Signed copy of Ken Ohara's One (1970), with extended line from his signature visible across lower textblock edge. See item 14 below.

Harper's Books: October Selections

Below, our 22 monthly selections; a range of books, ephemera, and other printed matter relating to art, photography, modern literature, and design. Follow the links for additional images and purchasing options. To browse similar materials, visit Harper's Books at 504 West 22nd Street and our East Hampton gallery at 87 Newtown Lane.

Visit our upcoming Martin Parr exhibition, installed at both Harper's Books and Harper's Chelsea 534, featuring a curated selection of the artist's most notable photographs to date. With opening reception on Thursday, October 26, 6–8pm, attended by the artist.

01. Ruth Asawa

Ruth Asawa / Arthur Secunda [Exhibition brochure]

Los Angeles: Ankrum Gallery, 1962. First Edition. Folded sheet of laid paper (9.75 x 6.5 inches), with loose illustrated leaf. Brochure from a key exhibition in Asawa's career; her first in Los Angeles, at the Ankrum Gallery of Joan Wheeler Ankrum and William Chalee, which gained praise in the inaugural issue of Artforum; "surely among the most original and satisfying new sculpture to have arisen in the western United States." The loose insert reproduces black-and-white photos of two of Asawa's wire sculptures, then-belonging to Philip Johnson and Norman Rockefeller, with front panel illustrated after Paul Hassel's striking photograph of her Doors and Sculpture. The exhibition also featured work from Asawa's friend Arthur Secunda, with a color reproduction of his painting Night Fiesta to interior. Small bump to foot of spine, with minor toning to margins of front panel; a near fine copy of a scarce document.

$750.00

02. François Dufrêne

François Dufrêne: Sur les Dessous: Oeuvres, 1958-1991

Paris: Galerie Georges-Philippe & Nathalie Vallois, 2010. First Edition. Tall octavo. A well-designed catalogue produced for a 2010 Paris exhibition on the décollage work of François Dufrêne with torn posters, Sur les Dessous. Thoroughly illustrated in color, with a series of texts (in French) at rear. One of 800 copies. A near fine copy in illustrated wrappers, with matching illustrated jacket.

$150.00

03. William Eggleston

2 1/4

Santa Fe: Twin Palms Publishers, 1999. First Edition. Square quarto. Another elegant publication from Twin Palms, fully-illustrated after forty-five of William Eggleston's two-and-a-quarter inch square format color photographs, giving the collection its title. Concluding with commentary from Bruce Wagner. Orange cloth boards with color image affixed to front panel; near fine.

$350.00

04. Felix Gonzalez-Torres

Felix Gonzalez-Torres at Massimo De Carlo: from September 17 to October 20, 1991 (Artist catalogue)

Milano: Massimo De Carlo, 1991. First Edition. Square octavo. Artist's catalogue conceived by Felix Gonzalez-Torres for his solo exhibition at Massimo De Carlo in Milan. Contents: 26 leaves, featuring a symmetrical sequencing of variously blue leaves, enveloping a text from Steven Evans: "[Blue] is a color of both romance and melancholy, love and memory. Its shifting meaning is curiously appropriate for the stack and candy spill works [of Gonzalez-Torres], changing with each viewer's interpretation of their memento of the piece." Covers illustrated after a photograph of silver-wrapped candies from his "Untitled" (Placebo) installation, as exhibited at Andrea Rosen Gallery (NYC) in 1991. Minor rubbing to illustrated wrappers, else fine. Scarce.

$1500.00

05. David Hammons, Steve Cannon (editor), Amiri Baraka, et al.

A Gathering of the Tribes: Issue Eight

[New York], 1998. First Edition. Slim quarto. Cover design for this double issue of A Gathering of the Tribes by David Hammons (Era of Corn, 1997), with Hammons further listed to the masthead as Image Editor. This issue of Steve Cannon's bi-annual magazine featuring a diverse range of artists and writers, including a text from Amiri Baraka ("Heathen Technology of the End of the Twentieth Century"). Illustrated throughout after both color and black-and-white images. Some waviness to final few pages; close to near fine.

$350.00

06. Jeff Koons

Jeff Koons (Signed, with drawing)

New Haven: Yale University Press, 2008. First Edition. Quarto. SIGNED by Jeff Koons to metallic-colored free endpaper, and dated "5/30/08," with full-page flower drawing. Catalogue produced to accompany the artist's 2008 retrospective at Chicago's Museum of Contemporary Art. Edited by Francesco Bonami, who also supplies an essay, accompanied by an interview of Koons by Lynne Warren. Fine in cloth boards, with silver-stamped design to front panel. In a near fine, vibrantly illustrated jacket.

$850.00

07. Saul Leiter

Early Color (Signed)

Göttingen: Steidl, 2006. First Edition. Square octavo. SIGNED by Leiter to title page. Lush reproductions of Leiter's masterful street photographs from 1948-1960. Introduced by essay from Martin Harrison, with special focus on the technical and formal challenges of early color photography. Red cloth boards with lettering to spine; fine. In photo-illustrated jacket, with slight depression to rear panel, else near fine.

$850.00

08. Sol LeWitt and Gary Garrels

Sol LeWitt: A Retrospective

San Francisco: San Francisco Museum of Art, 2000. First Edition. Thick quarto. Hardcover issue. Published on the occasion of a major retrospective which debuted at SFMoMA (Feb. 19 – May 30, 2000). With over 400 illustrations of LeWitt's paintings and drawings, along with a selection of his texts. Edited by Gary Garrels, who also supplies the introduction. Near fine, save for marginal toning, in a colorful, near fine jacket.

$375.00

09. Sarah Lucas

Sarah Lucas: Exhibitions and Catalogue Raisonné, 1989-2005 

Hatje Cantz, 2005. First Edition. Folio. Published on the occasion of a traveling exhibition (Zurich, Hamburg, Liverpool). With introductory text from Martin Prinzhorn. Contents: 194 pages, thoroughly illustrated with over 450 images, 76 in color. Fine in fine photo-illustrated jacket.

$200.00

10. Cormac McCarthy 

No Country for Old Men (Signed)

New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2005. First Edition. Octavo. A pristine, signed copy of the suspenseful novel from Cormac McCarthy, which he'd originally conceived as a screenplay. The story would eventually reach the screen via the 2007 adaptation by the Coen Brothers. This copy SIGNED by McCarthy to the front endpaper in black ink. Fine, in black papered boards with silver lettering to spine. In a fine, unclipped copy of the dramatically illustrated jacket from Chip Kidd, with embossed titles to front panel.

$1500.00

11. Robert Mapplethorpe and Bruce Chatwin

Lady Lisa Lyon (Signed)

New York: Viking, 1983. First Edition. Quarto. SIGNED by Mapplethorpe and dated 1983 on the half-title page. Mapplethorpe's photos of Lisa Lyon—the first World Women's Bodybuilding Champion—accompanied by text from Bruce Chatwin, stressing her "unerring flair for creating a rumpus." Near fine in a near fine price-clipped jacket.

$1200.00

12. Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre

The Ruins of Detroit

Göttingen: Steidl, 2010. First Edition. Oblong folio. An impressive collection of the work of French photographers Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre, who collaborated for five years to document Detroit's late-industrial process of urban decay. With around 200 striking color images interspersed with a series of text snippets about the city's history. Introduced by short historical essay from Professor Thomas J. Surgue ("Detroit: City of Ruins"). Photo-illustrated cloth boards, with very minor rounding to corners, else fine.

$450.00

13. Bruce Nauman

Bruce Nauman (Sealed)

Minneapolis: Walker Art Center, 1994. First Edition. Thick quarto. Published to accompany the 1994-95 traveling exhibition (Reina Sofía, Walker, MOCA, Hirshhorn, and MoMA); the catalogue was issued in two editions: a 216 pp. softcover specific to the works in the show and this preferred edition in cloth, featuring an additional 176 pp. catalogue raisonné. Edited by Joan Simon, with essays by curators Kathy Halbreich and Neal Benezra, along with additional texts from Paul Schimmel and Robert Storr. Thoroughly illustrated and annotated; the definitive book on Nauman. As new, still sealed in publisher's shrink-wrap.

$750.00

14. Ken Ohara

One (Signed)

Tokyo: Tsukiji Shokan Publishing Co., 1970. First Edition. Thick quarto. SIGNED by Ohara to first page, with his trademark signature-line extending over the textblock edge, and across the final two pages of portraits. A fully-illustrated collection of 500 black-and-white portraits captured on the streets of New York, where the Japanese-born photographer was an apprentice to Richard Avedon and Hiro. Printing the portraits with the same tonal quality, and thus blurring differences in skin color, "Ohara has taken the utopian step of using the camera to turn humankind into one big melting pot, his serial photographs making almost ritual atonement for the sin of racism" (Parr / Badger, v1, 291). Just about fine in photo-illustrated wrappers in an equally fine price-clipped jacket.

$3500.00

15. Ken Price 

Ken Price: Drawings

New York: Matthew Marks Gallery, 2016. First Edition. Folio. Published on the occasion of a Matthew Marks exhibition, which traveled to both their New York (May 6 – Jun. 25, 2016) and Los Angeles (Jul. 9 – Sep. 17) locations. Illustrated with over 75 full page reproductions of Price's drawings, mostly in color, and concluding with a text from Jean-Pierre Criqui, "Ken Price on Paper (and Beyond)." Reprinted in 2019, this first edition in illustrated wrappers is uncommon. Near fine.

$375.00

16. Edward Ruscha, Ken Price, et al.

A Decade of California Color, 1960-1970

New York: The Pace Gallery, 1970. First Edition. Octavo. Catalogue produced on the occasion of a Pace Gallery exhibition (Nov. 7 – 25, 1970), provoking New York minimalism with California color. With thirteen artists represented by loose glossy sheets, featuring black-and-white portraits, exhibition histories, and some selected works; artists being Peter Alexander, Charles Arnoldi, Larry Bell, Billy Al Bengston, Fred Eversley, Patrick Hogan, Robert Irwin, Craig Kauffman, John McCracken, Edward Moses, Kenneth Price, Edward Ruscha, and DeWain Valentine. Housed in cardstock portfolio, illustrated by a Los Angeles road map superimposed over the New York City skyline. Some light rubbing to portfolio, with minor toning to margins of sheets, else near fine.

$350.00

17. Edward Ruscha

Then & Now: Hollywood Boulevard, 1973-2004

Göttingen: Steidl, 2005. First edition. Oblong folio. A before & after photobook from Ruscha, featuring two continuous panoramas of Hollywood Boulevard—reminiscent of his earlier Sunset Strip—unfolding in both black-and-white (1973) and color (2004) versions. Bumped at upper corner, thus close to near fine in blind-stamped cream boards, in printed cardboard slipcase, with minor toning.

$275.00

18. Niki de Saint Phalle and Mario Botta

The Noah's Ark Sculpture Park, Jerusalem

Jerusalem: The Jerusalem Foundation, 1998. First Edition. Oblong octavo. Brochure introducing the Noah's Ark Sculpture Park in Jerusalem designed by architect Mario Botta. Populated with sculptures by Niki de Saint Phalle, who imagined the animals as having disembarked from the Ark and settled into paradise. Contents: [12] pages, thoroughly illustrated after mostly-color photographs and diagrams. Minor scuffing to staple-bound wrappers; near fine. Scarce, with only 2 OCLC records located in North America.

 $250.00

19. Anne Sexton

The Death Notebooks (Inscribed to J. D. McClatchy)

Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1974. First Edition. Octavo. A presentation copy of Sexton’s final living work, warmly INSCRIBED to the poet and literary critic J. D. ("Sandy") McClatchy; the inscription accompanied by flower drawing and dated February 1974, mere months before her suicide. An intriguing association; in addition to being friends, Sexton was the subject of McClatchy's doctoral dissertation, and he would later edit the memorial compendium Anne Sexton: The Artist and Her Critics (1978). A fine copy in cloth boards with blue topstain. In unclipped illustrated jacket, featuring a photographic portrait of Sexton by Nancy Crampton to rear panel; minor scuffing, else also fine.

$850.00

20. Taryn Simon and Hans Ulrich Obrist

Contraband (Signed)

Göttingen: Steidl, 2010. First Edition. SIGNED by Simon to title page in black ink. For a work week in November 2009, Taryn Simon was on site at John F. Kennedy International Airport, photographing 1075 items that were seized by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agency and the U.S. Postal Service. The resulting photobook provides a visual survey of the contraband, concluding with a lengthy index of the items, grouped into categories, with reason for seizure supplied. Introduced by text from Hans Ulrich Obrist. Fine in plain wrappers, with titles printed to spine. In the scarce yellow-and-black version of the jacket (one of three versions), also fine.

$300.00

21. Sturtevant

Sturtevant Drawings, 1988-1965

New York: Bess Cutler, 1988. First Edition. Small square quarto. Exhibition catalogue designed by Sturtevant herself, for her show at Bess Cutler Gallery, New York City (Oct. 22 – Nov. 16, 1988). Featuring eight black-and-white reproductions of her appropriation works—after Lichtenstein, Johns, Beuys, and Fahlstrom—with two more to covers. Supplemented by texts from Herbert Muschamp, Christian Leigh, and Eugene M. Schwartz, and epigraph from Sturtevant: "Repetition, references / reversals, opposites / totalities, total structures / origins, originality, / change, phenomena, / tropes, trope-of-tropes / intention, meaning." Some scuffing to staple-bound illustrated wrappers, else near fine.

$450.00

22. Wolfgang Tillmans

View from Above (Signed)

Hatje Cantz, 2001. First edition. Quarto. Published on the occasion of a traveling exhibition of the same name, through which Tillmans debuted an abstract turn in his work, following his 2000 Turner Prize award. This copy SIGNED by Tillmans to front endpaper in black ink. Contents: [204] pages, illustrated after 126 color plates, one folding. Accompanied by interpretive text from Giorgio Verzotti and interview of Tillmans by Nathan Kernan. Tan cloth boards, with small bump to upper corner; near fine. In illustrated jacket, with minor toning to edges, else also near fine.

$450.00

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