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.


If you've missed the fair and would like to see some of thes things we offered, you can see them on our website here.
 
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.
Book of the Day Posted Feb 20, 2021

Book of the Day > Deanna Templeton: What She Said

● Purchase ● 'All I look forward to is the weekends, and sometimes they suck just as bad as the week does. God it’s so god damn boring!! When I wake up in the morning I feel like I’m 99 years old!! I’m so tired and lazy and unhappy. I’m only 15 years old, what’s wrong with me, why am I so UNhappy? This world is so fucked! People are so fucked! I’m so fucked or as my brother would say "Your a freak!"'
 
What She Said takes its title from a song by The Smiths: “What she said was sad / But then, all the rejection she’s had / To pretend to be happy / Could only be idiocy.” The work originates in portraits Deanna Templeton made on the streets of the US, Europe, Australia and Russia, in which she captured women in their adolescence: punks and outcasts whose ripped jeans and tights, tattoos, and hairstyles stand as testament to this transitional moment in their lives as they navigate the intensity of teenage life. Templeton grew up in an ostensibly different environment in 1980s youth, but she recognised in them something of the universality of female adolescence, as they struggled with similar disappointments and challenges she encountered as a young woman. The book combines these modern portraits with gig flyers and Templeton’s own teenage journal entries from the mid to late 80s, in which the familiar experience of growing up is laid bare in all its antagonism, humour and pathos.
Book of the Day Posted Feb 18, 2021

Book of the Day > The Motherlode: 100+ Women Who Made Hip-Hop

● Purchase ● An illustrated highlight reel of more than 100 women in rap who have helped shape the genre and eschewed gender norms in the process
 
The Motherlode highlights more than 100 women who have shaped the power, scope, and reach of rap music, including pioneers like Roxanne Shanté, game changers like Lauryn Hill and Missy Elliott, and current reigning queens like Nicki Minaj, Cardi B, and Lizzo—as well as everyone who came before, after, and in between. Some of these women were respected but not widely celebrated. Some are impossible not to know. Some of these women have stood on their own; others were forced into templates, compelled to stand beside men in big rap crews. Some have been trapped in a strange critical space between respected MC and object. They are characters, caricatures, lyricists, at times both feminine and explicit. This book profiles each of these women, their musical and career breakthroughs, and the ways in which they each helped change the culture of rap. Published by Abrams.
Book of the Day Posted Feb 17, 2021

Book of the Day > Ten Cities

● Purchase ● A nocturnal journey through local histories of clubbing in Nairobi, Cairo, Kyiv, Johannesburg, Berlin, Naples, Luanda, Lagos, Bristol, Lisbon, 1960–Present
 
The image of the DJ dragging his record case through international “non-places” and deejaying in clubs around the globe is a contemporary cliché. But these club scenes have rich, geographically differentiated local histories and cultures. This book expands the focus beyond the North Atlantic clubbing axis of Detroit–Chicago–Manchester–Berlin.
 
It looks at ten club capitals in Africa and Europe, reporting on different scenes in Bristol, Johannesburg, Cairo, Kyiv, Lagos, Lisbon, Launda, Nairobi and Naples. The local music stories, the scenes, the subcultures and their global networks are reconstructed in 21 essays and photo sequences.
 
The tale they tell is one of clubs as laboratories of otherness, in which people can experiment with new ways of being and assert their claim to the city. Ten Cities is a nocturnal, sound-driven journey through ten social and urban stories from 1960 through to the present.
Book of the Day Posted Feb 16, 2021

Book of the Day > Ramen Forever: An Artist’s Guide To Ramen

● Purchase ● Is the ramen craze over? While Lucky Peach’s Chris Ying might think it’s waning, and says so in the preface to this book, the new compendium RAMEN FOREVER: AN ARTIST’S GUIDE TO RAMEN is a resounding rebuttal to that claim. Over a decade after gourmet noodle shops began opening throughout the United States, ramen is here to stay and has never looked or tasted better!
 
More than a cookbook, RAMEN FOREVER is an illustrated love letter to this deceptively simple dish initiated by San Francisco-based artist and SWIM Gallery director Yarrow Slaps, whose obsession with ramen of all kinds has led to his visiting ramen shops around the world and to having deep conversation with top chefs, foodies and food bloggers, and the artists that have lived off of instant noodle soup packets before ramen became a trend. Interviews with ramen heroes including Moe Kuroki (Boston’s Oisa Ramen), Yoshihiro Sakaguchi (Taishoken, San Mateo), Hans Lienesch aka “The Ramen Rater,” Esther Choi (Mokbar - NY), and Sam White (Ramen Shop Oakland) give an insider’s view into gourmet ramen spots across the global diaspora. For those that can’t travel to all of these ramen spots, this book will inspire major mouth envy!
 
Don’t fear, however, because RAMEN FOREVER has plenty of inspiration for creative home cooks. Over 80 of the urban art scene’s most celebrated artists, including Justin Hager and Kristen Liu-Wong, contribute their own illustrated instant noodle recipes that have gotten them through struggle times. The recipes range from playful (“Hot Trash Ramen—best when you’re drunk”) to critical (“Opium War Lamian—a rustic and flavorful noodle soup enjoyed by belligerents during an unjust, cruel, and brutal colonial conflict”) to restorative (“Radiant Recovery Ramen”), showcasing the true versatility of ramen as a dish for every occasion, for people of every background and every budget.
 
A feast for the eyes and the belly, RAMEN FOREVER should be your next coffee table book, and makes a great gift for the art lover and ramen eater in your life—and that can be you, too.
Book of the Day Posted Feb 13, 2021

Book of the Day > Raymond Molinar: Polaroids 2007 – 2018

● Purchase ● Film Photographic presents a beautiful collection of photographer Raymond Molinar’s original Polaroid Time Zero film photographs spanning 11 years and published for the first time in Polaroids 2007 – 2018.
Book of the Day Posted Feb 12, 2021

Book of the Day > Where Art Might Happen: The Early Years of CalArts

● Purchase ● From Fluxus to conceptualism and feminism, an inside look at how California's legendary school nurtured a generation of exciting, experimental artists.
 
Founded in 1970 by Walt Disney, CalArts was envisioned as a place where students could exchange ideas and learn multiple means of self-expression along the lines of the Bauhaus School and Black Mountain College. Disney's original impetus was to revive the moribund field of animation; he likely never dreamed that the school would become a trailblazing educational model. This multifaceted exhibition catalog focuses on the school's early years as it brings together for the first time the parallel development of the Conceptual Art, feminism, and Fluxus movements.
 
Chronologically arranged, the catalog traces how CalArts created fertile ground for situations in which, as founding teacher John Baldessari put it, “art can happen. "It follows the institutional establishment of Baldessari's" Post-Studio "course and Miriam Schapiro and Judy Chicago's Feminist Art Program. It explores the school's unique pedagogy, which placed students and teachers on equal footing, and illustrates how the school reflected social issues of the time by challenging authority and patriarchal power structures. Over one hundred works — many never before published — from forty-one artists, along with several enlightening oral history interviews with CalArts protagonists, edited by Verena Kittel, capture a unique and important moment in American arts education.
Book of the Day Posted Feb 11, 2021

Book of the Day > Walter Chandoha: Dogs

● Purchase ● Walter Chandoha’s remarkable legacy as the 20th century’s greatest pet photographer lives on in this sequel to his critically acclaimed Cats. Featuring over 60 breeds, photographed in a variety of styles and locations, the book includes color studio and environmental portraits, black-and-white street scenes, dogs roaming free in the countryside, and vintage dog shows. Each image brims with Chandoha’s tenderness and empathy for these charming canines.
 
Spanning a 50-year period, the book is divided into six sections, and each chapter reveals Chandoha’s exceptional combination of technique, versatility, and soul. The opening chapter “In the Studio” focuses on formal portraiture; next it’s “Strike a Pose” where our canine companions ham it up for the camera; in “Out and About” they get to roam and play, often photographed with Chandoha’s own children; next it’s “Best in Show” with Chandoha using his reportage skills to capture vintage dog shows from the Mad Men era; in “Tails from the City,” the dogs are hitting the streets of mid-century New York; and in the closing chapter “Country Dogs,” it’s back to nature, the fields, and the beaches. Dogs is an unleashed photographic tribute to these lovable and loyal creatures.
Book of the Day Posted Feb 10, 2021

Book of the Day > The First Pair

● Purchase ● In The First Pair, Christyna Pourhabib sits down with sneaker enthusiasts as they remember the first pair of sneakers that made them feel fly. Featuring interviews and photographs taken on the streets of Los Angeles and New York, The First Pair considers how shoes embody and evoke the past. It brings to life the dynamic and diverse world of sneaker culture and considers how sneakers transcend cultural boundaries.
Miscellany Posted Feb 09, 2021

Re-Opening Wednesday, February 10th!

We're soooooo happy to be re-opening. Our dooors open for regular hours (Tuesday-Sunday, 11-7) starting Wednesday, February 10th.
 
Thank you all for your kindness, support, and good wishes during this rough time. Everyone is 100% healthy and ready to see you again soon at Arcana!
 
Photo from the utterly delightful RESIST PHONY ENCORES! by Gruff Rhys & Mark James from the good people at Hat & Beard Press.
 
 
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