One of twelve Surrealist photographs reproduced in Man Ray's 1937 collaboration with André Breton (La photographie n'est pas l'art). See number 15 below for a signed copy.

Harper's Books: October Selections

A late-monthly list of new arrivals relating to post-War art, photography, and subculture. Click the links for additional images and purchasing options. To browse similar materials, visit our Chelsea bookshop—which just celebrated its third anniversary—at 504 West 22nd Street (Wednesday through Saturday, 11-6) and our East Hampton gallery space (Thursday through Sunday, 10-6).

1. BASQUIAT, Jean-Michel and Francesco Clemente, David Salle, Julian Schnabel, et al

Painting Now: Jean-Michel Basquiat, Sandro Chia, Francesco Clemente, Enzo Cucchi, David Salle, Salomé, Julian Schnabel

Nagoya, Japan: Akira Ikeda Gallery, 1984. First Edition. Small quarto. A lively catalogue of contemporary painting, published for a group show at Akira Ikeda's Nagoya gallery (Mar. 5 - 31, 1984). Reproducing works from Basquiat, Chia, Clemente, Cucchi, Salle, Salomé, and Schnabel. This was Basquiat's second exhibition with Ikeda, after his first Japanese solo exhibition in the gallery's Tokyo location a few months prior. Contents: [20] pages. Close to near fine, with minor toning to glossy wrappers. One of 1000 copies printed, but nonetheless uncommon, with a half dozen OCLC records located in North America.

$750.00

2. BASQUIAT, Jean-Michel

Jean-Michel Basquiat: Paintings, 1981-1984

Edinburgh: The Fruitmarket Gallery, 1984. First Edition. Tall quarto. Landmark catalogue published to accompany the first European survey of Jean-Michel Basquiat's early canvases, organized by Edinburgh's Fruitmarket Gallery (Aug. 11 - Sep. 23) alongside a simultaneous exhibition of John Cage's drawings, prints, and books. The paintings would then travel to the ICA in London (Dec. 14, 1984 - Jan. 27, 1985) and Rotterdam's Boymans-van Beuningen Museum (Feb. 9 - Mar. 31). Curatorial intro from Fruitmarket's new Director Mark Francis, followed by 16 leaves of color reproductions (1981-1984). With haunting yellow-on-blue covers designed by Basquiat himself, complete with his Quetzalcoatl poem to the rear panel. Minor edge-wear to illustrated wrappers, with some inoffensive scuffing; a close to near fine copy of a catalogue often found in lesser state.

$1500.00

3. CATTELAN, Maurizio and Pierpaolo Ferrari

Toiletpaper: January 2011 (No. 2) (Variant Cover)

Athens: Deste Foundation, 2011. First Edition. Quarto. Second issue of this iconic artist's magazine from Maurizio Cattelan and Pierpaolo Ferrari, fully-illustrated after 21 dramatic photographic spreads. One of two variant covers for the second issue; this dead Pope being more uncommon than the bloody finger design. Minor rubbing to stapled wrappers; near fine.

$500.00

4. CHRISTO

Draft Environmental Impact Report for Running Fence (Inscribed)

Santa Rosa, CA: Sonoma County Planning Department, 1975. Spiral-bound quarto. Draft report prepared by Environmental Science Associates on behalf of the Planning Department of Sonoma County, to assess the environmental impact of Christo's epic Running Fence project, for which he proposed to erect 24.5 miles of white nylon fencing across the hills of Sonoma and Marin Counties and into the Pacific Ocean. This copy INSCRIBED by Christo (1976) to the frontispiece that reproduces his landscape view of the project. Ultimately, the Report's authors determine that the project's mitigation measures would limit any biological, botanical, social, or economic impacts, save for the potential consequences of visitor traffic and the temporary "aesthetic impact" of some ranchers losing their panoramic views. Introduced with an artist's statement by Christo and a lengthy discussion of the project's pragmatics. Contents: viii, [6], 265 pages; illustrated after dozens of maps and drawings, many of them folding, and a sample swatch of the white nylon fabric, housed in plastic sleeve at rear. Small chip to head of front cover near spiral binding; else near fine. A testament to the 42 month bureaucratic process that Christo's collaborators navigated to make this vision a reality. 

$1000.00

5. CONDO, George and Félix Guattari

George Condo (Inscribed with Announcement Card)

Paris: Galerie Daniel Templon, 1990. First Edition. Quarto. "These paintings are dedicated to the life of Keith Haring." A vibrant catalogue from a George Condo show at Daniel Templon (Apr. 20 - May 26, 1990), featuring 20 color reproductions, including six fold-outs. Introduced by critical text from theorist Félix Guattari, along with a brief interview between he and Condo; printed both in French and English. This copy INSCRIBED by Condo at the vernissage to Ringo Starr's manager Hilary Gerard. Minor rubbing to illustrated wrappers; near fine. Accompanied by announcement card (8.5 x 6 inches) for the corresponding exhibition Peintures Récentes, 1989/90: Dédié à Keith.

$750.00

6. GALE, Peggy (editor) and AA Bronson (design)

Video by Artists

Toronto: Art Metropole, 1976. First Edition. Quarto. One of the earliest surveys of artists working with video—and the first in Art Metropole's "By Artists" series—edited by curator Peggy Gale, with book design by AA Bronson; a sequel would be issued a decade later. Featuring the likes of Ant Farm, General Idea, Dan Graham, and Lisa Steele, with essays compiled from Bronson, Gale, Graham, and Les Levine. Close to near fine, with some scuffing to illustrated wrappers and early price sticker to front panel.

$300.00

7. GALLO, Vincent and Chloë Sevigny

The Brown Bunny (Cinema Rise No. 131) (with Promotional Ephemera)

Tokyo: Kinétique, 2003. First Edition. Oblong octavo. Promotional booklet for Vincent Gallo's cult 16 mm classic, The Brown Bunny, published by Kinétique, the Japanese company that financed the film. Beautifully illustrated after soft color stills, interspersed with synopses, reviews, interviews with both Gallo and co-star Chloë Sevigny, soundtrack details, and an annotated map detailing the film's cross-country itinerary. Text in Japanese, with some English. Accompanied by well-illustrated promotional ephemera, announcing screenings, merchandise, photobooks, related exhibitions, and a themed restaurant. All elements fine.

$350.00

8. GOLDIN, Nan

The Other Side (Signed)

New York: Scalo, 1993. First American Edition. Quarto. "This is a book about beauty. And about my love for friends." Nan Goldin's second photobook, named after the queer bar that she and her friends frequented in Boston; first published in 1992 as Die Andere Seite, in association with her DAAD residency in Berlin. This copy SIGNED by Goldin to her frontispiece portrait captured by David Armstrong; dated Sep. 14, 1995. Faint marginal toning to preliminaries, else a near fine copy in red cloth boards, in fine illustrated jacket.

$750.00

9. HAMMONS, David

David Hammons: Selected Works, 1968-1974

Los Angeles: Fine Arts Gallery (California State University), 1974. First Edition. Slim quarto. Scarce documentation from the early years of David Hammons' career; this exhibition at California State University (Sep. 29 - Oct. 17, 1974) being his second solo show—after a 1970 exhibition at Brockman Gallery—but the source of his first dedicated catalogue. An introduction from the Studio Museum's Linda G. Bryant, praising Hammons as an exception to the aesthetic trend towards dematerialization, who nonetheless remained faithful to Ideas. With 12 of Hammons' forty exhibited works reproduced by black-and-white photographs from Frank J. Thomas; supplemented by donor list, artist's bio, and descriptive catalogue at rear. Minor foxing to margins of glossy sheets and some scuffs to side-stapled wrappers; near fine. Uncommon, with 5 OCLC records located in North America.

$2000.00

10. KIPPENBERGER, Martin

Old Vienna Posters

Graz, Austria: Grazer Kunstverein, 1992. First Edition. Folio. Artist's book published on the occasion of the public-art exhibition Plakate (Oct. 3 - Nov. 3, 1992), which featured artist's posters from the likes of Martin Kippenberger, Felix Gonzales-Torres, and Christopher Wool, posted to billboards around Graz. Kippenberger's characteristically meta contribution—reproduced on the rear wrapper—was derived from his own photograph of a wall of posters hanging in a Viennese coffee shop; a poster of posters, interior turned exterior. Remainders from the printing of this poster edition were then cropped into fragmented sheets and assembled into the present bookwork. One of only 200 copies; this one unsigned. (Koch 116). Some rubbing to rear joint of yellow wrappers, thus close to near fine. With 4 OCLC records located in North America.

$2250.00

11. KOONS, Jeff

Jeff Koons: Gazing Ball (Signed with Drawing)

New York: David Zwirner, 2014. First Edition. Quarto. An elegant publication to commemorate Jeff Koons' 2013 show at David Zwirner (New York, May 8 - Jun. 29); the first Koons catalogue published by Zwirner, with Aegean style. This copy SIGNED by Koons to title page, with a graceful flower drawing (dated 4/20/16). Contents: 17 reproduced works and installation views, accompanied by an essay from Francesco Bonami ("Kind of Blue"). Fine in printed boards.

$1750.00

12. KRUGER, Barbara

Barbara Kruger: March 3 to April 3 (Announcement Card)

Los Angeles: Larry Gagosian, [1982]. Announcement card (4.25 x 5.5 inches) from Barbara Kruger's first West Coast solo exhibition, at Larry Gagosian's Los Angeles gallery (Mar. 3 - Apr. 3, 1982). Fully-illustrated to recto after one of her photomontage works—Untitled (Your comfort is my silence)—with her now-iconic red border framing the exhibition details to verso. Minor scuffing; near fine.

$300.00

13. KRUGER, Barbara

Tänk som vi / Tala som vi / Älska som vi... (Public Art Campaign)

Malmö, Sweden: Malmö Konsthall, 1994. Offset poster (27.5 x 39.5 inches). With its exhibition hall closed for renovations, the Malmö Konsthall commissioned Barbara Kruger to design her first Scandinavian billboard project, to be installed in over fifty locations throughout Sweden (March - April, 1994). Seizing upon the theme of crowd psychology, Kruger subsumed her trademark You with an imperative Us; the slogan translating as: "Think like us / Speak like us / Love like us / Hate like us / Look like us / Live like us." A fine copy of the reduced version of this print; archivally-hinged in white lacquer frame (30.75 x 42.5 inches).

$2000.00

14. LOREN, Cary / Mike Kelley, Niagara, Jim Shaw, and Antonin Artaud

Destroy All Monsters Magazine. Issue 5 (Special Edition with Color Xerox)

Hollywood, CA: Destroy All Monsters, 1979. Special Edition. Quarto (38 pp.). Fifth of six numbers of this artist's magazine from the Destroy All Monsters collective; a "collage of visual obsessions" through which Mike Kelley, Cary Loren, Niagara, and Jim Shaw developed their self-mythology. "We each approached the [copy] machine differently, but together we made it a ritual of transformation and chance encounter, sampling artifacts on the platen glass. Shaw’s sociological Surrealism, Niagara’s glam interventions, Kelley’s defiant humor, and my own monster mythologies converged on the page. We passed around and shared piles of our art in a democratic manner. Ideas developed as we worked at the machine" (Cary Loren). This penultimate issue edited by one-time Jack Smith apprentice Loren according to cinematic themes—"the Hollywood era of Erich von Stroheim; the decade of 1919-1929, magical Chinese and Japanese nouveau, and Ozish transformations"—and dedicated to Antonin Artaud, reproducing an English translation of his treatise on the Theatre of Cruelty. One of an unknown number of special issues that featured early color xerox inserts from Loren—using three variant processes, created over a months-long process—in addition to two hand-stamps and a Wizard of Oz scarecrow sticker. A fine copy in stapled illustrated wrappers. Scarce.

$2250.00

15. MAN RAY and André Breton

La Photographie n'est pas l'Art: 12 Photographies (Signed)

Paris: G.L.M., 1937. First Edition. Octavo. A surrealist collaboration, with twelve of Man Ray's photographs accompanied by incongruous captions and a fanciful forward by André Breton (Convulsionnaires). This copy SIGNED by Man Ray to title page. Contents: 17 loose leaves, with title page, four leaves of text, and 12 halftone reproductions printed to yellow sheets; all housed in die-cut folder revealing printed blue covers beneath. (Parr/Badger, v1, 108-109). Faint crease to top edge, else fine. Housed in custom clamshell case. This being the esteemed Frary copy (Christie's, 2008).

$7500.00

16. MEMPHIS / Barbara Radice and Ettore Sottsass

Memphis: Research, Experiences, Results, Failures, and Successes of New Design

New York: Rizzoli International Publications, Inc., 1984. First American Edition. Quarto. Classic introduction to the postmodern Memphis design movement by co-founder and theorist/chronicler Barbara Radice, with an introduction by her husband Ettore Sottsass. Thoroughly illustrated, mostly in color, with both photographs and drawings of concepts, designs, and prototypes. Small stain to front panel of gray boards, with faint toning to margins of illustrated jacket; overall near fine.

$250.00

17. PRINCE, Richard

A Window Installation at Three Lives and Company (Announcement Card)

New York: Three Lives and Company, [1979]. Announcement card (4 x 6 inches) with recto illustrated after one of a triptych of rephotographs that composed Richard Prince's window display at the Greenwich Village bookshop Three Lives and Company: Untitled (Same man looking in different directions). This same image would illustrate an accompanying poetic leaflet (Single Man Looking to the Right). Minor bump to lower left corner, with hint of toning to left margin of verso; a near fine specimen of early Prince ephemera.

$1500.00

18. SMITH, Josh

(Untitled) (Unique Painted Artist's Book, Signed)

Self-published, 2015. One of 3 unique copies. An evocative handmade artist's book from Josh Smith, with ten xerographic leaves on kraft paper; mostly over-painted. Fugitive images of the artist's hand camouflaged by a semblance of organic growth and decay. SIGNED by Smith to front cover and numbered as 2 of 3 to rear; presumably produced for the 2015 edition of Printed Matter's LA Art Book Fair. Spiral-bound self-wrappers; a fine copy.

$2250.00

19. SPOERRI, Daniel and Karl Gerstner

Edition Mat (Exhibition Catalogue)

Tokyo: Tokyo Gallery, 1965. First Edition. Slim quarto. Stylish catalogue from an Edition Mat exhibition designed by Daniel Spoerri and Karl Gerstner at Tokyo Gallery (Dec. 4 - 18, 1965), featuring multiples by Arman, Jean Arp, Gerstner, Man Ray, Arnulf Rainer, Diter Rot, Soto, Spoerri, Niki de St-Phalle, Paul Talman, Jean Tinguely, and Villeglé. Contents: 12 panel leporello (4.75 in. square), fully-illustrated with reproductions of the exhibited works; stapled within oversized cardstock covers (9.25 in. square), printed silver-on-black, with interior featuring a descriptive catalogue, artists' bios, and thumbnail portraits. Text in Japanese. Minor signs of handling; near fine. Scarce, with only 3 OCLC records located; one in North America (Met).

$750.00

20. TELLER, Juergen

Go-Sees

Zürich: Scalo, 1999. First Edition. Thick quarto. A compilation of hundreds of doorway images of aspiring models who'd visited Juergen Teller's London studio as "go-sees;" a document of vulnerability and late-90s zeitgeist. Minor scuffing to embossed cloth boards; near fine.

$450.00

21. TEMPLETON, Ed

Vikadin and Other Pain Killers (Signed)

Alleged Press / Genetic Bomb Publications, 1998. First Edition. Zine. SIGNED and hand-numbered to rear cover as no. 13 of 80 copies. A debaucherous xerographic collage of photographs, drawings, detritus, and poetry from "beautiful loser" Ed Templeton; hand-distributed to friends. Illustrated self-wrappers; fine. Scarce, with no OCLC records located.

$500.00

22. WOJNAROWICZ, David (photographer) / John Fekner, Richard Hambleton, Greer Lankton, et al

Fit to be Tied (Announcement Card)

New York: Civilian Warfare, 1984. Announcement card (6.5 x 10.75 inches) for an exhibition celebrating the two year anniversary of Alan Barrows and Dean Savard's East Village gallery Civilian Warfare, featuring works from Jane Bauman, John Fekner, Richard Hambleton, Greer Lankton, and David Wojnarowicz—whose photograph of a blindfolded man forms the announcement's visual crux. Vertical foldline to center; near fine.

$300.00

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