Book of the day > Gusmano Cesaretti: VARRIO. Published by Little Big Man Books. “VARRIO by Gusmano Cesaretti, Italian born artist  Cesaretti self-taught in photography was one of the first to document the East Los Angeles community in the early 1970s. He created a prolific body of work which introduces viewers to an alternative lifestyle in particular the Graffiti and Lowrider scene. It was through his fascination and curiosity that led Cesaretti to meet members of the East LA's ‘Klique’ Car Club. Developing a mutual respect and friendship that built over the years as he continued to photograph not only the Lowrider scene but an entire community and their lives. This work is an enduring witness to the past. Cesaretti's approach to photography is personal, while using his camera as a tool to create contact, closeness and intimacy. It is an investigation of the emotional states that control us, inspire us, and keep us moving. The images capture life’s complexities: people, places and the relationships between them. 

Book of the day > Sally Mann: A Thousand Crossings. Published by Abrams. “For more than 40 years, Sally Mann has made experimental, elegiac, and hauntingly beautiful photographs that explore the overarching themes of existence: memory, desire, death, the bonds of family, and nature’s magisterial indifference to human endeavor. What unites this broad body of work—portraits, still lifes, landscapes, and other studies—is that it is all 'bred of a place,' the American South. Mann, who is a native of Lexington, Virginia, uses her deep love of her homeland and her knowledge of its historically fraught heritage to ask powerful, provocative questions—about history, identity, race, and religion—that reverberate across geographic and national boundaries. Organized into five sections—Family, The Land, Last Measure, Abide with Me, and What Remains—and including many works not previously exhibited or published, Sally Mann: A Thousand Crossings is a sweeping overview of Mann’s artistic achievements."

Book of the day > We Wanted A Revolution. Black Radical Women, 1965–85: New Perspectives. Published by Duke University Press. "The Brooklyn Museum published two volumes related to its groundbreaking exhibition, We Wanted a Revolution: Black Radical Women, 1965–85, which focused on radical approaches to feminist thinking developed by women artists and activists of color. The first volume, a Sourcebook, was published in 2017 and focused on re-presenting key voices of the period by gathering a remarkable array of historical documents. Available in 2018, the second volume, New Perspectives, includes original essays and perspectives by Aruna D’Souza, Uri McMillan, Kellie Jones, and Lisa Jones that place the exhibition's works in both historical and contemporary contexts. New Perspectives also includes two new poems by Alice Walker. The book is generously illustrated with major objects from the exhibition, installation views, and other photographs. A checklist of the exhibition as well as an extensive bibliography complete the volume. Together with the Sourcebook, New Perspectives shares this important body of art by women of color, presents their voices, provides important commentary on that time and its unresolved issues, and offers extended documentation of the exhibition."

Book of the day > Catherine Opie: Keeping an Eye on the World. Published by Walther König, Köln. "The work of the celebrated Los Angeles–based photographer Catherine Opie includes portraits of gay and lesbian subjects and American urban landscapes, ranging from large-scale color works to small black-and-white prints. A full survey of her works from the early 1990s to the present, Keeping an Eye on the World is published for Opie's first European retrospective, at the Henie Onstad Kunstsenter in Norway."

Book of the day > Leïla Menchari: The Queen of Enchantment. Published by Hèrmes/Actes Sud. "For more than 30 years, Leïla Menchari (born 1928) was responsible for designing the traffic-stopping window displays at Hermès’ prestigious flagship store at 24 rue du Faubourg-Saint-Honoré in Paris. Menchari’s aesthetic vision and her sense of color and texture created magnificent installations that brought the best out of silk and leather. Born in Tunis and considering herself a citizen of the world, Menchari was inspired by her journeys to the Near and Far East, her encounters with extraordinary figures of the art world and her Beaux-Arts training. For Hermès she created Egyptian archaeological sites with sand and crumbling statues and iconic scenes of Paris with monuments crafted out of organza, among many other fantasies. Featuring a preface by Hermès CEO Axel Dumas, this extensively illustrated, sumptuous publication focuses on 137 Hermès storefronts created by Leïla Menchari between 1978 and 2013."

Book of the day > Rineke Dijkstra: WO MEN. Hasselblad Award 2017. Published by Walther König, Köln. "This large-format volume, designed by Irma Boom in close collaboration with Rineke Dijkstra, focuses on the female figure in the photographer's work―women and girls who have stopped somewhere (in a park, a beach, at a party), whom she captures in such a way that they appear present to an astonishing degree. Spanning three decades of work, the book unites images from her classic series, including both photo- and video portraits, and extracts them from chronological order to suggest fresh ways of looking at her work. The book is published for Dijkstra's 2017 Hasselblad Award, for which occasion the Hasselblad Foundation described her images as "recalling the visual acuity of 17th-century Dutch portraiture." Essays discuss Dijkstra's gift for communicating an empathy with her subjects, and the logic of her image layouts in book form."

Book of the day > Rad American Women A-Z: Rebels, Trailblazers, and Visionaries who Shaped Our History . . . and Our Future! Published by City Lights/Sister Spit.  "Like all A-Z books, this one illustrates the alphabet—but instead of "A is for Apple", A is for Angela—as in Angela Davis, the iconic political activist. B is for Billie Jean King, who shattered the glass ceiling of sports; C is for Carol Burnett, who defied assumptions about women in comedy; D is for Dolores Huerta, who organized farmworkers; and E is for Ella Baker, who mentored Dr. Martin Luther King and helped shape the Civil Rights Movement.

And the list of great women continues, spanning several centuries, multiple professions, and 26 diverse individuals. There are artists and abolitionists, scientists and suffragettes, rock stars and rabble-rousers, and agents of change of all kinds.

American history was made by countless rad—and often radical—women. By offering a fresh and diverse array of female role models, we can remind readers that there are many places to find inspiration, and that being smart and strong and brave is rad."

Book of the day > Ellen Gallagher: Accidental Records. Published by Hauser & Wirth. "Accidental Records includes new paintings and drawings by Ellen Gallagher (born 1965) that continue her exploration of the complex histories of the Black Atlantic and the afterlives of the Middle Passage. Widely associated with a resurgence in this diasporic critical space, Gallagher has developed her own genre of history painting which makes us question our geographies. The slowly layered surfaces of her work become a kind of reckoning, the way sailors mark their locations at sea, determined to return. Alongside views of Gallagher’s artworks and portraits of the artist working in her studio, texts are included by Adrienne Edwards, curator at Performa and the Walker Art Center, and Philip Hoare, a writer whose books include Leviathan or, The Whale and The Sea Inside. The book accompanies Gallagher’s solo show at Hauser & Wirth Los Angeles."

Book of the day > #girlgaze: How Girls See the World. Published by Rizzoli.  "#girlgaze is on a mission to close the gender gap by creating visibility and tangible jobs for girls behind the lens and this timely book, from photographer and media entrepreneur Amanda de Cadenet's visionary focus, features a beautiful and powerful collection of images capturing how young women perceive the world. This inspiring must-have for feminists and creatives alike showcases the work of a diverse collective of female-identifying photographers mixing candid and formal photos of females living their lives: moments of significance caught in a fraction of a second at home, on the streets, remote countrysides, and in war-torn countries. Spirited, elegant, and inspiring, #girlgaze promotes and highlights the work of Gen Z female photographers from all walks of life and is a stunningly beautiful representation of the female gaze."

Book of the day > Basquiat: Boom For Real. Published by Prestel. "Focusing on Jean-Michel Basquiat’s extraordinary breadth of influences, from graffiti to bebop jazz to Hollywood cinema, this exciting new survey charts his ground-breaking career. Basquiat first came to prominence when he collaborated with Al Diaz to spray-paint enigmatic statements under the pseudonym SAMO©. He went on to work on collages, Xerox art, postcards, performances, and music before establishing his reputation as one of the most important painters of his generation. Accompanying a major exhibition at the Barbican Art Gallery, this book opens with introductory essays from the curators, which place his practice in a wider art historical context and look at his career through the lens of performance. Six thematic chapters offer new research, with essays from poet Christian Campbell on SAMO©; curator Carlo McCormick on New York / New Wave; writer Glenn O’Brien on the downtown scene; academic Jordana Moore Saggese on Basquiat’s relationship to film and television; and music scholar Francesco Martinelli on Basquiat’s obsession with jazz. This insightful new survey also features extended captions, rare archival material, and extensive photography, demonstrating how Basquiat’s legacy remains more powerful and relevant than ever today."