Events Posted Feb 23, 2021

Printed Matter's Virtual Art Book Fair 2021!

PRINTED MATTER VIRTUAL ART BOOK FAIR 2021
February 24—28, 2021
Free and open to the public
 
The Printed Matter Art Book Fair has gone virtual! While we will miss seeing your faces at MoCA this year, we are excited to be participating in this exciting new platform.

The PMVABF kicks off on Wednesday, 2/24, with an opening program which starts at 4:00 PM EST.
 

Visit pmvabf.org to see the full lineup of performances/events and exhibitors.
 

Visit our “booth” here!

A rotating group of rare and cool things are featured there, linking to more listings on our website where you can see stuff we would have brought to the fair, and also check out some other cool things on our website.
 
Please note that our site is in no way comprehensively reflective of our stock, it only represents about 2% of the books we have, so if you’re looking for something in particular, let us know and we’ll search our shelves and boxes for you!
 
And if you live in or near Los Angeles, visit us in person for hundreds of thousands of treasures and a book fair all year long! 
 
We're open Tuesday through Sunday, 11:00 AM to 7:00 PM.
Events Posted Feb 03, 2021

Lorcan O’Herlihy + Frances Anderton discuss Architecture is a Social Act

On Thursday, February 18th from 6:30 to 7:30PM, please join Lorcan O’Herlihy, FAIA, and Frances Anderton for a livestream discussion about LOHA’s latest monograph Architecture Is a Social Act. The event is organized by the Helms Bakery District.
 
Lorcan and Frances will talk about his work, and how he navigates tight budgets and stakeholder needs to integrate common space.
 
He will also share insights into 410 Rossmore, his latest Los Angeles project, where he will add five new floors of co-living space to the 90-year-old apartment building in Hancock Park.
 
The virtual event is FREE - Please register here. Once you register, a Zoom link will be emailed prior to the event date.
 
To purchase a signed copy of the book, click here!
 
 

 

 

Events Posted Nov 10, 2020

JOIN US SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 22nd AT 1:00 PM (PST) FOR AN ONLINE EVENT TO CELEBRATE THE PUBLICATION OF JEFF GOLD'S "SITTIN' IN: JAZZ CLUBS OF THE 1940s AND 1950s"!

 
 
One of our oldest and dearest friends is esteemed music historian, archivist, collector, and author Jeff Gold. Jeff and I worked together for six years at the legendary Rhino Records store on Westwood Boulevard in the seventies, and our paths have been intertwined ever since. It is an Arcana tradition that each time Jeff releases a new - and fabulous - book, he is gracious enough to have his Los Angeles publication party take place at our shop. Given that we are living in a different, more cautious world just now, in lieu of a book signing, we are collaborating with Harper Design Books to present a discussion between Jeff and Mark Ruffin of SiriusXM's  "Real Jazz" on the subject of his hot-off-the-press "Sittin' In: Jazz Clubs of the 1940s and 1950s."
 
The book is a visual history of jazz clubs during these crucial decades when some of the greatest names in in the genre - Billie Holiday, Charlie Parker, Ella Fitzgerald, Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, Louis Armstrong, Oscar Peterson, and many others - were headlining acts across the country. In many of the clubs, black and white musicians played together and more significantly, people of all races gathered together to enjoy an evening’s entertainment. House photographers roamed the floor and for a dollar, took picture of patrons that were developed on site and could be taken home in a keepsake folder with the club’s name and logo.
 
"Sittin’ In" tells the story of the most popular club in these cities through striking images, first-hand anecdotes, true tales about the musicians who performed their unforgettable shows, notes on important music recorded live there, and more. All of this is supplemented by colorful club memorabilia, including posters, handbills, menus, branded matchbooks, and more. Inside you’ll also find exclusive, in-depth interviews conducted specifically for this book with the legendary Quincy Jones; legendary tenor saxophonist Sonny Rollins; Pulitzer Prize-winning fashion critic Robin Givhan; artist, musician, and creative director of the Kennedy Center, Jason Moran; and Jazz critic Dan Morgenstern.
 
Gold surveys America’s jazz scene and its intersection with racism during segregation, focusing on three crucial regions: the East Coast (New York, Atlantic City, Boston, Washington, D.C.); the Midwest (Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, St. Louis, Kansas City); and the West Coast (Los Angeles, San Francisco). Its collection of ephemeral snapshots tells the story of an era that helped transform American life, beginning the move from traditional Dixieland jazz to bebop, from conservatism to the push for personal freedom.
 
Jeff Gold is a Grammy Award-winning music historian, archivist, author and internationally recognized expert who has consulted for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, Museum of Pop Culture (EMP), and various record labels and cultural institutions. He has discovered a number of previously unknown tapes later released by major labels, including Bob Dylan at Brandeis University 1963 and unreleased performances by the Velvet Underground and The Stooges. He was a producer of the album Stone Free: A Tribute to Jimi Hendrix (with Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck) and worked on archival projects for Jimi Hendrix, Bob Dylan, The Grateful Dead and Gram Parsons. His discovery of 149 previously unknown Dylan acetate recordings received extensive media attention including articles in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and USA Today. Gold has helped curate museum exhibitions including the Experience Music Project’s Beatlemania! and the traveling exhibit Bob Dylan’s American Journey. He appeared as an authenticator / appraiser on PBS’s History Detectives, VH1’s television show Rock Collectors, and is profiled in the books “Vinyl Junkies” by Brett Milano and “Retromania: Pop Culture’s Addiction To Its Own Past” by Simon Reynolds. Jeff is the author of Total Chaos: The Story of The Stooges / As Told by Iggy Pop, which was one of Rough Trade’s ‘Books of the Year’ and earned rave reviews in Rolling Stone, Mojo, Esquire and many other publications along with his 2012 book 101 Essential Rock Records: The Golden Age of Vinyl, From The Beatles to the Sex Pistols, one of eight books selected that year by Rolling Stone as “The year’s best reading material.” Gold owns the music memorabilia website Recordmecca and writes about topics of interest to collectors on its blog. Follow Jeff on Twitter at @recordmecca or on Instagram at @recordmecca.

 

 

Events Posted Nov 07, 2020

11/15/20 Jona Frank - Cherry Hill: A Childhood Reimagined Book Signing!

Please grab your mask and join Santa Monica's own Jona Frank at Rustic Canyon Park on Sunday, November 15th between 12:00 and 2:00 PM to celebrate the publication her fabulous new "Cherry Hill: A Childhood Reimagined" with CVT Soft Serve. If you cannot attend but would like to purchase a signed copy of this great new book - featured in the New York Times - place your order on our website here, drop in to the shop, email, or call us at 310-458-1499.
 
"Cherry Hill: A Childhood Reimagined" is a multimedia memoir of photographic artist Jona Frank’s upbringing in - and flight from - a stifling suburban household. Told in words and evocative photographs, Frank’s account of her childhood struggles with a repressive mother, mentally ill brother, and overwhelming expectations is leavened with episodes from her rich interior world.
 
Akin to a graphic novel, this hybrid of personal essay and photography breaks open the memoir format, detailing the life of a young artist as she spends her days dreaming of a friendship with Emily Dickinson, longing for Bruce Springsteen, and eschewing the rules of femininity. Frank employs a cinematic approach to construct vivid scenes from her youth. Using elaborately dressed sets, era-specific wardrobes, and multiple actors to portray herself as a child, Frank refashions her memories into vibrant tableaux. Strikingly, Frank cast Academy Award-winning actor Laura Dern in the role of her strict and complicated mother in a performance as bravura as her film and television work.
 
As Frank outgrows the confines of her environment and suffocating domestic life, discovering art and photography as the path to her personal fulfillment, she plots her ultimate escape. A unique photographic storytelling project reminiscent of such classics as "Fun Home" and "The Best We Could Do", "Cherry Hill" is an intimate self-portrait of what it takes to break free of convention and answer the question, “Who am I meant to be?”
 
"Jona Frank grew up in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, the daughter of an accountant and homemaker. Her previous books include "High School" (2004), "Right: Portraits from the Evangelical Ivy League" (2008), and "The Modern Kids" (2016). Frank's photographs have appeared in print and online publications including Newsweek, The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, and Mother Jones. Her films and photographs have been exhibited internationally and are held in the collections of the J. Paul Getty Museum, SFMOMA, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, among others. She lives in Santa Monica, California, where she is beloved for her cherry pie."

 

Events Posted Jul 18, 2020

Stephen Shore LIVE with Mack Books, 7/22!

In lieu of our cancelled April event with Stephen Shore, we are thrilled to share an exclusive and in-depth conversation organized by Mack Books  between Stephen Shore and LACMA curator Britt Salvesen, discussing Shore’s distinctive photographic work: from pioneering the aesthetic of the great American road trip, the new vanguard of Instagram photography, and how he practices the act of seeing.

 

We have a few signed copies still available for purchase on our website – snap one up while you can!
 

More event info (and request an email reminder) here.
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USA/Canada: Wednesday 22 July - 19:00 EDT (NY, Toronto), 16:00 PDT (LA).
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UK/EUROPE: Thursday 23 July, 19:00 BST (London).
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FRANCE: Thursday 23rd July, 18:30 CEST (Paris) – with French Subtitles.
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JAPAN: Thursday 23rd July, 18:30 JST (Tokyo) – with Japanese subtitles.
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AUSTRALIA: Thursday 23rd July, 19:00 AEST (Sydney, Melbourne).

 

Events Posted Jun 24, 2020

Who Doesn't Love Fashion Photography?!?!

Gordon Parks

For almost as long as we've been peddling books, our longtime friend and local ally Peter Fetterman has been one of the great purveyors of photographic prints. As shop owners tend to do, Peter has been setting special things aside for himself all this time, and right now there is a spectacular selection of Fashion -related images culled from his personal collection available as an online auction from Phillips. "Tailor Made: Fashion Photographs From the Collection of Peter Fetterman" features masters such as William Klein, Cecil Beaton, Melvin Sokolsky, Horst P. Horst, Sarah Moon, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Lillian Bassman, Ormond Gigli, Gordon Parks, and many more.The breathtaking catalogue simply as an online exhibition is reason enough to visit, but everything here is for sale. This is a rare opportunity to see and potentially acquire some of the classic prints one only sees in books and on the walls in Museums. We hope you will show Peter and his amazing gallery staff some tangible love by visiting the auction. If you're a fan of Fashion Photography - and who isn't - click on the link below. You'll be glad you did!

 

 

Click Here to View the Auction Selection
 

 

And, on the Arcana front, to celebrate our reopening and compliment the "Tailor Made: Fashion Photographs From the Collection of Peter Fetterman" auction offerings, we have put together an online selection of like-minded Fashion Photography rarities in all price ranges. Chosen especially for our event, many are uncommon and/or signed, and all are worthy of your attention. Most are one-of-a-kind, so act now while supplies last! 

Click Here to View the Book Selection

William Klein

Events Posted Apr 14, 2020

Virtual Book Signing with Shantell Martin!

Please join artist @Shantell_Martin on Thursday, 4/16, 4:00-5:30 EST for a live virtual book signing! Order your copy here.
 
Ms. Martin will be live, signing her new book LINES, taking questions from YOU! and discussing her work with guests Sylvia Ugga (@heni), Théodore Coulombe (@theo_coulombe @Standard_Space) and photographer @conniemtsang. Order a SIGNED book on our website!  The event can be accessed here.
 
SHANTELL MARTIN: LINES
Text by Katharine Stout. Interview by @hansulrichobrist Published by @heni. "Martin has adorned walls, sneakers and textiles with her art, collaborating with the likes of Kendrick Lamar, the NYC Ballet, Nike and Tiffany The art of Shantell Martin has, for more than a decade, captivated audiences around the world with its intuitive energy, skill and bravura. Using a highly personalized language of characters, faces, creatures and messages and often rendering her large-scale black and white drawings live in front of an audience, Martin invites viewers to actively engage in her creative process. Using drawing as a physical stream-of-consciousness, her work is characterized by a unique freedom, expressed through the possibilities of her chosen canvas—whether that be a piece of paper or a textile, a sculptural surface, a wall or a screen.
 
Bridging the fine art and commercial worlds since her beginnings making live performance drawings in the mega clubs of Tokyo, Martin navigates different creative worlds to interrogate and play with the roles of artist and viewer in a uniquely charming, accessible style.
 
This monograph charts, for the first time, the career of this prolific and popular artist, including early pieces such as “Dear Grandmother” (a 2003 collaboration between the artist and her grandmother on over 70 pieces of embroidery), large-scale murals and commissions and collaborations with museums, technical institutes, musicians and fashion brands.
 
London-born, New York–based artist Shantell Martin (born 1980) is best known for her signature black-and-white drawings. She has had solo shows at 92Y Gallery and the Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts, New York. Martin has collaborated with brands such as Nike, Max Mara and Tiffany & Co., as well as with the New York City Ballet and Kendrick Lamar."
 
Order your signed copy here and join the event here!

 

Events Posted Mar 13, 2020

March Events Postponed

Dear Friends,
 
We regret that we must postpone our March events for Jeff Divine: 70s Surf Photographs and Matthew Spiegelman: Transmitter. We will have signed copies of both fantastic books available to pick-up or ship soon, so order away. If you have already ordered copies, they will ship starting on Wednesday. Stay tuned for new dates.
 
The well-being of our community is our top priority.

Our second priority is getting our community the fabulous books that you so deseperately need - now, more than ever!
 
So we are here for you.
 
If there’s something you’d like to have but you’d rather not come to the shop, call us or write to us! We’ll take care of it remotely. We can ship it, have it delivered, hold it for you, or you can drive by and we can run out to your car with the goods! If you’d like to come in outside of our regular hours, let us know – we’ll try and make it work.
 
We’re doing lots of constant cleaning, offering hand sanitizer (while supplies last!), and keeping it very, very cheerful over here! If you can’t travel, take a trip somewhere exotic through books. The music is playing, the books (so many books!) are here, we want to do what we can to keep everyone at ease and happy. So let us know what we can do to help you.
 
We’re truly sorry that so many great events are being cancelled around the world and we are so lucky that we have this permanent space to share with you. Many small publishers and artists rely on events such as the L.A. Art Book Fair each year for their income – please don’t forget that we are stocking their books year-round! You can support them, and us, by coming to Arcana where it’s a virtual #artbookfair over 300 days a year.

 

 

 

 

Events Posted Mar 11, 2020

Book Signing 3/14/20 > JEFF DIVINE: 70s SURF PHOTOGRAPHS!

Jeff Divine '70s Surf Photographs' launch at Arcana has been  POSTPONED! 
 
Signed copies WILL be available to ship or pick-up on Wednesday, 3/18, though so order here!
 
 

Jeff Divine '70s Surf Photographs' launch at Arcana

If you were there, even just for some of it—Hawaii, California, surfing, the ’70s—the memories and stories will flow freely from these photographs. Jeff Divine was there for all of it, and these images have been culled from an enormous personal archive. Divine was shooting for Surfer, the monthly magazine that was the bible of the scene. His photos from this archive show the precommercialized era in surfing when the hippie influence still held sway. Surfers had their own slang-infused language and were deep into a world of Mother Ocean, wilderness and a culture that mainstream society spurned. Surfboards were handmade in family garages, often made for a specific kind of wave or speed, for paddling, ease of turning, and featured all kinds of psychedelic designs. Some were even hollowed out to smuggle hash from Morocco. 
 
The color and black-and-white photographs collected here, taken throughout California on the coastlines at Baja, Dana Point, Laguna Beach, La Jolla, Malibu, San Clemente and Oahu, give a vivid image of this close-knit culture and the incredible athletic feats of its heroes and heroines. 
 
Raised in La Jolla, California, Jeff Divine (born 1950) started photographing the surfing world in 1966. He held jobs as photo editor for 35 years with Surfer magazine and Surfer’s Journal. His works have been displayed worldwide in museums and galleries, as well as in books, magazines and media. In 2019 he was inducted into the Huntington Beach Surfing Walk of Fame for his contribution to surf culture in a career lasting 50 years.
 
 
Arcana: Books on the Arts 
8675 Washington Boulevard
Culver City, California 90232
Telephone 310-458-1499
Events Posted Feb 28, 2020

Book Signing, Exhibition, & Performance! > Bruce Licher's Independent Project

Please join us Saturday, March 7th between 4:00 and 6:00 PM for a very special afternoon with Bruce Licher and Karen Nielsen Licher of Independent Project Press & Records as we celebrate the release of Savage Impressions with a book signing, one-day exhibition and sale of printed matter, and a musical performance at 5:00 PM sharp by SR2. If you cannot attend but would like to purchase a copy of this exquisite new limited edition book, please place your order here!

 

Savage Impressions is the first extensive monograph on Bruce Licher's Independent Project Records and Independent Project Press. With the current explosion of interest in letterpress, many are looking to see how new work can be influenced by the past. Active since 1982, Bruce Licher’s Independent Project Press is a contemporary studio that has bridged technological eras and produced an unparalleled body of work. It has culled from the past while simultaneously turning it on its head with a distinct visual vocabulary that continues to influence current aesthetics. 

For the first time, a comprehensive overview of Independent Project Records and Independent Project Press has been compiled into a monograph published by P22 Type Foundry, produced in a quality that displays their  limited edition, hand-made work in over 200 pages of full color, from mechanical process work (for clients such as REM, Stereolab, and Camper Van Beethoven) to finished works of art with insights into the creative process along the way. The text includes an essay by Karen Nielsen Licher as well as material from Rudy Vanderlans’ Emigre magazine that featured the work of IPR & P. Co-designed by Bruce Licher and Jim Greishaber at P22, Savage Impressions is a 12 x 12-inch hardcover book that displays in full color the diverse range of art and design produced by Independent Project Records & Press. 

This first printing is an edition of one thousand copies, with three-hundred and fifty of those being a now-sold out Deluxe Edition that includes a 12” vinyl record and other letterpress-printed ephemera. This book is a profound reminder of the value of the hand-made and how it can interface with the mass-produced. It will stand as major documentation of one of the most influential letterpress studios currently in existence.

 

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