Book of the Day Posted May 14, 2020

Book of the Day > Bill Henson: The Light Fades but the Gods Remain

● Purchase ● Over thirty years have passed since Bill Henson made his iconic Untitled 1985/86 series. These mesmerizing photographs cast a hazy procession of people and places in suburbia, interspersed with dreamlike vignettes of Egyptian structures.

Now, Henson revisits his home suburb to create new work. While these photographs return to the same cul-de-sacs as the Untitled series, they show an environment that appears to have slipped out of linear time. Henson’s new images are sumptuous and resplendent in their grandeur, offering a view of what is just down the street, but seems to come from another age. Together, the two series provide a glimpse into Henson’s brilliant mind as he ponders the passing of time.

The Light Fades but the Gods Remain, celebrates an extraordinary artist at two stages in his career. Casting suburbia in an entirely new light, this publication is a captivating meditation on growing up.

Book of the Day Posted May 13, 2020

Book of the Day > Dorothea Lange: Words & Pictures

● Purchase ● Toward the end of her life, Dorothea Lange reflected, “All photographs—not only those that are so-called ‘documentary’... can be fortified by words.” Though Lange's career is widely heralded, this connection between words and pictures has received scant attention. A committed social observer, Lange paid sharp attention to the human condition, conveying stories of everyday life through her photographs and the voices they drew in. Published in conjunction with the first major MoMA exhibition of Lange’s in 50 years, Dorothea Lange: Words & Pictures brings fresh attention to iconic works from the collection together with lesser-known photographs—from early street photography to projects on the criminal justice system. The work’s complex relationships to words show Lange’s interest in art’s power to deliver public awareness and to connect to intimate narratives in the world.

Presenting Lange’s work in its diverse contexts—photobooks, Depression-era government reports, newspapers, magazines, poems—along with the voices of contemporary artists, writers and thinkers, the book offers a nuanced understanding of Lange’s career, and new means for considering words and pictures today. An introductory essay by curator Sarah Hermanson Meister is followed by sections organized according to “words” from a range of historical contexts: Lange’s landmark photobook An American Exodus, Life and Aperture magazines, an illustrated guide to minimize racism in jury trials, and many more. These contexts are punctuated with original contributions from a distinguished group of contemporary writers, artists and critical thinkers, including Julie Ault, Kimberly Juanita Brown, River Encalada Bullock, Sam Contis, Jennifer Greenhill, Lauren Kroiz, Sally Mann, Sandra Phillips, Wendy Red Star, Christina Sharpe, Rebecca Solnit, Robert Slifkin and Tess Taylor.

Book of the Day Posted May 12, 2020

Book of the Day > The adidas Archive. The Footwear Collection.

● Purchase ● 100 years ago the brothers Adolf ("Adi") and Rudolf Dassler made their first pair of sports shoes. Hundreds of groundbreaking designs, epic moments, and star-studded collabs later, this book presents the first visual review of the adidas shoe through more than 350 models including never-before-seen prototypes and one-of-a-kind originals.

To further develop and tailor his products to athletes’ specific needs, Dassler asked them to return their worn footwear when no longer needed, with all the shoes eventually ending up in his attic (to this day, many athletes return their shoes to adidas, often as a thank you after winning a title or breaking a world record). This collection now makes up the "adidas archive", one of the largest, if not the largest archive of any sports goods manufacturer in the world—which photographers Christian Habermeier and Sebastian Jäger have been visually documenting in extreme detail for years.

Shot using the highest reproduction techniques, these images reveal the fine details as much as the stains, the tears, the repair tape, the grass smudges, the faded autographs. It’s all here, unmanipulated and captured in extremely high resolution—and with it comes to light the personal stories of each individual wearer. We encounter the shoes worn by West Germany’s football team during its “miraculous” 1954 World Cup win and those worn by Kathrine Switzer when she ran the Boston Marathon in 1967, before women were officially allowed to compete; custom models for stars from Madonna to Lionel Messi; collabs with the likes of Kanye West, Pharrell Williams, Raf Simons, Stella McCartney, Parley for the Oceans or Yohji Yamamoto; as well as the brand’s trailblazing techniques and materials, like its pioneering use of plastic waste that is intercepted from beaches and coastal communities.

Accompanied by a foreword by designer Jacques Chassaing and expert texts, each picture tells us the why and the how, but also conveys the driving force behind adidas. What we discover goes beyond mere design; in the end, these are just shoes, worn out by their users who have loved them—but they are also first-hand witnesses of our sports, design, and culture history, from the beginnings of the Dassler brothers and the founding of adidas until today.

Book of the Day Posted May 11, 2020

Book of the Day > JB Blunk

● Purchase ● The first survey of the ceramics and sculptures of beloved Californian artist JB Blunk, in a handsome foil-stamped hardcover volume

This is the first publication to explore the entire oeuvre of the great American sculptor JB Blunk, with previously unseen examples of his work in stone, clay, painting and jewelry. The design beautifully combines archival images of Blunk’s work in situ, and his studio, with color plates of newly photographed pieces. In an essay, Lucy R. Lippard discusses Blunk’s reverence for ancient art and places, while Smithsonian Curator of Ceramics Louise Allison Cort details Blunk’s formative years in Japan. Glenn Adamson, Senior Scholar at the Yale Center for British Art, contributes an essay that explores the essence of Blunk himself along with his artwork.

Blunk maintained a Midwestern sensibility of hard work and plainspokenness throughout his career, with little regard for the distinction between art, craft and design. Rather, he was guided by the materials with which he worked to create large sculptural pieces that seem to exude their own powerful energy unique to organic matter.

Book of the Day Posted May 08, 2020

Book of the Day > Beastie Boys by Spike Jonze

● Purchase ● The first book of photography to be published by the Academy Award-winning film director and photographer Spike Jonze. Will appeal to every fan of Beastie Boys and golden-era hip hop, as well as photography and Spike Jonze's own focused audiences.

Spike Jonze and Beastie Boys met for the first time in Los Angeles in 1991, when Jonze went out to photograph the band for the cover of Dirt magazine. A connection formed between the three MCs and the young photographer, which has lasted throughout their careers.

Almost thirty years later--published to coincide with the release on Apple+ of a new documentary, Beastie Boys Story--this book collects for the first time more than two hundred of Spike Jonze's personal photographs of his time spent with the group. Edited and with an afterword by Jonze, and including new writing by Mike Diamond and Adam Horovitz themselves, this book shows an intimate look at the greatest act of the hip-hop generation in their truest colors as only a close friend could see them--from performing live onstage to writing together at Mike's apartment; getting into character for a video to dressing up as old men to hit the basketball court; recording music in the studio to goofing around on the streets of New York.

From the music video for "Sabotage" to the cover of the Sounds of Science album, Spike Jonze is responsible for some of the most iconic images of the band ever made. But here, the emphasis is on the candid, the unexpected, and the real--just pictures of friends who like making stuff together.

Miscellany Posted May 08, 2020

Mother

What qualifies as a great gift for a mother? It’s a loaded question, given the millions of different humans that mothers are. And this year – now – you might even see more strength, beauty, intelligence, and generosity in the mothers you know than you ever have. So what to give to a mother? The answer is the book *she* in particular will love. The usual tropes relate to themes of beauty, nurture, creativity, feminine grit, fortitude, and love are all wonderful things to be celebrated and expressed through art. So here are some books that reflect some of those themes in a way that might seem less than obvious (For a bunch of books on flowers and plants, see Tuesday’s post). These, and thousands of others, are in shop and available while supplies last! And if you don’t see what’s right for your radical mom here, let us know something about her and we’ll try find the perfect token of your gratitude and love. Call (310-458-1499), write (books@arcanabooks.com), or send/write a message here to purchase. We’re open for pickup today until 7 and can arrange delivery (in LA) or overnight shipping (in the US), wrapped and ready for the mom you love.

Day Sleeper Dorothea Lange / @SamContis - @mack_books ($ 35.00)

Always Home: A Daughter's Recipes & Stories: Foreword by @AliceLouiseWaters @fannysinger ($ 35.00)

Ruth Adler Schnee: Modern Designs for Living @cranbrookartmuseum @artbook ($ 50.00)

Bibliostyle: How We Live at Home with Books @bibliotstylefile @ninafreudenberger ($ 35.00)

I Was A Teenage Banshee by Susan Webster @rizzolibooks @myblackbaby ($ 50.00)

Jubilee: Recipes from Two Centuries of African-American Cooking $ 35.00

World Receivers: Georgiana Houghton - Hilma af Klint - Emma Kunz $ 49.95

Home Stories: 100 Years, 20 Visionary Interiors @ vitradesignmuseum ($ 90.00)

Cash and Carter Family Cookbook: Recipes and Recollections from Johnny and June's Table $ 29.99

Richard Avedon: Woman in the Mirror ($ 120.00)

Justine Kurland: Girl Pictures @justine4good @aperturefnd ($ 50.00)

Georgia O'Keeffe: Living Modern $ 60.00

Diana Vreeland: Bon Mots @rizzolibooks ($ 35.00)

Before Easter After: Lynn Goldsmith and Patti Smith @ thisispattismith @taschen ($ 700.00)

Ana Ros (@phaidonsps) $ 59.95

Cannelle et Vanille: Nourishing, Gluten-Free Recipes for Every Meal and Mood $ 35.00

Book of the Day Posted May 07, 2020

Book of the Day > Adrian Ghenie: Paintings 2014 to 2019

● Purchase ● Ever since his spectacular exhibition at the Romanian Pavilion at the 56th Venice Biennial in 2015 at the latest, Adrian Ghenie has been known to a broader art audience as one of the most interesting and idiosyncratic painters of his generation. His works—painted in oil, etched, troweled, or thrown—have already found their way to the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Tate Modern in London, and the Centre Pompidou in Paris. On the art market they are close on the heels of auction records. Still, neither Gehnie’s subjects nor his technique accommodate general taste: the most important source of his collage-like compositions is the history of the “century of humiliation,” as Ghenie calls the twentieth century—its criminals and victims. These are joined by positive heroes such as van Gogh and Darwin, along with self-portraits.

Book of the Day Posted May 06, 2020

Book of the Day > Jason Fulford: Picture Summer on Kodak Film

● Purchase ● In Picture Summer on Kodak Film, a poem by two sisters echoes across Fulford’s photographs, comprised of recurring motifs: time, test strips, refracted light, rainbow colour, and distortion through shadows. Characters and places are repeated in kaleidoscopic compositions throughout this vivid sequence. Though taken across the world (in Canada, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Nepal, Thailand, USA and Vietnam), these photographs come together to create a singular visual language: one bright, timeless, fictional place. A place imbued with the unexpected beauty, humor and meaning, that one has come to expect from Jason Fulford.

Miscellany Posted May 06, 2020

Nothing but flowers🌷

Photo By WilliamEggleston. Give the gift that will keep on giving long after Sunday. Here is a handful of great books relating to flowers, plants, and botany - all symbols of beauty, growth, and nurture, which is why they are excellent choices as gifts for mothers. These, and thousands of others, are in shop and available while supplies last - act fast ! And if you don't see what's right for your radical mom here, let us know something about her and we'll try find the perfect token of your gratitude and love. Call (310-458-1499), write (books@arcanabooks.com), or send/write a message here to purchase. We can arrange for pickup, delivery, or expedited shipping to reach you (or your mom), gift-wrapped, by Sunday.⁣ 💐📚 ⁣

William Eggleston: Flowers/ @steidlverlag ($ 80.00)⁣

Flora Magnifica: The Art of Flowers in Four Seasons/ @thamesandhudson ($ 50.00)⁣

The Gardener's Garden/ @phaidonsnaps ($ 49.95)⁣

Akiko Tsuji: Vase and Flower/ @famousaspectmag ($ 30.00)⁣

CHANEL: The Art of Creating Fragrance: Flowers of the French Riviera/ @abramsbooks ( $ 200.00)⁣

Thomas Demand: Blossom / @mackbooks ($ 80.00)⁣

A Garden Can Be Anywhere: A Guide to Growing Bountiful and Beautiful Edible Gardens @ ediblegardensla / @abramsbooks ($ 40.00)⁣

Jean-Michel Othoniel: The Secret Language of Flowers/ @actessud @artbook ($ 35.00)⁣

Mapplethorpe Flora: The Complete Flowers/ @phaidonsnaps ($175.00)⁣

Edward Steichen: Gardens in Color ($ 45.00)⁣

Botanical Baking: Contemporary Baking and Cake Decorating with Edible Flowers and Herbs ($ 24.99)⁣

Everyday Flowers Arrangement In Kyoto ($35.50)⁣

Dream Plants for the Natural Garden by @PietOudolf ($ 29.95)⁣

After the Flower Market/ @ hoxtonminipress $ 16.95)⁣

Encyclopedia Of Flowers Makoto Azuma | Shunsuke Shiinoke Part 1 ($ 46.00) and Part 2/ @seigensha ($ 46.00)⁣

Cats & Plants/ @zioxla @stepheneichhorn ($ 55.00)

Book of the Day Posted May 05, 2020

Book of the Day > Justine Kurland: Girl Pictures

● Purchase ● The North American frontier is an enduring symbol of romance, rebellion, escape, and freedom. At the same time, it's a profoundly masculine myth — cowboys, outlaws, Beat poets. Photographer Justine Kurland reclaimed this space in her now-iconic series of images of teenage girls, taken between 1997 and 2002 on the road in the American wilderness. "I staged the girls as a standing army of teenaged runaways in resistance to patriarchal ideals," says Kurland. She portrays girls as fearless and free, tender and fierce. They hunt and explore, braid each other's hair, and swim in sun-dappled watering holes—paying no mind to the camera (or the viewer). Their world is at once lawless and utopian, a frontier Eden in the wild spaces just outside of suburban infrastructure and ideas. Twenty years on, the series still resonates, published here in its entirety and including newly discovered, unpublished images.