Book(s) of the day > Richard Diebenkorn: The Catalogue Raisonné. Published by Yale University Press. “The celebrated American artist Richard Diebenkorn was a singular figure in postwar American art. Early in his career, he created abstract paintings that combined landscape influence, aerial perspective, and a deeply personal calligraphic language. Then, in late 1955, he began working in a representational mode (landscapes, figure studies, and still lifes) and was associated with the Bay Area figurative movement. Diebenkorn later abandoned figurative references in the 1960s and embarked on monumental abstract, geometrical compositions, including his celebrated Ocean Park works.

This four-volume catalogue raisonné is the definitive resource on Diebenkorn’s unique works, including his paintings, works on paper, and three-dimensional objects. The first volume gives an overview of the artist’s career, featuring essays by noted scholars John Elderfield, Ruth E. Fine, Jane Livingston, Steven Nash, and Gerald Nordland, as well as an illustrated chronology, list of exhibitions, bibliography, and selection of studio notes. The second volume spans his student and early abstract works; the third volume features his representational works during the Berkeley period; and the fourth volume covers his later periods, as well as his sketchbooks and other little-known private drawings. Many of the more than five thousand works illustrated in this catalogue are being published for the first time, and with new color photography that showcases his work like never before.”

Book of the day > KH Issue 3. Published by Kevin Harry (@mrkevinharry). “Maybe it's a smile, maybe it's a hairstyle, maybe it's an outfit, maybe it's a tattoo, or maybe it's just a vibe. The portraits in KH capture the essence of each subject. The photo zine was created and edited by photographer Kevin Harry.  The images in the artists' books were taken at festivals and parades around the metropolitan New York City area. Each issue celebrates the diversity of people, with the idea being ‘come as you are.’ “

Book of the day > Design for Space: Soviet and Russian Mission Patches by Alexander Glushko. Published by DOM Publishers. “Covering the period from the beginning of the Cold War to the installation of the International Space Station, this book documents a rare collection: almost 250 mission patches worn by Soviet and Russian cosmonauts since 1963. Alexander Glushko, one of the leading specialists in the history of manned space flight and rocket technology in Russia, presents numerous emblems with individual explanations in their applied context: as patches worn on spacesuits. The collection not only comprises partially forgotten mission patches, but also includes rare photographs of spacecraft crews and space stations. As well as providing additional historical information, the collection also retraces the formation and development of Soviet and Russian symbolism in terms of space travel and brings the history of cosmic heraldry to life.”

Book of the day > Steve McCurry: On Reading. Published by Phaidon (@phaidonsnaps). An homage to the Kertész classic. “Young or old, rich or poor, engaged in the sacred or the secular, people everywhere read. This homage to the beauty and seductiveness of reading brings together a collection of photographs taken by Steve McCurry over his nearly four decades of travel and is introduced by award-winning writer, Paul Theroux. McCurry’s mesmerizing images of the universal human act of reading are an acknowledgement of - and a tribute to - the overwhelming power of the written word.”

Book of the day > Copyright/Archief: Sanne Sannes. Published by Hannibal Publishing . "Sanne Sannes was the ‘agent provocateur’ of the Dutch photography scene in the 1960’s. His grainy, black and white, intimate and erotic portraits of women, who he photographed in intense and ecstatic sessions, went against all the traditional rules of photography. Sannes was not afraid to experiment with photographic techniques and styles; everything was allowed to achieve the required result. Sannes was tragically killed in a car accident just days after he turned 30, but in his short life he created one of the most impressive photographic oeuvres of the 20th century. This monograph is the most complete overview of the work of Sanne Sannes that has been published, having been initiated by Johan ten Berg, Rob Sannes, the brother of Sannes, Gerrit Jan Wolffensperger, the former assistant of Sannes, and Roy Kahmann. With contributions written by Willemijn van der Zwaan and Gerrit Jan Wolffensperger. In collaboration with the Rijksmuseum and the Nederlands Fotomuseum, Amsterdam, the Netherlands."

Book of the day > Steidl–Werk No. 23: Masaho Antonai, “Deformed.” Published by Steidl. “The main idea behind Steidl–Werk No. 23 was to create a paper object never seen before. A joint project between Theseus Chan’s Werk magazine and Steidl, it stems from Chan’s and Steidl’s mutual interest in art and books, the smell of ink, the texture of paper and the desire to subvert technology by creating work with a human imprint. Accordingly, this issue features a young Japanese artist, Masaho Anotani, whose collage-like drawings are made almost entirely by hand. The design was inspired by a tightly taped, neatly formed package sent to the magazine by Anotani containing his printouts—an idea that found its way into the book itself, which comes as an entirely sealed entity. Building on the concept of creating and destructing the final product, a chaotic bricolage of "printed junk" is born.”

Book of the day > History Is Made At Night: Photographs 1976-1979 by Godlis. Introduction by Jim Jarmusch. Published by Matte Editions. “40 years in the making, HISTORY IS MADE AT NIGHT contains 119 photographs in a fine art duotone monograph edition; including photographs from GODLIS' nights at CBGB's between 1976 and 1979, when Patti Smith, the Ramones, Blondie, Richard Hell, Talking Heads, and Televsion ruled New York City's Bowery. GODLIS, shot in the style of photographers Brassai and Robert Frank, using his handheld Leica camera and Tri-X film to capture his subjects by the natural light of the Bowery outside as well as inside the club CBGB's. Analog all the way, these photographs will take you back to the grainy heydays of the New York City Punk Scene.” @godlis

Book of the day – and book signing tomorrow (Thursday, 6-8 at Arcana)! > Pamela Littky: The Villa Bonita. Published by Kehrer Verlag. “Like many apartment buildings in Hollywood, the Villa Bonita was built during the film industry’s first heyday bridging the 1920s to the 1930s. Built for the vast crews and casts that Cecil B.DeMille was hiring during his fertile period, the Villa Bonita has housed great Hollywood figures from Errol Flynn to Francis Ford Coppola. In absence of traditionally scaled, walkable neighborhoods, Los Angeles has long created community within the confines of these kinds of apartment complexes. Young and old, employed and between gigs, dreamers and those whose dreams left long ago –everyone arrived at the Villa Bonita for one good reason or another. In a series of photographs that brings us into intimate distance of its subjects, The Villa Bonita surveys all of the inhabitants of this historic apartment tower in the middle of Hollywood, creating a collective portrait of the transient nature of the city. Those residents who have been there for decades reconcile themselves to the increasingly diverse group who all live under the same roof, including those who, like so many people before them, are just passing through.”

If you can't make it tomorrow but would like a signed copy of The Villa Bonita, you can order it here.

Book of the day > Anthony Hernandez. [*Mark your calendars for a book signing and discussion with Anthony Hernandez and Thomas Demand on 10/8 at Arcana! In association with PACLA]. Published by SFMOMA with  D.A.P. “Since the early 1970s, when he began photographing on the streets of his native Los Angeles, Anthony Hernandez has consistently pushed his practice into uncharted territory, challenging himself by adopting new formats and subject matter. Moving from black and white to color, from 35mm to large-format cameras, and from the human figure to landscapes to abstracted detail, he has produced an unusually varied body of work united by its arresting beauty and subtle engagement with social issues. At first largely unaware of the formal traditions of the medium, Hernandez developed his own style of street photography, one uniquely attuned to the desolate allure and sprawling expanses of LA.

Published to accompany the photographer’s first retrospective, Anthony Hernandez offers a comprehensive introduction to his career of more than 40 years, tracing his evolution as well as highlighting continuities across his practice. The catalogue represents the full range and breadth of Hernandez’s work, with an extensive plate section that includes many photographs that have never before been exhibited or published.

Anthony Hernandez grew up in a Los Angeles far removed from the idealized Hollywood image of the city. Although he has turned his lens on other landscapes--including Saigon, Rome and various American cities--Los Angeles, and especially the neighborhoods inhabited by the working class, the poor and the homeless, has been his most enduring subject.”

Book of the day > Isamu Noguchi: Playscapes. Published by RM/Museo Tamayo Arte Contemporáneo. “In 1933, the visionary sculptor Isamu Noguchi began making design proposals for children’s playgrounds in New York. The first one, Play Mountain (1933), marked the beginning of the artist’s fascination with exploring points of intersection between sculpture, public spaces and, above all, play. Radically experimental in its approach to children’s recreation, the design asserted, with no apparent precedent, that children’s exercise and entertainment could be stimulated by simply providing earth modulations and steps for running, jumping and sliding.

Noguchi’s playground was a spectacular innovation of design, and something never before seen in New York City’s brief 32-year history of building and operating playgrounds. But Play Mountain also initiated a lengthy period of frustrated endeavor, in which Noguchi only saw one of his park designs become a reality. This changed in the 1970s, when public space policies began to favor artists’ participation in project design. Since then, Noguchi’s pioneering playgrounds have become a touchstone for the revival of interest in the golden era of playground design.

This is the first volume to bring together all of the artist’s investigations into playgrounds over a period of 50 years. It reproduces his beautiful scale models, sketches and photographs of iconic designs, highlighting a little-known facet of one of the most versatile sculptors of the 20th century.”