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:
CLOSED FOR SUMMER.
RE-OPENING 01.02.24
WEB-SHOP OPEN 24/7.
World Food Books
Postal Address:
PO Box 435
Flinders Lane
Victoria 8009
Australia
Art
Theory / Essay
Architecture / Interior
Graphic Design / Typography
Photography
Fashion
Eros
LGBTQ+
Fiction / Poetry
Weird / Speculative / Science Fiction / Horror
Transgressive / Visceral / Abject
Symbolism / Decadence / Fin de siècle
Film / Video
Painting
Sculpture / Installation
Performance / Dance / Theater
Drawing
Sound / Music
Curatorial
Group Shows / Collections
Periodicals
Out-of-print / Rare
Posters / Ephemera / Discs
Signed Books
World Food Books Gift Voucher
World Food Book Bag
Australian Art
Australian Photography
Japanese Photography
Conceptual Art
Minimal Art
Dada
'Pataphysics / Oulipo
Fluxus
Concrete Poetry
Pop Art
Surrealism
Arte Povera
Arte Informale / Haute Pâte / Tachism
Nouveau Réalisme / Zero / Kinetic
Situationism / Lettrism
Collage / Mail Art / Xerox Art
Art Brut / Folk / Visionary / Fantastic
Illustration / Graphic Art / Bandes Dessinées
Furniture
Italian Radical Design / Postmodernism
Textiles
Ceramics / Glass
Counterculture
Protest / Revolt
Anarchism
Socialism / Communism / Capitalism
Literary Theory / Semiotics / Language
Feminism
Fetishism / BDSM
Drugs / Psychedelia
Crime / Violence
Animal Rights / Veganism
Occult / Esoterica
Ecology / Earth / Alternative Living
Whole Earth / Crafts
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.
$.00 - Out of stock
The eternal clean out! New items weekly.
https://worldfoodbooks.com/category/sale
1978, Japanese
Softcover (staple-bound), 52 pages, 30 x 21 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / good
Published by
Rock Magazine / Osaka
$60.00 - In stock -
Rare, new very collectible, early issue (October 1978) of Rock Magazine, founded in Osaka in 1976 by music critic, editor and Vanity Records label owner Yuzuru Agi. This issue with David Bowie cover by Masayoshi Sukita, Johnny Rotten (Sex Pistols) colour pin-up, features on UK label Chiswick Records (Motörhead, The Count Bishops, The Damned, Skrewdriver, The Radiators, etc), Europe/Kraftwerk, "The Black New Wave" or "Jah-Punk" (a huge feature with interviews, artist profiles and illustrated discographies — U-Roy, Lee Scratch Perry, Steel Pulse, Prince Far I, Third World, etc), the beginning of Vanity Records, reports from London, New York and Akron, Ohio, record reviews, columns, letters...
Yuzuru Agi (1946—2018) was a singer turn visionary Japanese music critic, editor, producer, and Vanity label owner. Thanks to Agi's unwavering commitment to cutting-edge music, Rock Magazine (1976—1984) was Japan's leading magazine for "contemporary music", channeling the international musical vanguard into Japan every month. A crucial publication in the rise of avant-garde music from the West in Japan, Rock Magazine championed Progressive Rock, Free Jazz, Punk, Art Rock, New Wave, Industrial, Krautrock, Ambient, Reggae, Noise, and much between, charting the developments in Europe, UK, USA, etc., alongside the latest from Japan, through exclusive interviews, scene reports, articles, family trees, discographies, and extensive record reviews, littered with hundreds of photographs, record cover artwork, colour posters, and record label, store and venue advertisements. Wonderful Japanese "maximum data" magazine design throughout, with multiple stocks and colour-processes. Agi and his cohorts didn't miss a beat, and these magazines are as comprehensive a reference for anyone interested in historical "new music" as it gets (alongside Agi's EGO magazine, early Marquee Moon and Fool's Mate, Morgue, G-Modern...).
Good copy with tanning and general wear/spine pinches/foxing from age.
1979, Japanese
Softcover (staple-bound), 52 pages, 30 x 21 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / good
Published by
Rock Magazine / Osaka
$90.00 - In stock -
Rare, now very collectible, early issue (January 1979) of Rock Magazine, founded in Osaka in 1976 by music critic, editor and Vanity Records label owner Yuzuru Agi. This issue with Eno cover by Ritva Saarikko, features huge interviews with Brian Eno and Sid Vicious, a huge feature of multiple articles and illustrated discography of British and European Free Music (Derek Bailey, Evan Parker, Han Bennink, Steve Lacy, Hans Reichel, Keith Tippett, Lol Coxhill, Willem Breuker, Misha Mengelberg, Wolfgang Dauner, et al.), colour pin-up of English early punk/gothic rock band Gloria Mundi, Robert Fripp, "Mao Mao Pop": Andy Mackay (Roxy Music), record reviews, columns, letters...
Yuzuru Agi (1946—2018) was a singer turn visionary Japanese music critic, editor, producer, and Vanity label owner. Thanks to Agi's unwavering commitment to cutting-edge music, Rock Magazine (1976—1984) was Japan's leading magazine for "contemporary music", channeling the international musical vanguard into Japan every month. A crucial publication in the rise of avant-garde music from the West in Japan, Rock Magazine championed Progressive Rock, Free Jazz, Punk, Art Rock, New Wave, Industrial, Krautrock, Ambient, Reggae, Noise, and much between, charting the developments in Europe, UK, USA, etc., alongside the latest from Japan, through exclusive interviews, scene reports, articles, family trees, discographies, and extensive record reviews, littered with hundreds of photographs, record cover artwork, colour posters, and record label, store and venue advertisements. Wonderful Japanese "maximum data" magazine design throughout, with multiple stocks and colour-processes. Agi and his cohorts didn't miss a beat, and these magazines are as comprehensive a reference for anyone interested in historical "new music" as it gets (alongside Agi's EGO magazine, early Marquee Moon and Fool's Mate, Morgue, G-Modern...).
Good copy with tanning and general wear/spine pinches/foxing from age.
1976, English
Softcover, 428 pages, 18 x 11 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Penguin Books / London
$65.00 - In stock -
Scarce first 1976 Penguin paperback edition of the first 1968 English translation. Cover design by Tsutomu Harada.
Shunsuké, an ageing novelist, hits on a brilliant plan to avenge himself on womankind, who, he believes, have blighted his life. He bribes a beautiful homosexual student, Yuichi, to marry. The plan works, Yuichi's wife is made miserable. And Shunsuké gets Yuichi to compromise two of his past tormentors, the blackmailing Mrs Kaburagi and Kyoko, a dizzy socialite. But Yuichi, now the toast of Tokyo's 'gay people' and free of all moral restraint, refuses to be further manipulated. Soon the old writer sees his protégé, his creation, turn into a monster dangerously out of control.
Mishima's own superlative literary qualities... include a complete control of complex nárrative, the ability to convey psychological depths often far removed from the everyday, and a sense of total commitment and response to the experience of life, all of which transcend the author's personal obsessions'—New Statesman
Yukio Mishima (1925—1970), one of the most spectacularly gifted writers in modern Japan, was born into a samurai family in 1925. Yukio Mishima was a Japanese author, poet, playwright, actor, model, Shintoist, nationalist, and founder of the Tatenokai ("Shield Society"), an unarmed civilian militia. Mishima is considered one of the most important Japanese authors of the 20th century. He was considered for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1968. His works include the novels Confessions of a Mask and The Temple of the Golden Pavilion. Mishima's work is characterized by "its luxurious vocabulary and decadent metaphors, its fusion of traditional Japanese and modern Western literary styles, and its obsessive assertions of the unity of beauty, eroticism and death", according to author Andrew Rankin. In November 1970 he and his Tatenokai forced their way into a Self-Defense Force headquarters in Tokyo, where Mishima, after reading out a proclamation, committed ritual suicide with a young follower in the commanding officer's room. On the morning of his death, the last volume of Mishima's tetralogy, The Sea of Fertility (The Spring Snow, Runaway Horses, The Temple of Dawn, The Decay of the Angel) was delivered to his publisher.
Good—Very Good copy with general light cover wear and age. No spine creases.
1977, English
Softcover, 186 pages, 18 x 11 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Penguin Books / London
$40.00 - In stock -
Scarce first 1977 Penguin paperback edition. Cover design by Tsutomu Harada.
Violence, homosexuality and the spiritual emptiness of post-war Japan: these were Mishima's key themes. But not all of these nine stories [and one play] exemplify them; for there was also in this remarkable writer a streak of wry, ironic humour. Here, then, is truly compelling reading. There is shock, explosion, illumination. Here is Mishima. Here is Japan.
Includes: Death in Midsummer, Three Million Yen, Thermos Flasks, The Priest of Shiga Temple and His Love, The Seven Bridges, Patriotism, Dojoji, Onnagata, The Pearl, Swaddling Clothes.
Yukio Mishima (1925—1970), one of the most spectacularly gifted writers in modern Japan, was born into a samurai family in 1925. Yukio Mishima was a Japanese author, poet, playwright, actor, model, Shintoist, nationalist, and founder of the Tatenokai ("Shield Society"), an unarmed civilian militia. Mishima is considered one of the most important Japanese authors of the 20th century. He was considered for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1968. His works include the novels Confessions of a Mask and The Temple of the Golden Pavilion. Mishima's work is characterized by "its luxurious vocabulary and decadent metaphors, its fusion of traditional Japanese and modern Western literary styles, and its obsessive assertions of the unity of beauty, eroticism and death", according to author Andrew Rankin. In November 1970 he and his Tatenokai forced their way into a Self-Defense Force headquarters in Tokyo, where Mishima, after reading out a proclamation, committed ritual suicide with a young follower in the commanding officer's room. On the morning of his death, the last volume of Mishima's tetralogy, The Sea of Fertility (The Spring Snow, Runaway Horses, The Temple of Dawn, The Decay of the Angel) was delivered to his publisher.
Good—Very Good copy with general light cover wear and age. No spine crease.
1976, English
Softcover, 362 pages, 18 x 11 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / good
Published by
Penguin Books / London
$45.00 - In stock -
Scarce first 1976 Penguin paperback edition of the first 1968 English translation. Cover design by Tsutomu Harada.
In November 1970, Yukio Mishima committed suicide, in the old Japanese way, by disembowelling himself. His last years were devoted to the completion of a quartet of novels, The Sea of Fertility, of which this is the first volume.
'Spring Snow is a novel of considerable stature... it comes from the imagination of a writer whose work bears the same stamp of courage and truth as his own death'—The Times Educational Supplement
'Nowhere before in Mishima's writings is the style quite so dazzling... Nowhere has Mishima's imagination reached such powerful and complex heights''—The Times Literary Supplement
'Lucid, poignant and dramatic...The novel unwinds like a finely painted scroll, to reveal scenes and portraits with a distinctive poignancy of their own. Mishima is entirely successful'—Encounter
Yukio Mishima (1925—1970), one of the most spectacularly gifted writers in modern Japan, was born into a samurai family in 1925. Yukio Mishima was a Japanese author, poet, playwright, actor, model, Shintoist, nationalist, and founder of the Tatenokai ("Shield Society"), an unarmed civilian militia. Mishima is considered one of the most important Japanese authors of the 20th century. He was considered for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1968. His works include the novels Confessions of a Mask and The Temple of the Golden Pavilion. Mishima's work is characterized by "its luxurious vocabulary and decadent metaphors, its fusion of traditional Japanese and modern Western literary styles, and its obsessive assertions of the unity of beauty, eroticism and death", according to author Andrew Rankin. In November 1970 he and his Tatenokai forced their way into a Self-Defense Force headquarters in Tokyo, where Mishima, after reading out a proclamation, committed ritual suicide with a young follower in the commanding officer's room. On the morning of his death, the last volume of Mishima's tetralogy, The Sea of Fertility (The Spring Snow, Runaway Horses, The Temple of Dawn, The Decay of the Angel) was delivered to his publisher.
Good—Very Good copy with general light cover/corner wear and age, light moisture buckle. No spine creases.
1973, English
Softcover, 396 pages, 18 x 11 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / good
Published by
Penguin Books / London
$45.00 - In stock -
Scarce first 1977 Penguin paperback edition of the first 1973 English translation. Cover design by Tsutomu Harada.
In November 1970, Yukio Mishima committed suicide, in the old Japanese way by disembowelling himself. His last years were devoted to the completion of a quartet of novels, The Sea of Fertility, of which this is the second volume.
Isao is a young, engaging patriot, and a fanatical believer in the ancient samurai ethos. He turns terrorist, organising a violent plot against the new industrialists, who he believes are threatening the integrity of Japan and usurping the Emperor’s rightful power. As the conspiracy unfolds and unravels, Mishima brilliantly chronicles the conflicts of a decade that saw the fabric of Japanese life torn apart.
Mishima's own superlative literary qualities... include a complete control of complex nárrative, the ability to convey psychological depths often far removed from the everyday, and a sense of total commitment and response to the experience of life, all of which transcend the author's personal obsessions'—New Statesman
Yukio Mishima (1925—1970), one of the most spectacularly gifted writers in modern Japan, was born into a samurai family in 1925. Yukio Mishima was a Japanese author, poet, playwright, actor, model, Shintoist, nationalist, and founder of the Tatenokai ("Shield Society"), an unarmed civilian militia. Mishima is considered one of the most important Japanese authors of the 20th century. He was considered for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1968. His works include the novels Confessions of a Mask and The Temple of the Golden Pavilion. Mishima's work is characterized by "its luxurious vocabulary and decadent metaphors, its fusion of traditional Japanese and modern Western literary styles, and its obsessive assertions of the unity of beauty, eroticism and death", according to author Andrew Rankin. In November 1970 he and his Tatenokai forced their way into a Self-Defense Force headquarters in Tokyo, where Mishima, after reading out a proclamation, committed ritual suicide with a young follower in the commanding officer's room. On the morning of his death, the last volume of Mishima's tetralogy, The Sea of Fertility (The Spring Snow, Runaway Horses, The Temple of Dawn, The Decay of the Angel) was delivered to his publisher.
Scarce first 1976 Penguin paperback edition of the first 1968 English translation. Cover design by Tsutomu Harada.
Shunsuké, an ageing novelist, hits on a brilliant plan to avenge himself on womankind, who, he believes, have blighted his life. He bribes a beautiful homosexual student, Yuichi, to marry. The plan works, Yuichi's wife is made miserable. And Shunsuké gets Yuichi to compromise two of his past tormentors, the blackmailing Mrs Kaburagi and Kyoko, a dizzy socialite. But Yuichi, now the toast of Tokyo's 'gay people' and free of all moral restraint, refuses to be further manipulated. Soon the old writer sees his protégé, his creation, turn into a monster dangerously out of control.
Mishima's own superlative literary qualities... include a complete control of complex nárrative, the ability to convey psychological depths often far removed from the everyday, and a sense of total commitment and response to the experience of life, all of which transcend the author's personal obsessions'—New Statesman
Yukio Mishima (1925—1970), one of the most spectacularly gifted writers in modern Japan, was born into a samurai family in 1925. Yukio Mishima was a Japanese author, poet, playwright, actor, model, Shintoist, nationalist, and founder of the Tatenokai ("Shield Society"), an unarmed civilian militia. Mishima is considered one of the most important Japanese authors of the 20th century. He was considered for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1968. His works include the novels Confessions of a Mask and The Temple of the Golden Pavilion. Mishima's work is characterized by "its luxurious vocabulary and decadent metaphors, its fusion of traditional Japanese and modern Western literary styles, and its obsessive assertions of the unity of beauty, eroticism and death", according to author Andrew Rankin. In November 1970 he and his Tatenokai forced their way into a Self-Defense Force headquarters in Tokyo, where Mishima, after reading out a proclamation, committed ritual suicide with a young follower in the commanding officer's room. On the morning of his death, the last volume of Mishima's tetralogy, The Sea of Fertility (The Spring Snow, Runaway Horses, The Temple of Dawn, The Decay of the Angel) was delivered to his publisher.
Good—Very Good copy with general light cover wear and age. No spine creases.
1970, English
Softcover, 142 pages, 17.5 x 10.5 cm
Out of print title / used / good
Published by
Berkley Medallion / Berkley
$25.00 - In stock -
Set in a remote fishing village in Japan, The Sound of Waves is a timeless story of first love. It tells of Shinji, a young fisherman and Hatsue, the beautiful daughter of the wealthiest man in the village. Shinji is entranced at the sight of Hatsue in the twilight on the beach and they fall in love. When the villagers' gossip threatens to divide them, Shinji must risk his life to prove his worth.
Yukio Mishima (1925—1970), one of the most spectacularly gifted writers in modern Japan, was born into a samurai family in 1925. Yukio Mishima was a Japanese author, poet, playwright, actor, model, Shintoist, nationalist, and founder of the Tatenokai ("Shield Society"), an unarmed civilian militia. Mishima is considered one of the most important Japanese authors of the 20th century. He was considered for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1968. His works include the novels Confessions of a Mask and The Temple of the Golden Pavilion. Mishima's work is characterized by "its luxurious vocabulary and decadent metaphors, its fusion of traditional Japanese and modern Western literary styles, and its obsessive assertions of the unity of beauty, eroticism and death", according to author Andrew Rankin. In November 1970 he and his Tatenokai forced their way into a Self-Defense Force headquarters in Tokyo, where Mishima, after reading out a proclamation, committed ritual suicide with a young follower in the commanding officer's room. On the morning of his death, the last volume of Mishima's tetralogy, The Sea of Fertility (The Spring Snow, Runaway Horses, The Temple of Dawn, The Decay of the Angel) was delivered to his publisher.
Good—Very Good copy with page/edge tanning.
1991, English
Softcover (staple-bound), 12 pages, 29 x 21 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / good
Published by
Australian National Gallery / Canberra
$25.00 $15.00 - In stock -
Scarce brochure catalogue published on the occasion of the exhibition The Life and Work of Wolfgang Sievers, Australian National Gallery, Canberra, 1991. This exhibition of Sievers photographs travelled Victoria and New South Wales between 1991—1992. "The Life and Work of Wolfgang Sievers is the first retrospective of Sievers's work; it surveys Sievers's long and productive career and includes photographs taken in Italy, Germany, Portugal and Australia. Since he settled in Australia in 1938 Sievers has made an extremely significant—but still largely unacknowledged—contribution to Australian cultural life." Illustrated throughout, the photographs are accompanied by stories written by the artist.
Wolfgang Georg Sievers, AO (1913–2007) was a well-known modernist photographer who specialised in architectural and industrial photography over a career spanning almost 60 years. Sievers grew up in Germany during a period known as the Weimar Republic, studied photography at the Contempora School for Applied Arts in Berlin, a successor to the Bauhaus, and in 1938, fearing increasing persecution in Nazi Germany, the Sievers family fled and migrated to Australia. Sievers served in the Australia Army from 1942 to 1946. After the war, Sievers concentrated on a career as a photographer, bringing a new vision of crisp and uniform images, showcasing how the modern world was aiming for economy through efficiency. After the Second World War, Australia had been particularly driven to streamlining processes and techniques in the postwar era, sometimes called the ‘golden age’. After the war, Sievers concentrated on a career as a photographer. He worked with other famous modernist photographers in Melbourne, including Axel Poignant and Athol Shmith. In Australia, Sievers took to industrial photography, bringing a new vision of crisp and uniform images, showcasing how the modern world was aiming for economy through efficiency. Sievers documented a postwar Australia, sometimes called the ‘golden age’. In describing his artistic method, Sievers once said: ‘The fundamental Bauhaus idea is purity of line and simplicity of design, both in architecture and industry. To this I added the dignity of man as a worker.’ Many of Sievers works contain images of humans as connected to the machines they work with. These photographs show humans as an important ‘part’ of the technology they are using.
Good copy with storage wear to covers.
1940, English
Softcover (staple-bound), 16 pages, 22 x 14 cm
Out of print title / used / average
Published by
Free Society Forum / Chicago
$35.00 - In stock -
"Long out of print The Place of The Individual in Society is one of Emma Goldman's latest works. Written after her disillusionment with Soviet Russia Goldman, in this work, emphasizes her primary concern the worth and freedom of the individual. Consistent in her criticism of government, be it American or Soviet, Goldman contends that all government stifles the creativity of the individual."—publisher's blurb
An anarchist classic reprinted by Free Society Forum, Chicago, undated but apparently this edition is from 1940 (a later printing from See Sharp Press gives a date of 1940 for this edition), though likely reproduced for many years with light alterations.
Emma Goldman (1869—1940) was a Lithuanian-born anarchist revolutionary, political activist, and writer. She played a pivotal role in the development of anarchist political philosophy in North America and Europe in the first half of the 20th century.
Average copy with splitting to spine, staple rust, buggery (bug nibbles) and general age/wear to covers.
1981, English
Softcover (staple bound w. brochure), 64 pages, 28 x 21.5 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Creative Space / Chippendale
$45.00 - In stock -
Including the Video Plus Group and the 'Sydney Artists Video and Sound Tape, 1979—1980' performances (Laughing Hands, David Chesworth, → ↑ → (Tsk Tsk Tsk), Warren Burt, Chris Wyatt, Eva Karczag, Robert Randall, and Frank Bendinelli) this rare catalogue published on the occasion of the Studio Access Project, an expansive Sydney-wide event during the 1981 Festival of Sydney and a solution to the desperate situation in the arts competing with industry, commerce and residential expansion in the inner city. "If the city is to remain a lively centre for the arts, room must be found for the artist to work." The first show of its kind in Australia, the project, organised by the volunteer-run Creative Space and Art Network attacked the problem by surveying the needs of artists in Sydney, revealing no less than 400 artists from a multitude of disciplines in urgent need of space, then identifying and investigating unused spaces for studios and presentations. "The redevelopment process is continuous and it leaves many buildings empty for long periods of time. In England and America artists have been found to be the perfect in between tenants for these type of properties."
"The Studio Access Project which this catalogue documents, was initiated to introduce the public to some of the artists in Sydney who are working in studios. It is hoped that in this way some idea of the process and not just the product can be communicated resulting in a greater understanding of artist space needs as well as providing the artists themselves with an exhibiting opportunity."
Sadly nothing has changed. If anything it's exceptionally worse, but this document is an important insight into the battle of Australian cultural initiatives to push back against the rampant redevelopment squeeze in this country and reclaim property waste.
With a map of the city and schedules of concerts and exhibitions, the book profiles all of the artists and utilising the many disparate buildings (shop fronts, garages, basements, warehouses...) profusely illustrated with their artworks, graphics, and biographies.
Includes Creative Space brochure inserted.
Very Good with some creasing to top of inserted brochure.
1975, English
Softcover (staple-bound), unpaginated, 21.5 x 18 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / good
Published by
Queen Street Magazine / Toronto
$30.00 - In stock -
Queen Street Magazine Vol. 3 No. 1, Issue 7, 8, 9, a 'Multi-media Journal of the Arts' from Canada that covered the experimental and conceptual arts in Toronto's historic Queen Street West neighborhood, which grew into a vibrant arts district in the 1970s. Edited by Angelo Sgabellone, associate edited by Beth Learn, this issue of particular interest for Learn's Language & Structure in North America on Language Art to accompany the first, large, definitive survey of North American Language Art curated by Richard Kostelanetz in Toronto in 1975. This issue gathers many works by North American Language Artists including Bill Bissett, Jackson Mac Low, Robert Barry, Brion Gysin, Mario Diacono, Agnes Denes, Thomas Ockerse, Steve McCaffery, Claes Oldenburg, Ernest & Marion Robson, Garry Gilbert, Larry Miller, Richard Kostelanetz, Hans Jewinski, Joe Rosenblatt, Gerry Shikatani, and more. Plus Mary Janitch, Read '75: Language & Structure in North America, Chuck Stake Enterprizes and the Junk Mail Art Show, The State of Magazine Distribution In Canada, Reinhard Reitzenstein, Learn/Yeats Second Coming Band, Small Magazine Press Scene, and much more.
Good copy with wear.
1980, French
Softcover (staple-bound), 216 pages, 27.5 x 21.5 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Editions Filipacchi / Paris
$100.00 - In stock -
Scarce copy of France's Lui ("Him") magazine from October 1980 with the cover feature dedicated the island of Ibiza. Profusely illustrated with nude photography from Ibiza shot by Jean-Pierre Bourgeois, Otto Weisser, Frank Gitty, and others, along with many other nude photo shoots, the usual articles, a history of Porsche, humour, reviews, wonderful Aslan artwork and the often missing pin-ups, all present! One of the most collectible issues of Lui.
Lui ("Him") was a French adult entertainment magazine founded in Paris in 1963 by fashion photographer turned publisher and Surrealist art collector, Daniel Filipacchi, with Jacques Lanzmann, a jack of all trades turned novelist, and Frank Ténot, a press agent, pataphysician and prominent jazz critic, with the objective to bring some charm "à la française" to the market of men's magazines. Each issue included in-depth interviews and cultural articles alongside its staple nude photography and erotic cartoons.
Very Good copy. Some light moisture marking to a couple of lower page corners and general light cover wear. Staples still holding and pin-up present.
1977, English
Softcover, 18 x 11 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / good
Published by
Penguin Books / London
$12.00 - Out of stock
First English edition of Vladimir Maksimov's The Seven Days of Creation, published by Penguin in 1977, a book that could not be published in the author's own country, Vladimir Maximov being expelled from the Soviet Union for allowing its publication in the West. For this book is a bleak revelation, comparing, as it does, the fate of one Russian working-class family with the pursuit of the Communist ideal over fifty years of suffering, corruption and oppression.
"A tragically coherent picture of these brave, stubborn, vodka-sodden citizens of a maniacally rubber-stamped society'—Daily Telegraph
"Maximov is everything implied by "proletarian writer"; in the context of his experience ... the term holds pathos, magnificence and enough crude ore to give at least some pertinence to Heinrich Boll's opinion that he is among the world's most important writers"—Guardian
Born Lev Samsonov, Moscow, 1930, Soviet and Russian writer, publicist, essayist and editor, Maksimov started writing poetry under the name of Vladimir Maximov. As a dissident, Maximov was twice forcibly admitted to psychiatric hospitals by the KGB. His case attracted international attention and in February 1974 Maximov was forced into political exile and stripped of his Soviet citizenship by Leonid Brezhnev's literary authorities, creating an international scandal. Maximov lived in Paris from then until his death in 1995.
Good with general wear.
1980, English
Hardcover, 424 pages, 17 x 12 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Progress Publishers / Moscow
$30.00 - In stock -
"Soviet cinema reflects the richness of contemporary life in all its complexity and variety and develops together with society and life itself. The best works in Soviet cinema tell of the deeds, thoughts, and hopes of those people for whom they are made."
First hardcover edition of Soviet cinematographer Yuri Vorontsov and film scholar Igor Rachuk's now classic study of the history of Soviet cinema, published in this English edition by Progress publications in Moscow in 1980. Tracing the history of Soviet cinema over 400 pages, with a comprehensive filmography and extensive film still imagery.
Very Good copy.
1985, French
Softcover, 239 pages, 21.7 x 28 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Henry Veyrier / Paris
$120.00 - In stock -
The essential Jane Birkin book, by Gérard Lenne and published by Editions Henry Veyrier, Paris, in 1985. The only French printing of this incredibly in-depth monograph on the great actress and singer, Jane Birkin. Scarce and very sought after today, this book, written by French film critic and writer Gérard Lenne, and made closely with Birkin herself, is both an intimate and revealing biography of her life and an important document capturing her diverse and challenging career as actress (working with Alain Resnais, Agnès Varda, Jean-Luc Godard, Michelangelo Antonioni, Jacques Doillon, Serge Gainsbourg, Jacques Rivette, to name a few), model, singer, and much more - through countless photographs, film-stills and profiles of each of her films and records. Includes a discography, bibliography and videography (from "Blow Up" to "le Pirate"). A great publication of English/French film history and a must for any Jane Birkin fan.
Very good copy, some age tanning, light wear. Long out-of-print.
2020, English
Softcover, 880 pages, 31 x 22.8 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / as new
Published by
Koenig Books / London
$800.00 - In stock -
The incredible Broodthaers book that was never available. Exhibition History 1964 – 1975 and Selected Works 1957 – 1975 is the most comprehensive account of Broodthaers' truely radical history of exhibition-making and catalogue of artworks that was immediately removed from market release the moment it was printed and pre-listed. An incredibly important and detailed reference on the artist like no other, this almost 900 page volume remains catalogued as 'not yet printed' to this day, shelved indefinitely. We have one available that escaped embargo. Still sealed.
In 1963, the writer Marcel Broodthaers decided to embark on a career in the visual arts. Yet he never severed his ties to poetry and language, whose systems of meaning make up an integral aspect of his work. Retaining a certain distance to the art world, he posed fundamental questions about art —its mediums, its conceptions of what constitutes an artwork, its representation in museums. To this day, his oeuvre takes a critical stand on art’s commercialization strategies. Exhibition-making itself was a key element of Broodthaers’ artistic approach. Documenting all of the artist’s solo exhibitions that took place during his lifetime, this major 880-page catalogue is the first ever to highlight that praxis. The extensive chronology and the accompanying detailed pictorial documentation of the most important works of every year together offer a systematic overview of his oeuvre. In addition to scholarly essays and many texts by Marcel Broodthaers himself, this major publication also features an extensive series of photographic views of the major retrospective at the iconic Fridericianum in Kassel, Germany.
As New, still sealed.
2021, English
Hardcover, 400 pages, 23.5 x 28.5 cm
Published by
Hatje Cantz / Berlin
WIELS / Brussels
$110.00 - In stock -
Marcel Broodthaers's work is characterized by a complex exploration of the relationship of text and image. This catalog raisonne, prepared by WIELS and developed in close collaboration with the Marcel Broodthaers Succession, is the first to include all of the Belgian conceptual artist's industrial poems created between 1968 and 1972. Borrowing from the aesthetics of industrially manufactured plastic signs, Broodthaers's multi-layered, often enigmatic pictorial poems testify to his interest in the entanglements of language, punctuation, and symbols. In blurring the boundaries between word and image, painting and object, new levels of meaning are made visible. The index is supplemented by a collection of Broodthaers's drawings, writings and "open letters" as well as scholarly contributions that position the poems as a crucial group of works within the artist's oeuvre.
Text by Manuel Borja-Villel
1992, German
Softcover, 68 pages, 21 x 14 cm
Ed. of 1000,
1st Edition, Out of print title / as new
Published by
Kunstraum München / Münich
Raum für Kunst / Hamburg
$35.00 - In stock -
First edition of this Broodthaers catalogue, published on the occasion of an exhibition of Broodthaers' "Objects, Printmaking, Drawings, Books" held in 1992 at Kunstraum München and Raum für Kunst, Hamburg. Heavily illustrated with works in black and white throughout (with extended captions/descriptions), portrait of Broodthaers with Magritte, and accompanying text by a Dorothea Zwirner. Texts in German.
As New copy.
Edition of 1000.
1970/1971, French
Softcover, 2 volumes, unpaginated, 28.5 x 19 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Marie Concorde / Paris
$380.00 - Out of stock
Both of the only volumes ever produced of this wonderful French avant-garde journal, published in Paris at the beginning of the 1970s. A visual manifesto against the prudishness of the times, KITSCH presented hundreds of illustrations of mostly erotic, fetish and fantastic/grotesque artwork by artists from all over the world, and spanning generations, with both issues wrapped in the most striking Tom Wesselmann covers. KITSCH 1 includes Toshio Saeki, Guido Crepax, Richard Linder, Robert Crumb, Guy Bourdin, Petr Herel, Hannes Jahn, Roman Cieślewicz, Ben Vautier, Christian Bour, Jacques Sternberg, Roland Topor, Jim, Allen Jones, Thomas Weir, alongside photo essays on upskirt polaroids, Satanik, Diabolik, fashion and more. KITSCH 2 includes Aslan, Roy Lichtenstein, Virgil Finlay, Jim Osborne, Ronald Lipking, Greg Irons, George Grosz, Egon Schiele, Mel Ramos, alongside photo essays on subjects such as "Pop Art", "Human Concern" and Paris' "Pigalle" district, further featuring work by H.C.Westermann, Paul Thek, Edward Keinholz, William Tunberg, Christian Schad, William Weegee, James Rosenquist, Frank Gallo, Tom Wesselmann, and many more.
Very good copies both, light wear.
1994, English / German
Softcover, 72 pages, 15.5 x 24 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / fine
Published by
Cantz Verlag / Berlin
$65.00 - Out of stock
Excellent, long out-of-print Rosemarie Trockel book, published in 1994 on the occasion of an exhibition at MAK Vienna. Designed by the artist herself, this publication focuses primarily on her video works of the nineties. Rosemarie Trockel began working with the medium of film in 1993, pursuing the line of development that had begun with her sculptures and objects. Her videos are concerned with people and animals, as in the slow-motion video entitled Out of the kitchen into the fire (1993), in which a female nude viewed from the rear lays an egg filled with black ink. Bizarre constellations and sequences reveal a certain irony in these works. Rosemarie Trockel's precise observations of natural processes, her use of materials, which she alters, reinterprets and places in unusual and surprising contexts, make her a very interesting contemporary artist. Rather than producing new "images" herself, she has the capacity to generate new images in the mind of the viewer.
As New copy.
1991, German
Softcover (staple-bound), 8 pages, 24 x 19 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Kunstraum München / Münich
$18.00 - In stock -
Catalogue for Rosemarie Trockel’s 1991 exhibition at the Kunstraum München. Lightly illustrated essay on the artist's work by Mario Diacono.
Very Good copy.
1972, German
Softcover, 54 pages, 30 x 21 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / average
Published by
Kunstmuseum Basel / Basel
$50.00 - In stock -
Rare copy of Dedans - Dehors, Dehors - Dedans, published in 1972 by Kunstmuseum Basel on the occasion of a solo exhibition of Swiss conceptual artist Rémy Zaugg (1943—2005). Rémy Zaugg was one of the most radical Swiss artists of his time. He played an important role as both a critic and observer of contemporary culture, especially with regards to the perception of space and architecture. A lovely and detailed catalogue profusely illustrated with Zaugg's artworks spanning 1968—1972, including two fold-out spreads, largely a pictorial survey with a small exhibition note by Dieter Koepplin and chronology. Texts in German.
Good—Average copy with some cover wear, bumping, spine pinching, internally very good, light tanning.
1967, French
Softcover (staple-bound), 8 pages, 18 x 21cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Galerie Rive Gauche / Rome
$80.00 - In stock -
Lovely 1967 Fèlix Labisse catalogue published on the occasion of a solo exhibition at Galerie Rive Gauche, Roma. Illustrated in black and white with a work list and text by Patrick Waldberg.
Félix Labisse (1905 – 1982) was a French Surrealist painter, illustrator, and designer. He was born in Marchiennes. He divided his time between Paris and the Belgian coast from 1927. In Ostend he met James Ensor, who influenced his work. Beginning in 1931 he designed for the theatre and illustrated many books, including those by Robert Desnos and Marcel Schwob. His paintings often depict fantastical hybrid creatures, often erotic in nature. He painted the first of a series of his famed blue women in 1960; among them is the Bain Turquoise. He was the subject of a film by Alain Resnais, Visite à Félix Labisse (1947). In 1966 he was elected to the Académie des Beaux-Arts. In 1973 his paintings were shown in a retrospective exhibition at the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam. He died in Neuilly-sur-Seine in 1982.
Very Good copy.