Book of the Day Posted Dec 09, 2021

2021 Staff Holiday Picks > KEVIN'S PICKS

● Purchase Here● Rick McCloskey: Van Nuys Boulevard 1972 ● Gregory Crewdson: Alone Street ● Grand Tour: The Golden Age of Travel ● Carpenters: The Musical Legacy ● All In The Family: The Show That Changed Television ● Richard Seifert British Brutalist Architecture ● Clements Design: Eight Homes ● The Beatles: Get Back ● Fairfax Architecture: Los Angeles Standards

Book of the Day Posted Dec 08, 2021

2021 Staff Holiday Picks > SHANNON'S PICKS

● Purchase Here ● Grief and Grievance: Art and Mourning in America ● Jack Davison: Photographs ● Max Knight: Cats in Windows ● Marina Luz: A Library of Mis-Remembered Books (Signed!) ● Jenny Odell: Inhabiting the Negative Space ● Maggie Nelson: On Freedom ● Mira Calligraphiae Monumenta ● Erik Kessels & Thomas Sauvin: Talk Soon

Book of the Day Posted Dec 07, 2021

2021 Staff Holiday Picks > WHITNEY'S PICKS

● Purchase Here ● Mitch Epstein: In India ● Jimmy Chin, There And Back Photographs From The Edge ● Janette Beckman : Rebels, From Punk To Dior ● Parwana: Recipes And Stories From An Afghan Kitchen ● Terri Weifenbach: Cloud Physics ● Fabric Of A Nation: American Quilt Stories ● Harry Gruyaert: India ● Leslie Williamson: Still Lives: In The Homes Of Artists, Great And Unsung ● Deanna Templeton: What She Said  ● Masahisa Fukase: Sasuke 

Book of the Day Posted Dec 01, 2021

Book of the Day > Petra Collins: Fairy Tales

● Purchase ● Artist Petra Collins and actress Alexa Demie create nine erotic stories in a contemporary reimagining of a fairy tale book. Fairy Tales is an erotic folklore of short stories shot by Petra Collins starring Alexa Demie. The pair created the concept and text collaboratively. Alexa portrays nine characters that embody new stories they would have liked to see. As children, Petra and Alexa were both enamored with fairy tales, which provided an escape from their own painful realities. Each of the nine tales are set in unique spaces, ranging from suburban homes and parking lots to fantastical sets. Petra and Alexa’s chapters of elves, mermaids, sirens, water sprites, fallen angels, fairies, witches, and banshees blend their own stories with retold fairy tales. The photos combine elements of camp, prosthetics, and shibari in a surreal update to the imagery of the Brothers Grimm, Hans Christian Anderson, Charles Perrault, and others.
Book of the Day Posted Nov 27, 2021

Book of the Day > Jim Jarmusch: Some Collages

● Purchase ● Although Jim Jarmusch is best known for his storied career in independent cinema, over the years he has produced hundreds of pieces of collage art, the majority of which has been rarely seen by the public. Drawing inspiration from the largest medium of cultural documentation—newspapers—Jarmusch delicately crafts each work by layering newsprints on cardstock. Doppelgänger Andy Warhols are posed in a vast tunnel not unlike the depths of the Large Hadron Collider, Patty Hearst’s mugshots drift across Edwardian portraits, and a man’s identity is disguised with a coyote’s head: maybe he was a celebrity, politician, perp, or all three. In Some Collages, these small-scale (notecard-size) pieces not only pay homage to the documentation medium but are a reminder of how even mundane images can be reconfigured into work that is alternatively funny, scary and strange.
Book of the Day Posted Nov 20, 2021

Book of the Day > The Beatles: Get Back

● Purchase ● The most anticipated book in more than a decade by the legendary band, The Beatles: Get Back is the official account of the creation of their final album, Let It Be, told in The Beatles’ own words, illustrated with hundreds of previously unpublished images, including photos by Ethan A. Russell and Linda McCartney. Half a century after the 1970 Let It Be album and film, this milestone book coincides with the global release of Peter Jackson’s documentary feature film, The Beatles: Get Back.
 
The book opens in January 1969, the beginning of The Beatles’ last year as a band. The BEATLES (The White Album) is at number one in the charts and the foursome gather in London for a new project. Over 21 days, first at Twickenham Film Studios and then at their own brand-new Apple Studios, with cameras and tape recorders documenting every day’s work and conversations, the band rehearse a huge number of songs, culminating in their final concert, which famously takes place on the rooftop of their own office building, bringing central London to a halt.
 
This book tells the story of those sessions through transcripts of the band’s candid conversations. Drawing on over 120 hours of sound recordings, leading music writer John Harris edits the richly captivating text to give us a fly-on-the-wall experience of being there in the studios. These sessions come vividly to life through hundreds of unpublished, extraordinary images by two photographers who had special access to their sessions—Ethan A. Russell and Linda Eastman (who married Paul McCartney two months later). Also included are many unseen high-resolution film-frames, selected from the 55 hours of restored footage from which Peter Jackson’s documentary is also drawn.
 
Legend has it that these sessions were a grim time for a band falling apart. However, as acclaimed novelist Hanif Kureishi writes in his introduction, “In fact this was a productive time for them, when they created some of their best work. And it is here that we have the privilege of witnessing their early drafts, the mistakes, the drift and digressions, the boredom, the excitement, joyous jamming and sudden breakthroughs that led to the work we now know and admire." Half a century after their final performance, this book completes the story of the creative genius, timeless music, and inspiring legacy of The Beatles.
Book of the Day Posted Nov 19, 2021

Book of the Day > SPIKE by Spike Lee

● Purchase ● Spike Lee is a world-renowned, Academy Award–winning filmmaker, a cultural icon, and one of the most prominent voices on race and racism for more than three decades. His prolific career has included over 35 films, including his directorial debut She’s Gotta Have It (1986), his seminal masterpiece Do the Right Thing (1989), and more recently, his Oscar-winning film BlacKkKlansman (2018). Spike Lee’s provocative feature films, documentaries, commercials, and music videos, have shone the spotlight on significant stories and have made an indelible mark in both cinematic history and in contemporary society.
 
This career-spanning monograph titled SPIKE is a visual celebration of his life and career to date. The custom bold, typographic design is inspired by the LOVE/HATE brass rings that Radio Raheem wore in Do the Right Thing and that Spike Lee wore at the 2019 Academy Awards. The gold foil deboss on SPIKE on the vibrant fuchsia front cover is a bold and beautiful, eye-catching design. Featuring hundreds of never-before-seen photographs by David Lee, Spike’s brother and long-time still photographer, SPIKE the book, includes behind-the-scenes, insider images that underscore his creative process and his significant impact on the culture at large. From his critically acclaimed film Malcolm X (1992) starring Denzel Washington, to his recent film Da 5 Bloods (2020) featuring the late Chadwick Boseman, Spike Lee’s work continues to resonate now more than ever. Also included here are his beloved commercials with Michael Jordan for Nike, which helped launch the billion-dollar Jordan brand product empire, as well as his music videos with Prince and Michael Jackson. This is a must-have collector’s item and ideal gift for any cinephile and fan of one of the most prominent and influential filmmakers in history.
Book of the Day Posted Nov 18, 2021

Book of the Day > Library of Esoterica: Witchcraft

● Purchase ● A bewitching history of a magickal practice
 
Initiating readers in the fascinating and complex history of witchcraft, from the goddess mythologies of ancient cultures to the contemporary embrace of the craft by modern artists and activists, this expansive tome conjures up a breathtaking overview of an age-old tradition. Rooted in legend, folklore, and myth, the archetype of the witch has evolved from the tales of Odysseus and Circe, the Celtic seductress Cerridwen, and the myth of Hecate, fierce ruler of the moonlit night. In Witchcraft we survey her many incarnations since, as she shape-shifts through the centuries, alternately transforming into mother, nymph, and crone—seductress and destroyer.
 
Edited by Jessica Hundley, and co-edited by author, scholar, and practitioner Pam Grossman, this enthralling visual chronicle is the first of its kind, a deep dive into the complex symbologies behind witchcraft traditions, as explored through the history of art itself. The witch has played muse to great artists throughout time, from the dark seductions of Francisco José de Goya and Albrecht Dürer to the elegant paean to the magickal feminine as re-imagined by the Surrealist circle of Remedios Varo, Leonora Carrington, and Leonor Fini. The witch has spellbound through folktales and dramatic literature as well, from the poison apples of The Brothers Grimm, to the Weird Sisters gathered at their black cauldron in Shakespeare’s Macbeth, to L. Frank Baum’s iconic Wicked Witch of the West, cackling over the fate of Dorothy.
 
Throughout this entrancing visual voyage, we’ll also bear witness to the witch as she endures persecution and evolves into empowerment, a contemporary symbol of bold defiance and potent nonconformity. Featuring enlightening essays by modern practitioners like Kristen J. Sollée and Judika Illes, as well interviews with authors and scholars such as Madeline Miller and Juliet Diaz, Witchcraft includes a vast range of cultural traditions that embrace magick as spiritual exploration and creative catharsis.
Book of the Day Posted Nov 17, 2021

Book of the Day > Contemporary House India

● Purchase ● A stunning overview of innovative, ambitious, and beautiful houses on the Indian subcontinent.
 
India has a long, diverse history of remarkable architecture. This stunning overview of contemporary residential architecture in India features over twenty houses from across the country, designed by leading firms such as Samira Rathod Design Associates and Architecture Brio, as well as emerging architects such as Martand Khosla.
 
Beginning with a helpful essay, Contemporary House India is divided into four thematic chapters, each opening with a contextual introduction. Included with each featured home are detailed drawings and plans, specially commissioned photographs of the interiors and exteriors by leading architectural photographer Edmund Sumner, and accompanying text based on interviews with the architects by author Rob Gregory. Gregory places the selected homes in a global context, including the fascinating legacy of major modern architects such as Le Corbusier’s work in Chandigarh, India.
Book of the Day Posted Nov 16, 2021

Book of the Day > Gus Van Sant: The Art of Making Movies

● Purchase ● From Drugstore Cowboy to Elephant, Milk, and Good Will Hunting, Gus Van Sant’s films have captured the imagination of more than one generation. Alongside his filmmaking, however, Van Sant is also an artist, photographer, and writer. Based on a series of new and exclusive interviews, this book provides personal insight into how Van Sant successfully approaches these different and varied art forms, providing an inspirational look into the working life of one of America’s most pivotal cultural and creative practitioners.
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