Ed Ruscha has become know for his deadpan irreverence, and his Pop inspired art work. He holds the mirror up to the banality of urban life and gives order to the barrage of mass media-fed images and information that confronts us daily. Born in Omaha in 1937, He moved to Los Angeles in the early 1950’s where he studied at the Chouinard Art Institute. By the early sixties he had made a name for himself for his collage, painting and printmaking, and for his association with the Ferrus Gallery group. Later he achieved recognition for his painting incorporating words and phrases and for his many photographic books.

Description: SIGNED BY ED RUSCHA on the front free end page. paperback copy with original glassine dust wrapper as issued. Stated second edition, limited 1/3000. 8vo. Unpaginated. Some age toning and chipping  to glassine jacket, otherwise fine.   Magnificently illustrated with 16 reproductions of photographs, 15 in duotone and 1 in b/w.

Bookseller Inventory# 26143

Various Small Fires And Milk
Ruscha, Ed

SOLD

· Category: Sold ·

Think of it as the illustrated version of Kerouac’s “On the Road” This photography book focuses on the left bank of Paris at a time when it was the center of creative ferment and the home of the artists, writers and aesthetes who would determine the cultural agenda of a generation. With its unconventional, gritty, snapshot-like technique the work was acclaimed as expanding the boundaries of documentary photography and became instrumental in the development of modern street photography.

Description: First edition of the Dutch photographer Van der Elsken’s first photo book. 103 pages of finely screened halftones. Structured like a documentary photo-novel about the young people who spent their days and nights in ‘existentialist’ jazz cellars and in the hotels and cafés of Paris. Large chips to dust jacket, otherwise good. Scarce!

Bookseller Inventory # 20963

Love On The Left Bank
Van der Elsken, Ed

SOLD

· Category: Sold ·

Mickey Mantle was perhaps the greatest switch-hitter to ever play the game of baseball. Mantle won the Triple Crown in 1956. He was an American League (AL) Most Valuable Player 3 times, and All-Star 16 times. He played in 19 of the 20 All-Star games he was named to, and appeared in 12 World Series. He still holds the records for most World Series home runs (18), RBIs (40), runs (42), walks (43), extra-base hits (26), and total bases (123). Whitey Ford refered to him as “a superstar who never acted like one. He was a humble man who was kind and friendly to all his teammates, even the rawest rookie. He was idolized by all the other players.” Mickey Mantle’s #7 was permanently retired by the New York Yankees in 1969.

Description: SIGNED BY MICKEY MANTLE on the title page. Hard bound with dust jacket. Third printing of the first edition – stated on the copyright page. Previous owners name and 1967 date to the front free end page. Some minor foxing to the page edges. Wear to edges of boards, otherwise very good. This was Mantle’s first book and he includes lessons on the art and techniques of playing baseball. 16 pages of b&w photos. A Rare signed copy!

Bookseller Inventory # 33907

The Education Of A Baseball Player
Mantle, Mickey

SOLD

· Category: Sold ·

William S. Burroughs is considered to be one of the most politically subversive, culturally influential, and innovative writers of the twentieth century. Burroughs was a primary figure of the Beat Generation and a major postmodernist author who affected popular culture as well as literature. Much of his work is semi-autobiographical, primarily drawn from his experiences as a heroin addict, as he lived and worked is various parts of the world, such as Mexico City, London, Paris, Berlin, and most famously Tangier.

Description: SIGNED BY WILLIAM S. BURROUGHS on the title page. Hard bound with dust jacket. Stated first printing. Some minor wear to orange cloth boards. End pages show some offsetting and previous owners book plate affixed to front fixed end page, otherwise with interior clean and binding sound. Minor edge wear to dust jacket, now in Brodart protective cover.  A scarce copy SIGNED BY BURROUGHS.

Bookseller Inventory # 26991

Nova Express
Burroughs, William S.

SOLD

· Category: Sold ·

Brett Weston was described  as the “child genius of American photography.” He was the second of the four sons of photographer Edward Weston and Flora Chandler. Weston’s earliest images from the 1920s reflect his intuitive sophisticated sense of abstraction. He often flattened the plane, engaging in layered space, an artistic style more commonly seen among the Abstract Expressionists. Brett Weston was ranked one of the top ten photographers collected by American museums by the final decade of his life. His photographs are included in the collections of countless museums.

Description: SIGNED BY BRETT WESTON.   1st Edition. Hard bound in dust jacket. Dust jacket shows minor wear and spotting, otherwise in very good condition.

Bookseller Inventory # 48370

Brett Weston: Photographs
Merle Armitage

SOLD

· Category: Sold ·

Mid-Century design at its finest. Knoll Design was founded in New York City by Hans Knoll in 1938. Hans, along with his partner and wife Florence, embraced the creative genius at the Bauhaus School and together they helped create a new type of furniture for the home and workplace. In part they defined the mid-century modern approach to design. The company still manufactures furniture for the home by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Harry Bertoia, Florence Knoll , Frank Gehry, Maya Lin and Eero Saarinen, all under the company’s KnollStudio division. Over 40 Knoll designs can be found in the permanent design collection of The Museum of Modern Art in New York City. 

Description: An in depth look at some of the greatest mid-century design. Illustrated throughout with B&W photographs. A rare and sought after design title. An early catalog with strong Bauhaus influence – chairs, tables, interiors, chests, cabinets, beds, textile, photographs of layouts plus measurements; blue/red/yellow colorations and silver flexible board covers. Rare and sought after!

Bookseller Inventory # 34299

Knoll Index Of Designs 1950
Knoll

SOLD

· Category: Sold ·

Joshua Slocum was the first man to sail single-handedly around the world. On April 24, 1895, at the age of 51, he departed Boston in his tiny sloop “Spray” and sailed around the world alone, a passage of 46,000 miles, returning to Newport on June 27, 1898. This historic achievement made him the patron saint of small-boat voyagers, navigators and adventurers all over the world. In November 1909, Slocum set sail for the West Indies on one of his usual winter voyages. He was never heard from again. In July 1910, his wife informed the newspapers that she believed he was lost at sea.

Description: Hard bound, no dust jacket. First printing of the first edition. Original decorative blue cloth binding with silver imprinting and green seahorses entwining anchor show some wear and molting. Gilt top-stain. Illustrated with line drawings by Thomas Fogarty and George Varian. Binding tight. Interior shows some minor foxing, otherwise very good. A good working copy of a now sought after true adventure classic!

Bookseller Inventory# 26612

Sailing Alone Around The World
by Joshua Slocum

SOLD

· Category: Sold ·

Gerhard Richter has never committed himself to one artistic style. He began working with artists such as Sigmar Polke and Georg Baselitz. Their work, and Richter’s in particular, began to have an impact in Germany, and eventually international art circles. Richter’s beliefs are credited with refreshing art and rejuvenating painting as a medium during a period when many artists chose performance and ready-made media. Together with Polke and Fischer-Lueg, Richter formed a group called the Capitalist Realists. The Capitalist Realists were satirical, often deriving subject matter from print media. Richter began to see art as something that had to be separated from art history; he believed that paintings should focus on the image rather than the reference, the visual rather than the statement.

Description: 3 hard bound volumes with dust jackets in publishers slip case, as issued. Catalog Raisonné – Complete Works  Volume #1 Katalog der Ausstellung / Exhibition Catalogue, by Suzanne Page. Profusely illustrated in color and b&w. Published on the occasion of a travelling exhibition originating at the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris September 23 – November 21, 1993. 195 pages with text in German, English & French. Volume #2 Texte, by Benjamin H.D. Buchloh, Peter Gidal and Birgit Pelzer. Interview with the artist. 112 pages with text in German only. Volume #3  Werkubersicht, Catalogue Raisonne 1962-1993, Catalogue Raisonne of works between 1962-1993. Biography, Solo and Group Exhibition history, Selected Texts., Selected Films, 234 pages with text in German, English & French. Some minor shelf wear to publishers slip case. Upper edge of slipcase with one small tear to paper, otherwise fine. RARE!

Bookseller Inventory # 33532

Gerhard Richter: Catalogue Raisonne 1962-1993 (3 volumes)
Richter, Gerhard

SOLD

· Category: Sold ·

Anne Morrow Lindbergh was an American author and aviator. Gift from the Sea was written by Lindbergh, while on vacation on Florida’s Captiva Island in the early 1950s. Written in an essay-style, with shells on the beach for inspiration, Lindbergh reflects on the lives of  American women of the mid-twentieth century. With great wisdom and insight Lindbergh shares her meditations on youth & age; love & marriage; peace, solitude and contentment during her visit. Gift from the Sea has sold over 3 million copies and has been translated into 45 languages. Ground-breaking for it’s time, it stands today as a seminal work of inspirational literature.

Description: TRUE FIRST EDITION. Hard bound with dust jacket. Beige boards with decorative shells, blue cloth spine with white lettering. Meets points of issue – $2.75 price, beige boards, no additional printings listed on copyright page, author photo to rear of dust jacket. Some wear to edges and corners of boards. Minor soiling to dust jacket that shows a few small tears and chips, now in protective Brodart cover. Foxing to page edges and end pages, otherwise with interior clean and binding sound. A scarce first printing of this modern inspirational classic and perennial bestseller!

Bookseller inventory # 28519

Gift From The Sea
Lindbergh, Anne Morrow

SOLD

· Category: Sold ·

Thomas Pynchon is the most famous literary recluse of our time. Very little is known about Pynchon, the author of some of the most mysterious and generally difficult works of 20th century fiction. His work demonstrates a strong affinity with the practitioners and artifacts of low culture, including comic books, animated cartoons, pulp fiction, popular films, television programs, urban myths, conspiracy theories, and folk art. He often delves deep into the realms of human sexuality, psychology, sociology, mathematics, science, and technology, and these themes recur throughout Pynchon’s work. This blurring of the conventional boundary between “high” and “low” culture,  is one of the defining characteristics of postmodernist writing. With novels that some critics have called “unreadable”, paired with his highly reclusive nature, Thomas Pynchon has obtained a mythic cult-like status as a writer.

Description: TRUE FIRST EDITION. Hard bound with dust jacket. True 1st printing of the first edition. Blind stamped pale lilac cloth, with title in silver to spine edge. Wear and some sunning to edges of boards. The un-clipped dust jacket shows some wear, otherwise very good. Interior clean and binding sound. The first novel by Thomas Pynchon, who is  widely considered the best writer of the latter Twentieth Century. V. is Thomas Pynchon’s, published in 1963. It describes the exploits of a discharged U.S. Navy sailor named Benny Profane, his reconnection in New York with a group of pseudo-bohemian artists and hangers-on known as the Whole Sick Crew, and the quest of an aging traveler named Herbert Stencil, to identify and locate the mysterious entity he knows only as “V”.  Pynchon’s V. won the William Faulkner Foundation Award for best first novel of the year, and was nominated for the National Book Award. This novel introduced his signature style: strange characters (often with stranger names), obscure references and oddball humor, all piled into a story presented in an often complicated style. The novel has gone on to achieve a sort of cult status, and the first edition is highly sought after.

Bookseller inventory #33676

V.
Pynchon, Thomas

SOLD

· Category: Sold ·

Anias Nin, feminist icon, diarist, model and dancer is probably one of the finest writers of female erotica of the last century. Known for her elegant and sensual style, she has the ability to convey the most intimate of thoughts in a way that we can almost feel. Winter of Artifice, a trio of novellas, the second work of fiction by Nin, was first published by the Obelisk Press in Paris during the summer of 1939. Shortly after the book’s publication, her publisher, Jack Kahane died, and World War II broke out. Nin moved to New York; taking a few copies of the book with her. Knowing censorship laws would prevent her from issuing an unexpurgated version in America, she deleted one of the stories and revised the other two. Still unable to find a publisher, she acquired a used printing press, and, with the help of Gonzalo Moré, her current companion and lover, she produced the book herself. Although Nin would later publish a few books, written by herself and some friends, under the name of the Gemor Press, this title was the first she produced, and, like much that happened in those early years of the Second World War, more an accident of fate than an intentional act. Accordingly, there is no publication information.

Description: Hard bound with printed boards. Limited edition of 500 printed copies self published by the author. No dust Jacket, as issued. The colophon states: “The present edition is limited to five hundred copies. It has been set by hand and printed by the author in Spartan type of twelve points on Copper Plate paper.” Line engravings by Ian Hugo.  Scarce!

Bookseller Inventory #28966

Winter Of Artifice
Nin, Anais

SOLD

· Category: Sold ·

Pablo Picasso was the most influential artist of the 20th century. He is widely known for co-founding the Cubist movement. His revolutionary artistic accomplishments brought him universal renown and immense fortune, making him one of the best-known figures of the 20th century art world. Picasso was exceptionally prolific throughout his long lifetime. The total number of artworks he produced has been estimated at 50,000, comprising 1,885 paintings; 1,228 sculptures; 2,880 ceramics, roughly 12,000 drawings, many thousands of prints, and numerous tapestries and rugs. Picasso’s final works were a mixture of styles, his means of expression in constant flux until the end of his life. From 1968 through 1971 he produced a torrent of paintings and hundreds of copperplate etchings. Only later, after Picasso’s death, when the rest of the art world had moved on from abstract expressionism, did the critical community come to see that Picasso had already discovered neo-expressionism and was, as so often before, ahead of his time.

Description: INSCRIBED & SIGNED BY PABLO PICASSO! Black paper covers with gilt design of a bird, white lettering, with each plate on a separate page, 2 pages of English text. Published on the occasion of the November 1971 exhibition in association with The Weintraub Gallery, New York. Mild edge wear, mild interior foxing. Text block is separating from spine, visible at interior front hinge. Minor wear to wrappers and 2 small creases, otherwise very good. Inscribed to the previous owner and signed with Love, Picasso!

SOLD

Picasso: Histoire Naturelle De Buffon
31 Cancelled Original Copper Plates
Picasso, Pablo

Publisher: Weintraub Gallery, New York, New York
Publication Date: 1971
Signed: Inscribed & signed by Pablo Picasso
Size: 9 & 1/4 inches – square

· Category: Sold ·

Edward Gorey was an American writer and artist noted for his macabre pen-and-ink drawings of beady-eyed Edwardian characters. He was first noticed in The New Yorker in 1959. His work has been described simultaneously as both an artist who wrote and a writer who drew. By the age of 20, Edward Gorey was studying French Literature at Harvard where he was befriended by future poet Frank O’Hara, who called Gorey “the oddest person I’ve ever seen”. One thing that Edward Gorey was decidedly fond of was ballet. He spent 30 years attending very nearly every performance by the New York City Ballet. His costume design for the Broadway production of “Dracula” won a Tony Award in 1978. Mr. Gorey also wrote at least 90 books and illustrated 60 others. Gorey left the bulk of his estate to a charitable trust benefiting cats and dogs, as well as other species including bats and insects.

Description: HAND SIGNED AND LETTERD BY EDWARD GOREY. Copy ‘C’ of the 26 lettered copies reserved for the author. Part of the of the deluxe edition, signed by the artist and specially bound, and limited to 100 copies. Hard bound, no dust jacket, and housed in publishers slipcase, as issued. Blue cloth over boards with paste-down title label to spine edge. A Gorey favorite, with fifty numbered cats, pictured in color, and posed in various settings and manners. The original drawings of these cats were done to accompany the limited edition of Amphigorey. Spine edge of blue cloth faded, otherwise very good with interior pages bright and clean.  Some minor soiling and age toning to slipcase, otherwise very good. RARE!

Bookseller Inventory # 32092

Category
Gorey, Edward

SOLD

· Category: Sold ·

Steinbeck based this novella on his own experiences working alongside migrant farm workers as a teenager. The title is taken from Robert Burns’ poem “To a Mouse”, which reads … “The best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men / Gang aft agley“…. or “The best laid schemes of mice and men often go awry.”

Description: True First Edition. Hard bound in dust jacket. First edition / First state. A Covici Friede “sample copy” with the publisher’s stamp to front free end page. Meets points of issue for the true first edition ( Bullet between 8s on page 88) and ( “pendula” on line 21 of page 9 ) $2.00 price to jacket flap. Previous owners name to front free end page. Some wear to edges and corners of boards. Minor age toning throughout. Wear to jacket that shows some minor chipping to corners and one large chip to upper spine edge, otherwise good. Interior clean, binding sound. RARE!

Bookseller Inventory # 60153

Of Mice and Men
Steinbeck, John

SOLD

· Category: Sold ·

Alexander Anderson has long been considered the father of wood engraving in America, being the first in this country to adopt the technique developed in England by Thomas Bewick. Wood engraving produces a finer image than the standard woodcut by working on the denser end-grain section of the wood. Anderson acknowledged his debt to Bewick in 1804 by creating an American edition of Bewick’s A General History of Quadrupeds (1790) with his own re-engraved blocks, adding “some American animals not hitherto described.” A General History of Quadrupeds was really the result of an increasing popular interest in natural history towards the end of the 18th century. Evidence of this interest can be seen by other notable publications at the time such as Gilbert Whiteís Natural History of Selborne (1789) and the wonderful works of Thomas Pennant, whose own General History of Quadrupeds in two volumes, illustrated with fine copper engravings, had first appeared in 1781.

Description: Hard bound in full leather. Stated “First American edition, with an appendix containing some American Animals not hitherto described”. Printed by G. & R Waite, No. 64, Maiden – Lane. 1804.  531 pages with hundreds of woodcuts by Anderson. Wear and deterioration to leather. Front board detached, but present. Missing front free end pages to title page. Minor foxing throughout. Head and tail chipped, with text block and binding tight. A scarce copy of a classic of natural history, and wood block illustration.

Bookseller Inventory # 24322

A General History of Quadrupeds:
The Figures Engraved on Wood, Chiefly Copied from
the Original of T. Bewick, By A. Anderson
Anderson, A.

SOLD

· Category: Sold ·

Christian Dior was arguably the most important fashion designer of the twentieth century. One of a handful of designers who dominated 20th century fashion along with Coco Chanel, Paul Poiret & Yves Saint Laurent. His career was launched in 1947 with his very first collection, in which he introduced the “New Look“. Featuring rounded shoulders, a cinched waist, and very full skirt, the New Look celebrated ultra-femininity and opulence. After years of military and civilian uniforms, sartorial restrictions and shortages, Dior offered not merely a new look but a new outlook. While the House of Dior is still a thriving business today, Dior’s untimely death in 1957 left the fashion world without a great dictator of style. Christian Dior designed under his own name for only a decade, but his influence will be felt for many years to come.

TRUE FRENCH FIRST EDITION INSCRIBED BY CHRISTIAN DIOR!
( and signed with his customary “Tian Dior” )

Description: Hard bound with 1/2 jacket wrapped around, as issued. 238 pages with 12 B/W photographs. Text in French. Moire-type pink endpapers. Gray cloth boards with title stamped in black to upper spine edge. Preface de Pierre Gaxotte de l’Academie Francaise. Some minor soiling and wear to edges of cloth boards. Band shows two minor chips, otherwise good. A RARE COPY – inscribed by one of the most influential designers of the last century!

Bookseller Inventory # 19327

SOLD

Christian Dior et Moi
Dior, Christian

Publisher: Editons Amiot-Dumont, Paris
Publication Date: 1956
Binding: Hard Bound
Book Condition: Very Good
Dust Jacket Condition: Good
Edition: First Edition

· Category: Sold ·

Henry Miller was an American novelist and painter known for breaking with existing literary forms and developing a new sort of ‘novel’ that is a mixture of autobiography, social criticism, philosophical reflection, surrealist free association. Tropic of Capricorn continues the autobiographical exploration of the self Miller began in Tropic of Cancer, recounting, in his characteristically brutal and forthright style. Banned on grounds of obscenity, copies of Tropic of Capricorn were smuggled into his native country, building Miller an underground reputation.

“I believe that today more than ever a book should be sought after even if it has only one great page in it: we must search for fragments, splinters, toenails, anything that has ore in it, anything that is capable of resuscitating the body and soul. It may be that we are doomed, that there is no hope for us, any of us, but if that is so then let us set up a last agonizing, bloodcurdling howl, a screech of defiance, a war whoop! Away with lamentation! Away with elegies and dirges! Away with biographies and histories, and libraries and museums! Let the dead eat the dead. Let us living ones dance about the rim of the crater, a last expiring dance. But a dance!” – Henry Miller

Description: Paris: Obelisk Press, 1939. Octavo, original wrappers. Now in custom red cloth clam shell box. First Edition, First issue, with 60 FR price and errata slip. Original wrappers; one of only 1000 copies printed. Some wear and minor chipping to wrappers, otherwise very good. RARE!

Bookseller Inventory # 21756

SOLD

Tropic of Capricorn
Miller, Henry

Publisher: Obelisk Press, Paris
Publication Date: 1939
Binding: Paperback
Book Condition: Very Good
Edition: First edition

· Category: Sold ·

Robert Capa was one of the important war photographers of the twentieth century. He was a storyteller par excellence, and the combination of his photographs, and his account of personal adventure, make this one of the most sought after photobooks ever published. It was cited as one of the 101 seminal photographic books of the 20th Century by Andrew Roth. There are halftone photographs throughout, some full-page and others smaller, taken in Europe and North Africa from the summer of 1942 until the end of the war. After covering five wars, Capa stepped on a landmine in Vietnam in 1954 and died at age 41, the first American correspondent killed in Vietnam.

Description: Hard bound with price clipped dust jacket. Orange cloth covered boards, with titles in black. Capa’s account of his experiences as a photographer on the European and North African fronts during the Second World War. General shelf wear to boards, and slight age toning to pages. Interior clean and binding tight. The dust jacket shows wear, tears and large chips. Now protected in clear removable Brodart protective cover. Scarce!

Bookseller Inventory #31651

SOLD

Slightly Out Of Focus
Cappa, Robert

Publisher: Henry Holt and Company
Publication Date: 1947
Binding:Hard Bound
Book Condition: Very Good
Jacket Condition: Good
Edition: First edition

· Category: Sold ·

Noel Coward was recognized on both sides of the Atlantic as the personification of wit and sophistication. Successful as a composer, lyricist, actor, singer, director, novelist, painter he achieved enduring success as a playwright, publishing more than 50 plays. Many of his works, such as Hay Fever, Private Lives, Design for Living, Present Laughter and Blithe Spirit, have remained in the regular theatre repertoire. He composed hundreds of songs, in addition to well over a dozen musical works (including the operetta Bitter Sweet and comic revues), poetry, several volumes of short stories, the novel Pomp and Circumstance, along with a three-volume autobiography. Coward won an Academy Honorary Award in 1943 for his naval film drama, In Which We Serve, and was knighted in 1969.

Description: Hard bound with dust jacket. INSCRIBED BY NOEL COWARD on the front free endpage ” For Arnold with love, Noel Coward”. The author’s first novel about The Queen and Prince Philip paying a visit to Samoa. Dust jacket painting by Noel Coward. Edge wear to dust jacket and one small chip, otherwise very good. Interior clean and binding tight.

Bookseller Inventory# 22971

SOLD

Pomp and Circumstance
Coward, Noel

Publisher: Doubleday
Publication Date: 1960
Binding: Hard Bound
Book Condition: Very Good
Dust Jacket Condition: Good
Signed: Inscribed by Author
Edition: First U. S. Edition

· Category: Sold ·

Internationally recognized photographer Peter Beard first visited Africa in 1955. After graduating from Yale, he returned to Africa and worked at Kenya’s Tsavo Park, during which time he photographed and documented the demise of over 35,000 elephants and 5000 Black Rhinos. The work done there led to the publication of The End of the Game books.

“When I first went to Kenya in August 1955, I could never have guessed what was going to happen. Kenya’s population was roughly five million, with about 100 tribes scattered throughout the endless ‘wild—deer—ness’ – it was authentic, unspoiled, teeming with big game – so enormous it appeared inexhaustible. Everyone agreed it was too big to be destroyed. Now Kenya’s population of over 30 million drains the country’s limited and diminishing resources at an amazing rate: surrounding, isolating, and relentlessly pressuring the last pockets of wildlife in denatured Africa.” -Peter Beard

Description: INSCRIBED BY PETER BEARD WITH DRAWING. No Jacket, as issued. First printing of the 1977 revised edition published on the occasion of the I.C.P. exhibition in New York.Very good hardback as issued without dust jacket. The gray boards have some sunning and wear. This is a lovely edition of this rare Beard classic & the most difficult Beard title to find SIGNED & INSCRIBED!

Bookseller Inventory #19114

The End of the Game
Beard, Peter H.

SOLD

· Category: Sold ·

Everything is bigger and better in Texas. This statement has never been more convincing than when applied to the color enhanced black-and-white photographs enlarged to heroic proportion, and the exceedingly large outdoor sculptures created by internationally known artist Bob “Daddy-O” Wade. Based in Austin, Wade helped define the Texas Cosmic Cowboy counterculture of the 1970s.

Description: HAND SIGNED & NUMBERED BY BOB WADE on the copyright page. LIMITED EDITION #20 of 50 hand made copies. HAND SIGNED LETTER and invoice for the original purchase of the book laid in. 150 individually captioned color xeroxes. Photographs of the artist’s installations & photographs of Texas. Rivet bound in branded leather cowhide with the title and Texas motifs (lone stars, horseshoes, broncos, roses) and a stamped rope border. The final plate is the book in production at a Xerox machine. “This Book is a chronological presentation of my projects about Texas, defined in this context as ideas and attitudes about scale, culture, myths symbols, artifacts, history, customs, food, animals, experiences, kitsch, machismo, cross fertilization, sign systems, tourism, country western music, the picturesque, cowboys, boundries, life and death.” – from the artist’s statement. Some wear to corners of leather. Some minor foxing to page edges and end pages, otherwise very good. Overall a nice copy of a very scarce book by a quintessentially American artist.

Bookseller Inventory # 25900 SOLD

Bob Wade’s Texas
Wade, Bob

Publisher: Daddy-O Productions
Publication Date: 1976
Binding: Bound in Leather
Book Condition: Very Good
Signed: Signed by Author
Edition: First Edition, Limited

· Category: Sold ·

Alvin Lustig is known for his expertise in virtually all the design disciplines, but his most lasting contribution could well be his work in book jacket design. He designed record albums, magazines, advertisements, commercial catalogs, office spaces and textiles. By the time he died at the age of forty in 1955, he had already introduced principles of Modern art to graphic design that have had a lasting influence on contemporary design practice. He was inducted into the Art Directors Club hall of fame in 1986.

“The words graphic designer, architect, or industrial designer stick in my throat, giving me a sense of limitation, of specialization within the specialty, of a relationship to society and form itself that is unsatisfactory and incomplete. This inadequate set of terms to describe an active life reveals only partially the still undefined nature of the designer.” – Alvin Lustig

Description: INSCRIBED BY THE EDITOR Holland R. Melson on the limitation page “The Editor to his Ghost…. Bob”. Hard bound, no dust jacket. Black paper over boards with title in white on spine and portrait of Lustig on front board. One in a limited edition of 600 printed copies. 94 pages. Introduction by Philip Johnson. Collected writings with Chronology, and list Articles. Wear to corners and edges of boards. Minor chipping to spine edges. Some foxing to end pages, otherwise very good. Interior clean and free of marks. RARE!

Bookseller Inventory # 25628

SOLD

The Collected Writings Of Alvin Lustig
Lustig, Alvin; Johnson, Philip

Publisher: Holland R. Melson, Jr.
Publication Date: 1958
Binding: Hardcover
Book Condition: Good
Dust Jacket Condition: No Jacket
Edition: First Edition, Limited

· Category: Sold ·

Franz Kafka was an influential German-language author regarded as among the greatest writers of the 20th century. The term “Kafkaesque” has entered the English language to describe his unique style. Kafka was born in a middle class, German-speaking, Jewish family, in Prague, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He wrote his novels in German while working for an insurance company there. The Trial is his best known work, it tells the story of a man arrested and prosecuted by a remote and inaccessible authority, with the nature of his crime revealed to neither to him or the reader.

Description: Hard bound in dust jacket. First printing of the First U.S. Edition. Illustrated by Georg Salter. First published in German in 1925, the year following Kafka’s death, by his literary executor and against Kafka’s express wish that all his remaining papers be burned. This title would become one of the author’s most famous works and one partially responsible for turning the author’s name into an adjective. This copy shows some minor edge wear to boards, and slight age toning to end pages. The dust jacket shows a few very small tears, some wear and rubbing, otherwise a near fine copy, with interior clean and binding tight. A rare and sought after book, now considered to be a modern classic.

Bookseller Inventory #30047

SOLD

The Trial
Kafka, Franz

Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf, New York
Publication Date: 1937
Condition: Very Good
Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good
Edition: First Printing of the First American Edition

· Category: Sold ·

Gilbert & George work together as a collaborative duo, and are known for their distinctive and highly formal appearance and manner and their brightly colored graphic-style photo-based artworks. They began working together in 1967 when they met at St Martins School of Art, and from the beginning, in their films and ‘living sculpture’ they appeared as figures in their own work. The artists believe that everything is potential subject matter for their work, and they have always addressed social issues, taboos and artistic conventions. Gilbert & George have confronted many of the fundamental issues of existence: sex, religion, corruption, violence, hope, fear, racial tension, patriotism, addiction and death.

Description: DARK SHADOW: GEORGE & GILBERT THE SCULPTORS. Signed and Numbered by the Artists. London: Art For All & Nigel Greenwood Inc., 1976. First Edition  8vo. Gilt Embossed red & black Linen Over Boards. Fine / No Jacket – As Issued. 288pp, 128 b&w illustrations.  #233 in a limited edition of 2000 hand signed and numbered copies. This beautifully bound 1976 artists’ book is by British conceptual duo sculpture Gilbert & George. It contains eight chapters entitled “Gordon’s Gin”, “Dark Shadow”, “Broken Hearts”, Bloody Life”, “Balls Bar”, “Bad Thoughts”, “Inca Pisco”, and “Human Bondage” – each of which consists of sixteen pages of text alternating with sixteen photographically based images. A bright and clean copy of this rare and sought after title. (cited on page 153 of Martin Parr and Gerry Badger’s “The Photobook: A History Volume II)  SIGNED AND NUMBERED (233/2000) by Gilbert & George in red, as issued.

Bookseller Inventory #30932

SOLD

Dark Shadow: George & Gilbert The Sculptors
Gilbert & George

Publisher: Art For All & Nigel Greenwood Inc.
Publication Date: 1976, London
Binding: Hard bound, no dust jacket as issued
Book Condition: Fine
Signed: Hand signed in red pen by Gilbert & George
Edition: Limited Edition

· Category: Sold ·

Andy Warhol is arguably the most recognizable artist of the second half of the 20th century! He was a painter, filmmaker and the leading figure of the POP Art movement. Appropriating images from popular culture, Warhol created many paintings that remain icons of 20th-century art, such as the Campbell’s Soup Cans, Disasters, and Marilyns. He was known in the late sixties and early seventies as resident host at his studio, The Factory. Warhol also made several 16mm films which have now become underground classics.

Description: One of the rarest Warhol exhibition catalogs! Paperback 3rd edition, with illustrated color wraps of his flower silkscreens. Published on the occasion of the of the major exhibition of the late artists work  held at the Moderna Museet, Stockholm, in 1968. There is no text except for some of Warhol’s most famous quotes. Profusely illustrated with 100’s of b&w photos of his work and superstars, life and work at the factory, & stills and candids from his influential underground films. This copy shows wear to wrappers with a few small tears and one small chip. Damp stain to lower right hand corner, otherwise with interior clean and binding sound. Now protected in removable clear mylar wrapper. Rare and sought after!

Bookseller Inventory #30130

SOLD

Andy Warhol (Moderna Museet, Stockholm, 1968)
Warhol, Andy

Publisher: Boston Book & Art
Publication Date: 1970
Binding: Paperback
Book Condition: Very Good
Edition: 3rd Edition

· Category: Sold ·