Book of the Day > Weegee’s Naked City. Published by Damiani & International Center of Photography. ⠀ ● purchase here ● ⠀ ⠀ ⠀

Weegee wandered the streets of 1940s New York at night looking for lovers, corpses and criminals to shoot for tabloid readers who “had to have their daily blood bath and sex potion to go with their breakfast” (as Weegee put it with characteristic flair). His images crackle with visual puns, blinding flashes and complex compositions; they display the bawdy sensationalism of the tabloids they were shot for and the stylishness of the film noir cinema that took inspiration from them. ⠀ With Naked City, his first publication, Weegee gave his images the photobook treatment. Weegee’s eye for surprising juxtapositions and the minutiae of city life is in full force in the images chosen and their inventive, playful sequencing, all narrated in the photographer’s own distinctive voice. Naked City is Weegee at his wisecracking best, and it is here republished in a beautifully printed new edition. Including texts by New York Magazine City Editor Christopher Bonanos and International Center of Photography Weegee specialist Christopher George, Naked City refreshes a photo classic.

Book of the day > Duro Olowu: Seeing. By Published by Prestel. Flying off of the shelves faster than hand sanitizer!!! Link to order in bio - more copies on the way... "Fashion world leader Duro Olowu applies his creative process and cosmopolitan eye to a major exhibition drawn from Chicago's great art collections. Nigerian-born British fashion designer Duro Olowu is internationally renowned for his womenswear label launched in 2004 that speaks to a cosmopolitan sensibility informed by his international background and a confident eye for visual disciplines from art to film to popular culture. Olowu's global viewpoint has translated into wildly popular platforms and projects from Instagram postings to revelatory curatorial projects in London and New York that position him at the transcultural crossroads of art, culture, and fashion. Now Olowu turns his gimlet eye on Chicago to curate a show drawn from that metropolis's public and private art collections, anchored by the MCA's holdings. Published on the occasion of Olowu's largest curatorial project, Duro Olowu: Seeing elucidates the designer-cum-curator's creative process as he imagines relationships between artists and objects across time, media, and geography: Naomi Beckwith illuminates Olowu's curatorial process, driven by a voracious appetite for contemporary art and culture brought together in sharp juxtapositions. Valerie Steele situates Olowu's designs within the contemporary fashion world. Ekow Eshun focuses on Olowu's role within Britain's black and Afro-Caribbean creative community. Thelma Golden interviews Olowu about his work as designer, curator, and chronicler of culture and style across the worlds of museums and fashion. And Lynette Yiadom-Boakye creates new fiction for this volume."

Punkouture. Published by Gingko Press. “Punkouture is a stunning international catwalk displaying and reconstructing everything that has ever been sewn together in punk style. Divided into different thematic sections — clothing, hair, make-up, footwear, accessories, trademarks, and shops — this illustrated guide includes designs by BOY, Vivienne Westwood, Fiorucci, Shelly’s, and more. Punk aimed to be a brutal attack to the middle class. They said that to be punk you just had to wear all that was ugly and combine it in the most absurd way: jailed pants and leather braces, straitjackets with chain belts and buckles in abundance, pants made with bags for garbage, leather pants, ripped fishnet tights, tattered skirts held together by huge safety pins and masking tape… Punkouture‘s color and black & white photographs and illustrations capture all the clashing styles and trends. This collection of texts and images is perfect for fans of the 70’s and 80’s, music, graphic design, and pop and underground culture."

Book of the Day > Daniel Clowes: Original Art. Published by Fantagraphics. “Original Art: Daniel Clowes turns the spotlight on one of the medium's most dynamic creators. A vital entry of the Fantagraphics Studio Edition series, this volume draws from Clowes's nearly 30 years of comics art, ranging from his seminal one-man anthology, Eightball (in which Ghost World was originally serialized), to his most recent graphic novel, 2016's best-selling time travel thriller, Patience. The edition features over 150 pages of art from 1989-present, each reproduced as exact facsimiles of the original to best showcase every detail of the artist's cartooning process. The book also includes new covers, endpapers, and other surprises from Clowes, including five unpublished pages of an abandoned graphic novel and an illustrated glossary of obsolete production techniques used for their original publication. The book also includes several tipped-in pages of clear acetate and vellum to perfectly approximate some of these production processes, making this a one-of-a-kind art object. Carefully curated by the artist himself, many of these pages have hung in museums around the country, and now you can enjoy them in your own library.”

Book of the Day > Dali: Tarot. Published by Taschen. “Dalí poses as the Magician, his wife Gala becomes the Empress, and the death of Julius Caesar is reinterpreted as the Ten of Swords in the artist’s extraordinary custom tarot deck. First published in a 1984 limited edition that has since long sold out, this lush box set brings back all 78 cards, each dazzling in color, along with a companion book on the making-of and practical instructions.”

Book of the Day > Charles Gaines: Palm Trees and Other Works. Published by Hauser & Wirth. “Published alongside Charles Gaines’s 2019–20 exhibition at Hauser & Wirth Los Angeles, this monograph charts the evolution of the palm tree in Gaines’s work from the 1980s to the present. In a new text, David Platzker explores the cultural and art historical contexts of the series, particularly the recent ‘Numbers and Trees’ works, shown for the first time in Los Angeles, that take palm trees as their subject. Also featured is a conversation between Gaines and Cherise Smith, which delves into the conceptual underpinnings of the artist’s work. Additionally, this publication documents and discusses other works from Gaines’s decades-long career, including the ‘Manifestos’ series (2008–18), exploring the threads that unite various parts of his practice.”