Book of the Day Posted Mar 14, 2025

Book of the Day: Regards Coupables

From the publisher: "Baron is pleased to present the first retrospective book and ‘Complete Works’ of French artist Regards Coupables. The work is divided into two books, titled according to years; 2015-2019 and 2020-2023. With a distinctive, bold and signature style, Regards Coupables expresses a range of evocative gestures. To conceal is to feel, and arousal is often conjured up by what is hidden... and when fantasy has to fill in the gaps. The combination of minimal design and explicit content makes the work visually powerful and tremendously appealing. However complex erotica can be in reality, Regards Coupables reduces it to its essence; an expression of love without prohibitions: 'In my work the desire to love and to be loved can be found.' The first book of the series features illustrations such as daggers, snakes and femmes fatale. In later works, human bodies are more prominent. 'The female subjects in the works are liberated and do not feel any taboos or shame. Orgasm through cunnilingus is often illustrated through these drawings, where we see women's bodies in domination over men's faces, taking charge over this very intimate act.' Whilst the illustrations show kissing, fucking and sucking, the work is not pornographic. Captivating a large audience on social media, with its suggestive creations, the drawings are often used as a means of expression; shared in private messages or through texts, for flirting, heating things up, or sharing ideas - in a way, a source of inspiration and elevation. A way to move away from the overflowing pornographic images on the internet. Challenging societal taboos, Regards Coupables invites viewers to embrace their sensual desires openly. The Complete Works offers a continuous exploration of love and lust, sometimes with humour, often with passion, and serves as an elegant way to spark conversations about desire. The Complete Works by Regards Coupables also contains an essay by academic Pernilla Ellens, editor of Joyce Lee (2022), Namio Harukawa (Baron 2021) and Death Book lll (Baron 2022)."
Book of the Day Posted Mar 13, 2025

Book of the Day: Lonnie Holley

From the publisher: "Lonnie Holley’s widely admired practice spans painting, drawing, assemblage sculpture, and performance that combines experimental music and poetry. After decades of making art, he is now getting the recognition he richly deserves. The artist’s first sculptures were carved tombstones for his nieces who perished in a house fire in 1979. Over the following years, he devoted himself to making sculptures that populated his property near Birmingham, a large all-encompassing outdoor installation that was eventually destroyed in 1997. The artist’s work continued unabated as he began to gain recognition and exhibit his work in the South and throughout the US. In his first major monograph, every facet of his practice is explored. [This volume] considers Holley’s art and music as interconnected components of the artist’s overall creative vision. [Essayist] Beardsley focuses on the artist’s Birmingham roots connecting the cultural firmament of that city with other major creative communities in Alabama, most notably Boykin, more popularly known as Gee’s Bend, home of the famous quilters." Book of the day, for sure!
Book of the Day Posted Mar 09, 2025

Book of the Day: "Thank You For Your Business" by Quentin de Briey

From the publisher: "In the fifth edition of his ongoing book series Thank You For Your Business, Quentin de Briey presents a collection of personal and editorial photographs taken in New York. The book features a mix of black and white and color photographs, showcasing images of skateboarders, portraits of friends, and editorials created for various magazines. All the pictures were taken in New York City between September 2014 and December 2022. Thank You For Your Business was originally published every year in a newspaper format. Quentin de Briey is a Belgian-born photographer living in Paris. His photography is heavily influenced by growing up skateboarding and the music culture surrounding him." And, guess what? It's our book of the day! Signed copies available in limited quantities.
Book of the Day Posted Mar 08, 2025

Book of the Day: Walter Van Beirendonck - Cut the World Awake

The Belgian fashion magician Walter Van Beirendonck is--get this--also a master collagist!. This book is the proof. From the publisher: "Cut the World Awake by Walter Van Beirendonck presents an exclusive look into a crucial part of the creative method of this Antwerp Six member. Sourcing his materials across art and culture, the fashion designer uses collage as a pre-meditation, creating paper montages that inspire, excite and provoke. Going back as far as the 90s but also including work used as instigators for his most recent collections, this book offers a selection of more than one hundred never-before-seen colour collages, brain-scanned, sliced and juxtaposed by one of the most influential and groundbreaking artists of our time. This publication features an extensive new interview with Walter Van Beirendonck himself and an exclusive and brilliant conversation between Walter and his long-time hero Paul McCarthy." Book of the damn day!
Book of the Day Posted Mar 07, 2025

Book of the Day: Biba - The Fashion Brand that Defined a Generation

From the publisher: "Biba dominated London fashion from the mid-1960s, defining the dress and outlook of a generation. Celebrating the sixtieth anniversary of the opening of the first Biba boutique, this book takes a revealing look at Biba through the words and images of the people who were intimately involved with the company and its phenomenal success. Established in 1963 as Biba Postal Boutique—a small mail-order company selling inexpensive clothing for women and children—by 1973 Biba was a seven-story department store on London’s Kensington High Street. Customers could fill their wardrobe and furnish their home with Biba products; Biba had become the world’s first lifestyle label. Shoppers could buy a tin of Biba baked beans, take tea on Europe’s largest roof garden, or watch live music performances by the New York Dolls, Iggy Pop, and Liberace in the 500-seat Rainbow Room. Created by Barbara Hulanicki and her husband, Stephen Fitz-Simon, Biba was made in the image of its staff and customers. Selling up-to-the-minute and affordable clothing, Biba appealed to teenagers and young women of the postwar generation, becoming the fashion destination of the Swinging Sixties and Seventies. Biba was the place to see and to be seen; its doors were open to everyone, from the Rolling Stones, Marianne Faithfull, and Twiggy to David Bowie and Freddie Mercury. Biba: The Fashion Brand That Defined A Generation includes photographs by Helmut Newton, Sarah Moon, and Duffy, as well as never-before-seen ephemera from Hulanicki’s personal archive. Interviews with the people closest to Biba bring these images and objects to life, while recollections and anecdotes from Hulanicki herself shine a new light on the very personal nature of Biba as a business."
Book of the Day Posted Mar 06, 2025

Book of the Day: Hilary Pecis's "Orbiting"

Book of the day! Vibrancy, color, and a keen eye from Hilary Pecis in the form of her new monograph Orbiting. Let's let the distribtuor tell you more: "Through her vibrant still lifes, interiors and landscapes, California–based artist Hilary Pecis (born 1979) weaves a rich tapestry of glowing colors and subtle ornaments compiled from her everyday surroundings. Her paintings—including such motifs as coffee tables full of books, storefronts, blooming fields and meals set out on patterned tablecloths—form the basis for scintillating, crowded compositions rife with color and texture. Pecis’ use of saturated colors and angular perspectives is evocative of Fauvism, but the ultracontemporary subject matter situates her oeuvre firmly within the modern and materialist world of her native Southern California. With an eye-catching cover, this catalog documents Pecis’ first institutional solo exhibition in China at the TAG Art Museum in Qingdao in 2023, featuring a rich selection of over 20 works created between 2018 and 2023."
Book of the Day Posted Mar 05, 2025

Book of the Day: Alice Coltrane, Monument Eternal

Alice Coltrane: Can she be canonized, lionized, and memorialized enough? Not enough for us! Long live her name and her works! And here we have our book of the day, Alice Coltrane, Monument Eternal. From the distributor: "This volume unpacks the cultural legacy of musician, spiritual leader, wife and mother Alice Coltrane. Accompanying the eponymous exhibition at Los Angeles’ Hammer Museum, the book takes its title from Coltrane’s 1977 autobiography and devotional text, Monument Eternal, in which she reflected on her newfound spiritual beliefs and the path to healing and self-discovery. Coltrane was 'ahead of her time,' as her son, saxophonist Ravi Coltrane, says: she was 'one of the first people to move outside the mainstream, and certainly one of the first female, Black, American jazz musicians to record her own music in her own studio, and to release music on her own terms.' Alice Coltrane, Monument Eternal explores themes including spiritual transcendence, sonic innovation and architectural intimacy. The project juxtaposes works from 19 contemporary American artists with pieces of ephemera from Coltrane’s archive—including handwritten sheet music, unreleased audio recordings and rarely seen footage—to honor her cultural output and practice." (Delmonico / D.A.P. / Hammer, 2025)
Book of the Day Posted Feb 20, 2025

Book of the Day: Dennis Morris Music + Life

From the publisher: "Dennis Morris: Music + Life is the first in-depth career retrospective of the trailblazing photographer, designer, and art director. Although Dennis Morris is celebrated for his iconic portraits of reggae superstar Bob Marley, this monograph also shines a light on Morris’s documentary work, which explores questions of race and cultural identity as it draws on his experiences as a Black teenager in 1970s Britain. Supported by an international touring exhibition, Dennis Morris unveils a trove of previously unseen images, offering new insight into the image-maker’s visual language.
Jamaican-born Morris moved to East London when he was just five years old. His passion for photography was ignited when he joined a local church’s camera club. A rebellious thirteen-year-old, Morris skipped school to meet—and photograph—Marley, an encounter that would catapult him into a whirlwind tour with Marley and, subsequently, the Sex Pistols as their official photographer. His adventures in the reggae and punk scenes of the 1970s laid the groundwork for a multidecade career spanning photography, art direction, design, and music. The book unfolds in two symbiotic parts: the first captures Morris’s unapologetic lens on race, culture, and identity in 1970s Britain, while the second surveys his collaborations with music legends, including—in addition to Marley—Lee 'Scratch' Perry, Gregory Isaacs, and Marianne Faithfull. Featuring an original contribution from Sean O’Hagan and an essay by the late cultural theorist Stuart Hall, this publication promises to delight both photography aficionados and music lovers alike."
Book of the Day Posted Feb 19, 2025

Book of the Day: "Father" by Diana Markosian

From the publisher: "Diana Markosian: Father presents the photographer’s journey to another place and another time, where Markosian attempts to piece together an image of a familiar stranger—her long-lost father. The book explores her father’s absence, her reconciliation with him, and the shared emptiness of their prolonged estrangement. The images, made over the course of a decade, take place in her father’s home in Armenia. In Markosian’s first monograph, Santa Barbara (Aperture, 2020), the photographer recreates the story of her family’s journey from post–Soviet Russia to the US in the 1990s. Father uses both documentary photographs and archives of objects, letters, and vernacular images to probe the fifteen years of absence and separation from the photographer’s childhood. In this voyage of self-discovery, Markosian touchingly renders her longing for connection to a man she barely remembers and who asks her, when she finds him, 'Why did it take you so long?'" Not only is this our book of the day, but we are also hosting Markosian at Arcana on Saturday, February 22nd from 4 until 6PM for a signing event honoring Father. Join us! All are welcome!
Book of the Day Posted Feb 16, 2025

Book of the Day: Shaniqwa Jarvis

The photographic work of Shaniqwa Jarvis is known for blending the aesthetics of modern fashion photography with the sensitive, unfiltered emotion of art portraiture. In this, her impressive first book, Ms. Jarvis presents a selection of her favorite images drawn from two decades that includes editorial work for clients like The Gap, the New York Times, Supreme, Billboard, and Riposte, "Bathroom Portraits" - shot in the toilets of bars in the early 2000s, and portraits of the likes of SZA, Lee "Scratch" Perry, George Condo, Cardi B, and a few requisite selfies. In some of her best-loved imagery she captures vivid reality across a wide variety of subjects that always appear to be an extension of herself. With an introduction by photographer Ryan McGinley, these images speak to raw, disparate feelings imbued with a deep sparkling optimism taken from a vantage point that is female, black, tirelessly hardworking, and brimming with raucous, positive vibrations. This is the 2025, self-published, paperbound second edition of Jarvis's impressive debut monograph. Available here!
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