World Food Books

Le Sang et La Rose No. 3, 1969

1969, Japanese / French
Softcover, 232 pages, 23 x 18 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by Tensei Shuppan / Tokyo

$110.00 - In stock -

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Revue de Érotologie, Homosexualité, Sadisme, Masochisme, Fétischisme, Narcissime, Infantilisme, Magie, Occultisme, Humour Noir, Complexe Psychisme. What more could you ask for? Le Sang Et La Rose is a masterpiece of the Japanese underground. A groundbreaking, powerful, yet short-lived Japanese arts and literary journal published in Tokyo from late 1968—mid 1969, published in a total of four luxurious, now collectible, volumes. The first three issues were edited by Tatsuhiko Shibusawa (1928—1987), a legendary, controversial Japanese novelist, art critic, translator of French writers such as Jean Cocteau, Georges Bataille and Marquis de Sade, and specialist in medieval demonology. The importance of this magazine to the Japanese avant-garde and radical culture cannot be overstated.

Born from a period of political, social and economical turmoil in Japan, Le Sang Et La Rose may be understood as a emblematic distillation and product of the late ‘60s student rebellion and anti-authoritarian underground culture. Wilfully politically subversive, the publication drew upon a vast range of perspectives - from criticism, literature, obscure esoteric sciences, art, eroticism, radical avant-garde and a historical-rooted Japanese counterculture; featuring literature, theory, art, photography, illustration and graphic design from the most innovative and subversive Japanese and international (predominately French) artists, authors and critics, spanning the themes above. As instigator, Tatsuhiko Shibusawa in effect formulated the magazine’s design to be a spiritual and political operative that would weaponize its readers minds. This stance was made clear in the 1969 manifesto text — "My 1969" — in which Shibusawa discuss' how he perceived the ‘60s as being the age of ideas, ideas as weapons, and outlined a distain towards systems of power, moralism, State oppression, sanitised and harmless liberalism, dogmatic academic sciences and an outright distrust for ideological, progressive literary scholars who advocate "freedom of expression", but have never caused friction with the judicial power. The magazine sketched out an aim to push towards a new kind of personal freedom, intellect, autonomy and moral compass. Here, the concept of ‘erotism’ — as discussed by Georges Bataille in his highly influential 1957 book "Erotism: Death and Sensuality" — acts as a critical force. 

Issue no. 3 (with cover by Bronzino, 1554) includes full-colour photographic feature by Kishin Shinoyama ("Virgin In Uniform" featuring models/artists Angela Asaoka, Akaji Maro, Yoko Ashikawa) and beautiful Shomei Tomatsu photo feature ("Scoptophilia"), the artwork of the great French cross-dressing painter-photographer Pierre Molinier, texts by Jirō Kawamura, Yumiko Kurahashi, Taruho Inagaki ("Memories of Hemorrhoids or "New Tsurezuregusa"), Akiyuki Nosaka ("Dear Penis, Goodbye"), Minoru Minamihara ("The Mystic Thought of Love in the Case of Jakob Böhme"), Takiji Kobayashi, The Fictitious Garden of Babylon by Tatsuhiko Shibusawa, Tsunekazu Murata ("Witch's Ax : Concerning Heresy in Medieval Europe"), translation of Franz Kafka "Metamorphosis" illustrated by Franco Gentilini, recent research on homosexuality by film critic Jin'ichi Uekusa, Kama Sutra, more Gay (Danshoku) Japanese Theater history, Marquise de Blancvilliers by Koji Nakata, and much more.

Tatsuhiko Shibusawa (1928—1987), was a well-known and controversial Japanese novelist, art critic, and translator of French writers such as Jean Cocteau, Georges Bataille and Marquis de Sade. In 1960 he and his publisher, Kyōji Ishii, were trialled for public obscenity over the publishing of Shibusawa's translation of de Sade's Juliette into the Japanese language. What was to be known as the "Sade Trial" took 9 years and although many of Japan's leading authors testified for the defense, in 1969 the Japanese Supreme Court ruled them guilty and charged. This did not deter Shibusawa, whose essays on black magic, demonology and eroticism were popular reading in Japan, and in 1981 he was awarded the 9th Izumi Kyoka Literature Prize.

Very Good copy. Light general tanning/wear.

File under: Kishin Shinoyama Shomei Tomatsu Pierre Molinier Franco Gentilini Yokoo Tadanori Angela Asaoka Akaji Maro Yoko Ashikawa Tatsuhiko Shibusawa Franz Kafka Yukio Mishima Taruho Inagaki Jun’nosuke Yoshiyuki Kôichi Iijima Jûrô Kara Ikuya Kato Minoru Yoshioka Ryûichi Tamura The Marquis de Sade Georges Bataille Andre Pieyre De Mandiargues Jirō Kawamura Yumiko Kurahashi Akiyuki Nosaka Minoru Minamihara Jakob Böhme Takiji Kobayashi Tsunekazu Murata Jin'ichi Uekusa Tensei Shuppan / Tokyo Ero Guro / Erotic / Grotesque Transgressive / Visceral / Abject Eros Fetishism / BDSM Out-of-print / Rare Periodicals Japanese Photography Surrealism Philosophy Theory / Essay Fiction / Poetry Symbolism / Decadence / Fin de siècle Ancient / Medieval / Gothic Art Counterculture Illustration / Graphic Art / Bandes Dessinées LGBTQ+ Occult / Esoterica Photography Sociology / Politics

HYSTERICAL EXCESS AND INHUMAN ECSTASY: THE CINEMA OF ANDRZEJ ŻUŁAWSKI
by Samm Deighan

2026, English
Softcover, 362 pages, 22.9 x‎ 15.3 cm
Published by Sticking Place Books / New York

$58.00 - In stock -

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Andrzej Żuławski remains one of cinema's great uncompromising visionaries. Though Possession has achieved cult status, the rest of his extraordinary body of work–from The Third Part of the Night and The Devil to On the Silver Globe, Szamanka, and Cosmos–continues to be too little known. Hysterical Excess and Inhuman Ecstasy is the first book to examine every feature film in Żuławski's career, tracing the obsessions that unite them: ecstatic love, political repression, surrealism, romantic despair, the grotesque, and the emotional extremes that made him one of the most singular filmmakers of the twentieth century.

Drawing on literature, history, philosophy, and close analysis, Samm Deighan reveals the deeper patterns beneath Żuławski's notoriously explosive cinema, illuminating the artistic, cultural, and intellectual currents that shaped his work without sacrificing the visceral power that continues to astonish audiences. Whether you are discovering Żuławski beyond Possession for the first time or returning to his films with fresh eyes, this book is an essential guide to a filmmaker whose cinema remains as exhilarating, unsettling, and transformative today as ever.

File under: Andrzej Zulawski Samm Deighan Sticking Place Books / New York Film / Video Transgressive / Visceral / Abject Art Theory / Essay Weird / Speculative / Science Fiction

Les Oeuvres de Bataille: Madame Edwarda, The Dead, Story of the Eye...
By Georges Bataille; Illustrated by Kuniyoshi Kaneko

1976, Japanese
Softcover (w. dust jacket + obi), 15 x 10.5 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / good
Published by Kadokawa Shoten / Tokyo

$45.00 - Out of stock

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Lovely Japanese pocket book collection of writings by Georges Bataille, published by Kadokawa Shoten in 1976. The book includes four stories/essays: Madame Edwarda, The Dead, Story of the Eye, The Paradox of Eroticism, and Eroticism and the Enchantment of Death. Translated from the original French to Japanese by Kosaku Ikuta and with original jacket artwork and beautiful internal illustrations by Kuniyoshi Kaneko.

Kosaku Ikuta was a pioneering figure in French literature in Japan, known for translating writers such as Georges Bataille, Louis-Ferdinand Céline and André Pieyre de Mandiargues. Ikuta’s translations were praised by Yukio Mishima, while beautifully designed books and writings on dandyism established a distinctive place in unconventional literature.

Good copy in Good DJ/obi. Pulp paper stock is tanned, light wear to extremities of wraps, now preserved.

File under: Kuniyoshi Kaneko Kosaku Ikuta Georges Bataille Kadokawa Shoten / Tokyo Eros Theory / Essay Fiction / Poetry Transgressive / Visceral / Abject Out-of-print / Rare Surrealism

Madame Edwarda
by Georges Bataille; illustrated by Hans Bellmer

1985, Japanese
Softcover (w. dust jacket), 60 pages, 26 x 17 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by Gakutokan / Japan

$150.00 - In stock -

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Beautiful 1985 Japanese edition of Georges Bataille's Madame Edwarda, illustrated throughout with all the original illustrations by Hans Bellmer. Madame Edwarda first appeared in Paris under Georges Bataille's pseudonym Pierre Angelique in two small underground editions in 1941 and 1945. It was finally published under Bataille's own name by the publishing house of Jacques Pauvert in 1956. Translated here by Kosaku Ikuta, all illustrations by German artist Hans Bellmer, complete with inserted preface booklet by Georges Bataille and additional insert of publisher's catalogue.

In Madame Edwarda, a man becomes erotically obsessed with an old whore who turns out to be God. Bataille's erotic prose fuses elements of sex and spirituality in a highly personal vision of the flesh. A world of sensation in which only the vaulting demands of disruptive excess and the anguish of heightened awareness can combat the stultifying world of reason and social order. Intoxication and insanity are so carefully delineated by the author that it seems to infect the reader.

"Madame Edwarda's truth consists in confronting us with an obvious scandal that we wouldn't even know where to place. We could incriminate her words: there have never been such rigorous ones; or the circumstances, the fact that Madame Edwarda is a brothel whore, but this, indeed, it could be reassuring; or even that certain details, which must be said to be obscene, are so with a necessity that ennobles them and makes them inevitable, not so much in the name of art, but for a perhaps moral, perhaps fundamental need. (...) That the most incongruous of books, as Georges Bataille defines it in his preface, is also the most beautiful book, and perhaps the most tender, is above all scandalous."—Maurice Blanchot

Very Good copy throughout, only light cover wear/tanning.

File under: Hans Bellmer Georges Bataille Gakutokan / Japan Surrealism Eros Transgressive / Visceral / Abject Out-of-print / Rare Ero Guro / Erotic / Grotesque Art

KEN KATAYAMA
Beautiful Days (Signed)

1969, Japanese
Hardcover (w. dust jacket) in slipcase, unpaginated, 22 x 16 cm
Signed and numbered edition,
Published by Gentosha / Tokyo

$240.00 - In stock -

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Extremely rare signed first 1969 edition of Japanese illustrator Ken Katayama's masterpiece artbook, Beautiful Days, in limited edition hardcover, numbered and slipcased. Beautiful Days is the most crystallised embodiment of one of the most unique artistic visions of fantasy illustration one could ever find, and the first collection ever published by the artist, when, after discovering the erotic works on the fringe of Surrealism he gave up becoming a painter and gave himself over to the obscene impulses of drawing. "There, so to speak, masturbation became a picture. Until then, I never thought that masturbation could become a painting"—excerpt from Ken Katayama's postscript. Katayama's magnificently, obsessive graphite-rendered world making is, like that of Lewis Carroll before him, made up almost entirely of children; children in states of blank-faced entrancement, possession and naked abandon; groping, lost and frozen in a psychosexual schoolhood theatre. Unlike anything else, aspects of Katayama's bewildering, often sadomasochistic, fairytale visions recall the tales of de Sade, Bataille, Klossowski, Carroll's Alice; the unconscious pictures of Balthus, Hans Bellmer, or Leonor Fini; the architectural dreamscapes of Delvaux or the Metaphysical painters; even the dark psychological renderings of fellow Japanese artist Yoshifumi Hayashi — a haunted landscape of eroticised adolescent memories with recurring motifs of free flowing urination and defecation, violently strewn newspapers, urinals, and apparitions of cat-people. Nothing like it! The work even inspired an experimental film of boyhood memories directed by the provocative film-maker Nakamura Masanobu in 1970.

Signed in 1969 by Katayama.

"If you
keep your hands in your pockets
in your pocket
what are you hiding
that's how I got it
darkness in my pocket, days of dust
I opened the old album and showed
beautiful days other days"

Virtually unknown outside his native Japan, Katayama (b. 1940, Tokyo) studied at the Musahino Art University and in the 1960s and 1970s begin contributing illustrations to underground art and literary magazines such as Black Notebook, Featured Story and fetish magazines such as SM Select, amongst many others. He published art books such as Angel Hour, Lost Child's Top, Match Taker, The Cat in Boots, and many more, and went on to become a successful children's story book illustrator, publishing many works throughout the 1980s—90s.

Very Good copy, beautifully preserved in Very Good slipcase. Signed and numbered first edition. The most complete, finest edition of this work.

File under: Ken Katayama Gentosha / Tokyo Eros Surrealism Art Brut / Folk / Visionary / Fantastic Out-of-print / Rare Signed Books Drawing Illustration / Graphic Art / Bandes Dessinées Art Transgressive / Visceral / Abject

Grave Desire : A Cultural History of Necrophilia
by Steve Finbow

2024, English
Hardcover (w. dust jacket), 316 pages, 21 x 15 cm
Published by Infinity Land Press / London

$80.00 - In stock -

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Necrophilia has shadowed humanity throughout its existence, from ancient Egypt, to the Moche culture of Peru, the exploits of the renowned Vampire of Montparnasse, the sexual murders of the Weimar Republic, through to serial killers such as Ted Bundy and Jeffrey Dahmer. This new edition of Grave Desire – with artworks by Karolina Urbaniak – delves unflinchingly into the myths, art and practices surrounding this taboo subject. Finding Juliet’s catatonic body and believing she had poisoned herself, it could have crossed Romeo’s mind to act out the unthinkable. Maybe Juliet, seeing Romeo’s corpse, considered a little sexual frottage before she stabbed herself with the phallic dagger. Repulsive yet real, disgusting and disturbing, this is an erotic book of the dead.

“If sex and death are two pivotal obsessions of the human species, Steve Finbow nails both of them simultaneously in his brilliantly incisive cultural and corporeal history of necrophilia. Pathologically and outlandishly good.”—Stephen Barber

“If you only read one book before you die make sure it’s Grave Desire.”—Stewart Home

Illustrated by Karolina Urbaniak
Interview conducted by Martin Bladh
Afterword by Richard Marshall

File under: Martin Bladh Karolina Urbaniak Steve Finbow Richard Marshall Martin Bladh Infinity Land Press / London Weird / Speculative / Science Fiction Theory / Essay Transgressive / Visceral / Abject Crime / Violence Eros

Ikko Kagari
Peeping Special Shot

1995, Japanese
Softcover (w. dust jacket), 29.8 x 21.5 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by Outo Shobo / Tokyo

$200.00 - In stock -

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Very rare provocative photo book by Japanese photographer Ikko Kagari, published in 1995 in Tokyo. Kagari made a number of these extraordinary, extremely questionable, surreptitious infrared photography collections in the 1980's—1990's, featuring secret "close-up photography" documenting clandestine sexual activities in public places — groping and upskirt photographs taken on packed Tokyo Metro commuter trains, in nightclubs, on escalators, couples making it in public toilets, parked cars and in parks with infrared strobe techniques reminiscent of Kohei Yoshiyuki's incredible Document Park. Cover-to-cover b/w reproductions of Kagari's grainy, blown-out infrared images that blur all lines between voyeur/participant and simulated/real, make for disorientating, sometimes claustrophobic, uneasy viewing. But they are also absolutely stunning, effective photo books that feel as conceptual as they do devious. Including selections from Kagari's "Document Commuter Train" (1982), as featured in The Photobook: Vol. III, by Parr & Badger, Kagari's fleeting in flagrante scenes capture erotic desire and criminal impulse engulfed by the soft folds of entangled garment fabrics, through foliage and grass, and across the cold darkness of the metropolis, with stunning technique. He went so far as to publish a how-to book for amateurs! Like many of Kagari's other published works, Peeping Special Shot has sparked discussions about consent, privacy, and the ethics of voyeuristic art. As a result, copies of these photo books are now very scarce and highly sought after for those interested in the world of marginal art publishing. The 2000s saw the introduction of women-only carriages on the Tokyo Metro, relegating such shadowy expertise to history.

Mature audiences only.

Very Good copy with VG dust jacket.

File under: Ikko Kagari Outo Shobo / Tokyo Japanese Photography Photography Out-of-print / Rare Fetishism / BDSM Transgressive / Visceral / Abject Eros

Kohei Yoshiyuki
Document Park

1980, Japanese
Softcover (w. dust jacket), 114 pages, 26 x 21 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by Seven Sha / Tokyo

$550.00 - In stock -

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Rare first edition of Kohei Yoshiyuki's cult classic photo book, Document: The Park (Document Park), published in 1980 by Seven Sha, Tokyo. Yoshiyuki's voyeuristic masterpiece, The Park is like no other photo book. A controversial volume of 74 photographs taken by the photographer using a 35mm camera, infrared film, and flash, Yoshiyuki documented a secret community of lovers and voyeurs who gathered in Shinjuku Park and Yoyogi Park between 1971 and 1973. His pictures document the people who gathered in these parks for clandestine trysts under the cloak of darkness, as well as the many spectators lurking in the bushes who watched—and sometimes participated in—these couplings. With their raw, snapshot-like quality, these images not only uncover the hidden illicit sexual encounters of their subjects, both homosexual and heterosexual, but they also serve as a chronicle of a Japan we rarely see. As Martin Parr writes in The Photobook: A History, Volume II, The Park is "a brilliant piece of social documentation, capturing perfectly the loneliness, sadness and desperation that so often accompany sexual or human relationships in a big, hard metropolis like Tokyo."

A beautifully printed book, with original dust-jacket. Includes two conversations with Kohei Yoshiyuki with Kenichi Matsumoto and Nobuyoshi Araki.

Kohei Yoshiyuki (b. 1946—2022)   came to recognition in 1972 when material from his photo project “The Park” was featured in magazine Shukan Shincho, and a year later, in respected photo journal Camera Mainichi.  However, it was the 1979 photo exhibition “The Park” at Komai Gallery and 1980 photo book “Document: The Park” that established him within the contemporary photographic landscape. Since then, Yoshiyuki was a recurrent fixture in Japan debauchery journal Super Photo Magazine along photographers: Nobuyoshi Araki, Daido Moriyama, Keizo Kitajima and Seiji Kurata.

Very Good copy in Good dust jacket with usual tanning to spine edge, wear to extremities, and dj corner tear hidden inside jacket fold (blank black area, not affecting any content). Otherwise a well preserved copy.

File under: Kohei Yoshiyuki Nobuyoshi Araki Nobuyoshi Araki Seven Sha / Tokyo Counterculture Fetishism / BDSM LGBTQ+ Out-of-print / Rare Eros Transgressive / Visceral / Abject Japanese Photography Photography Art

Kohei Yoshiyuki
SECRET PHOTOGRAPHY: THIS IS INFRARED!

1981, Japanese
Softcover (w. dust jacket), 240 pages, 17.5 x 11 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by Sunday Inc. / Tokyo

$110.00 - In stock -

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Rare first 1981 edition of Yoshiyuki's heavily illustrated instructional photobook, published the year following his voyeuristic masterpiece, Document Park (1980), a controversial volume of 74 photographs taken by the Japanese photographer using a 35mm camera, infrared film, and flash to document a secret community of lovers and voyeurs who gathered in Shinjuku Park and Yoyogi Park between 1971 and 1973. "This Is Infrared!" is Kohei's essential accompanying handbook for all those curious about his clandestine techniques that still amaze to this day, for many various reasons. Profusely illustrated with many of the infamous photographs from his Document Park book and many photograph collections that have not been published elsewhere, Kohei's D.I.Y. manual is a thorough analysis of his honed peeping techniques, camera equipment, various strategies (in the field and in the darkroom), technical specifications and aesthetic concerns, complete with manga illustrations, set-by-step guides and a sense of humour.

"My curiosity and lewdness were the starting point for peeping photos in the park. I used infrared film. Last May I published a photo book called "Park" (Documentary). It documents couples in parks, the peeping toms who flock to them, and the world of gays who gather in parks. Since I published this photo book, I've been asked a lot of questions like "What kind of camera is an infrared camera?" It's a bit tiring, as some of the people asking are quite knowledgeable about photography, and some are even professional photographers."—excerpt from Kohei Yoshiyuki's introduction

From "The Monroe-effect" (action photography on windy days...) to pigeon-cameras, "This Is Infrared!" goes beyond the night works to explore the many convictions of the determined peeping-tom. Nothing like it. Apart from those of Ikko Kagari... Fits right in the pocket.

Kohei Yoshiyuki (b. 1946—2022) came to recognition in 1972 when material from his photo project “The Park” was featured in magazine Shukan Shincho, and a year later, in respected photo journal Camera Mainichi. However, it was the 1979 photo exhibition “The Park” at Komai Gallery and 1980 photo book “Document: The Park” that established him within the contemporary photographic landscape. As Martin Parr writes in The Photobook: A History, Volume II, The Park is "a brilliant piece of social documentation, capturing perfectly the loneliness, sadness and desperation that so often accompany sexual or human relationships in a big, hard metropolis like Tokyo." Since then, Yoshiyuki was a recurrent fixture in Japan debauchery journal Super Photo Magazine along photographers: Nobuyoshi Araki, Daido Moriyama, Keizo Kitajima and Seiji Kurata.

Very Good copy in VG dust jacket.

File under: Kohei Yoshiyuki Kohei Yoshiyuki Sunday Inc. / Tokyo Photography Japanese Photography Out-of-print / Rare Art Transgressive / Visceral / Abject Fetishism / BDSM Eros

Ikko Kagari
Dark Secret Photography

1983, Japanese
Softcover (w. dust jacket), 240 pages, 17.5 x 11 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by Hama Shobo / Tokyo

$140.00 - In stock -

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Rare 1983 photo/text book published the year following Ikko Kagari's infamous "Document Commuter Train" (1982). After the acclaim of his masterpiece photobook, Kagari stepped further into the darkness with this collection of his close-up candid infrared photography. Kagari takes to the streets, the parks, the gay beats, the girl's toilets, the alley-ways, the bars, the back-rooms, and back onto the trains with his "modern eroticism of the voyeur in the cold metropolis". "Full of secrets and charm", Kagari here accompanies his photography with texts on his experiences, insights, technical clandestine methods, along with amazing and humorous instructional manga. Kagari made a number of these extraordinary, extremely questionable, surreptitious infrared photography collections in the 1980's, featuring secret "close-up photography" documenting sexual activities in public places — groping and upskirt photographs taken on packed Tokyo Metro commuter trains, in nightclubs, on escalators, couples making it in public toilets, parked cars and in parks with infrared strobe techniques reminiscent of Kohei Yoshiyuki's incredible Document Park (the two often featured side-by-side in books and journals, both their masterpiece photobooks cited in Parr & Badger's The Photobook series). Kagari's grainy, blown-out infrared images that blur all lines between voyeur/participant and simulated/real, make for disorientating, sometimes claustrophobic, uneasy viewing. But they are also absolutely stunning, effective photo books that feel as conceptual as they do devious. Kagari's fleeting in flagrante scenes capture erotic desire and criminal impulse engulfed by the soft folds of entangled garment fabrics with stunning technique.

Good—VG copy in G—VG dust jacket. One binding split beginning on one spread only, some foxing to block edges.

File under: Ikko Kagari Ikko Kagari Hama Shobo / Tokyo Eros Transgressive / Visceral / Abject Out-of-print / Rare Japanese Photography Photography Fetishism / BDSM Art

Fuck Journal
by Bob Flanagan

2026, English
Softcover, 96 pages, 7.6 x 10.5 cm
Published by Hanuman Editions / US

$36.00 - In stock -

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I LOVE THE PAIN. I TELL HER HOW WONDERFUL PAIN CAN BE. HOW SHE SHOULD USE IT ON ME. I'M RAVING. I'M TRIPPING. I'M COMING.

Since his on-screen 'death' by erogenous torture device in Nine Inch Nails’ notorious 'Happiness in Slavery' music video, writer and artist Bob Flanagan has been a looming legend in domains of art, pain and sex. First published by Hanuman Books in 1987, Fuck Journal chronicles Flanagan’s liaisons with his beloved romantic and artistic partner Sheree Rose over the course of a year. Composed at Rose’s prompting and anticipating Flanagan’s extraordinary Pain Journal, the volume is so direct in its account of the couple’s conjugal life that the Indian authorities tossed its original print run into the ocean before the books could ship from Chennai to New York. By luck, 300 copies which had traveled with the editors to the US remained in circulation: an origin story that chimes with Flanagan’s aura of irreverence. Fuck Journal is characterised by a transfixing rhythm of total divulsion, a document of union amid, and through, pain with resonances in current discourses around sadomasochistic desire, crip experience, gender politics and beyond.

With a foreword by Sheree Rose
Introduction by Johanna Hedva

Based in Southern California, Bob Flanagan (1952-1996) was an provocateur of the highest order, known for poems and performances centreing on BDSM activity and living with cystic fibrosis. Famously featured in censored videos for Danzig and Nine Inch Nails, Flanagan achieved a unique pitch of sexual spectacle and tender expression through visceral collaborations with the photographer, artist and dominatrix Sheree Rose. Flanagan’s published writings include Pain Journal (1996) and the anthology Fun to be dead: The Poems of Bob Flanagan (2024), edited by Sabrina Tarasoff.

The steward of Flanagan’s legacy and an icon in her own right, the photographer and performance artist Sheree Rose has been a leading figure in Los Angeles underground culture since the 1980s. Through her partnership with Flanagan and ongoing projects, Rose has brought to the fore a new form of heterosexual politics, an erotics of intimacy as it intersects with the personal and social.

Johanna Hedva is a Korean American writer, artist, and musician from Los Angeles. Their most recent essay collection is How To Tell When We Will Die: On Pain, Disability, and Doom. They are also the author of the novels Your Love Is Not Good and On Hell. Their art has been exhibited internationally, and their albums are Black Moon Lilith in Pisces in the 4th House and The Sun and the Moon.

File under: Bob Flanagan Bob Flanagan Hanuman Editions / US Eros Transgressive / Visceral / Abject Art Performance / Dance / Theater Theory / Essay

Pierre Molinier
by Jean-Luc Mercié

2010, English
Hardcover, 400 pages, 24 x 31 cm
Published by Les Presses Du Reel / Paris Mennour / Paris

$150.00 - In stock -

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The Molinier bible! A mammoth, crucial 400 page book on the method and genesis of Pierre Molinier's provocative, gender-bending photos and artwork. Beautifully printed and prodigiously illustrated with over 800 pictures, mostly unpublished, numerous documents, manuscripts and letters, a complete (nearly 100-page) chronology, a critical biography, and a text by Jean-Luc Mercié.Molinier. Essential publication on Molinier, the most comprehensive to date, and a must for any fan.

Rare English edition translated from the French by Edward Penwarden.

Pierre Molinier is an unknown of worldwide renown. Every book and every exhibition on the body, gender confusion or sexual excess seems to feature at least one work by this artist whose “genius” was acclaimed by André Breton in a memorable text published in 1956. But the bulk of his work has remained inaccessible. A number of pictures have never been shown and a corpus of only 160 prints has been published. The ensemble revealed by the artist's archives is much more extensive. It includes numerous proofs made to prepare his photomontages and working prints given to friends, but also notebooks and personal letters. Here, precise links emerge between his paintings, photographs and scandalous life. The myth carefully constructed by the artist begins to crumble before the reality of the work.

An inveterate seducer, thoroughgoing fetishist, unrepentant transvestite and inadvertent bisexual, to the very last Molinier remained haunted by two obsessions: pleasure, meaning immediate access to la petite mort, and “leaving a trace in the infinity of time.” This book charts the aesthetic incarnation of his passions. Its 819 photographs, most of them never published before, reveal the method, shed light on the procedures and give details of the origin and alchemy of his latent or composed images. Finally, an exhaustive chronology offers a new biography of Molinier, based on his letters: for it is in the intimacy of these writings that the shaman's heart beats closest to the truth.

In a career shared between the university (fifteen years) and publishing (twenty) Jean-Luc Mercié has written widely on painting and photography. This monograph is his fourth book about Pierre Molinier, the master from Bordeaux.

Born 1900 in Agen (France), Pierre Molinier, surrealistic painter and photographer, a precursor to body art, died in 1976 after having thought out radical and pornographic artwork.

File under: Pierre Molinier Jean-Luc Mercié Edward Penwarden Les Presses Du Reel / Paris Mennour / Paris Art Surrealism Eros LGBTQ+ Performance / Dance / Theater Photography Transgressive / Visceral / Abject Painting Drawing Collage / Mail Art / Xerox Art

Pierre Molinier
Cent Photographies érotiques

1979, French
Hardcover (clothbound, gilt), 112 pages, 21.8 x 14 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by Obliques / Paris

$170.00 - In stock -

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First edition of this beautiful clothbound album of arresting erotic photography by Pierre Molinier (1900—1976), a French painter, photographer and a forerunner of gender performance art and Body Art (Art corporel), published in 1979 by Obliques Images, Paris. Briefly associated with Breton's surrealist group, Molinier spent much of his artistic life working in isolation in Bordeaux, exiled from local and national art scenes. With an introductory essay by French man of letters, playwright, poet, writer, director, journalist, literary critic and photographer, Pierre Bourgeade entitled "La clé est chez le concierge" the rest of the book is made up of some of the most exquisite examples of Molinier's challenging monochrome erotic photography. Cent photographies erotique is the fourth of the collection "Images Obliques" produced by Roger Borderie and Michel Camus.

Pierre Molinier is an unknown of worldwide renown. Every book and every exhibition on the body, gender confusion or sexual excess seems to feature at least one work by this artist whose “genius” was acclaimed by André Breton in a memorable text published in 1956. But the bulk of his work has remained inaccessible. A number of pictures have never been shown and a corpus of only 160 prints has been published. The ensemble revealed by the artist's archives is much more extensive. It includes numerous proofs made to prepare his photomontages and working prints given to friends, but also notebooks and personal letters. Here, precise links emerge between his paintings, photographs and scandalous life. The myth carefully constructed by the artist begins to crumble before the reality of the work.

An inveterate seducer, thoroughgoing fetishist, unrepentant transvestite and inadvertent bisexual, to the very last Molinier remained haunted by two obsessions: pleasure, meaning immediate access to la petite mort, and “leaving a trace in the infinity of time.” This book charts the aesthetic incarnation of his passions. Its 819 photographs, most of them never published before, reveal the method, shed light on the procedures and give details of the origin and alchemy of his latent or composed images. Finally, an exhaustive chronology offers a new biography of Molinier, based on his letters: for it is in the intimacy of these writings that the shaman's heart beats closest to the truth.

In a career shared between the university (fifteen years) and publishing (twenty) Jean-Luc Mercié has written widely on painting and photography. This monograph is his fourth book about Pierre Molinier, the master from Bordeaux.

Born 1900 in Agen (France), Pierre Molinier, surrealistic painter and photographer, a precursor to body art, died in 1976 after having thought out radical and pornographic artwork.

VG copy with light foxing to block edges, initial blanks.

File under: Pierre Molinier Pierre Bourgeade Obliques / Paris Eros Out-of-print / Rare Transgressive / Visceral / Abject Surrealism LGBTQ+ Fetishism / BDSM

Unica Zürn et Hans Bellmer

1992, French / Japanese
Softcover (french-folds w. parchment dust-jacket and obi-strip),
Ed. of 950, first hand-numbered ed. 19/50,
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by Taito Vision / Tokyo

$180.00 - Out of stock

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Stunning, very rare Japanese publication collecting the works of married Surrealist artist-couple Unica Zürn and Hans Bellmer, issued in a limited edition of 950 copies by Taito Vision in 1992. This copy scarcer still, being one of the first edition of 50 hand-numbered copies (no.19/50). Contents include colour reproductions of Unica Zürn's print series "Oracles et Spectacles", published in 1967 after a series of drawings created by Zürn during a 1960 hospitalization caused by a clinically diagnosed psychotic episode. They are accompanied here by a selection of her anagrammatic poetry and a hommage to Zürn by husband Bellmer. These are followed by colour reproductions of Hans Bellmer's "Petit Traité de Morale" print series from 1966-68. Accompanied by biographies, a series of texts in Japanese, a full catalogue and portraits of the artists. A stunning book making these wonderful print editions by two important Surrealists available together in book-form.

Very Good copy in Very Good dust jacket protected in publisher's removable parchment jacket and publisher's obi-strip (both not pictured here, both with some tanning and wear). A most complete and limited copy.

File under: Unica Zürn Hans Bellmer Taito Vision / Tokyo Surrealism Out-of-print / Rare Art Drawing Transgressive / Visceral / Abject Eros Art Brut / Folk / Visionary / Fantastic Painting

Floating Islands
by Joyce Mansour

2026, English
Softcover, 115 pages, 20.2 x 12.8 cm
Published by Invisible Publishing / Canada

$42.00 - Out of stock

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Three works that bookend Joyce Mansour's two decades of published fiction.

"Floating Islands" is Joyce Mansour's most personal and unsettling work of prose. Set almost entirely within a hospital in Geneva, this work chronicles the slow collapse of boundaries between visitor and patient, authority and submission, imagination and extinction. What begins as an act of filial duty becomes an existential entrapment, as the narrator is absorbed into the institution's rhythms and hierarchies.

Doctors and nurses embody a cruel vitality, their health weaponized against the dying. Patients drift through states of dependency, hallucination, and rage. Bodies leak, fail, and betray their owners, while language splinters under the pressure of describing what polite discourse refuses to name. The hospital is a place for arrivals and departures, and it is where Mansour stages her own farewell: "Floating Islands," her final work of narrative prose, marks an important shift in her creative life in which she begins to look outward, rather than inward, for inspiration.

Rooted in Surrealism yet strikingly contemporary, "Floating Islands" (1973) is collected here alongside Mansour's earliest prose works, "Julius Caesar" (1955) and "The Parrot" (1956), a combination that reads as both culmination and reckoning: a final confrontation with mortality, authorship, and the limits of imagination.

File under: Joyce Mansour Joyce Mansour Invisible Publishing / Canada Fiction / Poetry Art Surrealism Transgressive / Visceral / Abject

Xanadu, Pennsylvania
by Alex Osman

2026, English
Softcover, 188 pages, 15.2 x ‎10.2 cm
Published by Filthy Loot / Ames

$25.00 - In stock -

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Welcome to Xanadu, PA. In this town, Olivia Newton-John reigns, her music videos appear on every TV, fist fights are common, some children kill while others make trouble, hearts are broken, and drugs and alcohol are household items. This was once a thriving small town. I don’t know what went wrong. But one thing’s for sure: You can't escape her out here.

File under: Alex Osman Filthy Loot / Ames Fiction / Poetry Transgressive / Visceral / Abject

Meat is Murder!: New Edition: An Illustrated Guide to Cannibal Culture
by Mikita Brottman

1997 / 2001, English
Softcover, 246 pages, 24.5 x 17 cm
Out of print title / used / very good
Published by Creation Books / London

$65.00 - In stock -

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2001 updated edition of Brottman's classic study of cannibalism in film, first issued in 1997.

Violent death, murder, mutilation, gluttony and defaecation, ritualism, bodily extremes; cannibalism combines these taboo themes to represent one of the most symbolically charged narratives in the human psychic repertoire. As a grotesque figure of power, threat, and primal appetites, the cannibal has played a formidable and enduring role in the tales told by members of all cultures - whether oral, written, or filmic - and embodies the ultimate extent of transgressive behaviour to which human beings can be driven.

Meat Is Murder! is a unique and explicit exploration of cannibal culture from classical myth to contemporary film and fiction. It features an in-depth illustrated critique of cannibalism as portrayed in the cinema, from mondo and exploitation films such as Cannibal Holocaust to arthouse classics and horror movies such as Texas Chainsaw Massacre. It also details the atrocious crimes of real-life cannibals such as Albert Fish, Ed Gein, Jeffrey Dahmer and Andrei Chikatilo.

This improved, expanded edition includes a brand new chapter on cannibal zombie films such as Dawn Of The Dead, Zombie Flesh Eaters and Braindead, plus 8 color pages of cannibal carnage and screen gore, and is fully updated.

VG copy with some wear to covers/extremities.

File under: Mikita Brottman Creation Books / London Film / Video Crime / Violence Transgressive / Visceral / Abject Weird / Speculative / Science Fiction Out-of-print / Rare Theory / Essay Art

Killing for Culture: Death Film from Mondo to Snuff
by David Kerekes & David Slater

1995 / 1998, English
Softcover, 286 pages, 24.5 x 17 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by Creation Books / London

$80.00 - In stock -

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From Peeping Tom to Videodrome, Mondo Cane to "shockumentaries", Faces of Death to live TV suicides.

The 1994 cult classic, in the updated and revised 1995 edition, Killing for Culture: Death Film from Mondo to Snuff by David Kerekes & David Slater, the definitive investigation into that controversial and inflammatory of all urban myths: the "snuff" movie. Including: Feature film, Mondo film, Death film, and a comprehensive filmography and index. Illustrated by rare and stunning photographs from cinema, documentary and real life, Killing for Culture is a vital book which examines and questions the human obsession with images of violence, dismemberment and death, and the way our society is coping with an increased profusion of these disturbing yet compelling images from all quarters.

G—VG copy with light wear to covers, previous owner's name to inside front cover. 1998 print of 1995 ed.

File under: David Kerekes David Slater Creation Books / London Film / Video Transgressive / Visceral / Abject Crime / Violence Out-of-print / Rare Theory / Essay Weird / Speculative / Science Fiction

Deathtripping: The Cinema of Transgression
by Jack Sargeant

1995 / 1999, English
Softcover, 272 pages, 24.5 x 17 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by Creation Books / London

$80.00 - In stock -

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Expanded 1999 print of the first 1995 Creation edition of Deathtripping, the first illustrated history, account and critique of the "Cinema Of Transgression", providing a long-overdue and comprehensive documentation of this essential modern sub-cultural movement and its roots in the New York art/rock and underground film scenes. Including interviews with key transgressive film-makers, including Richard Kern, Nick Zedd, Casandra Stark, Beth B, Tommy Turner, Tessa Hughes-Freeland, plus collaborators Lydia Lunch, Joe Coleman and David Wojnarowicz; studies of more recent film-makers including Jeri Cain Rossi, Richard Baylor, Todd Phillips; a brief history of underground/trash cinema: Andy Warhol, Jack Smith, George and Mike Kuchar, John Waters; notes and essays on the philosophy and aesthetics of transgression; extensive film analysis; index and bibliography. Heavily illustrated with rare and often disturbing photographs, Deathtripping is a unique document, the definitive guide to the roots, philosophy and development of a style of film-making whose influence and impact can no longer be ignored.

WARNING: CONTAINS ADULT MATERIAL

VG copy.

File under: Richard Kern Nick Zedd Casandra Stark Beth B Tommy Turner Tessa Hughes-Freeland Lydia Lunch Joe Coleman David Wojnarowicz Jeri Cain Rossi Richard Baylor Todd Phillips Andy Warhol Jack Smith George Kuchar Mike Kuchar John Waters Jack Sargeant Creation Books / London Eros Transgressive / Visceral / Abject Art Film / Video Sound / Music Out-of-print / Rare Theory / Essay Fetishism / BDSM LGBTQ+ Drugs / Psychedelia Weird / Speculative / Science Fiction Counterculture

Hans Bellmer
Ars Erotica (Bellmer-Graphik)

1970, German
Softcover (w. dust jacket), 118 pages, 21 x 17 cm
Out of print title / used / very good
Published by Studio 69 / Cologne

$100.00 - Out of stock

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First edition, edited and designed by Galerie Sydow's Heinrich Sydow-Zirkwitz, this beautiful book of Hans Bellmer's graphic works was published as a special project between Studio 69 in Cologne and Galerie Sydow in Frankfurt to accompany the exhibition "Ars Erotica" in 1970. Handsomely printed with spot-colour over-printing and illustrated throughout with Bellmer's graphic famous graphic series' "Bellmer à Sade" (1961), "Petite Traité de Morale" (1965) and illustrations for Georges Bataille's "Madame Edwarda" (1965). Includes text by Horst Albert Glaser. A very handsome collection and one of the nicest Bellmer books.

Very Good copy in Good dust jacket with light tanning to spine/edges, dustiness.

File under: Hans Bellmer Heinrich Sydow-Zirkwitz Horst Albert Glaser Georges Bataille Comte de Lautreamont Studio 69 / Cologne Art Out-of-print / Rare Eros Drawing Surrealism Transgressive / Visceral / Abject Ero Guro / Erotic / Grotesque

Scene of Death
Corpse Photo Collection

1984, Japanese / English
Slipcase, corrugated envelope, 64 looseleaf plates, 29.7 x 21 cm
Stamped and numbered,
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by B-Sellers / Japan

$300.00 - In stock -

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Very rare first stunning printing of Scene of Death, a rare 1984 death photo collection, published by B-Sellers in Japan only, compiled by Noriaki Nakagawa, Hitomi Komukai, and Yoichi Shihata. An elaborate and beautiful print production of the macabre. Housed in an illustrated slipcase within a stamped, button-and-tie-bound corrugated envelope, 64 looseleaf monochrome photographic plates reproduce images from "Atlas der Gerichtsmedizin", an absolutely fascinating collection by Weiman / Prokop, first published in 1963. Atlas der Gerichtsmedizin was originally a serious German scientific reference book for criminal investigators and those in the medical field — a photo scrapbook of thousands of images of graphic human death scenes — suffocation and strangulation, drowning and death by water, death by burning and electrocution, crimes of passion, abuse and neglect, and more. In turn, this visual opus became a bible of reference imagery to a wave of musicians, artists and authors during the industrial avant-garde, from Throbbing Gristle to Paul Buck to Atrax Morgue. This meticulous and unique Japanese offering further influenced many Japanese artists in the 1980s—1990's. Later re-printed in 1994.

Stamped and numbed first printing.

"We believe the scenes of death is, in one sense, the most erotic of human nature. It is at the time of death that man no longer can attempt to control his inner self and therefore the real self appears vividly. Here we have opened the doors to a topic that is usually not only hidden but also shut out of the minds of man. Please share our excitement and take a glance into the world of hidden eroticism"—Scene of Death blurb.

VG—NF copy in VG—NF slipcase, all plates still wrapped in seldom preserved internal obi strip. Some wear/rusting to envelope buttons.

File under: B-Sellers / Japan Transgressive / Visceral / Abject Crime / Violence Photography Out-of-print / Rare

Nightmare USA : The Untold Story of the Exploitation Independents
by Stephen Thrower

2007, English
Hardcover, 528 pages, 25 x 28.9 cm
Published by FAB Press / UK

$110.00 - Out of stock

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Running to 528 large-format pages, Nightmare USA is a veritable encyclopedia of grindhouse cinema - it's one of the most acclaimed genre film books ever published, and after having Sold Out three times over already, it's finally back in print!

From Quentin Tarantino (Kill Bill) to Eli Roth (Hostel), the young guns of modern Hollywood just can't get enough of that exploitation film high. That's because, between 1970 and 1985, American Exploitation movies went berserk. With censorship relaxed, and the gate to excess wide open, horror offered a vibrant alternative to the mainstream of American cinema. Luridly titled wonders like The Headless Eyes, Scream Bloody Murder and Hitch Hike to Hell were everywhere, from the drive-ins of Texas to the grindhouses of New York. Massively popular around the world, American exploitation movies added immensely to the richness of the nation's cinema.

Built on five years of research, Nightmare USA explores the development of America's subterranean horror film industry, spotlighting some of the wildest films imaginable from an era unchecked by censorship or 'good taste.' Ranging from cult favourites like I Drink Your Blood to stylish mind-benders like Messiah of Evil and shockers like Don't Go in the House, Nightmare USA goes where no other in-depth study has gone before, revealing the fascinating true stories behind classics and obscurities alike. Author Stephen Thrower has explored the attics and cellars of American cinema, delved beneath the floorboards, peered between the walls, searching for the strangest, most exotic cine-lifeforms... Nightmare USA is the reader's guide to what lies beyond the mainstream of American horror, dispelling the shadows to meet the men and women behind fifteen years of screen terror: the Exploitation Independents!

This massive overview of the Horror genre's development through the 1970s and 1980s features: In-depth EXCLUSIVE interviews with twenty-five grindhouse movie makers, many of whom are discussing their work for the first time ever in print, including David Durston (I Drink Your Blood), Robert Endelson (Fight for Your Life), Frederick Friedel (Axe), Don Jones (Schoolgirls in Chains); and Joseph Ellison (Don't Go in the House). Over 175 individual films reviewed, with full cast and crew credits. Vast quantities of previously unpublished stills, posters, press-books, plus behind-the-scenes photographs from the filmmakers' own collections.

File under: Stephen Thrower FAB Press / UK Film / Video Weird / Speculative / Science Fiction Theory / Essay Transgressive / Visceral / Abject

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

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

$55.00 - Out of stock

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

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

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

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

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

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

With 450 illustrations, 200 in colour.

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

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

On the Verge of Nothing: Pessimism’s Impossible Beyond
by Gary J. Shipley

2021, English
Softcover,‎ 202 pages, 21.6 x 14 cm
Published by Nine-Banded Books / West Virginia

$38.00 - Out of stock

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"Gary Shipley’s On the Verge of Nothing moves according to a patient logic, asking us to consider what follows when we begin from pessimism, rather than arriving at it. Through Shipley’s ciphers – Nietzsche, Pessoa, Lispector, contemporary performance art – pessimism is illuminated as at once unliveable and unconsolable, and yet unavoidable. Reading On the Verge of Nothing, the primordial philosophical question of “how to live” now takes on contours that are colder, more detached, and yet, somehow, deeply engaged."– Eugene Thacker, author of Infinite Resignation

"Beginning insistently with the end of thought, this panegyric of the pointless offers a withering post-pessimistic ethics and aesthetics of diversionary tactics for life in the void. Territories traversed include dreams and delusions, the limits and purpose of self-consciousness, human animality, and the paradox of feeling-thinking. Gary J Shipley’s lucid, often pitiless diagnoses; rigorous, informed, and tight arguments; bons mots and essential apercus – larded with a rich compost of quotation (Pessoa, Lispector, Cioran, Kafka, etc.) – pursue a relentless thrashing of thought, sketching both a Bartlett’s and a Baedeker of our inevitable doom. These essays, aphorisms, fragments, and quotations have been shored not against but amidst ruin. Experimental, exploratory soundings and performances, a fantasia for the end of the world: this word horde is an essential drug for addicts of the impossible."–Stuart Kendall, author of Georges Bataille

"Pessimism is the tenor of our times, even if it is rarely fully embraced. Gary J. Shipley’s important book not only embraces pessimism, it offers a way to make life liveable not in the modality of morose resignation, but with enthusiasm. This is an achievement, even for pessimists who regard all achievement as ultimately futile."–Scott Wilson, author of The Order of Joy (from the Foreword)

File under: Gary J. Shipley Nine-Banded Books / West Virginia Transgressive / Visceral / Abject Philosophy Literary Theory / Semiotics / Language Art Performance / Dance / Theater Theory / Essay