Book of the day > Catherine Ceresole: Beauty Lies In The Eye. Edition Patrick Frey. “In 1979 Catherine Ceresole and her husband Nicolas moved to New York, where he was to begin training as an audio engineer. In truth, however, the couple went there because they were captivated by the city’s underground music scene. They soon became friendly with a number of musicians who Catherine began to photograph at concerts and in intimate settings. The result was a unique photographic documentary of the New York punk, no-wave and avant-garde music scene during its heyday. With her keen eye for dramatic moments, she captured them all on film: Sonic Youth, Lydia Lunch, Glenn Branca, Arto Lindsay, Christian Marclay, the Beastie Boys and many others. After they returned to Switzerland, Catherine Ceresole continued to photograph musicians and their bands — with an unfailing ear and keen eye. The book is a visual music history of the last decades, presenting the work of this unique photographer to a broad public for the first time.”

Book of the day > Piero Fornasetti: Practical Madness. Rizzoli. “An extensive illustrated survey of one of the most inventive design minds of the twentieth century. Combining whimsy and elegance, Piero Fornasetti transformed everyday objects like cups, scarves, and plates into much sought-after works of art with his idiosyncratic motifs, such as the hand, the female face, and luminescent fish. His dazzling pieces of trompe l’oeil furniture, created in collaboration with Gio Ponti, are also highly prized by collectors worldwide. 
Fornasetti’s boundless imagination is celebrated here in a book published to document a major retrospective exhibition at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris. The first half of the monograph is organized by type and includes Fornasetti’s paintings, drawings, and furniture. The second half focuses on favorite themes: his use of trompe l’oeil, architectural drawings, and his variations on the face of a famous operatic beauty. Featuring 400 illustrations covering almost fifty years of a protean and prolific designer and artist like no other, this is a must-have for Fornasetti connoisseurs and anyone interested in design.”

Book of the day > Bruce Davidson: Nature of Los Angeles 2008–2013. Steidl. "In 2008, Bruce Davidson, who had already photographed New York and Paris, began exploring Los Angeles with a focus on its exotic plant life. The arid climate, normally hostile to life, allows for an exceptional botanical diversity in L.A. County that reaches from the surrounding foothills and mountain wilderness to the Pacific Ocean, and Davidson quickly became a Los Angeles convert. "Traffic, wealth, poverty, violence and other urban phenomena give way to valiant plant life where ivy thrives on the underside of the 405 and Glendale Freeway interchanges, and a tree in the foothills regenerates itself after a wildfire has parched its bark," he writes. "Without its plant life and human respect for it, L.A. would be a vast desert void." Nature of Los Angeles 2008–2013 depicts the city in black and white, presenting its beauty and banality as emblematic of urban existence in general."

Book of the Day > Map: Exploring The World. Phaidon. “Map: Exploring the World brings together more than 300 fascinating maps from the birth of cartography to cutting-edge digital maps of the twenty-first century. The book's unique arrangement, with the maps organized in complimentary or contrasting pairs, reveals how the history of our attempts to make flat representations of the world has been full of beauty, ingenuity and innovation.

Selected by an international panel of curators, academics and collectors, the maps reflect the many reasons people make maps, such as to find their way, to assert ownership, to record human activity, to establish control, to encourage settlement, to plan military campaigns or to show political power. The selection includes the greatest names in cartography, such as James Cook, Gerard Mercator, Matthew Fontaine Maury and Phyllis Pearsall, as well as maps from indigenous cultures around the world, rarely seen maps from lesser-known cartographers, and maps of outstanding beauty and surprising individuality from the current generation of map makers.”

The 'throwback’ book of the day is a tribute to MAN RAY whose birthday it is today! > Man Ray: Alphabet For Adults – Signed by Man Ray. Copley Galleries, 1948. "Alphabet for Adults" is Man Ray's charming 1948 illustrated abecedaire published during the artist's residence in Hollywood by his gallerist William Copley. It presents thirty-nine whimsical drawings with captions ranging from anchor to zinc that were printed by Lynton R. Kistler, who was Merle Armitage's collaborator of choice in the same period. An internally bright, most handsome example of this uncommon item limited to five hundred unnumbered copies in the printer's original clear plastic overlay additionally BOLDLY SIGNED "Man Ray" in pencil on the title page showing a bit of typical mild age-toning to its covers and pastedowns along with some light soiling and traces of contact with moisture to the boards. It was acquired by us directly from the library of Man Ray's friend, the late, great Los Angeles artist, collector and educator Emerson Woelffer, and bears his embossed gold foil ownership label on the front pastedown.”

Want it?! You can have it.

Book of the day > Grafted: Plants by Kohei Oda | Pots by Adam Silverman. August Editions.

"Grafted documents, through stunning photography, the groundbreaking collaboration between Adam Silverman, a renowned LA-based ceramicist, and Kohei Oda, an award-winning Japanese plant sculptor. Through two exhibitions, Silverman and Oda worked together to produce one hundred unique works combining Oda's grafted cacti with Silverman's textural ceramic pots to produce one-of-a-kind, out of this world artworks that cross boundaries.

Beautifully photographed by Shuji Yoshida and Joshua White and edited and designed by Tamotsu Yagi, Grafted is a testament to the power of merging two powerful visions. As Glenn Adamson writes in his introduction: Their collaboration is not just about a hundred plants in a hundred pots; it is further evidence that art at its best can move effortlessly across cultures, across media, and against expectation."

Book of the day and BOOK SIGNING TOMORROW! Please join us! 4-6! > Ryan Schude: Schude. Roads Publishing. “Schude celebrates a decade of work with nearly two hundred cinematic images by Los Angeles-based photographer Ryan Schude. His vast tableaux and vivid portraits combine humor - both light and vivacious and black as night - with extreme skill and an auteur's eye that encapsulate Pop Americana in a way that has resonated with audiences worldwide. Schude, his first monograph, features a foreword by Zac Pennington, an introduction by Davy Rothbart, and a text by the photographer himself illuminating the intricacies and personal stories behind his process in creating this engaging body of work.”

If you can't make it tomorrow but want a signed book, order it here.

That's Rachel Portenstien (at the Museum of Juraissic Technology). She used to be the Arcana shipping manger!

“Throwback” book of the day > Fashion Academy. Oozing charm, this is the 1938 hardbound brochure for “ Fashion Academy” – a ritzy study program based out of 30 Rockefeller Plaza. Syllabus includes requisite “Study Trip to Paris.” A gold-embossed gem.

Book of the day > Taiyo Onorato / Nico Krebs: The Great Unreal. Edition Patrick Frey. "During a period of three years, Taiyo Onorato and Nico Krebs traveled several months through the United States, working “on the road” on the photo series The Great Unreal. The photographic work deals with reality and the fabrication of reality.The geography of America serves as both setting and fertile ground for the examination. Mysticism and demystification are important aspects in this process, as is working with a rich inventory of visual icons that can be continually deconstructed and manipulated.The working method of both photographers is based on interventions prescribed mostly by happenstance and change. Through repetition and associative placement, the sometimes crude, sometimes subtle interventions begin to link to one another, establishing an exciting transformation of reality that only hesitatingly reveals itself to the viewer.

Together with book designers Megi Zumstein and Claudio Barandun, what emerged is an unmitigated picture book that makes a visual journey possible without any instructions. It comprises narrative image sequences that approximate the curiosity and restlessness of being on the move and, at the same time, depict associative connections with the American landscape."

Book of the day – and Book Signing TOMORROW, 4:00-6:00! > Outside The Studio: Greg Gorman. Damiani. “Outside the Studio is photographer Greg Gorman's tenth monograph. This book takes Gorman outside the reaches of his studio portrait and figure-study work, for which he is best known, and onto the streets of Southeast Asia—uncharted territory for the artist. Traveling initially on behalf of Epson, giving symposiums on fine art digital printing throughout Singapore, Malaysia, China and India, Gorman got a firsthand look at these very different cultures at the very beginning of the digital revolution.The transition from analogue to digital cameras was another new experience for Gorman, who had shot film for more than 30 years.For Gorman, being in the studio with the likes of Marlon Brando or Robert De Niro was second nature, but being thrust in front of strangers in China, Kuala Lampur, India, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam was a new adventure.”

If you can't make it in for the book signing (in air-conditioned splendor with cold drinks a-plenty), you can order a signed copy here.