Why, visit Arcana, of course! See more great suggestions from "Mr. Porter" here.

"If you can make it out to Culver City (and, do, because Lukshon and Father’s Office are awesome), Arcana bookstore in the old Helms bakery complex is one of the great bookstores in the world. It’s also a summons to a more sensual time, when we leafed through great big blocks of photography books, art books, architecture books, looking for we-knew-not-what, but always finding something incredible, something inspiring, something that we needed and held onto, other than our phones."

Please join us on Saturday, February 15th (4-6) for a book signing with Hat & Beard Press: DO YOU COMPUTE? SELLING TECH FROM THE ATOMIC AGE TO THE Y2K BUG, 1950-1999 BY RYAN MUNGIA!!!

"Before Alexa and the iPhone, there was the large and unwieldy mainframe computer. In the postwar 1950s, computers were mostly used for aerospace and accounting purposes. To the public at large, they were on a rung that existed somewhere between engineering and science fiction. Magazine ads and marketing brochures were designed to create a fantasy surrounding these machines for prospective clients: Higher profit margins! Creativity unleashed! Total automation! With the invention of the microchip in the 1970s came the PC and video games, which shifted the target of computer advertising from corporations to the individual. By the end of the millennium, the notion of selling tech burst wide open to include robots, cell phones, blogs, online dating services, and much, much more.

'Do You Compute?' is a broad survey featuring the very best of computer advertising in the 20th century. From the Atomic Age to the Y2K bug, this volume presents a connoisseur’s selection of graphic gems culled from museums, university archives, and private collections to illustrate the evolution of the computer from its early days as a hulking piece of machinery to its current state as a handheld device. Accompanied by two essays - one by cultural anthropologist Ryan Mungia and the other by graphic design historian Steven Heller - and including five different decade-long timelines that highlight some of the most influential moments in computer history, this fun yet meaningful volume is a unique look at the computer and how it has shaped our world."

Come to Arcana on Saturday, February 15th between 4:00 and 6:00 PM to meet and greet Ryan Mungia and celebrate the publication of his excellent Hat & Beard Press book. The afternoon will also include a DJ set from Palisded + Computer Love Records! If you cannot attend but wish to purchase a signed copy of Do You Compute, please place your order here or call us at 310-458-1499.

 DO YOU COMPUTE? - SELLING TECH FROM THE ATOMIC AGE TO THE Y2K BUG. 1950-1999

Book of the Day > Vestoj: On Capital. “Vestoj On Capital looks at all forms of value or assets: financial, human, cultural, social – you name it. We explore how talent is developed and harnessed in fashion, and how this now intersects with branding (and self-branding) which has become so important in all aspects of culture. The issue also examines how value flows between symbolic assets like taste or beauty or cool and economic profit. And how the traditional schism between cultural and financial capital (cool versus money) has been replaced by a much more self-consciously positive – or nuanced and complex – relationship between art and fashion.”

Book of the Day > Dorothy Ianonne: The Story of Bern, [or] Showing Colors. Published by JRP Editions. "A superb facsimile of Dorothy Ianonne’s 1970 comic-book tale of censorship, sexuality and female autonomy. 'As much as Love and Eros have defined my work since its beginnings, so too has censorship, or its shadow, accompanied it,' recalls Dorothy Iannone (born 1933) in her introduction to this facsimile publication of her legendary The Story of Bern, [or] Showing Colors. First published by Iannone and her then companion Dieter Roth in 1970, in an edition of 500, the book documents the censorship of Iannone's work The (Ta)Rot Pack (1968–69) and the subsequent removal of all his works by Roth, from a collective exhibition at the Kunsthalle Bern. For his exhibition titled Freunde, Friends, d'Fründe, legendary curator Harald Szeemann invited Karl Gerstner, Roth, Daniel Spoerri and André Thomkins to exhibit artist friends; Roth chose Iannone. The censorship of Iannone, and Roth's protest, eventually led to Harald Szeemann's resignation as the director of the institution. Telling the story of this act of censorship as well as the context of the exhibition in Bern and its iteration in a non-censored version in Düsseldorf, The Story of Bern is emblematic of Iannone's distinctive, explicit and comic-book style, and of her openness about sexuality and the strengthening of female autonomy."

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 14th
ARCANA-HOSTED EVENTS AT FRIEZE LOS ANGELES
AT THE PARAMOUNT STUDIOS STREET FAIR

3:00 - 4:00 PM
JORI FINKEL: IT SPEAKS TO ME
BOOK SIGNING

4:00 - 5:00 PM
BRIGITTE NIEDERMAIR: ME AND FASHION
BOOK SIGNING