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
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World Food Books Gift Voucher
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All prices in AUD (Australian dollars)
Pick-Ups
Please note: The bookshop is closed until February 1, 2024.
Pick-up orders can be collected in our bookshop during opening hours after this date. Please collect any Pick-up orders within 3 weeks of ordering as we have limited storage space. Orders will be released back into stock if not collected within this time. No refunds can be made for pick-ups left un-collected.
Return Policy
All sales are final. We do accept returns (for refund, exchange) for items received in error. All our orders are packed with special care using heavy-duty padding and cardboard book-mailers or bubble mailers (for smaller books), using reinforcement where required. We cannot take responsibility for any lost, stolen or damaged parcels.
Insurance
Should you wish to insure your package, please email us directly after placing your order and we can organise this at a small extra expense. Although all standard/express tracked packages are very safe and dependable, we cannot take responsibility for any lost, stolen or damaged parcels. We recommend insurance on valuable orders.
Interested in selling your old books, catalogues, journals, magazines, comics, fanzines, ephemera? We are always looking for interesting, unusual and out-of-print books to buy. We only buy books in our fields of interest and specialty, and that we feel we can resell.
We base these prices on desirability, market value, in-print prices, condition and our current stock levels. We offer cash, store credit, and can take stock on consignment. All
about 25% of the price we expect to get when we sell them, or 30% in store credit. We base these prices on desirability, market value, in-print prices, condition and our current stock levels.
Sell your books any day of the week. You can drop them off and return later. If you have a lot of books, we can visit your Sydney home.
We buy books that we feel we can resell. We offer about 25 % of the price we expect to get when we sell them, or 30% in store credit. We base these prices on desirability, market value, in-print prices, condition and our current stock levels.
Philadelphia Wireman
03 August - 01 September, 2018
World Food Books is proud to announce our next Occasion, the first presentation of sculptures by Philadelphia Wireman in Australia.
The Philadelphia Wireman sculptures were found abandoned in an alley off Philadelphia’s South Street on trash night in 1982. Their discovery in a rapidly-changing neighbourhood undergoing extensive renovation, compounded with the failure of all attempts to locate the artist, suggests that the works may have been discarded after the maker’s death. Dubbed the "Philadelphia Wireman" during the first exhibition of this work, in 1985, the maker’s name, age, ethnicity, and even gender remain uncertain. The entire collection totals approximately 1200 pieces, all intricately bound together with tightly-wound heavy-gauge wire (along with a few small, abstract marker drawings, reminiscent both of Mark Tobey and J.B. Murry). The dense construction of the work, despite a modest range of scale and materials, is singularly obsessive and disciplined in design: a wire armature or exoskeleton firmly binds a bricolage of found objects including plastic, glass, food packaging, umbrella parts, tape, rubber, batteries, pens, leather, reflectors, nuts and bolts, nails, foil, coins, toys, watches, eyeglasses, tools, and jewellery.
Heavy with associations—anthropomorphic, zoomorphic, and socio-cultural responses to wrapped detritus—the totemic sculptures by Philadelphia Wireman have been discussed in the context of work created to fulfil the shamanistic needs of alternative religions in American culture. Curators, collectors, and critics have variously compared certain pieces to sculpture from Classical antiquity, Native American medicine bundles, African-American memory jugs, and African fetish objects. Reflecting the artist’s prolific and incredibly focused scavenging impulse, and despite—or perhaps enhanced by—their anonymity, these enigmatic objects function as urban artefacts and arbiters of power, though their origin and purpose is unknown. Philadelphia Wireman, whatever their identity, possessed an astonishing ability to isolate and communicate the concepts of power and energy through the selection and transformation of ordinary materials. Over the course of the past two decades, this collection has come to be regarded as an important discovery in the field of self-taught art and vernacular art.
Presented in collaboration with Fleisher-Ollman Gallery, Philadelphia, and Robert Heald, Wellington.
Susan Te Kahurangi King
02 February - 10 March, 2018
Susan Te Kahurangi King (24 February 1951 - ) has been a confident and prolific artist since she was a young child, drawing with readily available materials - pencils, ballpoint pens and felt-tip markers, on whatever paper is at hand. Between the ages of four and six Susan slowly ceased verbal communication. Her grandparents William and Myrtle Murphy had developed a special bond with Susan so they took on caring responsibilities for extended periods. Myrtle began informally archiving her work, carefully collecting and storing the drawings and compiling scrapbooks. No drawing was insignificant; every scrap of paper was kept. The King family are now the custodians of a vast collection containing over 7000 individual works, from tiny scraps of paper through to 5 meter long rolls.
The scrapbooks and diaries reveal Myrtle to be a woman of great patience and compassion, seeking to understand a child who was not always behaving as expected. She encouraged Susan to be observant, to explore her environment and absorb all the sights and sounds. Myrtle would show Susan’s drawings to friends and people in her community that she had dealings with, such as shopkeepers and postal workers, but this was not simply a case of a grandmother’s bias. She recognised that Susan had developed a sophisticated and unique visual language and sincerely believed that her art deserved serious attention.
This was an unorthodox attitude for the time. To provide some context, Jean Dubuffet coined the term Art Brut in 1945 to describe work created by self-taught artists – specifically residents of psychiatric institutions and those he considered to be visionaries or eccentrics. In 1972 Roger Cardinal extended this concept by adopting the term Outsider Art to describe work made by non-academically trained artists operating outside of mainstream art networks through choice or circumstance. Susan was born in Te Aroha, New Zealand in 1951, far from the artistic hubs of Paris and London that Dubuffet and Cardinal operated in. That Myrtle fêted Susan as a self-taught artist who deserved to be taken seriously shows how progressive her attitudes were.
Susan’s parents Doug and Dawn were also progressive. Over the years they had consulted numerous health practitioners about Susan’s condition, as the medical establishment could not provide an explanation as to why she had lapsed into silence. Dawn educated herself in the field of homeopathy and went on to treat all twelve of her children using these principles – basing prescriptions on her observations of their physical, mental and emotional state.
Doug was a linguist with an interest in philosophy who devoted what little spare time he had to studying Maori language and culture. To some extent their willingness to explore the fringes of the mainstream made them outsiders too but it was their commitment to living with integrity and their respect for individuality that ensured Susan’s creativity was always encouraged.
Even though Susan’s family supported her artistic pursuits, some staff in schools and hospitals saw it as an impediment to her assimilation into the community and discouraged it in a variety of ways. Her family was not always aware of this and therefore did not fully understand why Susan stopped drawing in the early 1990s. However, rather than dwell on the challenges that Susan faced in pursuit of her artistic practice, they prefer to highlight her achievements. In 2008 Susan began drawing again in earnest, after an almost 20 year interruption, and her work is now shown in galleries around the world.
Susan grew up without television and has been heavily influenced by the comics she read as a child. She is absolutely fearless in the appropriation of recognizable characters, such as Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse, in her work. She twists their limbs, contorts their faces, compresses them together, blends them into complex patterned backgrounds - always imbuing them with an incredible energy. Although Susan often used pop culture characters in her work they are not naive or childlike. These are drawings by a brilliant self-taught artist who has been creating exceptional work for decades without an audience in mind.
Mladen Stilinović
"Various Works 1986 - 1999"
02 February 16 - September 10, 2016
Various works 1986 - 1999, from two houses, from the collections of John Nixon, Sue Cramer, Kerrie Poliness, Peter Haffenden and Phoebe Haffenden.
Including: Geometry of Cakes (various shelves), 1993; Poor People’s Law (black and white plate), 1993; White Absence (glasses, ruler, set square, silver spoon, silver ladel with skin photograph and wooden cubes), 1990-1996; Exploitation of the Dead (grey and red star painting, wooden painting, black spoon with red table, red plate), 1984-1990; Money and Zeros (zero tie, paintings made for friends in Australia (Sue, John, Kerrie), numbers painting), 1991-1992; Words - Slogans (various t-shirts) - “they talk about the death of art...help! someone is trying to kill me”, “my sweet little lamb”, “work is a disease - Karl Marx”; Various artist books, catalogues, monographs, videos; Poster from exhibition Insulting Anarchy; "Circular" Croatian - Australian edition; Artist book by Vlado Martek (Dostoyevsky); more.
Thanks to Mladen Stilinović and Branka Stipančić.
Jonathan Walker
Always Will Need To Wear Winter Shirt Blue + Ochre Small Check Pattern
21 August - 21 September, 2015
Untitled
I am not a great reader of poetry but I always return to the work of Melbourne poet, Vincent Buckley (1925- 1988). Perhaps I find his most tantalising piece to be not a finished poem but a fragment left on a scrap of paper discovered on his desk after the poet’s death.
The poetry gathers like oil
In the word-core, and spreads
It has its music meet,
Its music is in movement.
This fragment is more the shell left behind from a volatile thought than a finished poem. I find the last two lines honest but awkward whereas the first two lines work like an arrow. Most likely he could not find a resolution so it was left. Still, in its present form, it remains an eloquent testimony to the ultimate failure of a medium to express mobile thought and sensation, in Buckley’s case, through verbal language. It’s an important matter because this is something all artists have to deal with regardless of the medium.
I have never written a poem, however, I am forever copying fragments from books on paper scraps in a vain effort to fix certain notions in my head. At first, they function as bookmarks that are sometimes returned to when I open the book. But before long, as they accumulate, they fall out littering the table interspersed with A4 photocopies, bills, books and medications.
To return to Buckley’s fragment, the first two lines very much evoke how I paint nowadays. As you age, detail diminishes and patches of light become more luminous and float. I feel the most honest way of dealing with this is by smearing the oil paint on the canvas with the fingers and working close-up, blind. Only if the patches coalesce into an approaching image can the work gain a life.
-
Jonathan Walker was born in Melbourne, Australia and brought up on a dairy farm in Gippsland. In the 1970’s he studied painting at RMIT and won the Harold Wright Scholarship to the British Museum, London. During the 1980’s he exhibited at Pinacotheca Gallery, Richmond and had work shown at the NGV and Heidi City Art Gallery. Over the same period he designed the cover for the “Epigenesi” LP by Giancarlo Toniutti, Italy and conducted a mail exchange work with Achim Wollscheid, Germany. The work with artists through the post resulted in an article published in the bicentenary issue of Art and Australia 1988. He showed in artist run spaces such as WestSpace in the 90’s and 2000’s, and until 2012, taught painting at Victoria University, which is where we (Colleen Ahern and Lisa Radford) as organisers of the exhibition, among many others, had the privilege of being his student.
Walker’s knowledge was imparted to students through the careful selection of music, literature, and artists found in books that he himself had ordered for the library. Walker’s strategy was the generosity of sharing his vast knowledge with references specific to each student and their context.
Walker’s paintings share a similar focus and intimacy.
This exhibition presents a small selection of recent paintings alongside a publication that includes Walker’s writing. Observational and analytical, Walker’s work is a type of material notation — the time of day, colour and how it is blended, the both specific and fleeting location of a reflection on lino or the question of whether a chair leg should be included in a painting.
Please join us on Friday August 21 between 6-8pm to celebrate the opening of the exhibition.
Curated by Colleen Ahern and Lisa Radford.
B. Wurtz
Curated by Nic Tammens
March 26 - April 4, 2015
B.Wurtz works from a basement studio in his home on Manhattan’s Lower East Side.
This local fact is attested to by the plastic shopping bags and newsprint circulars that appear in his work. As formal objects, they don’t make loud claims about their origins but nonetheless transmit street addresses and places of business from the bottom of this long thin island. Like plenty of artists, Wurtz is affected by what is local and what is consumed. His work is underpinned by this ethic. It often speaks from a neighborhood or reads like the contents of a hamper:
“BLACK PLUMS $1.29 lb.”
“Food Bazaar”
“USDA Whole Pork Shoulder Picnic 99c lb.”
“RITE AID Pharmacy, with us it’s personal.”
“H. Brickman & Sons.”
“Sweet Yams 59c lb."
Most of the work in this exhibition was made while the artist was in residence at Dieu Donne, a workshop dedicated to paper craft in Midtown. Here Wurtz fabricated assemblages with paper and objects that are relatively lightweight, with the intention that they would be easily transportable to Australia. This consideration isn’t absolute in Wurtz’s work, but was prescriptive for making the current exhibition light and cheap. Packed in two boxes, these works were sent from a USPS post office on the Lower East Side and delivered to North Melbourne by Australia Post.
Wurtz appears courtesy of Metro Pictures, New York.
Thanks to Rob Halverson, Joshua Petherick, Sari de Mallory, Matt Hinkley, Helen Johnson, Fayen d'Evie, Ask Kilmartin, Lisa Radon, Ellena Savage, Yale Union, and "Elizabeth".
John Nixon
"Archive"
December 15 - January 20, 2014
The presentation of John Nixon's archive offered a rare showcase of this extensive collection of the artist's own publications, catalogues, posters, ephemera, editions and more, from the mid 1980s onwards, alongside a selection of his artworks.
Organized by John Nixon, Joshua Petherick and Matt Hinkley.
"Habitat"
at Minerva, Sydney (organised by Joshua Petherick and Matt Hinkley)
November 15 - December 20, 2014
Lupo Borgonovo, Janet Burchill & Jennifer McCamley,
Lewis Fidock, HR Giger, Piero Gilardi, Veit Laurent Kurz,
Cinzia Ruggeri, Michael E. Smith, Lucie Stahl, Daniel Weil, Wols
Press Release:
“...It contained seven objects. The slender fluted bone, surely formed for flight, surely from the wing of some large bird. Three archaic circuitboards, faced with mazes of gold. A smooth white sphere of baked clay. An age-blackened fragment of lace. A fingerlength segment of what she assumed was bone from a human wrist, grayish white, inset smoothly with the silicon shaft of a small instrument that must once have ridden flush with the surface of the skin - but the thing’s face was seared and blackened.”
William Gibson, “Count Zero”, 1986
"Autumn Projects Archive"
Curated by Liza Vasiliou
March 6 - March 15, 2014
World Food Books, in conjunction with the Virgin Australia Melbourne Fashion Festival 2014, presented the Autumn Projects archive, consisting of a selection of early examples in Australian fashion with a particular interest in collecting designers and labels from the period beginning in the 1980’s, who significantly influenced the discourse of Australian Fashion.
Curated by Liza Vasiliou, the exhibition provided a unique opportunity to view pieces by designers Anthea Crawford, Barbara Vandenberg, Geoff Liddell and labels CR Australia, Covers, Jag along with early experimental collage pieces by Prue Acton and Sally Browne’s ‘Fragments’ collection, suspended throughout the functioning World Food Books shop in Melbourne.
H.B. Peace
presented by CENTRE FOR STYLE
November 14, 2013
"Hey Blinky, you say chic, I say same"
Anon 2013
H.B. Peace is a clothing collaboration between great friends Blake Barns and Hugh Egan Westland. Their pieces explore the divergences between 'character’ and ‘personality’ in garments....etc
Special Thanks to Joshua Petherick and Matt Hinkley of WFB and Gillian Mears
and a Very Special Thank you to Audrey Thomas Hayes for her shoe collaboration.
Janet Burchill & Jennifer McCamley
"Aesthetic Suicide"
May 10 - June 8, 2013
The first of our occasional exhibitions in the World Food Books office/shop space in Melbourne, "Aesthetic Suicide" presented a body of new and older works together by artists Janet Burchill & Jennifer McCamley, including videos, prints, a wall work, and publications.
During shop open hours videos played every hour, on the hour.
2005, English / Japanese
Softcover (w. printed acetate dust jacket), 270 pages, 20 x 22.5 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Heibonsha / Tokyo
$160.00 - In stock -
First edition of Unlimited: Comme des Garçons, a unique and lavish compilation book about Comme des Garçons and designer Rei Kawakubo, published in Japan in 2005 and edited by Sanae Shimizu and NHK. Shimizu explains in the afterword: "the present book is a compilation based on reporting for two television programs, the NHK Special, "What the World Values in Her Fashion: REI KAWAKUBO and Comme des Garçons," and the Hi-Vision Special, "Fashion Revolutinonary: REI KAWAKUBO and the World of Comme des Garçons." Single frames of video filmed with a Hi-Vision camera were captured, and transformed into static images, after which the images were digitally printed". The book combines rare collection, store interior, and Comme workshop imagery with interviews, reflections, and commentary from a range of people, including fashion designers (Alexander McQueen, Junya Watanabe, Azzedine Alaïa, Jean Paul Gaultier, Paul Smith, Walter van Beirendonck, etc.), Comme des Garçons production staff, choreographers (Merce Cunningham, etc.), photographers (Paolo Roversi, etc.), fashion journalists and editors (Vogue, Dazed, Purple, etc.) and many from Rei Kawakubo herself. One of the most insightful books on Comme and Rei, The images of Comme des Garçons workspaces and insight into the production and pattern-making process provided by staff make this an invaluable book for any fan.
Very Good copy with light wear and usual bind issue (tightly stitch bound in perfect shape and working order, but glue of no use)
1988, English / Japanese
Softcover, oversized, loose-leaf pages, 42 x 29.7 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Comme des Garçons / Tokyo
$440.00 - Out of stock
First 1988 edition, first printing of the inaugural issue of the cult, privately distributed Comme des Garçons publication. The incredible first issue of Comme des Garçons' 'Six' magazine (1988) features the work of Hungarian photographer André Kertész, Comme des Garçons by photographer Peter Lindbergh, photography by Sachiko Kuru, features on artist Jean Cocteau, architect Eileen Gray, artist Michel Sauer, and an interview with fashion designer Yohji Yamamoto, plus additional photography by Timothy Greenfield-Sanders, Arthur Elgort, Tony Mendoza, Sachiko Kuru, Shinji Mori, Serge Lido and Gisele Freund. Beautiful first-edition printing of this over-sized magazine vision of Rei Kawakubo, including die-cut features throughout and de-bossed cover title.
Between 1988 and 1991, Comme des Garçons explored the theme of the sixth sense via eight special biannual oversized, unstapled magazines titled 'Six'. These magazines were launched to coincide with Comme des Garçons fashion collections and were privately printed and distributed by Comme. The magazine visually represented the brand in a way that no other fashion company had before. Rei Kawakubo invited Tsuguya Inoue to art direct and Atsuko Kozasu to edit the issues, whilst contributions came from a diverse array of leading designers and artists. Issues of Comme des Garçons 'Six' have become very sought after collectors items.
Very Good / Near Fine copy.
2013, English
Offset printed, double-sided poster, 55 x 41 cm
Published by
Comme des Garçons / Tokyo
$50.00 - In stock -
Original Comme des Garçons PLAY double-sided promotional poster / catalogue, produced by CDG for the PLAY market at Isetan department store in Tokyo in 2014. Never commercially available. The Comme des Garçons sub-label PLAY was founded in 2002.
Dimensions : 55 x 41 cm (quarter fold as issued)
Fine copy.
2017—2018, English
Softcover (staple-bound) pamphlets, various pagination, 42 x 20.4 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Comme des Garçons / Tokyo
$320.00 - Out of stock
Large lot of the printed collaboration between Rei Kawakubo's Comme des Garçons and the estate of American artist Paul Thek. Issued as mail-outs privately by Comme to announce the arrival of each of their 2017—18 collections, and not commercially available, these gorgeous, over-sized, elaborate fold-out leaflets designed by CDG showcase Thek's artworks (paintings, installations, drawings, sculptures, photography, etc) in a series of graphic collaged publications, made possible by Robert Wilson's Watermill Centre and Alexander and Bonin. Very Good, preserved copies, issued and collected individually, now very scarce. A couple with original b/w CDG mailers/envelopes included (not pictured). Included are the publications/posters numbered #1, #2, #5, #9, #10, #12, #16, #21, #23.
American artist Paul Thek (1933-1988) was an elusive sculptor, painter, and one of the first artists to create environments or installations, who came to recognition showing his sculpture in New York galleries in the 1960s. The first works exhibited, which he began making in 1964 and called “meat pieces” as they were meant to resemble flesh, were encased in Plexiglas boxes that recall Minimal sculptures. At the end of the sixties, Thek left for Europe, where he created extraordinary environments, incorporating elements from art, literature, theater, and religion, often employing fragile and ephemeral substances, including wax and latex. His work was presented at documenta 4 and 5 in Kassel (1968, 1972), the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam (1969), the Moderna Museet in Stockholm (1971), and the Kunstmuseum in Lucerne (1973). He was supported in particular by Harald Szeemann and Jean-Christophe Ammann. In 1977, Suzanne Delehanty curated Processions at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia, marking the first solo exhibition of Paul Thek's work in an American institution. At the close of the 1970's Thek changed direction, moved back to New York, and turned to the making of small, sketch-like paintings on canvas, although he continued to create environments in key international exhibitions. With his frequent use of highly perishable materials, Thek accepted the ephemeral nature of his art works—and was aware, as writer Gary Indiana has noted, of “a sense of our own transience and that of everything around us.” Following his death in 1988, his work was mainly shown in Europe (Castello di Rivara, Witte de With, etc). In 2008, the ZKM in Karlsruhe programmed Paul Thek Artist's Artist, which also explored how Thek's work has resonated in the contemporary scene. On the other side of the Atlantic, it wasn't until 2010 that the Whitney Museum in New York dedicated a remarkable retrospective to Thek, whose title, Paul Thek: Diver, emphasized the artist's passion for the sea.
Very Good copies each.
2014, English / Japanese
Softcover (staple-bound), various pagination, 28.5 x 20.5 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / fine
Published by
Comme des Garçons / Tokyo
$70.00 - Out of stock
Lot of six copies of the amazing printed collaboration between Rei Kawakubo's Comme des Garçons and Raw Vision, the world's foremost magazine on Outsider Art, Art Brut, and Contemporary Folk Art, founded by John Maizels in 1989. Issued as mail-outs privately by Comme to announce the arrival of their 2014 Spring—Summer and 2014—2015 Autumn—Winter collection, and not commercially available, these gorgeous, elaborate leaflets designed by CDG showcase the diverse array of artists featured in Raw Vision magazine alongside Comme photographs by Kosuke Okahara commissioned by Rei Kawakubo to document the 2013 Paris Fashion Week, Fall / Winter collection, photographs by Hiromi Nagakura, Daisuke ITO, and Andrew Houston in a series of graphic collages, with many fold-out spreads. Near Fine, preserved copies of six volumes (issued separately), now very scarce. Artists throughout include Pavel Leonov, Daniel Johnston, Maura Holden, Joe Gatta, Malcolm McKesson, William Hawkins, Joe Coleman, Renaldo Kuhler, Freddie Brice, Anne Grgich, Ken Grimes, and many more.
Near Fine all.
2013, English / Japanese
Softcover (staple-bound), various pagination, 28.5 x 20.5 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / fine
Published by
Comme des Garçons / Tokyo
$220.00 - Out of stock
Copies of the infamous printed collaboration between Rei Kawakubo's Comme des Garçons and legendary manga artist Katsuhiro Otomo, best known as the creator of Akira, both the original 1982 manga series and the 1988 animated film adaptation. Issued as mail-outs privately by Comme to announce the arrival of their 2013—14 Autumn—Winter collection, and not commercially available, these gorgeous, elaborate leaflets designed by CDG founder Rei Kawakubo, showcase Otomo’s Akira artwork in a series of collages put together and coloured by Kawakubo herself, with fold-outs, inserts and die-cut illustrations have become highly desirable, for obvious reasons. Surprisingly Otomo is the first Japanese artist to feature in Comme’s mail outs, so this collaboration was very special for fans of both. Very Good, preserved copies of three of the best of 28 volumes (issued separately) as they all feature Otomo's artwork on the covers (many others feature other artist mash-ups from Otomo-related NoBrow magazine, and now becoming very scarce.
1992, Japanese
Softcver (w. dust jacket), 190 pages, 14.5 x 10.5 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Fiction Inc. / Tokyo
Futami Shobo / Japan
$70.00 - Out of stock
Amazing pocket art book of fetish masters John Willie and Eric Stanton. Bondage Comix was edited by Makoto Ohrui and Japanese novelist Mari Akasaka (both editors of SALE2/Fiction Inc.) and published in Tokyo Japan by Futami Shobo in 1992. Packed cover-to-cover with colour and b/w reproductions of classic artworks by Willie and Stanton, from "Sweet Gwendoline" to "From Girl to Pony" to "Beached", Fetish and Bizarre publications, John Willie's bondage photography, Stanton fashions, and much more. Perfectly compiled in the way SALE2 did so well, with elegant scrapbook style, dense with imagery, blown-up, full-bleed reproductions from many publications. Cover artwork and postcard insert by John Willie.
John Alexander Scott Coutts (1902—1962), better known by the pseudonym John Willie, was an artist, fetish photographer, editor and the publisher of the first 20 issues of the fetish magazine Bizarre, featuring his characters Sweet Gwendoline and Sir Dystic d'Arcy.
Eric Stanton (1926—1999) was an American underground cartoonist and fetish art pioneer. While Stanton began his career as a bondage fantasy artist for Irving Klaw, the majority of his later work depicted gender role reversal and proto-feminist female dominance scenarios.
Makoto Ohrui founded the publishing house Fiction Inc. (later Radical Silence Production), the magazine SALE2, the gallery THE deep in Tokyo, and the magazine THE International. Ohrui was art director for SALE2, Purple, Rockin' On, and designed many books.
Mari Akasaka (b. 1964) is a Japanese novelist. In 1999 her novel Vibrator was nominated for the Akutagawa Prize, which was adapted into a 2003 film directed by Ryūichi Hiroki. She was again nominated for the Akutagawa prize in 2000 for her novel, Muse, and won the Noma Literary Prize for New Writers for the same novel.
Very Good copy.
1998, Japanese
Hardcover (w. dust jacket), 224 pages, 21.5 x 14.5 cm
Published by
Futami Shobo / Japan
$100.00 - In stock -
Rare first hardcover edition of this book collection of artwork by legendary fetish artist and publisher John Willie, compiled by SALE2/Fiction Inc. editor Makoto Ohrui and Ayumu Funatsu and published in Tokyo Japan by Futami Shobo in 1998. Packed cover-to-cover with colour and b/w reproductions of classic artworks by Willie and his famed Bizarre publications, John Willie's bondage photography, Bizarre fetish fashion illustrations and paintings, alongside his letters and writings translated into Japanese.
John Alexander Scott Coutts (1902—1962), better known by the pseudonym John Willie, was an artist, fetish photographer, editor and the publisher of the first 20 issues of the fetish magazine Bizarre, featuring his characters Sweet Gwendoline and Sir Dystic d'Arcy.
Makoto Ohrui founded the publishing house Fiction Inc. (later Radical Silence Production), the magazine SALE2, the gallery THE deep in Tokyo, and the magazine THE International. Ohrui was art director for SALE2, Purple, Rockin' On, and designed many books.
Very Good copy.
1989, Japanese
Softcover, 208 pages, 13 x 18 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Fiction Inc. / Tokyo
$80.00 - In stock -
Issue No.36 of the great SALE2 periodical from Tokyo Japan, founded in 1984 by Makoto Orui, who later became art director for Purple magazine in France and Rockin’on magazine in Japan. SALE2 was active for about 14 years during the 1980s—1990s, published regularly as a sort-of fanzine/journal/catalogue/pocket-book by Fiction, Inc., a specialty shop and publisher of fetish and erotica in Tokyo in the 1980-90s. With Orui's distinct design SALE2 developed an exclusive curated editorial set on ‘erotisism and its spiritual philosophy’, with each issue exploring different themes and features, heavy on fetishism and erotic art.
Issue No.36, the "Female Foot Fetishism Special Issue" with the wonderful wraparound Pierre Molinier cover is packed with imagery and essays around the theme of "Foot and Fetish Heel" throughout history, literature, film and fetish publishing, etc. profusely illustrated with drawings, photography, bondage illustrations, film stills, catalogue clippings, and artworks, including works by Bill Ward, Pierre Molinier, Nobuyoshi Araki, and so many more. It also features the Fiction, Inc. section that samples a cross-section of content from catalogue publications including the work of John Willie, Bill Ward, Carlo, Eric Stanton, Irving Claw, Betty Page, and periodicals such as Rubber Magazine, Amateur Bondage, Bizarre Comix, Bizarre Classix, Bizarre Fotos, Stiletto, and much more... Very heavily illustrated throughout with erotic photography and artwork, all texts in Japanese.
Very Good copy.
1987, Japanese
Softcover, 168 pages, 13 x 18 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Fiction Inc. / Tokyo
$80.00 - In stock -
Issue No.30 of the great SALE2 periodical from Tokyo Japan, founded in 1984 by Makoto Orui, who later became art director for Purple magazine in France and Rockin’on magazine in Japan. SALE2 was active for about 14 years during the 1980s—1990s, published regularly as a sort-of fanzine/journal/catalogue/pocket-book by Fiction, Inc., a specialty shop and publisher of fetish and erotica in Tokyo in the 1980-90s. With Orui's distinct design SALE2 developed an exclusive curated editorial set on ‘erotisism and its spiritual philosophy’, with each issue exploring different themes and features, heavy on fetishism and erotic art.
Issue No.30, the "Special Issue" features Hans Bellmer, Leonor Fini, Richard Cerf, Gilles Deleuze, Michel Foucault, Paul Wunderlich, Robert Maplethorpe, Andy Warhol, Man Ray, Lewis Carroll, John Willie, Bernard Montorgueil, Guido Crepax, Van Rod, Carlo, Betty Page, Tealdo, clippings from periodicals such as Amateur Bondage, Bondage Life, Bondage Fantasies, Bizarre Comix, Bizarre Classix, Bizarre Fotos, and much more...
Very heavily illustrated throughout with erotic photography and artwork, all texts in Japanese.
Very Good copy with tanning to pages.
1990, English / Japanese
Softcover (two-volume catalogue house in original printed cardboard sleeve w. invitation), 21 x 30 cm, 40 pages / 20 pages / folded invitation
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Touko Museum of Contemporary Art / Tokyo
$280.00 - In stock -
The incredibly rare and beautiful two-volume catalogue edition, issued in conjunction with the exhibition "Issey Miyake: Pleats Please" at Touko Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, Japan, 1990.
This is a first (only) edition printing in VG—fine condition, with additional inserted exhibition folding invitation to the private reception in 1990.
Housed in their original printed cardboard folder/pocket, these two publications, designed by Ikko Tanaka, both feature text in English and Japanese. Volume one: "Pleats Please by Issey Miyake" examines the exhibition "Issey Miyake: Pleats Please", which saw the first presentation of renowned Japanese designer Issey Miyake's new technique called garment pleating, in which the garments are cut and sewn first, then sandwiched between layers of paper and fed into a heat press, where they are pleated. The fabric's 'memory' holds the pleats and when the garments are liberated from their paper cocoon, they are ready-to wear. Miyake's pleating works were first exhibited here in 1990, three years before the launch of the famous line "Pleats Please" in 1993. The publication documents production and installation photography from the exhibitions, where the garments were set into a custom built floor system.
Volume Two: "Issey Miyake by Irving Penn", features stunning photography by the great Irving Penn, of each of Issey Miyake's first "Pleats Please" garments together with a poem by Shuntaro Tanikawa.
This is truely a collector's item for any Issey Miyake enthusiast or collector, marking the beginning of "Pleats Please" through the photography of Irving Penn. This copy has been well looked after, with both books in wonderful condition, protected by the original printed folder sleeve, which is also in preserved condition.
VG—F condition all round.
1999, English / Japanese
Softcover, unpaginated, 11.5 x 15.5 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Little More / Tokyo
$150.00 - Out of stock
Wonderful pocket journal photo book published in 1999 by Tokyo's Little More books, documenting the 1998 and 1999 Paris fashion weeks through the travels and relationships of Nakako Hayashi, artist and editor of the great Here and There journal and fashion and art contributor to Purple, Hanatsubaki, Ryu-ko-tsu-shin, and more. Naturally, this publication has all the feeling of Here and There and early issues of Purple, and includes many of the key contributors to those magazines — all friends of Hayashi's, plus documentation of the long lost galleries and hot-spots of Paris, London, and Japan — Colette, Purple Institute, The Pineal Eye, The Deep Gallery, Purple Cafe... An excellent time-capsule of 1990's anti-fashion world at its peak. Includes a sticker sheet of Susan Cianciolo's Run7 collection!
Contributions and documentation of work by Susan Cianciolo, Mark Borthwick, BLESS, Elein Fleiss, Comme des Garçons, Maison Martin Margiela, A.F. Vandevorst, Veronique Branquinho, Jerome Dreyfuss, Gaspard Yurkievich, Junya Watanabe, Martine Sitbon, Colette, Purple, Takashi Homma, Mike Mills, Olivier Theyskens, Andre Walker, Jeremy Scott, Niels Klavers, Dick Page, and more.
Texts in English and Japanese.
Very Good copy.
2002, Japanese
Softcover, 29.4 x 21 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
relax / Tokyo
$70.00 - Out of stock
December 2002 issue of 'Relax' magazine from Tokyo, with cover feature on Japanese fashion label "Undercover". Includes fifteen pages of behind-the-scenes photos of designer Jun Takahashi and friends/colleagues in preparation for Undercover's 'Scab' runway show in Paris, 2002. Also has a rare interview with Jun, in Japanese. This issue also features Mark Gonzalez, Nike "Reconstruct", Steel drumming, and much more.
Relax was an iconic Japanese style magazine that primarily ran throughout the late 1990s and early 2000s, becoming an important reference source for trends in graphic design, urban fashion, music, and lifestyle, both in and out of Japan.
Fine copy with only light buckling.
1998, Japanese
Softcover, 130 pages, 30 x 22.5 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Studio Voice / Tokyo
$160.00 - In stock -
Rare 1998 special collector's issue of Japan's celebrated Studio Voice, dedicated to the work of Martin Margiela. Outside of the Margiela STREET issues, this would have been the largest feature committed to the Belgian fashion designer at the time, with most of the content unseen elsewhere. Almost 50 pages of large colour and b/w Margiela photographic shoots by Marina Faust, Mark Borthwick, and Ronald Stoops, amongst others, plus the Margiela exhibition at the Boymans Museum in Rotterdam, the Bacteria Project, "Working By Hand - Artisanal Production", Margiela's first collection for HERMÈS (98/99 AW), "Endless Threads" (text by Sydney Picasso), and a rare Q&A with Margiela himself.
As a bonus, this issue also includes artwork by EYƎ (Boredoms, etc.)!
Very Good copy. Light wear.
1984, Japanese / French / English
Softcover (w. exhibition ticket), 80 pages, 31 x 29 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
PPS Telecommunications Company / Tokyo
$180.00 - In stock -
Beautiful out-of-print over-sized Japanese Sarah Moon exhibition catalogue published in 1984 by Pacific Press Service, at the Photographic Society of Japan for an exhibition at Printemps Ginza in Tokyo. Profusely illustrated throughout in colour with the French photographer's works for fashion, editorial and advertising, as well her personal works, including her iconic work for Comme des Garçons, Cacharel, Vogue, Nova, Harper's Bazaar, Olympus and more. Includes texts by French critic Alain Jouffroy and Robert L. Kirschenbaum, and texts and interviews with the photographer herself, as well as an index of images, biography, and portraits of Moon.
This copy includes illustrated exhibition ticket stub, laid in.
Sarah Moon is a photographer born in 1941 in Vichy, France. Her Jewish family was forced to leave occupied France for England. As a teenager she studied drawing before working as a model in London and Paris (1960–1966) under the name Marielle Hadengue. She also became interested in photography, taking shots of her model colleagues. In 1970, she finally decided to spend all her time on photography rather than modelling, adopting Sarah Moon as her new name. In 1972, she shot the Pirelli calendar, the first woman to do so. After working for a long time with Cacharel, her reputation grew and she also received commissions from Chanel, Dior, Comme des Garçons and Vogue. In 1985, Moon moved into gallery and film work.
Very Good copy. Foxing stain to inside of front cover only.
1973, Japanese
Hardcover (w. dust jacket), 139 pages, 24.7 x 18.7 cm
Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Fujingahosha / Tokyo
$200.00 - In stock -
1973 Japanese hardcover edition of "Take Ivy", the legendary 1965 cult photo-book that set off an explosion of American-influenced “Ivy Style” fashion among students in the Ginza shopping district of Tokyo.
Sold out immediately on publication, and little known until recently outside of Japan, Take Ivy (the title inspired by "Take Five" by Dave Brubeck) was authored by four Japanese sartorial men's style enthusiasts and photographer Teruyoshi Hayashida (who shot for the influential Men’s Club magazine in Japan) and is a beautiful collection of candid, almost voyeuristic, photographs shot on the campuses of America’s elite Ivy League universities. The series focuses on college-aged men and their clothes between 1959-1965. Whether getting a meal on campus, lounging in the quad, riding bikes, studying in the library, in class, or at the boathouse, the subjects of this photographic compendium are impeccably and distinctively dressed in fine American-made garments. The New York Times describes "Take Ivy" as “a treasure of fashion insiders”, a bible for Japanese baby boomers, stylists and photographers ever since its first publication, the book remains the definitive document of the Ivy Style and one of the most iconic fashion books of all time. Original copies are rare in the West, garnering auction prices as high as $2000.
Very Good copy in Good dust jacket (preserved in mylar wrap). Small closed tears to top of dust-jacket spine, otherwise VG; some foxing spots to first and last pages, otherwise a wonderful sharp copy of the very scarce, very limited 1973 printing. The quality and feel of these early editions, printed in Japan, far surpass the many later, more common English and Japanese editions.
1998, Japanese
Softcover, 126 pages, 28.5 x 21 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Eichi Shuppan / Tokyo
$65.00 - In stock -
School Wear Collection File No. 1, published in Japan in 1998, a glossy colour photo-book/magazine (mook) and comprehensive record of female Japanese school wear (seifuku) and sailor fuku Summer and Winter uniform collections from 1996—1997, all modelled by Japanese school girls. A source of pride and tradition, the Japanese school uniform has become an international icon, referenced in popular culture and by designers and stylists all over the world. Profusely illustrated with all of the uniforms from the mid-1990s shot thoroughly, and rather provocatively, by Katsumi Yamaguchi, styled by Masahiko Terada, these books aren't without their kink undercurrent (Eichi publishes Beppin School, after all). Loads of data and information on the collecting of uniforms, school fashion trends (baggy socks in 1996!), challenges, histories, model profiles, and advertisements laced throughout the photoshoots. An amazing, comprehensive reference.
Very Good—Near Fine copy.
2002, English
Softcover (staple-bound), 96 pages, 17 x 25 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Purple Books / Paris
Fiction Inc. / Tokyo
$280.00 - In stock -
First and only edition of Purple Stars, a collection of portraits and fashion photographs of the stars of Purple magazine during those early definitive years of 90's anti-fashion and the establishment of one of the most important fashion magazines of our generation. Edited by Makoto Ohrui, Elein Fleiss and Oliver Zahm and published in Japan in 2002 by Purple Books & Fiction Inc, Purple Stars features the photography of Mark Borthwick, Juergen Teller, Camille Vivier, Wolfgang Tillmans, Laetitia Benat, Anders Edström, Takashi Homma, Jack Pierson, Anuschka Blommers & Niels Schumm, Richard Prince, Giasco Bertoli, Alex Antitch, Patterson Beckwith, Terry Richardson, Henry Roy, Vanina Sorrenti, Chikashi Suzuki, Mauricio Guillen, Marcelo Krasilcic, Serge Leblon, Armin Linke... with photographs of Hélène Fillières, Catherine Deneuve, Jutta Koether, Lou Doillon, Kim Gordon, Harmony Korine, Alex Bag, Kate Moss, Rita Ackermann, Colin de Land, Chloë Sevigny, Brad Pitt, Charlotte Rampling, Ludivine Sagnier, Camille Vivier, Cerith Wyn Evens, Yoshimi, Yukinori Maeda, Alexandra Bircken, Lizzie Bougatsos, Maurizio Cattelan, Susan Cianciolo, Elein Fleiss, Marieke Stolk, and many more.
A now very scarce compendium of some of the most iconic photographic images direct from the early pages of Purple.
Very Good copy, lacking glassine dust wrapper.
2005, English / Japanese
Softcover (in printed envelope), 32 pages, 26 x 18 cm (book) / 30 x 22 cm (envelope)
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Comme des Garçons / Tokyo
$70.00 - In stock -
Issued in 2005 in conjunction with leading Japanese "Magazine for City Boys" Popeye, Comme des Garçons in Wonderland is a whimsical look-book of 2005 CdG menswear and accessories inspired by Alice in Wonderland. Young male models and headless mannequins roam the Tokyo streets, shot by Yasuo Kobayashi and Mark Segal. Concept and creation by Comme des Garçons. Comes in printed envelope (this copy unsealed, complete w. envelope).
Very Good copy.
2008, English
Flexi-cover, 120 pages, 25.8 x 19.5 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
MoMu / Antwerp
$380.00 - Out of stock
Now a very collectible book, this is first comprehensive book dedicated to Maison Martin Margiela was published on the occasion of Maison Martin Margiela ’20’ The Exhibition, a major touring show celebrating 20 years of work by the influential and enigmatic Belgian fashion designer.
Conceived in close collaboration with Margiela and curated by the Mode Museum (MoMu), Antwerp, the exhibition was later shown at Haus der Kunst, Munich, and Somerset House, London. This book is the catalogue which accompanied the original Antwerp exhibition, and captures Maison Martin Margiela’s deconstructivist, subversive, and often radical approach to fashion, through an examination of the themes and influences that have underpinned the fashion house since its creation. Through colour and black and white photography the book documents 20 years of Maison Martin Margiela collections, fashion shows, events, shop designs, and much more.
A graduate of Antwerp's Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Martin Margiela formerly worked as design assistant to Jean Paul Gaultier before showing his first collection under his own label in 1988. Employing a ‘deconstructivist’ approach - monochromatic palette, outsized garments, non-traditional fabrics, the use of recycled materials and exposing the construction of his clothes - Margiela displayed a radically new visual language that diametrically opposed the power dressing of the 1980s. In deciding to let his fashion speak for itself and remain anonymous, Margiela as a brand is driven by product and sheer invention rather than fad, hype and celebrity often linked to other fashion labels.
This multi-layered exhibition captured Margiela’s unique aesthetic and vision spanning 20 years, by incorporating installations, photography, video and film. It provided an opportunity to learn more about the brand and its philosophy through a visual examination of themes that underpin the essence of the fashion house since its creation - from its deconstructivist, subversive design aesthetic and avant-garde couture to its understated branding, unusual boutique interiors and ‘trompe-l’oeil’ or optical illusion and its couture atelier white coats. Various iconic pieces from both the women and menswear collections will be on display, such as the highly replicated ‘Tabi’ boots, as well as specially recreated garments for the exhibition.
Very Good copy with light wear.
2004, English
Hardcover (clothbound w. illustrated obi strip), 160 pages, 22 x 30 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Petit Gras / Japan
$220.00 - Out of stock
First edition of the long out-of-print 2004 hardcover monograph on the work of New York fashion designer/artist Susan Cianciolo. This extensive, profusely illustrated book features a photographic archive of Cianciolo's RUN collections, workshops, performances, exhibitions, collaborations and workshops from the mid 1990s into the early 2000s. An artist who expresses the DIY spirit in all mediums, this wonderful document is a must for any fan. Edited by Taka Kawauchi, includes texts by Aaron Rose.
For the past twenty years, Susan Cianciolo has moved between fields and formats including fashion, performance, installation and filmmaking. After working as an assistant for X-Girl led by Kim Gordon, she produced her critically acclaimed and commercially successful RUN collection (1995–2001), a fashion line of hand crafted clothing made from found or recycled garments and textiles. Cianciolo collections are regularly featured in museums and galleries internationally; her designs, artworks, and films have been included in recent solo exhibitions at Yale Union in Portland, Oregon, 356 Mission Road in Los Angeles, California, and Bridget Donahue in New York, as well as in group exhibitions at White Columns, Lisa Cooley, and MoMA PS1, among others. Cianciolo identifies as "a designer who also makes art, and a conceptual artist who occasionally designs clothes".
Very Good copy with original illustrated obi-strip, some light marking and wear to cloth and edges.
1997, English
Softcover, 223 pages, 18.5 x 13 cm
1st US Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Purple Books / Paris
$300.00 - Out of stock
Very rare early Purple Fashion - the original run, original design, original format. Purple Fashion number 3 (1997), edited by Elein Fleiss, embodies the anti-Fashion attitude and aesthetic Purple were so much a crucial part of in the mid-late 1990s. Includes a fantastic Martin Margiela piece, Comme des Garçons by Mark Borthwick, Camille Vivier, Maurizio Cattelan, Elein Fleiss, Terry Richardson, Susan Ciancolo, Helmut Lang, Anders Edstrom, Kim Gordon by Mark Borthwick and much more. Really incredible and now so rare these early issues. And this one is in great condition!
In 1992 Olivier Zahm and his partner Elein Fleiss printed the first issue of Purple Prose, a Parisian literary art zine that over the years has evolved into Purple Fashion Magazine. Soon after the birth of Purple Prose, Zahm and Fleiss created spin-off publications like les cahiers purple, Purple Sexe, Purple Fiction, and of course, Purple Fashion. Zahm aimed at fusing together his two worlds, fashion and art, in creating Purple Fashion.
Very Good copy.
2003, English
Softcover, 418 pages, 27.5 x 21 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Purple Institute / Paris
$220.00 - Out of stock
A very rare copy of the inaugural issue of Purple Fashion, edited by Olivier Zahm, featuring Richard Prince, Bruce Benderson, Gary Indiana, Paolo Roversi, Olivier Mosset, Camille Vivier, Mark Borthwick, Pierre Bailly, Elein Fleiss, Viviane Sassen, Helmut Lang, Kerry Hallihan, Antek Walczak, Marcelo Krasilcic, Michael Lonsdale, Maison Martin Margiela, Katja Rahlwes, Niels Schumm, Dike Blair, Vava Ribeiro, Monte Hellman, Comme des Garçons, Slavoj Zizek, Balenciaga, Tony Alva, Marina Faust, Wolfgang Tillmans, Terry Richardson, Dominique Gonzales Foerster, Jeff Rian, Noritoshi Hirakawa, Anuschka Blommers, François Laruelle, Yan Céh, Issey Miyake, Rick Owens, Susan Eldridge, John Galliano, Ann Demeuelemeester, Vava Ribeiro, Serge Leblon, Hiromix, Cecile Bortoletti, Vanessa Bruno, Takashi Suzuki, Miltos Manetas, Pascale Gatzen, Stéphanie Moisdon, Junya Watanabe, Ferdinand Gouzon, and many more...
In 1992, Elein Fleiss and Olivier Zahm started the magazine Purple Prose as a reaction against the superficial glamour of the 1980s; much as a part of the global counterculture at the time, inspired by magazines like Interview, Ray Gun, Nova, and Helmut Newton's Illustrated, but with the aesthetics of what usually is referred to as anti-fashion. Based on their personal interests and views; Purple was, and in a sense still is, made much in the same spirit of the fanzine. Started "without any means, and without any experience, because we wanted to make a magazine that was radically different. We wanted to support the artists around us that no one else supported, much less talked about."—Olivier Zahm. The magazine became associated with the "realism" of the new fashion photography of the 1990s, with names like Juergen Teller, Terry Richardson, Wolfgang Tillmans, Mark Borthwick, Corinne Day, and Mario Sorrenti. Soon after the birth of Purple Prose, Zahm and Fleiss created spin-off publications such as les cahiers purple, Purple Sexe, Purple Fiction, and of course, Purple Fashion, in which Zahm aimed at fusing together his two worlds, fashion and art. Now one of the most iconic and influential fashion magazines in history.
Very Good copy.
2004, English
Softcover, 432 pages, 27.5 x 21 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Purple Institute / Paris
$200.00 - Out of stock
"ANIMALISTIC, ARROGANT, BLOODY, BIZARRE, CRUEL"
A very rare copy of the second issue of Purple Fashion, edited by Olivier Zahm, featuring Richard Prince, Mark Borthwick, Corinne Day, Juergen Teller, Imitation of Christ, Camille Vivier, Gus Van Sant, Anders Edström, Dominique Gonzales Foerster, Jeff Rian, Rita Ackermann, Heinz Peter Knes, Terry Richardson, Dike Blair, Elizabeth Peyton, Susan Cianciolo, Kim Gordon, Hermés, Giasco Bertoli, Junya Watanabe, Matthieu Orléan, Richard Kern, Maison Martin Margiela, Anuschka Blommers, François Laruelle, Niels Schumm, Comme des Garçons, Slavoj Zizek, Balenciaga, Maurizio Cattelan, Bless, Andrea Zittel, Gordon Matta-Clark, Thomas Hirschorn, Geoffrey Cruickshank-Hagenbuckle, Annette Aurell, Masafumi Sanai, Katja Rahlwes, Bettina Komenda, Mike Kelley, John Galliano, Kirsten Owen, Helmut Lang, Lutz, Issey Miyake, Rick Owens, Ann Demeuelemeester, Vava Ribeiro, Jean Leclercq, Maria Cornejo, Martine Sitbon, Cosmic Wonder, Justine Kurland, Wendy and Jim, John Armelder, Tim Griffin, Martynka Wawrzyniak, Ola Rindal, Yan Céh, David Armstrong, Fabien Baron, Lewis Baltz, Takashi Homma, Drew Jarett, Anne-Sofie Back, Marc Upson, Bettina Komenda, Alain Séchas, Gary Indiana, Justine Kurland, Christopher Wool, and many more... Art directed by Christophe Brunnquell.
In 1992, Elein Fleiss and Olivier Zahm started the magazine Purple Prose as a reaction against the superficial glamour of the 1980s; much as a part of the global counterculture at the time, inspired by magazines like Interview, Ray Gun, Nova, and Helmut Newton's Illustrated, but with the aesthetics of what usually is referred to as anti-fashion. Based on their personal interests and views; Purple was, and in a sense still is, made much in the same spirit of the fanzine. Started "without any means, and without any experience, because we wanted to make a magazine that was radically different. We wanted to support the artists around us that no one else supported, much less talked about."—Olivier Zahm. The magazine became associated with the "realism" of the new fashion photography of the 1990s, with names like Juergen Teller, Terry Richardson, Wolfgang Tillmans, Mark Borthwick, Corinne Day, and Mario Sorrenti. Soon after the birth of Purple Prose, Zahm and Fleiss created spin-off publications such as les cahiers purple, Purple Sexe, Purple Fiction, and of course, Purple Fashion, in which Zahm aimed at fusing together his two worlds, fashion and art. Now one of the most iconic and influential fashion magazines in history.
Very Good copy.