World Food Books' programme is largely produced on Kulin Nation land. We acknowledge the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation as the first and continuing custodians of this land, and pay respect to their Elders past, present, and emerging.
World Food Books is an arts and special interests bookshop in Naarm / Melbourne. Founded in 2010, World Food Books is devoted to the presentation of a rotating, hand-selection of international art, design, literary and counterculture publications with an emphasis on the anti-traditional, the experimental, the avant-garde, the heretic, the marginal.
Presenting new titles alongside rare and out-of-print books, catalogues and journals spanning the fields of modern and contemporary art, design, photography, illustration, film, literature, poetry, cultural theory, philosophy, sexuality, popular and underground culture in its many radical forms, World Food Books wishes to encourage adventurous, thoughtful and open-minded reading, looking, writing, and exchange of publishing and ideas, both current and historical.
As well as our bookshop, located in Melbourne's historical Nicholas Building, all of our inventory is available internationally via our online mail-order service.
World Food Books semi-regularly co-ordinates "Occasions", a programme of exhibits and events at the bookshop and in partnership with other hosts (such as museums and art galleries) that develop out of the activities, relationships and content of the bookshop itself.
World Food Books
The Nicholas Building
37 Swanston Street
Room 5, Level 6
Melbourne 3000
Australia
SHOP HOURS:
W—F 12—6 PM
Sat 12—5 PM
WEB-SHOP OPEN 24/7.
World Food Books
Postal Address:
PO Box 435
Flinders Lane
Victoria 8009
Australia
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All prices in AUD (Australian dollars)
Pick-Ups
Please note: The bookshop is closed until February 1, 2024.
Pick-up orders can be collected in our bookshop during opening hours after this date. Please collect any Pick-up orders within 3 weeks of ordering as we have limited storage space. Orders will be released back into stock if not collected within this time. No refunds can be made for pick-ups left un-collected.
Return Policy
All sales are final. We do accept returns (for refund, exchange) for items received in error. All our orders are packed with special care using heavy-duty padding and cardboard book-mailers or bubble mailers (for smaller books), using reinforcement where required. We cannot take responsibility for any lost, stolen or damaged parcels.
Insurance
Should you wish to insure your package, please email us directly after placing your order and we can organise this at a small extra expense. Although all standard/express tracked packages are very safe and dependable, we cannot take responsibility for any lost, stolen or damaged parcels. We recommend insurance on valuable orders.
Interested in selling your old books, catalogues, journals, magazines, comics, fanzines, ephemera? We are always looking for interesting, unusual and out-of-print books to buy. We only buy books in our fields of interest and specialty, and that we feel we can resell.
We base these prices on desirability, market value, in-print prices, condition and our current stock levels. We offer cash, store credit, and can take stock on consignment. All
about 25% of the price we expect to get when we sell them, or 30% in store credit. We base these prices on desirability, market value, in-print prices, condition and our current stock levels.
Sell your books any day of the week. You can drop them off and return later. If you have a lot of books, we can visit your Sydney home.
We buy books that we feel we can resell. We offer about 25 % of the price we expect to get when we sell them, or 30% in store credit. We base these prices on desirability, market value, in-print prices, condition and our current stock levels.
Philadelphia Wireman
03 August - 01 September, 2018
World Food Books is proud to announce our next Occasion, the first presentation of sculptures by Philadelphia Wireman in Australia.
The Philadelphia Wireman sculptures were found abandoned in an alley off Philadelphia’s South Street on trash night in 1982. Their discovery in a rapidly-changing neighbourhood undergoing extensive renovation, compounded with the failure of all attempts to locate the artist, suggests that the works may have been discarded after the maker’s death. Dubbed the "Philadelphia Wireman" during the first exhibition of this work, in 1985, the maker’s name, age, ethnicity, and even gender remain uncertain. The entire collection totals approximately 1200 pieces, all intricately bound together with tightly-wound heavy-gauge wire (along with a few small, abstract marker drawings, reminiscent both of Mark Tobey and J.B. Murry). The dense construction of the work, despite a modest range of scale and materials, is singularly obsessive and disciplined in design: a wire armature or exoskeleton firmly binds a bricolage of found objects including plastic, glass, food packaging, umbrella parts, tape, rubber, batteries, pens, leather, reflectors, nuts and bolts, nails, foil, coins, toys, watches, eyeglasses, tools, and jewellery.
Heavy with associations—anthropomorphic, zoomorphic, and socio-cultural responses to wrapped detritus—the totemic sculptures by Philadelphia Wireman have been discussed in the context of work created to fulfil the shamanistic needs of alternative religions in American culture. Curators, collectors, and critics have variously compared certain pieces to sculpture from Classical antiquity, Native American medicine bundles, African-American memory jugs, and African fetish objects. Reflecting the artist’s prolific and incredibly focused scavenging impulse, and despite—or perhaps enhanced by—their anonymity, these enigmatic objects function as urban artefacts and arbiters of power, though their origin and purpose is unknown. Philadelphia Wireman, whatever their identity, possessed an astonishing ability to isolate and communicate the concepts of power and energy through the selection and transformation of ordinary materials. Over the course of the past two decades, this collection has come to be regarded as an important discovery in the field of self-taught art and vernacular art.
Presented in collaboration with Fleisher-Ollman Gallery, Philadelphia, and Robert Heald, Wellington.
Susan Te Kahurangi King
02 February - 10 March, 2018
Susan Te Kahurangi King (24 February 1951 - ) has been a confident and prolific artist since she was a young child, drawing with readily available materials - pencils, ballpoint pens and felt-tip markers, on whatever paper is at hand. Between the ages of four and six Susan slowly ceased verbal communication. Her grandparents William and Myrtle Murphy had developed a special bond with Susan so they took on caring responsibilities for extended periods. Myrtle began informally archiving her work, carefully collecting and storing the drawings and compiling scrapbooks. No drawing was insignificant; every scrap of paper was kept. The King family are now the custodians of a vast collection containing over 7000 individual works, from tiny scraps of paper through to 5 meter long rolls.
The scrapbooks and diaries reveal Myrtle to be a woman of great patience and compassion, seeking to understand a child who was not always behaving as expected. She encouraged Susan to be observant, to explore her environment and absorb all the sights and sounds. Myrtle would show Susan’s drawings to friends and people in her community that she had dealings with, such as shopkeepers and postal workers, but this was not simply a case of a grandmother’s bias. She recognised that Susan had developed a sophisticated and unique visual language and sincerely believed that her art deserved serious attention.
This was an unorthodox attitude for the time. To provide some context, Jean Dubuffet coined the term Art Brut in 1945 to describe work created by self-taught artists – specifically residents of psychiatric institutions and those he considered to be visionaries or eccentrics. In 1972 Roger Cardinal extended this concept by adopting the term Outsider Art to describe work made by non-academically trained artists operating outside of mainstream art networks through choice or circumstance. Susan was born in Te Aroha, New Zealand in 1951, far from the artistic hubs of Paris and London that Dubuffet and Cardinal operated in. That Myrtle fêted Susan as a self-taught artist who deserved to be taken seriously shows how progressive her attitudes were.
Susan’s parents Doug and Dawn were also progressive. Over the years they had consulted numerous health practitioners about Susan’s condition, as the medical establishment could not provide an explanation as to why she had lapsed into silence. Dawn educated herself in the field of homeopathy and went on to treat all twelve of her children using these principles – basing prescriptions on her observations of their physical, mental and emotional state.
Doug was a linguist with an interest in philosophy who devoted what little spare time he had to studying Maori language and culture. To some extent their willingness to explore the fringes of the mainstream made them outsiders too but it was their commitment to living with integrity and their respect for individuality that ensured Susan’s creativity was always encouraged.
Even though Susan’s family supported her artistic pursuits, some staff in schools and hospitals saw it as an impediment to her assimilation into the community and discouraged it in a variety of ways. Her family was not always aware of this and therefore did not fully understand why Susan stopped drawing in the early 1990s. However, rather than dwell on the challenges that Susan faced in pursuit of her artistic practice, they prefer to highlight her achievements. In 2008 Susan began drawing again in earnest, after an almost 20 year interruption, and her work is now shown in galleries around the world.
Susan grew up without television and has been heavily influenced by the comics she read as a child. She is absolutely fearless in the appropriation of recognizable characters, such as Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse, in her work. She twists their limbs, contorts their faces, compresses them together, blends them into complex patterned backgrounds - always imbuing them with an incredible energy. Although Susan often used pop culture characters in her work they are not naive or childlike. These are drawings by a brilliant self-taught artist who has been creating exceptional work for decades without an audience in mind.
Mladen Stilinović
"Various Works 1986 - 1999"
02 February 16 - September 10, 2016
Various works 1986 - 1999, from two houses, from the collections of John Nixon, Sue Cramer, Kerrie Poliness, Peter Haffenden and Phoebe Haffenden.
Including: Geometry of Cakes (various shelves), 1993; Poor People’s Law (black and white plate), 1993; White Absence (glasses, ruler, set square, silver spoon, silver ladel with skin photograph and wooden cubes), 1990-1996; Exploitation of the Dead (grey and red star painting, wooden painting, black spoon with red table, red plate), 1984-1990; Money and Zeros (zero tie, paintings made for friends in Australia (Sue, John, Kerrie), numbers painting), 1991-1992; Words - Slogans (various t-shirts) - “they talk about the death of art...help! someone is trying to kill me”, “my sweet little lamb”, “work is a disease - Karl Marx”; Various artist books, catalogues, monographs, videos; Poster from exhibition Insulting Anarchy; "Circular" Croatian - Australian edition; Artist book by Vlado Martek (Dostoyevsky); more.
Thanks to Mladen Stilinović and Branka Stipančić.
Jonathan Walker
Always Will Need To Wear Winter Shirt Blue + Ochre Small Check Pattern
21 August - 21 September, 2015
Untitled
I am not a great reader of poetry but I always return to the work of Melbourne poet, Vincent Buckley (1925- 1988). Perhaps I find his most tantalising piece to be not a finished poem but a fragment left on a scrap of paper discovered on his desk after the poet’s death.
The poetry gathers like oil
In the word-core, and spreads
It has its music meet,
Its music is in movement.
This fragment is more the shell left behind from a volatile thought than a finished poem. I find the last two lines honest but awkward whereas the first two lines work like an arrow. Most likely he could not find a resolution so it was left. Still, in its present form, it remains an eloquent testimony to the ultimate failure of a medium to express mobile thought and sensation, in Buckley’s case, through verbal language. It’s an important matter because this is something all artists have to deal with regardless of the medium.
I have never written a poem, however, I am forever copying fragments from books on paper scraps in a vain effort to fix certain notions in my head. At first, they function as bookmarks that are sometimes returned to when I open the book. But before long, as they accumulate, they fall out littering the table interspersed with A4 photocopies, bills, books and medications.
To return to Buckley’s fragment, the first two lines very much evoke how I paint nowadays. As you age, detail diminishes and patches of light become more luminous and float. I feel the most honest way of dealing with this is by smearing the oil paint on the canvas with the fingers and working close-up, blind. Only if the patches coalesce into an approaching image can the work gain a life.
-
Jonathan Walker was born in Melbourne, Australia and brought up on a dairy farm in Gippsland. In the 1970’s he studied painting at RMIT and won the Harold Wright Scholarship to the British Museum, London. During the 1980’s he exhibited at Pinacotheca Gallery, Richmond and had work shown at the NGV and Heidi City Art Gallery. Over the same period he designed the cover for the “Epigenesi” LP by Giancarlo Toniutti, Italy and conducted a mail exchange work with Achim Wollscheid, Germany. The work with artists through the post resulted in an article published in the bicentenary issue of Art and Australia 1988. He showed in artist run spaces such as WestSpace in the 90’s and 2000’s, and until 2012, taught painting at Victoria University, which is where we (Colleen Ahern and Lisa Radford) as organisers of the exhibition, among many others, had the privilege of being his student.
Walker’s knowledge was imparted to students through the careful selection of music, literature, and artists found in books that he himself had ordered for the library. Walker’s strategy was the generosity of sharing his vast knowledge with references specific to each student and their context.
Walker’s paintings share a similar focus and intimacy.
This exhibition presents a small selection of recent paintings alongside a publication that includes Walker’s writing. Observational and analytical, Walker’s work is a type of material notation — the time of day, colour and how it is blended, the both specific and fleeting location of a reflection on lino or the question of whether a chair leg should be included in a painting.
Please join us on Friday August 21 between 6-8pm to celebrate the opening of the exhibition.
Curated by Colleen Ahern and Lisa Radford.
B. Wurtz
Curated by Nic Tammens
March 26 - April 4, 2015
B.Wurtz works from a basement studio in his home on Manhattan’s Lower East Side.
This local fact is attested to by the plastic shopping bags and newsprint circulars that appear in his work. As formal objects, they don’t make loud claims about their origins but nonetheless transmit street addresses and places of business from the bottom of this long thin island. Like plenty of artists, Wurtz is affected by what is local and what is consumed. His work is underpinned by this ethic. It often speaks from a neighborhood or reads like the contents of a hamper:
“BLACK PLUMS $1.29 lb.”
“Food Bazaar”
“USDA Whole Pork Shoulder Picnic 99c lb.”
“RITE AID Pharmacy, with us it’s personal.”
“H. Brickman & Sons.”
“Sweet Yams 59c lb."
Most of the work in this exhibition was made while the artist was in residence at Dieu Donne, a workshop dedicated to paper craft in Midtown. Here Wurtz fabricated assemblages with paper and objects that are relatively lightweight, with the intention that they would be easily transportable to Australia. This consideration isn’t absolute in Wurtz’s work, but was prescriptive for making the current exhibition light and cheap. Packed in two boxes, these works were sent from a USPS post office on the Lower East Side and delivered to North Melbourne by Australia Post.
Wurtz appears courtesy of Metro Pictures, New York.
Thanks to Rob Halverson, Joshua Petherick, Sari de Mallory, Matt Hinkley, Helen Johnson, Fayen d'Evie, Ask Kilmartin, Lisa Radon, Ellena Savage, Yale Union, and "Elizabeth".
John Nixon
"Archive"
December 15 - January 20, 2014
The presentation of John Nixon's archive offered a rare showcase of this extensive collection of the artist's own publications, catalogues, posters, ephemera, editions and more, from the mid 1980s onwards, alongside a selection of his artworks.
Organized by John Nixon, Joshua Petherick and Matt Hinkley.
"Habitat"
at Minerva, Sydney (organised by Joshua Petherick and Matt Hinkley)
November 15 - December 20, 2014
Lupo Borgonovo, Janet Burchill & Jennifer McCamley,
Lewis Fidock, HR Giger, Piero Gilardi, Veit Laurent Kurz,
Cinzia Ruggeri, Michael E. Smith, Lucie Stahl, Daniel Weil, Wols
Press Release:
“...It contained seven objects. The slender fluted bone, surely formed for flight, surely from the wing of some large bird. Three archaic circuitboards, faced with mazes of gold. A smooth white sphere of baked clay. An age-blackened fragment of lace. A fingerlength segment of what she assumed was bone from a human wrist, grayish white, inset smoothly with the silicon shaft of a small instrument that must once have ridden flush with the surface of the skin - but the thing’s face was seared and blackened.”
William Gibson, “Count Zero”, 1986
"Autumn Projects Archive"
Curated by Liza Vasiliou
March 6 - March 15, 2014
World Food Books, in conjunction with the Virgin Australia Melbourne Fashion Festival 2014, presented the Autumn Projects archive, consisting of a selection of early examples in Australian fashion with a particular interest in collecting designers and labels from the period beginning in the 1980’s, who significantly influenced the discourse of Australian Fashion.
Curated by Liza Vasiliou, the exhibition provided a unique opportunity to view pieces by designers Anthea Crawford, Barbara Vandenberg, Geoff Liddell and labels CR Australia, Covers, Jag along with early experimental collage pieces by Prue Acton and Sally Browne’s ‘Fragments’ collection, suspended throughout the functioning World Food Books shop in Melbourne.
H.B. Peace
presented by CENTRE FOR STYLE
November 14, 2013
"Hey Blinky, you say chic, I say same"
Anon 2013
H.B. Peace is a clothing collaboration between great friends Blake Barns and Hugh Egan Westland. Their pieces explore the divergences between 'character’ and ‘personality’ in garments....etc
Special Thanks to Joshua Petherick and Matt Hinkley of WFB and Gillian Mears
and a Very Special Thank you to Audrey Thomas Hayes for her shoe collaboration.
Janet Burchill & Jennifer McCamley
"Aesthetic Suicide"
May 10 - June 8, 2013
The first of our occasional exhibitions in the World Food Books office/shop space in Melbourne, "Aesthetic Suicide" presented a body of new and older works together by artists Janet Burchill & Jennifer McCamley, including videos, prints, a wall work, and publications.
During shop open hours videos played every hour, on the hour.
1986, English
Hardcover (w. dust jacket), 144 pages, 22.9 x 25.1 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Aperture / New York
$550.00 - In stock -
First 1986 hardcover edition of Nan Goldin’s classic photo book, The Ballad of Sexual Dependency, published by Aperture, New York. A landmark work in the field of raw sociological reportage, The Ballad of Sexual Dependency is a visual diary chronicling the struggles for intimacy and understanding among the friends and lovers whom Goldin describes as her “tribe.” These photographs described a lifestyle that was visceral, charged and seething with a raw appetite for living, and the book soon became the swan song for an era that reached its peak in the early 1980s. Through an accurate and detailed record of Goldin’s life, The Ballad of Sexual Dependency records a personal odyssey as well as a more universal understanding of the different languages men and women speak. All these years later, Goldin’s lush color photography and candid style still demand that the viewer encounter their profound intensity head-on. The book’s influence on photography and other aesthetic realms continues to grow, making it a classic of contemporary photography.
From Goldin's introduction: "I sometimes don't know how I feel about someone until I take his or her picture. I want the people in my pictures to stare back. I want to show exactly what my world looks like, without glamorization, without glorification."
"Nan Goldin’s Ballad of Sexual Dependency is a beggar’s opera of recent times. Here were real thieves and unexpected heroes, and a sense that some things in life might still be worth a brawl."—Artforum
Nan Goldin was born in Washington, D.C., in 1953, and grew up in Lexington, Massachusetts. Her first solo show was held in Boston in 1973. She moved to New York in 1979, where she began documenting the city’s gay and transvestite scenes and developed the informal snapshot aesthetic for which she is celebrated today. Goldin was the 2007 recipient of the Hasselblad Award.
Very Good copy - fine copy with VG dust jacket. Definite 1986 first edition in the original unclipped ($39.95) dust jacket, designed by Keith Davis.
1984, Japanese
Softcover (w. dust jacket), 100 pages, 26 x 19 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / fine
Published by
Sanwa / Tokyo
$190.00 - Out of stock
Very rare special August 1984 issue of Flower Slave, with cover feature "Namio Harukawa's World". This gorgeous, over-sized gloss cult fetish magazine published by Sanwa, Tokyo, is devoted entirely to "The Queen", sadistic mistresses and dominatrix goddesses of femdom enlightenment — packed from cover to cover with saturated full-colour photographic Japanese femdom shoots of many varieties, including western reproductions, Japanese queen profiles, illustrated fetish stories, video features, and amazing pictorial instructional male torture articles. This special issue is also a major early publication celebrating the world of femdom master illustrator Namio Harukawa, including his original cover and dust jacket artwork and lavish colour fold-outs of his incredible illustrations. The whole magazine embodying Harukawa's erotic fantasy world, this title has become an important part of his published history.
Namio Harukawa (1947—2020), a pseudonymous Japanese fetish artist best known for his masterful pencil works depicting female domination ("femdom"), with erotic asphyxiation through facesitting appearing as a frequent subject of his art. Born 1947 in Osaka, Japan, Harukawa’s distinctive penname combines the name of film actress Harukawa Masumi with an anagram of Naomi, the sadistic heroine in Tanizaki Jun’ichiro’s novel "Chijin no ai / A Fool’s Love". While in high school, Harukawa began contributing work to the readers’ column of leading postwar Japanese SM pulp magazine "Kitan Club". Since then, Harukawa’s drawings of male masochism have lovingly portrayed noble, voluptuously beautiful women and the men who serve them as human furniture. An extraordinary and prolific artist who remained committed to the regime of “absolute Ganmen Kijo Shugi (facesitting principle)” throughout his artistic life, Namio Harukawa passed away on April 2020, he was 72 years old.
Very Good copy in illustrated dust jacket.
2000, Japanese / English
Hardcover (w. dust jacket) in slipcase, 27.5 x 19.5 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / fine
Published by
Taiyo books / Japan
$790.00 - Out of stock
Super rare, very collectible Namio Harukawa oversized hardcover art book, published in Japan in 2000 and long out-of-print. This deluxe art book is considered the first book devoted entirely to Harukawa's "Paradise under the grand hips" — his iconic big-girl-love-femdom-facesitting illustrations. Beautifully produced and lavishly illustrated heavy book full of the exceptional work of Namio Harukawa (1947—2020), a pseudonymous Japanese fetish artist best known for his masterful pencil works depicting female domination ("femdom"), with erotic asphyxiation through facesitting appearing as a frequent subject of his art. As well as an impeccably reproduced collection of Harukawa's works in full-bleed colour, the book features Harukawa's complete illustrated "lewd love story of a noble lady and a beast", a collection of many of his best known works beautifully reproduced alongside sado-masochist narratives. A stunning book and must for any Harukawa fan.
Namio Harukawa (1947—2020), a pseudonymous Japanese fetish artist best known for his masterful pencil works depicting female domination ("femdom"), with erotic asphyxiation through facesitting appearing as a frequent subject of his art. Born 1947 in Osaka, Japan, Harukawa’s distinctive penname combines the name of film actress Harukawa Masumi with an anagram of Naomi, the sadistic heroine in Tanizaki Jun’ichiro’s novel "Chijin no ai / A Fool’s Love". While in high school, Harukawa began contributing work to the readers’ column of leading postwar Japanese SM pulp magazine "Kitan Club". Since then, Harukawa’s drawings of male masochism have lovingly portrayed noble, voluptuously beautiful women and the men who serve them as human furniture. An extraordinary and prolific artist who remained committed to the regime of “absolute Ganmen Kijo Shugi (facesitting principle)” throughout his artistic life, Namio Harukawa passed away on April 2020, he was 72 years old.
Fine copy in original illustrated, gold foiled Near Fine dust jacket and Near Fine slipcase, only light wear. Hardcovers also illustrated. A well-preserved copy.
2012, English / Japanese
Softcover (w. dust jacket + obi), 169 pages, 21 x 14.5 cm
Signed by Namio Harukawa,
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Pot Publishing / Japan
$440.00 - Out of stock
Signed copy of the first edition of (the last?) of Namio Harukawa's illustrated story books, Garden of Domina, published in Japan in 2012. A bilingual (Japanese / English) story illustrated by 80 new femdom artworks rendered by Harukawa. "A gorgeous gluteus, a bounteous bottom, a robust rump, even an ample ass: there are many ways to describe the pleasures of the oshiri (pronounced o-shee-ree.) In Harukawa Namio's delicately conceived drawings and their accompanying story, there emerges a holy bond of lust and love between cosmetics company president Ohara Kana and the men who would serve her. Kana loves to abuse men with her tremendous buttocks, and they explore the cruel joys found beneath her stunning endowment. Eventually, Kana creates a Garden of Paradise where she, her fellow lusty ladies, and their slaves discover the most exquisite ecstasies of the ass. A leading Japanese SM illustrator who has dedicated his oeuvre to the glories of the glories of the glories of the glories of the glories of the ass, Namio Harukawa both amuses and arouses his reader in this charming tale."
Signed by Namio Harukawa in bold metallic ink to title page.
Sample of a story: "Yoshiko liberated Horoshi from her oshiri and fastened him by his two hands to a post in the room. 'It's so sweet you're crying. I'll make you cry some more.' Completely naked, Yoshiko straddled Horoshi from above and pressed her genitals into his face. A slender man, Horoshi arched backwards like a bow...."
Namio Harukawa (1947—2020), a pseudonymous Japanese fetish artist best known for his masterful pencil works depicting female domination ("femdom"), with erotic asphyxiation through facesitting appearing as a frequent subject of his art. Born 1947 in Osaka, Japan, Harukawa’s distinctive penname combines the name of film actress Harukawa Masumi with an anagram of Naomi, the sadistic heroine in Tanizaki Jun’ichiro’s novel "Chijin no ai / A Fool’s Love". While in high school, Harukawa began contributing work to the readers’ column of leading postwar Japanese SM pulp magazine "Kitan Club". Since then, Harukawa’s drawings of male masochism have lovingly portrayed noble, voluptuously beautiful women and the men who serve them as human furniture. An extraordinary and prolific artist who remained committed to the regime of “absolute Ganmen Kijo Shugi (facesitting principle)” throughout his artistic life, Namio Harukawa passed away on April 2020, he was 72 years old.
Very good—Near Fine with dust jacket and obi, Sgned by Namio Harukawa!
2020, Japanese / English
Softcover (w. dust jacket and obi-strip), 366 pages, 15 x 21 cm
Published by
Treville / Tokyo
$90.00 - In stock -
Back in print!
Wonderful new memorial monograph dedicated to the exceptional work of Namio Harukawa (1947 – 2020), a pseudonymous Japanese fetish artist best known for his masterful pencil works depicting female domination ("femdom"), with erotic asphyxiation through facesitting appearing as a frequent subject of his art. Born 1947 in Osaka, Japan, Harukawa’s distinctive penname combines the name of film actress Harukawa Masumi with an anagram of Naomi, the sadistic heroine in Tanizaki Jun’ichiro’s novel "Chijin no ai / A Fool’s Love". While in high school, Harukawa began contributing work to the readers’ column of leading postwar Japanese SM pulp magazine "Kitan Club". Since then, Harukawa’s drawings of male masochism have lovingly portrayed noble, voluptuously beautiful women and the men who serve them as human furniture. Namio Harukawa passed away on April 2020, he was 72 years old. This book is a requiem dedicated to the memory of an extraordinary artist who remained committed to the regime of “absolute Ganmen Kijo Shugi (facesitting principle)” throughout his artistic life.
The profusely illustrated "Facesittings Are Forever" consists of a fine selection over 300 of Namio Harukawa’s works spanning his entire career, including many unpublished works, rough sketches, late works, and coloured works of his mid-career. It features an illustrated archive of his publications, including a rare Gekiga (hard-boiled style) work “Shokeijima no Oujo” and never before seen photographs of his workshop. There are also written contributions in Japanese from Shigeru Kashima, Jun Miura, Rockin Jelly Bean, and Hitomi Onuma.
1971, English
Softcover, 192 pages, 17.5 x 10.5 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Berkley Medallion Books / Berkley
$65.00 - Out of stock
Very first 1971 edition of Vermilion Sands by J.G. Ballard, published by Berkley in this paperback edition 2 years before the Jonathan Cape hardcover. Vermilion Sands is a collection of surreal science fiction short stories by Ballard, one of his finest, all set in an imaginary vacation resort called Vermilion Sands which suggests, among other places, a latter-day Palm Springs. Vermillion Sands is a fully automated desert resort designed to fulfill the most exotic whims of the idle rich. But now it languishes in uneasy decay, populated only by forgotten movie stars, solitary impresarios, parasites, and artistic and literary failures, a place where love and lust pall before the stronger pull of evil.
Vermilion Sands embodies the languid decay of a tawdry dream. A desert resort designed to fulfill the most exotic whims of the sated rich, it now moulders in sleazy dilapidation, a haven for the remittance men of the artistic and literary world, and for the human lampreys that prey upon them. It is a lair for malice and hate and envy — and the more cancerous forms of madness; a place where sensitive pigments paint portraits for their masters in a grotesque parody of art; where poets press the buttons of mechanical versifiers; where sculptures grow like funguses, and plants respond to music; where psychosensitive houses are driven mad by their owners' neuroses; where love and affection, and even lust, are effete madrigals played in a minor and discordant key.
From the dark recesses of a superb imagination, J. G. Ballard has conjured up an elegant nightmare of decadence, a portrait of a future Gomorrah where a Nero might play an automated violin.
"Ballard is one of the brightest stars in post-war science fiction."—Kingsley Amis
Good copy with some previous sticker damage to top corner of cover, light wear. Tanning to pages, otherwise a tight VG copy.
1976, English
Softcover, 84 pages, 28.5 x 21 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / good
Published by
Dover / New York
$35.00 - Out of stock
Perhaps the most famous of Grosz's collections is Ecce Homo (Berlin: Malik Verlag, 1923). The title echoes Pilate's presentation of Jesus as King of the Jews, beaten, with a crown of thorns, bloody and ready for crucifixion, and clearly not the Messiah he had been proclaimed to be six days earlier when he was greeted by rapturous crowds. Just so, the image of the heroic German, brave in war and moral in peacetime, took such a beating in Grosz's drawings, watercolors, and paintings, that he was prosecuted for "offences against public morality and for besmirching the values of the German people" (Kranzfelder, 59). Offering an unsparing vision of human nakedness, lust, greed and cruelty, Ecce Homo was found to be a slanderous attack upon the army, which won damages and the removal of 5 color plates and 17 black and white plates from the portfolio in a law suit. Grosz was also fined 6000 marks. Since Grosz had been attacking the Nazis since the early 1920s and since he had singled out Hitler in particular, it is not surprising that after the Nazi's took power in Germany, his works were singled out for ridicule and destruction. 285 of his works were removed from German collections and destroyed and the 1937 Munich Exhibition of Nazi-labelled "Degenerate Art" included five of his paintings, two watercolours, and thirteen drawings. After relocating to the U.S., Grosz wrote to J. B. Neuman concerning his own place in the history of art: "My drawings will naturally stay true–they are fireproof. They will later be seen as Goya's work [is]. They are not documents of the class struggle, but eternally living documents of human stupidity and brutality"
1976 Dover Edition.
Average—Good copy with previous owner gift inscription to front endpaper. General wear/marks.
2012, English
Softcover, 144 pages, 29.3 x 20.8 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / as new
Published by
Mousse / Milan
$180.00 - Out of stock
Out-of-print first edition of the first major book survey of American artist Leigh Ledare, edited by Elena Filipovic, with texts by Elena Filipovic and Nicolas Guagnini, and an interview with Leigh Ledare by David Joselit.
American artist Leigh Ledare uses photography, archival material and text to explore human agency, social relationships, taboos and the photographic, in equal turns. Formally trained in photography, this erstwhile assistant of Larry Clark has, in a relatively short time, developed a body of work that is coherent, complex, biting in its intelligence and decidedly provocative. Emphasizing the central role that others—mother, family members, ex-lover, collectors, anonymous patrons, etc.—play in his work, and the slippage of authorship and agency that he often deliberately gives them, the artist has entitled his first institutional solo exhibition organized by WIELS Contemporary Art Centre, Brussels, and the catalogue that accompanies it: Leigh Ledare, et al. The richly illustrated full-colour publication, including two newly commissioned essays and an interview with the artist, features examples from nearly all his photographic series to date, as well as stills of video works, text-based pieces, and a number of newly produced pieces never shown before.
As New.
2015, English
Softcover, 264 pages, 16.5 x 23 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / fine
Published by
A.R.T. Press / New York
$140.00 - In stock -
Now out-of-print, the book Double Bind pivots around an extensive conversation between artist Leigh Ledare and art historian Rhea Anastas concerning Ledare’s project of the same name. As an installation, Double Bind puts in play a series of overlaying comparative structures: over one thousand photographs of the artist’s ex-wife (half taken by Ledare, the other half by her current husband, according to a script conceived by Ledare) and an ample collection of printed mass media. Through a critical and wide-ranging dialog, Ledare and Anastas probe the complexities of the viewing experience of the work and the consequences of its provocations. Ordered according to six sections, the conversation addresses key concepts and methodologies that structure the work: viewing, systemic conditions, enactment, installation and mass media, genealogy, and affect. Taken by Ledare exclusively for this book, installation views of the New York exhibition (Mitchell-Innes & Nash, 2014) foreground the subjective experience of the work and anchor the coauthors’ testing of models of aesthetic and social critique within an ethics of actually looking. The dialogue also appears with an introduction by Anastas, a preface by Ledare, and a chronology of Double Bind exhibitions and publications to date.
“Ledare’s Double Bind project examines social process of habitual enactment, such as what it means “to be a wife,” emotional and material terms of exchange, thresholds of public and private imagination, gender normativity and symbolic boundaries of relationships—all through the lens of a camera. Ledare suggests a kind of unraveling of these habituations and carries this logic over to his discussion of the work with Rhea Anastas. Here, Double Bind functions not simply as an object of analysis but instead as a rubric through which the two extend the work itself through a dialectic of articulation and dis-articulation. In line with the radical (and often suppressed) premises of conceptual art, here Ledare and Anastas challenge and override conventional distinctions between artwork, viewer, artist, critic and art historian. In this way this book serves as a vital part of Double Bind’s progressive unfolding.” – John Miller, artist and critic
As New—Near Fine.
1997, English
Softcover, 320 pages, 21 x 13.5 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Serpent's Tail / London
$85.00 - Out of stock
"Cookie Mueller was a writer, a mother, an outlaw, an actress, a fashion designer, a go-go dancer, a witch-doctor, an art-hag and above all, a goddess.... It was much later in life that I realized Cookie's biggest talent was her writing. Even the worst experiences in her life were neutralized by retelling them in print as tall tales; she could become a sort of fractured but hilarious Uncle Remus for the brave but culturally wounded."—From the Introduction by John Waters
Rare first 1997 edition of the long out-of-print collection, Ask Dr. Mueller — The Writings of Cookie Mueller, published by High Risk Books / Serpent's Tail, with introduction by John Waters.
"Ask Dr. Mueller captures the glamour and grittiness of Cookie Mueller's life and times. Here are previously unpublished stories—wacky as they are enlightening—along with favorites from Walking Through Clear Water in a Pool Painted Black and other publications. Also, the best of Cookie's art columns from Details magazine, and the funniest of her advice columns from the East Village Eye, on everything from homeopathic medicine to how to cut your cocaine with a healthy substance. This collection is as much an autobiography as it is a map of downtown New York in the early '80s—that moment before Bright Lights, Big City, before the art world exploded, before New York changed into a yuppie metropolis, while it still had a glimmer of bohemian life."
Cookie Mueller was a fiction writer, columnist, cult movie star who appeared in several of John Waters films, and an art critic. She died of Aids in 1989.
Very Good copy with light tanning to pages.
1980, Japanese
Softcover, 326 pages, 21 x 15 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Nihon Shuppansha / Tokyo
$120.00 - In stock -
Very rare first issue (October 1980) of S&M Aburoman ("the world of beautiful perverted romance that SM love makes"), featuring cover artwork by Toshio Saeki. Founded in October 1980 by Nihon Shuppansha and edited by Mitsuo Yasuda (who also created SM Club, alongside Oniroku Dan, Sotaro Aki, and Tadao Chigusa), S&M Aburoman was a short-lived SM magazine packed with fetish illustrations, artwork galleries, photographic features, stories, pin-up spreads, and articles exploring SM sexuality. Features contributions by Toshio Saeki, Oniroku Dan, Keizo Miyanishi, Kujuro Kujuro, Shinnosuke Ougi, Haruo Shinozaki, Juan Maeda, and many more. Double sided pin-up of Japanese actress Azuma Terumi.
Very Good copy, tanning and light cover wear.
1981, Japanese
Softcover, 326 pages, 21 x 15 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Nihon Shuppansha / Tokyo
$100.00 - Out of stock
Rare April 1981 issue of S&M Aburoman ("the world of beautiful perverted romance that SM love makes"), featuring cover artwork by Toshio Saeki. Founded in October 1980 by Nihon Shuppansha and edited by Mitsuo Yasuda (who also created SM Club, alongside Oniroku Dan, Sotaro Aki, and Tadao Chigusa), S&M Aburoman was a short-lived SM magazine packed with fetish illustrations, artwork galleries, photographic features, stories, pin-up spreads, and articles exploring SM sexuality. Features contributions by Toshio Saeki, Tadao Chigusa, Tadao Matasuoka, Shinnosuke Ougi, Akira Kasuga, Juan Maeda, and many more.
Very Good copy, tanning and light cover wear.
1991/1992, Japanese
Various newsprint/offset ephemera, unpaginated, 26 x 18.5 cm; 20 x 19.2 cm; 20 x 23 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Jūrō Kara / Tokyo
$45.00 - Out of stock
Lot of 3 pieces of ephemera relating to Jūrō Kara and his Jōkyō Gekijo (Situation Theatre) company, formed in 1963. Jūrō Kara (b. 1940) is a Japanese avant-garde playwright, theatre director, author, actor, and songwriter. He was at the forefront of the Angura ("underground") theatre movement in Japan. According to the theatre historian, David G. Goodman, "Kara conceived his theatre in the premodern mold of kabuki—not the sanitized, aestheticized variety performed today, but the erotic, anarchic, plebeian sort performed during the Edo period (1600–1868) by itinerant troupes of actors who were rejected by bourgeois society as outcasts and 'riverbed beggars.' Emulating their itinerant forebears, Kara and his troupe performed throughout Japan in their mobile red tent." Kara's troupe gave guerrilla-like performances that adopted what is known as the tokkenteki nikutairon (the theory of the privileged body). Kara boldly affirmed that there was no longer a need for great play manuscripts in contemporary drama, and that it was the dramatic body of those who were on stage that was more important. Kara's beliefs of the "privileged body" was a dichotomy where the actor was a social pariah and a medium for the manifestation of the audience's dreams and desires. Kara appeared in Nagisa Ōshima's 1969 New Wave classic, Diary of a Shinjuku Thief, amongst many other films.
Lot includes pamphlets for Jūrō Kara directed performances of Gekidan Karagumi's "Nijiyashiki" at the iconic Red Tent in Parthenon Tama Central Park, Tokyo; The Betel Seal (Act 1: Blood of The Shark, Act 2: Inside The Jar); newspaper brochure for Jūrō Kara's Electronic Castle II / Beggar of Love. All performances 1991—1992.
Very Good all. Light tanning/wear to newspaper.
1967, Japanese
Softcover, 294 pages, 21 x 15 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Shinpusha / Tokyo
$40.00 - Out of stock
Rare March 1967 issue of Sexology for One Million People (rough translation), a magazine published by the underground bookstore Shinpusha in Tokyo in the late 1960s. As the title suggests, the magazine covers sexual customs and sexual sciences from all over the world and throughout history, but particularly focussing on liberated modern sexuality in Japan and abroad. This March special issue with the grim theme of "Crime and Punishment" features many articles on sex crimes, voyeurism, kidnapping, molestation and rape, complete with crime photography, wild info-graphics of sex-crime statistics, police files, court cases, and much more. Also includes profile on pink film heroine Tamaki Katori, photo features of Western female nudes, articles on female physiognomy with cartoons an photographic assistance, a "sexual love law" roundtable discussion with a variety of promiscuous "reckless" Japanese teenage girls, special feature on "unusual ways to enjoy the female body by 10 celebrities"... even a photo guide to kissing. Lots of illustrations, cartoons, and wonder photo-collage and single spot-colour sections throughout.
Very Good copy with light wear/age.
1964, Japanese
Softcover (staple-bound), 240 pages, 21 x 15 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / good
Published by
Kubo Shoten / Japan
$70.00 - Out of stock
Rare November 1964 issue of "THE JAPAN'S MOST REMARKABLE SM MAGAZINE", Rear Window, an early, pioneering SM magazine that played an important role in the formation of postwar SM culture, along with Kitan Club. Launched by Kubo Shoten in 1956, Rear Window was edited by Toshiyuki Suma, with Chimuo Nureki serving as editor-in-chief. In 1962—1965 Chimuo Nureki took over as editor. Heavy with wonderful artwork galleries in colour and bw, stunning kinbaku/bondage photo-features, illustrated fetish fiction, articles on sex customs, fold-outs, and much more, with contributions by Ran Akiyoshi, Mineko Tsuzuki, Kiyoshi Kimata, Chimuo Nureki (Yukio Kanai), Ayako Nakagawa (Kazutomo Fujino), Yoji Muku, Kazuyuki Kohinata, Akihiro Yamada, Taiga Utagawa, Hiroshi Urato, Hisashi Yoshida, Kimi Nakajima, and many others.
Good copy with cover wear, tanning.
1980, German
Softcover, 84 page, 26 x 17 cm
Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Rowohlt / Hamburg
$45.00 - Out of stock
Perhaps the most famous of Grosz's collections is Ecce Homo (Berlin: Malik Verlag, 1923). The title echoes Pilate's presentation of Jesus as King of the Jews, beaten, with a crown of thorns, bloody and ready for crucifixion, and clearly not the Messiah he had been proclaimed to be six days earlier when he was greeted by rapturous crowds. Just so, the image of the heroic German, brave in war and moral in peacetime, took such a beating in Grosz's drawings, watercolors, and paintings, that he was prosecuted for "offences against public morality and for besmirching the values of the German people" (Kranzfelder, 59). Offering an unsparing vision of human nakedness, lust, greed and cruelty, Ecce Homo was found to be a slanderous attack upon the army, which won damages and the removal of 5 color plates and 17 black and white plates from the portfolio in a law suit. Grosz was also fined 6000 marks. Since Grosz had been attacking the Nazis since the early 1920s and since he had singled out Hitler in particular, it is not surprising that after the Nazi's took power in Germany, his works were singled out for ridicule and destruction. 285 of his works were removed from German collections and destroyed and the 1937 Munich Exhibition of Nazi-labelled "Degenerate Art" included five of his paintings, two watercolours, and thirteen drawings. After relocating to the U.S., Grosz wrote to J. B. Neuman concerning his own place in the history of art: "My drawings will naturally stay true–they are fireproof. They will later be seen as Goya's work [is]. They are not documents of the class struggle, but eternally living documents of human stupidity and brutality"
1980 reprint of the collection reproduced in black and white and colour, published by Rowohlt in Hamburg, 1980.
Very good copy.
2023, English
Softcover (staple-bound), 24 pages, 21 x 14.5 cm
Published by
Degrowth Collective / Naarm
$5.00 - In stock -
AGENDER AGENDA is the first poemzine produced by DEGROWTH COLLECTIVE, an art cult dedicated to the idea that decay the essential step we must first take into the circle which preserves us.
AGENDER AGENDA is an act of expression — that to destroy gender, colonialism, capitalism and punishment - we must first destroy these things in our self. It is a love letter to all those who have begun this process.
by ruth e pleasant, mercury violet, wren e pleasant, sky black
2010, Japanese
Hardcover (w. printed wax dust jacket), 110 pages, 22.5 x 16 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / as new
Published by
Usatsuki Shokai / Japan
$140.00 - In stock -
First edition of this fast out-of-print special collection of ero-guro master Toshio Saeki's iconic artworks for literature. Roughly translated to "Hidden Dream Filled with Snakes", this beautiful hardcover book reproduces over 100 plates of lush full-colour final artwork, as well and preliminary sketches, related to legendary historical novels by authors such as Futaro Yamada, the pen name of Seiya Yamada, a novelist discovered by Edogawa Rampo and widely celebrated in Japan for his ninja and mystery stories. Saeki is well-known in Japan for creating the bold artwork that adorned editions of such popular fiction, reproduced here, filled with monsters, ghosts and samarai. Includes a Japanese commentary by Goro Yamamda.
Toshio Saeki (1945—2019) was an illusive Japanese illustrator and painter, and icon of 1970s Tokyo counterculture, known for combining Japanese folklore, Yōkai spirits and elements of Western art with his own sophisticated aesthetics to create a unique, sensational world of eros, dark humour, and horror. Given the title “Erotic Engineer” by Timothy Leary, Saeki's provocative art broke all sexual taboos, questioned Japanese ideology and traditional views on love, desire and gender roles. Saeki’s surgically-precise graphic work is closely related to the Japanese cultural phenomenon ‘Erotic, Grotesque, Nonsense’ (ero, guro, nansensu).
“Toshio Saeki conjures death with a pen”—Shūji Terayama, 1969.
As New copy.
2004, Japanese
Hardcover (w. slipcase), 48 pages, 27 x 19 cm
Signed and numbered edition,
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Seirin Kogeisha / Tokyo
$350.00 - In stock -
Very rare first Japanese edition of Picture Scroll of Pathos by ero-guro master Toshio Saeki (1945—2019), limited to only 1000 copies, numbered and this special copy signed by Saeki inside the cover! A gorgeous and rarely seen collection of Saeki's early manga works and picture stories that were originally published in the early 70's and thought to be lost, here reproduced impeccably in black and white with stunning multi-panel colour fold-out spreads. Hardcover bound in illustrated slipcase. Most complete.
Toshio Saeki (1945—2019) was an illusive Japanese illustrator and painter, and icon of 1970s Tokyo counterculture, known for combining Japanese folklore, Yōkai spirits and elements of Western art with his own sophisticated aesthetics to create a unique, sensational world of eros, dark humour, and horror. Given the title “Erotic Engineer” by Timothy Leary, Saeki's provocative art broke all sexual taboos, questioned Japanese ideology and traditional views on love, desire and gender roles. Saeki’s surgically-precise graphic work is closely related to the Japanese cultural phenomenon ‘Erotic, Grotesque, Nonsense’ (ero, guro, nansensu).
“Toshio Saeki conjures death with a pen”—Shūji Terayama, 1969.
Fine copy with Fine dj, slipcase. Signed in bold silver pen by Saeki.
2017, English
Softcover, 343 pages, 19.5 x 12.4 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / fine
Published by
Serpent's Tail / London
$36.00 - Out of stock
Notes from the Sick Room takes place in an imaginary hospital that bends the rules of time and space.
Within its wards and departments we meet artists, musicians and writers who have suffered from various physical illnesses – cancer, tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS and physical trauma. Their lives and works are discussed in an attempt to diagnose how their complaints influenced their work or how their creativity affected their symptoms. We meet Virginia Woolf, Kathy Acker, Frida Kahlo, Katherine Mansfield, Bob Dylan Bruce Chatwin and many others as they struggle to produce works of art, literature and music while in denial, acceptance or flight and through periods of serious illness and convalescence. As we move through the hospital, specialists keep us informed of the history of creativity and illness and the author divulges his own medical history.
Fine copy, light pressure line on cover.
1994, Japanese / English
Slipcase (w. obi), corrugated envelope, 64 looseleaf plates, 29.7 x 21 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / as new
Published by
B-Sellers / Japan
$220.00 - Out of stock
First stunning printing of Scene of Death, a rare 1994 death photo collection, published by B-Sellers in Japan only, compiled by Noriaki Nakagawa, Hitomi Komukai, and Yoichi Shihata. An elaborate and beautiful print production of the macabre. Housed in an illustrated slipcase with illustrated obi-strip and further 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 photobook scrapbook of thousands of images of graphic human death scenes — suffocation and strangulation, drowning and death by water, death by burning and electrocution, crimes of passion, abuse and neglect, and more. In turn, this visual opus became a bible of reference imagery to a wave of musicians, artists and authors during the industrial avant-garde, from Throbbing Gristle to Paul Buck to Atrax Morgue. This meticulous and unique Japanese offering further influenced many Japanese artists in the 1990's.
Stamped and numbed.
"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.
As New, still sealed copy! Note: images taken from open/aged copy only to illustrate.
1996, Japanese
Hardcover (clothbound), 136 pages, 27 x 21.6 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
NG Publication / Tokyo
$600.00 - Out of stock
Very rare, highly sought after first book, Danse Macabre To The Hardcore Works, by Japanese "corpse photographer" Kiyotaka Tsurisaki, published by NG Publication (imprint of editor Kotaro Kobayashi — Too Negative, Ultra Negative, ORG, etc.) in 1996 in an edition of 1000 copies. This deluxe clothbound hardcover volume contains an unwavering, unapologetic look at death, collecting Tsurisaki's first works (a three year survey) bound together in glossy full-colour. Most never before published, the book includes his first published photographs from the second issue of Kobayashi's Too Negative magazine. Since 1994, Japanese photographer, film director, and writer Kiyotaka Tsurisaki (b. 1966) has become known for prolifically photographing dead bodies; his images of death and conflict from global "hot-spots" earning him a reputation as a leading underground photographer. For Kiyotaka’s raw photo-journalistic practice he habitats disaster areas, accident sites and war zones, locations where society has collapsed to seek out and photograph man's ultimate taboo — death. Many of these people met with violent ends, whether by vehicle crash, homicide, or suicide. The images are stark, confronting, bleak and profound. Tsurisaki also brings the viewer into morgues and forensics labs, where the macabre work of embalming and autopsy is unapologetically documented. His work has led him from Fukoshima and Japan’s suicide forest Aokigahara, Thailand, Colombia, Mexico, Russia, and Palestine, as well as other lawless or war-torn parts of the world, to photograph human corpses. In El Cartucho, Bogota, Kiyotaka filmed the shockumentary Orozco The Embalmer (2001) — a now cult classic in its genre, alongside his Junk Films (2007) and Wasteland (2012). Tsurisaki has published several photo books and authored Book Of The Dead (2011), and The Dogs of the Nuclear War: A Chronicle Of The Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant (2017).
Very Good—Near Fine copy.
2007, Japanese
DVD (90 mins)
Signed.,
Published by
Uplink / Japan
$180.00 - Out of stock
Signed copy of the original 2007 Japanese issue DVD of "corpse photographer", director and author Kiyotaka Tsurisaki's collection of short shockumentaries, Junk Films. Signed on the disc by Kiyotaka Tsurisaki.
"Tsurisaki Kiyotaka, the infamous Japanese death photographer and director of Orozco the Embalmer picks up his video camera and heads into the depths of Hell yet again. Junk Films is a collection of short shockumentaries filmed between the late 1990's and early 2000's, with footage including everything from disemboweled auto accident victims in Krung Thep, to the self mutilating participants of the Vegetarian Festival in Phuket, and even footage of festering corpses in a Bogota landfill. 'Junk Films: The Collected Short Shockumentaries of Tsurisaki Kiyotaka' presents death with a sense of rawness and voyeurism. An unflinching look at the gruesome aftermath of combat, disasters, and accidents, this is like no other shockumentary you've ever seen."
As New copy with some wear to insert sheet, light rippling to back cover. Signed by Kiyotaka Tsurisaki on the disc.
1997, Japanese
Softcover (plastic acetate cover), 67 pages, 30 x 21 cm
Numbered edition.,
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
NG Publication / Tokyo
$200.00 - In stock -
Extremely rare limited edition hand-numbered catalogue book published by NG Publication on the occasion of the exhibition Abnormal Baby, held at NG Gallery in January 1997. The catalogue collects all the works from the exhibition, "photographs by NG Gallery", documenting "Abnormal" babies, fetuses, newborn and child medical anomalies, child birth, with Anne Geddes thrown in for good measure. Anyone who knows Too Negative magazine will understand the obsessive content. Edited by Jun Aoto, with airbrushed cover artwork by Sigeharu Tamura, Abnormal Baby is Number 6 in the NG Copybook series, a series of very limited run photocopy books produced in cut 'n' paste fanzine fashion and distributed in the gallery or by mailorder by publisher and gallerist Kotaro Kobayashi (Too Negative, Ultra Negative, ORG, NG Publication, etc.). Hand-bound with thermal binding with clear protective plastic cover, b/w photocopied throughout, colour cover, hand-numbered (this copy "26"), including the exhibition flyer, Copybook catalogue listing, advertisements for NG Gallery and NG Publication (including Kiyotaka Tsurisaki's Danse Macabre To The Hardcore Works, Too Negative, etc.), other affiliated events and publications, and a full NG distribution list.
Not for the faint of heart!
Very Good copy with general light age/wear.