical contextualisation, an overview of his films and film-making methods, and sheds new light on key themes such as sexual politics, the construction of masculinity, the exploitation of genre, and the tension throughout the films between the 'absolute' and the 'provisional".

The wide-ranging and thought-provoking analyses of the films and of Truffaut's approach to film-making are presented in a clear, direct style, producing an essential study for the specialist, with guaranteed appeal to cinema enthusiasts world-wide.

Diana Holmes is Professor of French at Keele University.
Robert Ingram is Associate Dean in the School of Languages and European Studies at the University of Wolverhampton and lectures in French cinema.

File under: Diana Holmes Robert Ingram Manchester University Press / Manchester Film / Video Art Theory / Essay

Cinema Borealis: Ingmar Bergman and the Swedish Ethos
by Vernon Young

1972, English
Softcover, 330 pages, 20.5 x 13.5 cm
Out of print title / used / very good
Published by Avon Books / New York

$35.00 - Out of stock

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First 1972 Avon Equinox edition of Cinema Borealis: Ingmar Bergman and the Swedish Ethos (1971) by Vernon Young, a classic film-by-film critical study of the the iconic director's work by connecting his artistic style and existential themes to the cultural, spiritual, and national background of Sweden. Cinema Borealis offers deep critical breakdowns of every movie Bergman made up to its publication, charting his evolution as an auteur and exploring how Scandinavian isolation, Protestant heritage, and local cultural dynamics shaped Bergman's persistent focus on guilt, faith, and mortality.

Very Good but with some light buggery (insect damage) to title area if cover.

File under: Ingmar Bergman Vernon Young Avon Books / New York Film / Video Theory / Essay Art

Over Her Dead Body
by Elisabeth Bronfen

1992, English
Softcover, 460 pages, 23.5 x 15.5 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by Manchester University Press / Manchester

$50.00 - Out of stock

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First 1992 edition, long out-of-print.

In 1846, Edgar Allen Poe wrote that 'the death of a beautiful woman is, unquestionably, the most poetic topic in the world'. The conjuction of death, art and femininity forms a rich and disturbing strata of Western culture, explored here in fascinating detail by Elisabeth Bronfen. Her examples range from Carmen to Little Nell, from Wuthering Heights to Vertigo, from Snow White to Frankenstein. The text is richly illustrated throughout with thirty-seven paintings and photographs.

The argument that this book presents is that narrative and visual representations of death can be read as symptoms of our culture and because the feminine body is culturally constructed as the superlative site of "other" and "not me", culture uses art to dream the deaths of beautiful women.

'Aside from the originality-or fearful finality -of its arguments, the book will be invaluable as an introduction to the use of psychoanalysis in the interpretation of cultural texts'—New Statesman & Society

'[Death] faces a similar taboo in our century to the one that sex suffered in the last... [Bronfen] addresses an important silence in contemporary culture'—The Times

Elisabeth Bronfen is Professor of English and American Studies at the University of Zurich

Good copy with some creasing (spine, corners).

File under: Elisabeth Bronfen Manchester University Press / Manchester Literary Theory / Semiotics / Language Theory / Essay Painting Art Out-of-print / Rare Philosophy

Reconsidering Aubrey Beardsley
Edited by Robert Langenfeld

1989, English
Hardcover (w. dust jacket), 508 pages, 24 x 16 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by UMI Research Press / Ann Arbor

$60.00 - In stock -

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First 1989 hardcover edition.

Aubrey Beardsley, one of the most fascinating figures of turn-of-the-century European culture, was a prodigious master who continues to defy those who thought his art would remain a prisoner of the 1890s. His acute black and white drawings touched the work of Bakst, Toulouse-Lautrec, Klee, and Picasso, among others, and, a century after his death, he continues to capture the imagination of artists, scholars, and enthusiasts alike.

In Reconsidering Aubrey Beardsley, editor Robert Langenfeld and nine distinguished essayists from England and America — including Brian Reade, lan Fletcher, John Stokes, and Karl Beckson — reevaluate Beardsley's art and writing from a variety of viewpoints, testing new perceptions and qualifying established judgments. Departing from previous studies, Langenfeld and his colleagues offer a broad assessment of this controversial and exciting figure. Topics treated include Beardsley's use of paradox in both art and writing, his influence on modern theatrical style, his attitude toward women, and his view of the artist/illustrator as literary critic. In addi-tion, an annotated secondary bibliography with more than 1500 entries, compiled by Nicholas Salerno, provides for the first time a comprehensive record of the many responses — books, articles, letters — to Beardsley's life and work.

For nearly a century Aubrey Beardsley has eluded the sharpest descriptive and biographical skills of his critics and admirers. As his centennial approaches, Reconsidering Aubrey Beardsley will provide a well-documented, richly illustrated source of knowledge for those interested in literature, theatre, gender studies, as well as art of the fin de siècle.

Robert Langenfeld received his Ph.D. from Arizona State University and is currently an Assistant Professor at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Since 1983 he has served as editor of English Literature in Transition, 1880-1920, and in 1988, as co-publisher, he founded ELT Press and its 1880-1920 British Authors Series.

Dr. Langenfeld has published articles on George Moore, Shakespeare, and Hemingway, and co-authored, with David Eakin, George Moorés Correspondence with the Mysterious Countess. His George Moore: An Annotated Secondary Bibliography was published by AMS Press in 1987. He is also a major contributor to the Hardy and Shaw volumes in the Annotated Secondary Bibliography Series from Northern Illinois University Press. Dr. Langenfeld is currently working on George Mooré's Last Works: The Demise of an Iconoclast.

VG copy in VG dust jacket, preserved under mylar wrap.

File under: Aubrey Beardsley Félicien Rops Robert Langenfeld Aubrey Beardsley Brian Reade lan Fletcher John Stokes Karl Beckson UMI Research Press / Ann Arbor Symbolism / Decadence / Fin de siècle Illustration / Graphic Art / Bandes Dessinées Eros Ero Guro / Erotic / Grotesque Art Drawing Literary Theory / Semiotics / Language Theory / Essay LGBTQ+ Performance / Dance / Theater

FILM: BOOK 1 (The Audience and the Filmmaker)
Edited by Robert Hughes

1959, English
Softcover, 170 pages, 20.5 x 14 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by Grove Press / New York Evergreen / New York

$25.00 - Out of stock

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First 1959 Evergreen/Grove edition.

This book, first of a series, deals with the art and the artists in the fascinating business of moviemaking. The focus is on the process and purposes of filmmaking, and the problems that the serious filmmaker faces. The contributors are among the world's leading film artists and critics; most of the articles were written specially for this book, and all appear in English for the first time.

In FILM: BOOK I
Siegfried Kracauer: The Spectator, Arthur Knight: For Eggheads Only?, The Situation of the Serious Filmmaker: Lindsay Anderson, J. A. Bardem, Luis Buñuel, René Clément, Carl Dreyer, Bjarne Henning-Jensen, Elia Kazan, David Lean, Sidney Meyers, Satyajit Ray, Jean Renoir, Frances Flaherty: Explorations, Charles Siepmann: Robert Flaherty: the man & the filmmaker, George Stoney: ALL MY BABIES: research, Federico Fellini: An Interview, by Gideon Bachmann, James Agee: NOA-NOA: two excerpts from the scenario, Cesare Zavattini: How I Did Not Make "Italia Mia", Jonas Mekas: Experiment in the Fifties, Robert and Elodie Osborn: Who Cut the Comedy?

The editor, ROBERT HUGHES, directed professional little theaters for five years; taught drama at the University of Chicago; founded Film Reality (Chicago), a film society-in-a-saloon; and served for a year as president of the American Federation of Film Societies. Currently he is teaching film history and aesthetics at Hunter College and working for the United Nations Film Services.

VG copy, wear to board extremities.

File under: Lindsay Anderson J. A. Bardem Luis Buñuel René Clément Carl Dreyer Bjarne Henning-Jensen Elia Kazan David Lean Sidney Meyers Satyajit Ray Jean Renoir Robert Flaherty George Stoney Federico Fellini Cesare Zavattini Jonas Mekas Robert Osborn Elodie Osborn Robert Hughes Siegfried Kracauer Arthur Knight Frances Flaherty Charles Siepmann Gideon Bachmann James Agee Grove Press / New York Evergreen / New York Film / Video Art Theory / Essay Out-of-print / Rare

Broken Music

1989, English / German / French
Softcover (w. flexi-disc), 280 pages, 26 x 21 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by Daadgalerie / Berlin Gelbe Musik / Berlin

$200.00 - In stock -

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Rare first 1989 edition of Broken Music, an essential compendium for records created by visual artists. Complete with original flexi-disc. The publication was edited by Ursula Block and Michael Glasmeier and published in 1989 by DAAD and Gelbe Musik, Berlin. Broken Music focuses on recordings, record-objects, artwork for records, and record installations made by thousands of artists between WWII and 1989.

It also includes essays by both editors as well as Theodor W. Adorno, René Block, Jean Dubuffet, Milan Knizak, László Moholy-Nagy, Christiane Seiffert, and Hans Rudolf Zeller, as well as a flexi disc of the Arditti Quartet performing Knizak’s “Broken Music.” The centerpiece of the publication is a nearly 200-page bibliography of artists’ records.

Works chosen for the publication revolved around four criteria: (1) record covers created as original work by visual artists; (2) record or sound-producing objects (multiples/editions/sculptures); (3) books and publications that contain a record or recorded-media object; and (4) records or recorded media that have sound by visual artists.

Artists documented in the volume include Vito Acconci, albrecht/d., Laurie Anderson, Guillaume Apollinaire, Karel Appel, Arman, Hans Arp, Antonin Artaud, John Baldessari, Hugo Ball, Claus van Bebber, John Bender, Harry Bertoia, Jean-Pierre Bertrand, Joseph Beuys, Mel Bochner, Claus Böhmler, Christian Boltanski, KP Brehmer, William Burroughs, John Cage, Henri Chopin, Henning Christiansen, Jean Cocteau, William Copley, Philip Corner, Merce Cunningham, Hanne Darboven, Jim Dine, Marcel Duchamp, Max Ernst, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Fischli and Weiss, R. Buckminster Fuller, Allen Ginsberg, Philip Glass, Jack Goldstein, Peter Gordon, Hans Haacke, Richard Hamilton, Bernard Heidsieck, Holger Hiller, Richard Huelsenbeck, Isidore Isou, Marcel Janco, Servie Janssen, Jasper Johns, Joe Jones, Thomas Kapielski, Allan Kaprow, Martin Kippenberger, Per Kirkeby, Cheri Knight, Milan Knizak, Richard Kriesche, Christina Kubisch, Laibach, John Lennon, Sol Lewitt, Roy Lichtenstein, Annea Lockwood, Paul McCarthy, Meredith Monk, Josef Felix Müller, Piotr Nathan, Hermann Nitsch, Albert Oehlen, Frank O’Hara, Claes Oldenburg, Yoko Ono, Dennis Oppenheim, Nam June Paik, Charlemagne Palestine, A.R. Penck, Tom Phillips, Robert Rauschenberg, The Red Crayola, Ursula Reuter Christiansen, Gerhard Richter, Jim Rosenquist, Dieter Roth, Gerhard Rühm, Robert Rutman, Sarkis, Thomas Schmit, Conrad Schnitzler, Kurt Schwitters, Selten Gehörte Musik, Richard Serra, Robert Smithson, Michael Snow, Keith Sonnier, Strafe für Rebellion, Jean Tinguely, Moniek Toebosch, Tristan Tzara, Ben Vautier, Yoshi Wada, Emmett Walsh, Andy Warhol, William Wegman, and Lawrence Weiner.

Ursula Block is a curator living in Berlin, Germany. From 1981 until 2014, she ran gelbe Musik, a gallery and record shop in Berlin that featured work by artists at the crossroads between music and art. She was married to curator René Block.

Michael Glasmeier is a professor, writer, and editor living in Berlin, Germany. Since the early 1980s, he has curated dozens of shows that explore the intersection between the visual arts, music, film, and language.

Very Good copy all-round, light cover/corner wear.

File under: ×Vito Acconci albrecht/d. Laurie Anderson Karel Appel Arman Antonin Artaud John Baldessari Hugo Ball Claus van Bebber John Bender Harry Bertoia Jean-Pierre Bertrand Joseph Beuys Mel Bochner Claus Böhmler Christian Boltanski John Cage Henri Chopin Henning Christiansen Jean Cocteau William Copley Philip Corner Merce Cunningham Hanne Darboven Jim Dine Marcel Duchamp Max Ernst Lawrence Ferlinghetti Buckminster Fuller Fischli & Weiss Peter Fischli Peter Fischli & David Weiss David Weiss Allen Ginsberg Philip Glass Jack Goldstein Peter Gordon Hans Haacke Richard Hamilton Bernard Heidsieck Holger Hiller Richard Huelsenbeck Isidore Isou Marcel Janco Servie Janssen Jasper Johns Joe Jones Thomas Kapielski Allan Kaprow Martin Kippenberger Per Kirkeby Cheri Knight Milan Knizak Richard Kriesche Christina Kubisch Laibach John Lennon Sol Lewitt Roy Lichtenstein Annea Lockwood Paul McCarthy Meredith Monk Josef Felix Müller Piotr Nathan Hermann Nitsch Albert Oehlen Frank O’Hara Claes Oldenburg Yoko Ono Dennis Oppenheim Nam June Paik Charlemagne Palestine A.R. Penck Tom Phillips Robert Rauschenberg The Red Crayola Ursula Reuter Christiansen Gerhard Richter Jim Rosenquist Dieter Roth Gerhard Rühm Robert Rutman Sarkis Thomas Schmit Conrad Schnitzler Kurt Schwitters Selten Gehörte Musik Richard Serra Robert Smithson Michael Snow Keith Sonnier Strafe für Rebellion Jean Tinguely Moniek Toebosch Tristan Tzara Ben Vautier Yoshi Wada Emmett Walsh Andy Warhol William Wegman Lawrence Weiner Jean Arp (Hans Arp) K. P. Brehmer William S. Burroughs Theodor W. Adorno René Block Jean Dubuffet Milan Knizak László Moholy-Nagy Christiane Seiffert Hans Rudolf Zeller Ursula Block Michael Glasmeier Daadgalerie / Berlin Gelbe Musik / Berlin Art Conceptual Art Performance / Dance / Theater Art Brut / Folk / Visionary / Fantastic Counterculture Out-of-print / Rare Group Shows / Collections Curatorial Theory / Essay Fluxus Arte Povera Pop Art Sound / Music Dada Minimal Art Nouveau Réalisme / Zero / Kinetic Bauhaus Objects / Ephemera / A/V

Vom Geheimnis Der Stoffeswelt (Alchymie)
by Professor Dr. Hermann Beckh

1942, German
Softcover (w. dust jacket), 126 pages, 19 x 13 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / good
Published by Rudolf Geering / Basel

$40.00 - In stock -

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Rare 1942 edition of Hermann Beckh's Vom Geheimnis Der Stoffeswelt (Alchymie) — (Alchymy: The Secrets of the World of Substances) — published Rudolf Geering, Basel.

As a practising Christian priest, Hermann Beckh was profoundly aware that the mystery of substance – its transmutation in the cosmos and the human being – was a mystical fact to be approached with the greatest reverence, requiring at once ever-deepening scholarship and meditation. He viewed chemistry as a worthy but materialistic science devoid of spirit, while the fullness of spiritual-physical nature could be approached by what he preferred to call ‘chymistry’ or ‘alchymy’, thereby taking in millennia of spiritual tradition.

In consequence, Beckh’s Alchymy: The Secrets of the World of Substances is not limited to the conventional workings of Western alchemy, nor to what can be found in the Bible from Genesis to Revelation – although he does unveil hidden riches there. Neither should Beckh be considered only as a learned Professor with impeccable academic qualifications and European-wide recognition. Beckh writes about such topics as ‘Isis’, ‘the Golden Fleece’, traditional fairy-stories and Wagner’s Parsifal in a way that enables the reader to catch glimpses of the Mystery of Substance; to share the writer’s authentic experience of the divine substantia – the living reality – of Christ in the world.

Beckh’s Alchymy set an entirely new standard, and went on to become his most popular publication.

Hermann Beckh (1875—1937) was a pioneering German Tibetologist and prominent promoter of anthroposophy.

Good copy with tanning, marking, closed edge tears, water marking to dust jacket. Book well preserved. 3rd printing of this edition.

File under: Hermann Beckh Rudolf Geering / Basel Occult / Esoterica Out-of-print / Rare Theory / Essay Ancient / Medieval / Gothic

ART & TEXT 18
PHANTASM AND SIMULACRA: The Drawings of Pierre Klossowski

1985, English
Softcover, 144 pages, 18.5 x 24 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by Art & Text / Prahran

$70.00 - Out of stock

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Outstanding and hard-to-find issue of Melbourne's Art & Text, edited by Paul Foss, Paul Taylor, and Allen S. Weiss, devoted entirely to the work of philosopher, writer, translator and artist Pierre Klossowski (1905-2001). This special issue provides many unpublished and insightful English translations of key texts by Klossowski, including rare texts on his image-making, essays from his associates and intellectual circles, and critical contemporary writings, along with many illustrations, references and biological information. An invaluable English reference on this great artist and thinker.

CONTENTS: Preface; Pierre Klossowski "On the Collaboration of Demons in the Work of Art"; Pierre Klossowski "SELF-PORTRAITS"; Pierre Klossowski "The Decline of the Nude"; Pierre Klossowski "The Phantasms of Perversion: Sade and Fourier"; J.-M. Monnoyer and Pierre Klossowski "In the Charm of Her Hand"; Rémy Zaugg and Pierre Klossowski "Simulacra"; MONTAGE; Pierre Zucca "From Roberte interdite"; PORTRAITS OF OTHERS; André Masson "Introduction"; Walo Von Fellenberg "Parallel Bars, Parallel Worlds"; Chantal Thomas "The Indiscreet Gaze"; Alphonso Lingis "The Incommunicable"; Allen S. Weiss "A Logic of the Simulacrum, or The Anti-Roberte"; Postface; Paul Foss "On the 'Difficulty' of Picturing the Emotions of Pierre Klossowski"; References.

Art & Text, one of the landmark contemporary art magazines of the 1980s and 1990s. Founded in Melbourne, Australia, in 1981 by Paul Taylor (1957–92), who soon moved to New York City to make his mark as an art critic, the magazine went on to become one of a handful of international art magazines that succeeded in capturing the turmoil and passing brilliance of that period of postmodernism.

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

Vey Good copy.

File under: Pierre Klossowski Rémy Zaugg Alphonso Lingis Paul Foss Paul Taylor Walo Von Fellenberg Chantal Thomas Allen S. Weiss Pierre Zucca Andre Masson Pierre Klossowski Georges Bataille The Marquis de Sade Marquis de Sade Charles Fourier Maurice Blanchot Art & Text / Prahran Periodicals Art Drawing Painting Eros Theory / Essay Philosophy Art Brut / Folk / Visionary / Fantastic

ART & TEXT 31
December–February 1989

1989, English
Softcover, 94 pages, 17.5 x 24 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by Art & Text / Prahran

$45.00 - Out of stock

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Sound, a special issue of Art & Text devoted to the material, cultural and political dimensions of sound, radio and listening, introduced by Martin Harrison, Tony MacGregor and Virginia Madsen. Featuring Gregory Whitehead on the materiality of radio, René Farabet on the primacy of listening, Robert Douglas and Hugo Farmer's La Sphère Frissonante, McKenzie Wark on Elvis, Kaye Mortley on memory and place, Paul Carter on performance history, Ruark Lewis on directional modality, Douglas Kahn on parasitism, and Ole Bornedal on the sound of murder. Also includes reviews and criticism by Edward Colless, John Neylon, Nicholas Zurbrugg, Peter Anderson, Chris McAuliffe, Brenda Ludeman, Helen Grace, Pam Hansford, Nicholas Baume, Peter Hutchings, Frazer Ward, Joan Kerr and Martin Thomas.

Art & Text was one of the defining contemporary art magazines of the 1980s and 1990s. Founded in Melbourne in 1981 by Paul Taylor (1957–1992), it quickly established an international reputation for its incisive engagement with postmodern art, theory and criticism. Bringing together leading artists, critics and cultural theorists, the magazine captured the intellectual energy and shifting debates of a pivotal moment in contemporary art.

VG copy.

File under: Martin Harrison Tony MacGregor Virginia Madsen Gregory Whitehead René Farabet Robert Douglas Hugo Farmer McKenzie Wark Kaye Mortley Paul Carter Ruark Lewis Douglas Kahn Ole Bornedal Edward Colless John Neylon Nicholas Zurbrugg Peter Anderson Chris McAuliffe Brenda Ludeman Steven Bush Helen Grace Pam Hansford Michiel Dolk Nicholas Baume Peter Hutchings Frazer Ward Joan Kerr Martin Thomas Susan Norrie Art & Text / Prahran Australian Art Art Periodicals Out-of-print / Rare Theory / Essay Performance / Dance / Theater

ART & TEXT 23/4
March - May 1987

1987, English
Softcover, 144 pages, 17.5 x 24 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by Art & Text / Prahran

$45.00 - In stock -

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After THE EVENT, a special double issue of Art & Text on "culturecidal" aspects of appropriation and (post) modernity, edited by Paul Foss, with Juan Davila, Laleen Jayamanne and Geeta Kapur, and Eric Michaels - plus Yvonne Rainer discusses The Man Who Envied Women, Peter Tyndall sketches the 1986 Sydney Biennale, Imants Tillers plays Bicentennial in the Park, Paul Carter takes a gondola through Gondwanaland, Sophie Calle and Jean Baudrillard follow perfect strangers, Allen S. Weiss mocks the Sun King dazed in anamorphic gardens, and Danielle Duval chases Borges and others through the labyrinth of Australian "picturing".

Art & Text, one of the landmark contemporary art magazines of the 1980s and 1990s. Founded in Melbourne, Australia, in 1981 by Paul Taylor (1957–92), who soon moved to New York City to make his mark as an art critic, the magazine went on to become one of a handful of international art magazines that succeeded in capturing the turmoil and passing brilliance of that period of postmodernism.

VG copy.

File under: Juan Davila Yvonne Rainer Geeta Kapur Peter Tyndall Imants Tillers Sophie Calle Paul Foss Laleen Jayamanne Danielle Duval Eric Michaels Jean Baudrillard Allen S. Weiss Art & Text / Prahran Art Periodicals Theory / Essay Out-of-print / Rare Australian Art

File Under Popular: Theoretical & Critical Writings on Music
by Chris Cutler

1989 / 1992, English
Softcover, 184 pages, 21 x 15 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by ReR Megacorp / Surrey Autonomedia / New York Semiotext(e) / Los Angeles

$55.00 - Out of stock

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"A stirringly aggressive antidote to contemporary pop cynicism."–Simon Frith

1992 ReR Megacorp/Semiotext(e)/Autonomedia edition of File Under Popular: Theoretical and Critical Writings on Music, a classic collection of seven essays on the political theory of popular music written by English percussionist, lyricist and music theorist, Chris Cutler (of Henry Cow, Art Bears, News from Babel, Pere Ubu, Gong/Mothergong and Recommended Records fame). The essays were written between 1978 and 1983, four of them in response to requests and the rest unprompted. Two of the essays were first published in two German publications, and two were originally presented by Cutler at two international symposia on popular music. The book was first published in 1985 in London by November Books, the publishing wing of Cutler's independent record label, Recommended Records. It was also published in Polish, German and Japanese.

The essays in File Under Popular tackle the subject of "popular music", what it is, its origins and the political and marketing forces behind it. Cutler charts the history of music and how it was changed by written notation and then recording technology. Three of the essays dwell specifically on individual musicians and groups, namely Sun Ra, The Residents, Phil Ochs and Elvis Presley, but their stories are told within the context of the evolution of music. "Necessity and Choice in Musical Forms" is the first sketch of an analytical theory that shows how memory systems underpin the forms that music can take; part III of this essay is a personnel memoir of Cutler's that explains how his former band, Henry Cow functioned outside the music industry and their involvement in the establishment of Rock in Opposition. The last two essays deal with the development of progressive rock in the United Kingdom, its significance and the politics behind it.

Very Good copy.

File under: Chris Cutler Henry Cow Sun Ra The Residents Phil Ochs Elvis Presley Art Bears Chris Cutler ReR Megacorp / Surrey Autonomedia / New York Semiotext(e) / Los Angeles Sound / Music Theory / Essay Counterculture Performance / Dance / Theater Art Anarchism Socialism / Communism / Capitalism

FUTURIST MANIFESTOS
Edited by Umbro Apollonio

1973, English
Softcover, 232 pages, 21 x 15 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by The Viking Press / New York

$35.00 - In stock -

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The history of art has run a complex and often confusing course, and yet we still rely heavily on critics and historians to interpret for us the development of modern art and even the works themselves. Robert Motherwell, one of America's most distinguished artists and the originator of Documents of 20th-Century Art, believes that the writings of artists and their associates should be made available in English to enable stu-dents, artists, and general readers to study and understand the art of this century at its source.

On February 20, 1909, a belligerent manifesto announcing the birth of the Futurist movement appeared on the front page of the Paris newspaper Le Figaro and had immediate repercussions throughout Europe. The author, F. T. Marinetti, an Italian poet, demanded that writers and artists reject the classic art of the past and celebrate the dynamic technology of modern city life. Joined by a group of like-minded artists, including Boccioni, Carrá, Balla, Severini in the visual arts; Sant' Elia in architec-ture; and Russolo and Pratella in music, Marinetti and the Futurists pioneered an art that would represent movement, in a reaction against the related but essentially static art of Cubism. As writers, these young men are fiery, explosive, and witty; as artists, they are innovators whose true importance is only now being recognized.

This long-awaited anthology of their writings includes unusual documentary illustrations and a bibliography by Bernard Karpel. Umbro Apollonio, Curator of the Historical Archives of Contemporary Art of the Venice Biennale, is the author of many works on modern art.

VG copy, 1st Viking Edition.

File under: F. T. Marinetti F.T. Marinetti Filippo Tommaso Marinetti Umberto Boccioni Carlo Carrà Giacomo Balla Gino Severini F. T. Marinetti F.T. Marinetti Filippo Tommaso Marinetti Bernard Karpel Umbro Apollonio The Viking Press / New York Painting Theory / Essay Performance / Dance / Theater Out-of-print / Rare

Wyndham Lewis on Art : Collected Writings 1913-1956
by Wyndham Lewis

1969 / 1977, English
Hardcover (w. dust jacket), 480 pages, 21.6 x 16 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / good
Published by Thames and Hudson / London Funk & Wagnalls / New York

$50.00 - In stock -

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First 1969 US hardcover edition of Wyndham Lewis on Art : Collected Writings 1913-1956, edited and introduced by Walter Michel & C.J. (Cyril James) Fox. A comprehensive anthology of the Vorticist founder's essays, manifestos, and art criticism. An "antagonistic collaborator" to Ezra Pound, Lewis was a brilliant, incisive critic of the modernist era. Distinguished and highly original, Wyndham Lewis (Amherst 1882–London 1957) – writer, painter, essayist and pamphleteer, and the leading figure in the English experimental adventure of 1912-1915 – is known for his sharp wit and sardonic insight. A modern master of satire, expert at deflating the pretensions of democracy, he was born off the coast of Maine in his English father's yacht and grew up in England. He was associated with Roger Fry and Ezra Pound on the vorticist magazine Blast (1914-15). Lewis served in France in World War I, and his dynamic paintings of war scenes soon gained him wide recognition for his ferocious and dehumanizing style.

VG in Good dust jacket with some wear, losses to edges. Preserved in mylar wrap.

File under: Wyndham Lewis Wyndham Lewis Walter Michel J. Fox Thames and Hudson / London Funk & Wagnalls / New York Art Theory / Essay Out-of-print / Rare Painting Sculpture / Installation Literary Theory / Semiotics / Language

SHATTERED FORMS: Art Brut, Phantasms, Modernism
by Allen S. Weiss

1992, English
Softcover, 158 pages, 23 x 15 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by State University of New York Press / New York

$45.00 - Out of stock

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Art Brut, also termed Outsider Art, has long been suppressed from most art historical writing. Why this rejection? The hyperbolic expressions of Romanticism and Symbolism nourished a desire for derangement and dissociation that inspired both Expressionism and Surrealism. Simulated delirium became the object of the new art - experimental, avant-garde, modernist - which arose from the fragmented codes, the shattered forms of everyday communication. But what of those artists whose works, and often whose deliria, are the manifestations of sheer eccentricity, of social isolation and marginalization, or of madness? In this book Weiss investigates the origins of the unrestricted contemporary artistic field, seeking its sources in those works hitherto absent from the official histories of art - works that constitute art's dark interior, its disturbing netherworld. Secluded, occluded, excluded, Art Brut nevertheless extends the limits of artistic creativity and aesthetic discourse, regardless of whatever anxieties such works may produce. Shattered Forms explores the relations between Art Brut, the psychopathology of expression, and avant-garde Modernism, attempting to show how the consideration of Art Brut should lead to a revision of our theoretical and museological paradigms.

Illustrated throughout with works by Rosemarie Koczy, Pascal Maisonneuve, Michel Nedjar, Vojislav Jakić, Oswald Tschirtner, Philipp Schöpke, "Max," Michel Nedjar, Katherina, Adolf Wölfli, August Neter, Comte de Tromelin.

Allen S. Weiss is a writer, translator, editor, and curator in the fields of Aesthetics, Art History, Cinema Studies, and Comparative Literature. He edited Art Brut: Madness and Marginalia (a special issue of Art & Text); co-edited Psychosis and Sexual Identity and Portraits from the Outside: Figurative Expression in Outsider Art; and wrote The Aesthetics of Excess, published by SUNY Press.

Very Good copy, light age.

File under: Rosemarie Koczy Pascal Maisonneuve Michel Nedjar Vojislav Jakić Oswald Tschirtner Philipp Schöpke Max Katherina Adolf Wölfli August Neter Comte de Tromelin Allen S. Weiss State University of New York Press / New York Theory / Essay Literary Theory / Semiotics / Language Out-of-print / Rare Art Art Brut / Folk / Visionary / Fantastic Surrealism Philosophy Symbolism / Decadence / Fin de siècle