Detail from artist's catalogue published on the occasion of Sturtevant's first U.S. museum exhibition: Studies for Warhols' Marilyns, Beuys' Actions and Objects, Duchamps' Etc. Including Film (Everson Museum of Art, 1973). See number 17 below.

Harper's Books: July Selections

Below, our 22 monthly selections; a range of books, ephemera, and other printed matter relating to art, photography, modern literature, and design. Click the links for additional images and purchasing options. To browse similar materials, visit our New York bookshop at 504 West 22nd Street and our East Hampton gallery at 87 Newtown Lane, where we're hosting a Summer Book Sale starting this Saturday July 27.

1. Joseph Beuys / Buby Durini (photographer)

Fondazione per la Rinascita dell'Agricoltura (Announcement Cards)

Pescara, Italy: Lurcrezia De Domizio / Free International University, 1978. Two postcard announcements (4 x 5.75 inches) promoting an FIU discussion between Joseph Beuys and the economic artist Vitantonio Russo on the subject of land reform. With rectos fully-illustrated after black-and-white photographs from Beuys' actions the previous year at documenta 6, as captured by Buby Durini. (The twin oversized posters, with matching Durini photographs, also available). Minor rubbing at edges; near fine.

$250.00

2. Lee Bontecou

Lee Bontecou: Drawings, 1958–1999 (Signed)

New York: Knoedler & Gallery, 2004. First Edition. Small quarto. A handsome catalogue published on the occasion of an exhibition of Lee Bontecou's drawings at Knoedler & Company (May 6–Jul. 30, 2004), with covers dramatically illustrated after her 1958 soot-on-paper work. This copy remarkably SIGNED by Bontecou in black marker to half-title page. Minor scuffing to illustrated boards; near fine.

$600.00

3. Leonora Carrington

En Bas (Hors Commerce Copy)

Paris: Fontaine, 1945. Limited Edition. 12mo. One of 25 hors commerce copies, printed on green paper. First autonomous publication of Leonora Carrington's gripping account of her 1940 psychosis and forced institutionalization in Spain, having fled Nazi-occupied France following Max Ernst's second arrest and internment. Illustrated by Carrington's remarkable map of the asylum's grounds in Santander; a Surrealist cartography of madness. Although first written in English during Carrington's stay in New York in 1942, that version was lost during her voyage to Mexico, where she eventually dictated the present text in French to Pierre Mabille's wife Jeanne Megnen; an English translation would appear in the final volume of the Surrealist magazine VVV (1944). Here published as part of Henri Parisot's L'Age d'Or series, with covers artfully designed by Mario Prassinos. Neat ownership inscription to front endpaper, with light fading to margins of wrappers; near fine, with contemporary glassine. Uncommon to the trade, with 8 OCLC records located.

$1250.00

4. Hanne Darboven / La Monte Young

Hanne Darboven bei Konrad Fischer (Announcement Card)

Düsseldorf: Konrad Fischer, 1968. Postcard (4 x 8 inches) announcing Darboven's second solo exhibition at Konrad Fischer's Düsseldorf gallery (Oct. 22–Nov. 15, 1968); arguably her first, since Fischer had decided the previous year that her Konstruktion series of drawings needed to be supplemented with an imposing sculpture from Charlotte Posenenske, purportedly declaring: "two-woman-show as good as one-man-show." This particular announcement notable for being mailed to fellow New York minimalist La Monte Young at his Church Street loft. Rubbed at corners with marginal scuffing and pencil inscription to postmarked verso; close to near fine.

$350.00

5. Jean Dupuy

Video Ergo Sum (Original Artwork)

[New York], 1988. Original artwork; black acrylic paint on primed cloth (7.5 x 9 inches), SIGNED by Dupuy via hand-stamp, with date supplied in black ink. Parallel to his anagrammatic works, Jean Dupuy developed a series of playful pseudo-multiples, taking the form of iterative word-paintings on cloth. For one of these compositions, Dupuy invented the mantra "Video ergo sum;" a postmodern update on Descartes, which Dupuy would thereafter explore through a cycle of sculptural works (1988-1989). Short-tear to upper corner, not affecting composition. Likely issuing from the first edition of this composition; sixteen of them exhibited at Emily Harvey Gallery in 1988.

$1500.00

6. Mark Gonzales

Poems and Poems for the Shoping Art Show L.P.C. (Signed)

[New York: Roth Horowitz, 2003]. Limited Edition. Side-stapled zine; 32 pages. This copy SIGNED twice by Gonzales, to title page and rear cover; hand-numbered as 5 of 40 copies. A compendium of Gonzales' drawings, photographs, clippings, and idiosyncratic poetry; published on the occasion of his solo exhibition at Andrew Roth Gallery (Dec. 4–31, 2003), where he was introduced as "essentially a visual poet." (Non Stop Poetry, MG038). Fine in bright blue self-wrappers. Scarce, with no OCLC records located.

$450.00

7. Damien Hirst

Pharmacy (Signed Limited Edition)

New York: Cohen Gallery, 1992. Limited Edition. Offset print on thick card (8.5 x 8.5 inches), with die-cut circle to center; SIGNED and hand-numbered to lower margin (147/200). An editioned announcement card produced by Damien Hirst for one of his earliest New York shows at Cohen Gallery (Dec. 4–Jan. 28, 1993), where Pharmacy had been created as a site-specific installation. Archivally-hinged in white lacquer frame with UV plexiglass.

$3500.00

8. David Hockney

Fax Dibujos / Fax Cuadros

Mexico City: Centro Cultural Arte Contemporaneo, 1990. First Edition. Spiral-bound quarto. Artist's catalogue published on the occasion of a David Hockney exhibition at the Centro Cultural Arte Contemporaneo in Mexico City ("Dibujos en Fax de David Hockney," Oct. 1990–Jan. 1991). Featuring over 100 reproductions of fax-drawings sent by Hockney from Santa Monica, including dozens of folding plates. Introduced by a lengthy artist statement in Spanish ("David Hockney humaniza la tecnología"), articulating Hockney's early interest in the aesthetics of digital technologies. Minor shelfwear to illustrated French-fold covers; close to fine. The most in-depth view into this dimension of Hockney's practice.

$850.00

9. Mike Kelley / Destroy All Monsters

Return of the Repressed: Destroy All Monsters, 1974–1977 (Signed by Group)

Brooklyn: PictureBox, 2011. First Edition. Quarto. A comprehensive visual survey of the artworks, photographs, zines, and ephemera produced by the anti-rock Detroit collective Destroy All Monsters; SIGNED by each of its members (Mike Kelley, Cary Loren, Niagara, and Jim Shaw) to both half-title and title page, with Loren's red hand-stamp additionally supplied to the front cover. Contents: 312 pages, thoroughly-illustrated in both color and black-and-white; many of the documented artworks previously unseen. Published on the occasion of an exhibition held at Prism in West Hollywood (Nov. 19, 2011–Jan. 7, 2012); edited by Kelley and Dan Nadel, with introductory text from Nicole Rudick. Very minor edge-wear; near fine.

$750.00

10. Martin Kippenberger

Psychobuildings (Signed)

Köln: Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König, 1988. First Edition. Small Octavo. SIGNED by Kippenberger to rear wrapper and dated in the year of publication. One of Martin Kippenberger's most perceptive—and beloved—artist's books, fully-illustrated after black-and-white street photographs that he captured during his travels through Brazil and Spain. His documentation of uncanny moments from the built environment would signal a development in his own sculptural practice, with his first street lamps executed in the same year. The wrappers represent an inversion of the unmistakable cover design from Merve Verlag, with whom the book was originally supposed to be published, as something of a sequel to Kippenberger's earlier Frauen. (Koch 63). A near fine copy, with only minor scuffing to printed wrappers and a remarkably fresh and tight binding.

$850.00

11. Kisho Kurokawa / Toshi Ichiyanagi / Kiyoshi Awazu

Kisho Kurokawa: Works

Tokyo: Bijutsu Shuppansha, 1970. First Edition. Folio. An ambitious multimedia portfolio from the avant-garde architect Kisho Kurokawa, cementing his reputation as one of the leaders of the Metabolist movement. Published on the occasion of Expo 70 in Osaka, where the Metabolists had been given free architectural rein; Kurokawa himself was commissioned to direct three major building projects. Housed here within the illustrated slipcase: (1) a monograph-length portfolio, stylishly documenting a variety of Kurokawa's pioneering architectural projects, (2) an experimental 7" vinyl record, and (3) an impressively large poster designed by Kiyoshi Awazu (40 x 28 inches), which matches the slipcase, featuring a collage of drawings, photographs, graphics, and texts, including Kurokawa's three "Laws of the Future" for Capsule architecture; the poster's verso reproduces the hot pink collage from the monograph's endpapers. On the vinyl, composed by Yoko Ono's former husband Toshi Ichiyanagi as "Music for Living Space," the six articles of Kurokawa's Capsule creed are recited by a computer-generated voice, as accompanied by the sounds of Gregorian chants. This copy remarkably preserved in its original state, with the poster and vinyl still sealed within the book's acetate jacket; fine. Illustrated slipcase also in exemplary condition, with only faint scuffing; close to fine.

$2750.00

12. Yayoi Kusama

Driving Image Show (Exhibition Brochure / Poster)

Milano: Galleria del Naviglio, 1966. First Edition. Exhibition brochure, folding out to poster (18.25 x 22.5 inches). In 1964, Yayoi Kusama followed-up her Aggregation: One Thousand Boats Show installation with her wild Driving Image Show at New York's Castellane Gallery; her affective sculptures proliferating according to the poetic keywords on the poster: sex-food-obsession, compulsion-furniture, repetitive-vision, macaroni-room, air-quanta, interminable-nets, perseveration-forms. The installation would eventually travel to Europe, including a stop at Milan's Galleria del Naviglio (Jan. 26–Feb. 9, 1966), for which the Castellane poster—which included a Peter Moore portrait of Kusama with macaroni dress—was reprinted across the verso of this exhibition brochure. To the other panels of the brochure: the transcript of an interview between Kusama and Gordon Brown (in Italian), and a quote from her champion Herbert Read, referring to Kusama's art as "the most authentic type of super reality." Creasing and mild toning to fold-lines, with a few short edge-tears; better than very good.

$750.00

13. George Maciunas / Jackson Mac Low

Perpetual Fluxus Festival Presents at Washington Square Gallery (Poster)

New York: Fluxus, 1964. Announcement poster (17 x 16 inches) designed by George Maciunas to promote the year-long Perpetual Fluxus Festival. With a circular calendar of events programmed for Washington Square Gallery (1964/65), including performances from Ayo, George Brecht, Stanley Brouwn, Giuseppe Chiari, Philip Corner, Hi Red Center, Dick Higgins, Joe Jones, Alison Knowles, Shigeko Kubota, Yoko Ono, Ben Patterson, Willem de Ridder, Dieter Roth, Takako Saito, Chieko Shiomi, Ben Vautier, Bob Watts, and Emmett Williams, as well as the Fluxus Olympic Games. Notably, this mailer addressed on verso to Fluxus associate Jackson Mac Low; postmarked September 16, 1964. Faint foldlines from mailing, with slight edge-tear to lower margin; near fine. Uncommon, with single OCLC record located.

$950.00

14. Jason Polan

A Slow Walk (Portfolio)

New York: 6 Decades Books / Boo-Hooray, 2012. Limited Edition. Quarto. A suite of 10 letterpress sheets, after observational drawings executed by Jason Polan during a ten-day stretch of walking the length of New York's chaotic Canal Street; hand-numbered as 4 of 40 copies. Published on the occasion of an exhibition organized by 6 Decades Books and Boo-Hooray. A fine set in printed cardstock portfolio. With only a single OCLC record located (MoMA).

$1000.00

15. Leni Riefenstahl

Schönheit im Olympischen Kampf [Beauty in the Olympic Games]

Berlin: Im Deutschen Verlag, 1937. First Edition. Folio. Leni Riefenstahl's gravure paean to the 1936 Berlin games; arguably the most important book about athletics ever published. Published in conjunction with Riefenstahl's film Olympia. (Roth 96-97). Minor bumping to corners of cloth boards, with bright gilt Olympic ring design to front panel; near fine. In remarkably bright photo-illustrated jacket, with a few nicks unobtrusively repaired to verso; near fine. An exemplary copy, housed in custom cloth clamshell case, with white lettering to spine.

$3500.00

16. (Edward Ruscha) / Yilmaz Dziewior (editor)

Reading Ed Ruscha

Kunsthaus Bregenz, 2013. First Edition. Quarto. "Well, I think my books are the toughest part of my art." An impressive monograph on Ed Ruscha's bookworks, published on the occasion of an exhibition at Kunsthaus Bregenz (Jul. 7–Oct. 14, 2012). Illustrated with full reproductions of each of Ruscha's artist's books, and a selection of his book sculptures and paintings. Accompanied by essays from Douglas Coupland, W. S. Di Piero, Beatrice von Bismarck, and an introduction from Kunsthaus Director Yilmaz Dziewior; texts printed in both German and English. A fine copy in illustrated cloth boards.

$350.00

17. Sturtevant

Studies for Warhols' Marilyns, Beuys' Actions and Objects, Duchamps' Etc. Including Film

Syracuse, NY: Everson Museum of Art, 1973. First Edition. Quarto. A brilliant artist's catalogue from Sturtevant (Elaine Frances Horan), published on the occasion of her first museum show in the United States (Everson Museum of Art, Nov. 16–Dec. 12, 1973). Sturtevant's conceit for the catalogue, realized by Judson Rosebush, was to produce poor xerographic copies of her exhibited appropriations of Warhol, Beuys, and Duchamp; according to the Everson's Director James Harithas, "the works in the show were not copies, the works in the catalogue were." Concluding with an interpretive text from Harithas and an index of the represented works. Save for some light toning to side-stapled wrappers, close to fine.

Sold

18. Ed Templeton

Empty Plastic Echoes Reverberating through Time

Antwerp: Tim Van Laere Gallery, 2006. First Edition. Octavo. Artist's catalogue published to coincide with Ed Templeton's exhibition at Tim Van Laere Gallery in Antwerp (Dec. 7, 2006 - Jan. 2, 2007); a glossy compendium of Templeton's drawings, paintings, and captioned photographs. Accompanied by a short text from Stijn Huijts ("Templeton's Time Machine," printed in both Dutch and English), reflecting on Templeton's "cloud images" and his affinities with 15th century painters like Memling and Bosch. Minor rubbing to photo-illustrated wrappers; near fine. Uncommon.

$175.00

19. Moses Vorobeichic [aka Moï Ver]

The Ghetto Lane in Wilna

Zurich: Orell Fussli, 1931. First Edition. Octavo. Dos-à-dos text in both English and Hebrew. A riveting portrait of the Jewish ghetto in Vilnius, Lithuania, just prior to its Nazi destruction, composed of 65 black-and- white images from the avant-garde lens of Vorobeichic. In the same year, his photobook on Paris was issued under the pseudonym of Moï Ver. (Parr, v1, p130). This copy having belonged to pacifist Murray Polner, founder of the liberal Jewish magazine Present Tense, with ownership inscription to front pastedown. Light wear to corners, with some darkening at spine ends; close to near fine in photo-illustrated boards. Uncommon, with only 3 OCLC records located for this English/Hebrew version; a separate German/Hebrew edition was published in the same year.

$1200.00

20. Andy Warhol

Andy Warhol's Exposures (Prospectus)

New York: Andy Warhol Books / Grosset & Dunlap Publishers, 1979. First Edition. Slim quarto. Prospectus brochure for Andy Warhol's society photobook; "a rare insight, sometimes funny, sometimes biting, always honest, into the lives of the people who made themselves the images of our time. This is the first time that Warhol has written about his friends and his life so openly and realistically." Contents: 16 pages, illustrated with black-and-white portraits of Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter, Muhammad Ali, Lou Reed, Keith Richards and Ron Wood, Bianca Jagger, Liza Minnelli, Jackie Onassis, Truman Capote, and Halston; the Capote and Carter portraits accompanied by coinciding excerpts from the book. The plain front wrapper boldly proclaiming: "Cover to be personally designed by Andy Warhol." Some rubbing to edges of wrappers, with minor creasing; close to near fine.

$450.00

21. Andy Warhol

Brooklyn Bridge Centennial Celebration, 1883–1983: Rededication Day, May 24, 1983

Brooklyn, NY: Brooklyn Bridge Centennial Commission, 1983. First Edition. Square octavo. Programme published to accompany events celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Brooklyn Bridge. Front cover illustrated after a commissioned screenprint by Andy Warhol; a limited edition of which was made available through the Centennial Commission's office. Contents: 16 pages, illustrated after photographs of the bridge by Alfred Eisenstaedt, Joel Greenberg, Bill Hine, and Andreas Feininger, as well as a reproduction of a Robert Indiana painting (1964). Very minor toning to side-stapled wrappers, with faint blemish to rear panel; near fine. Scarce, with single OCLC record located.

$350.00

22. Emmett Williams

The Voyage (First Edition)

Stuttgart: Edition Hansjörg Mayer, 1975. First Edition. Square octavo. A remarkably sharp copy of this long concrete poem from Emmett Williams, lovingly printed by Hansjörg Mayer. With the poem constructed out of three-letter units, Williams articulates his algorithmic approach in the brief introduction: "These triads move about in an invisible grid of one hundred squares via a mathematical progression. At the outset the triads are separated by a single space; on page two, by two spaces; on page fifty, by fifty spaces—and on and on and on, with the triads dropping off one by one, until, after a long solo trip, the last triad vanishes. There's another vanishing act, too. The frame on each successive page decreases in size, so that the farther out we go, the harder it is to see the shore, and slowly but surely the poem disappears." A close to fine copy, with minor shelf-wear to printed white wrappers; rear panel illustrated after Williams' "Map of The Voyage."

Sold

Website
Instagram