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 ·

Virginia Woolf (1882–1941) was an English author, feminist, publisher, and is regarded as one of the foremost modernist literary figures of the twentieth century. Woolf was a significant figure in London literary society, and probably the best known member of the Bloomsbury Group. In 1917 along with Leonard Woolf she founded the Hogarth Press, which subsequently published Virginia’s novels along with works by T.S. Eliot, Sigmund Freud, and others. Throughout her life, Woolf was plagued by periodic nervous breakdowns and associated illnesses. Though this instability often affected her social life, her literary productivity continued with few breaks until her suicide on 28 March 1941. After the final attack of mental illness Woolf put on her overcoat, filled its pockets with stones, and walked into the River Ouse near her home where she drowned. Woolf’s suicide, like Sylvia Plath’s, have much colored the interpretation of both her work and her life.

Description: Hard bound in dust jacket. First printing of the First U.S. Edition. V. Bell designed dust wrapper. Some wear and age toning to dust jacket that shows chipping to edges. Offsetting from news paper to front end pages, otherwise with interior clean and binding sound. Her second collection, which includes the essays, The Niece Of An Earl, Beau Brummell, Dr. Burney’s Evening Party, How Should One Read A Book, Dorothy Wordsworth and Mary Wollstonecraft.

Bookseller Inventory # 30051

SOLD

The Second Common Reader
Woolf, Virginia

Publisher: Harcourt, Brace and Company, New York
Publication Date: 1932
Binding: Hardcover
Book Condition: Very Good
Dust Jacket Condition: Good
Edition: First U.S. Edition

· Category: Sold ·

James Joyce was an Irish novelist and poet. He is considered to be one of the most influential modernist writers of the first part of the 20th century. He will be best remembered for his ground breaking novel Ulysses (1922), a landmark work in which the episodes of Homer’s Odyssey are paralleled in an array of contrasting literary styles, perhaps most prominently the stream of consciousness technique he perfected. His fictional universe does not extend beyond Dublin, and is populated largely by characters who closely resemble family members, enemies and friends from his time there; Ulysses in particular is set with precision in the streets and alleyways of the city.

Description: Hard bound in original brown cloth with gilt top edge, lettering and decorations to spine and front board. Limited Edition of 800 printed copies, signed by the author, James Joyce on the limitation page! Copy #154 in a hand numbered edition. Preface by Padraic Colum. This copy shows only the most minor shelf wear only. An early published chapter from Joyce’s famous “work in progress” that would later become Finnegan’s Wake. Very Rare!

Bookseller Inventory # 30034

SOLD

Anna Livia Plurabelle
Joyce, James

Publisher: Crosby Gaige, New York
Publication Date: 1928
Binding: Hard Bound
Book Condition: Good
Dust Jacket Condition: No jacket
Edition: First Edition
Signed: Signed and numbered by James Joyce

· Category: Sold ·