Book of the Day Posted Aug 28, 2025

Book of the Day: Yoshitomo Nara

From the distributor: "Spanning four decades of work, this book offers readers the opportunity to immerse themselves in the personal and creative world of the Japanese artist Yoshitomo Nara, best known for his bold images of children with large heads and wide eyes that challenge viewers with their direct gaze and defiant stance. These captivating yet ominous characters are part of a wider visual vocabulary established by Nara to explore and communicate themes of home, isolation, resilience, belonging, regeneration, hope and freedom. Organized thematically, the book provides a comprehensive overview of the evolution and breadth of Nara's artistic expression. Yeewan Koon explores how Nara's singular aesthetic is drawn from his formative experiences in Japan, as well as his ongoing environmental and societal concerns, which are deeply rooted in nature and the communities of Japan's northern Tohoku region, where he grew up. Barry Schwabsky's essay, illustrated with details of the artworks, focuses in depth on Nara as a painter. Josh Kun discusses the inspiration Nara takes from popular music—folk songs by American singer-songwriters featuring anti-war messages, melancholic blues and, later, glam rock, punk and new wave. The book also features an in-depth chronology illustrated with childhood photographs and pictures of Nara's studio, offering a deep dive into Nara's life and art. The corresponding exhibition is co-organized by Guggenheim Bilbao, Museum Frieder Burda, Baden-Baden, and the Hayward Gallery." Book of the Day!
Book of the Day Posted Aug 24, 2025

Book of the Day: Tyler Mitchell - Wish This Was Real

From the publisher: "Tyler Mitchell’s photography is animated by dreams of paradise and joy against the backdrop of history. Since his rise to prominence in the worlds of art and fashion, Mitchell has created images of beauty, utopia, and the American landscape that expand the imaginary of Blackness in the twenty-first century. Wish This Was Real is the definitive early-career survey of Mitchell’s work, offering a comprehensive look into the subjects driving his artistic practice, from his genre-bending portraits made in the United States, Europe, and West Africa to his photographs printed on diaphanous fabrics and sculptures that reference Black intellectual heritage. Presenting new perspectives by leading writers on his long-standing themes of self-determination and the extraordinary radiance of the everyday, Wish This Was Real shows how photography can be rooted in a collective past while evoking imagined futures." Book of the Day! (Aperture, 2025)
Book of the Day Posted Aug 20, 2025

Book of the Day: The Grateful Dead by Jim Marshall

From the publisher: "Jim Marshall took thousands of photos of the Grateful Dead throughout their career—from Woodstock to the last free concert on Haight Street and beyond. Marshall’s magnificent images chronicle the band’s trajectory as hairstyles changed, relationships came and went, and the music evolved into the sound that would become beloved by generations to come. Marshall’s instinctive eye matched the Dead’s improvisational style, and he was welcomed into its family as he immersed himself in San Francisco’s counterculture scene throughout the 1960s and ’70s." Book of the day. Are you kind?
Events Posted Aug 18, 2025

Arthur Jafa Book Signing and Discussion at Arcana 8/23

Please join us this Saturday, August 23rd, between 4:00 and 6:00 PM as we welcome Los Angeles' own renowned Arthur Jafa to celebrate the release of his new publication Live Evil. In addition to signing copies, he will engage in a discussion of the book and his work with art historian Julian Myers.
"Having worked in film and music for decades, American artist Arthur Jafa garnered acclaim in the art world in 2016 for his video work "Love is the Message, the Message is Death." Composed of found images and videos, his oeuvre revolves around Black American culture, the history of slavery, and ongoing structural and physical violence against Black Americans. As Jafa put it in his 2003 text “My Black Death”: “The central conundrum of black being (the double bind of our ontological existence) lies in the fact that common misery both defines and limits who we are. Such that our efforts to eliminate those forces which constrain also function to dissipate much which gives us our specificity, our uniqueness, our flavor by destroying the binds that define we will cease to be, but this is the good death (boa morte) to be embraced." Bringing together affective memories that touch on US history, violence, repression, modalities of survival and how these exist in the production and dissemination of images, music, sound and time-based media, Jafa reflects on the ontology of race and Blackness.This richly illustrated catalog reproduces key works from Jafa's wide-ranging oeuvre and explores the philosophical, historical and artistic implications of his practice, featuring essays and a series of conversations between Jafa and key practitioners working in the fields of cinema, arts and theory."
 
 
Due to a limited supply of books being air freighted to us for the event, we have had to cease taking pre-orders. If you would like us to let you know if we have signed copies left after the event, please email us. Books will be available at the event, one per person, first come - first served. Thanks for your understanding!
 
Events Posted Aug 16, 2025

Todd Hido Book Signing and Discussion with Marina Luz Saturday 8/16!

Please join us Saturday, August 16th, between 4:00 and 6:00 PM as we welcome iconic photographer Todd Hido to celebrate the release of his updated and expanded Aperture monograph Intimate Distance.
 
In addition to signing copies, he will engage in a discussion of the book and his work with fellow Bay Area artist Marina Luz.
 
 
"Well known for his photography of landscapes and suburban housing and for his use of detail and luminous color, acclaimed American photographer Todd Hido casts a distinctly cinematic eye across all that he photographs, digging deep into his memory and imagination for inspiration. Newly revised and expanded, Intimate Distance: Over Thirty Years of Photographs, A Chronological Album includes ten years of new work since the book’s first publication, including breathtaking new images from his travels to Iceland, Norway, and Japan, where he brings both a familiar eye and an expansive new vision.
 
Though Hido has published many smaller monographs of individual bodies of work, this volume gathers his most iconic images along with many unpublished works to provide the most complete and comprehensive monograph charting his career to date. The book is organized chronologically, showing how his series overlap in exciting ways. David Campany introduces the work and looks at the kind of cinematic spectatorship it demands. Katya Tylevich muses on the making of each of Hido’s major monographs: 'The photographs lead as far as human-made roads go. They reach the periphery of utility wires, footprints, and paths already taken.' From exterior to interior, surface observations to subconscious investigations, from landscapes to nudes, from America and beyond, this midcareer collection reveals how Hido's unique focus has developed and shifted over time, yet the tension between distance and intimacy remains.”
 
Book of the Day Posted Aug 14, 2025

Book of the Day: Happy Victims by Kyoichi Tsuzuki

Book of the day! From the publisher: "Between 1999 and 2006, before fast fashion and social media changed the world forever, Kyoichi Tsuzuki published 87 instalments of his Happy Victims series in the fashion magazine Ryuko Tsushin. In cramped quarters across Tokyo, these anonymous disciples joyously detailed the ritual and the sacrifice of their brand-name obsessions. A Buddhist monk with a Comme des Garçons shopping habit, an Alexander McQueen collector listening to neighbours through paper-thin walls—photographed at home, their collections before them, Kyoichi’s anti-heroes exist in parallel to the fashion universe of fame, fantasy, and glamour. Happy Victims was first published in book form in 2008. Long out of print, this edition follows Apartamento’s reissue of Kyoichi’s earlier seminal work, Tokyo Style. The new hardcover design comes with an updated foreword by the author, Japanese photographer Kyoichi Tsuzuki, and an introduction by Isabella Burley of Climax Books. While the cover and belly band have been completely reworked, in collaboration with designer Han Gao, the book’s interior maintains a simple, documental format: one happy victim per spread, Kyoichi’s photos supplemented by a short commentary on the individual and his or her daily schedule. Not typically members of the leisure class, the goths, Lolitas, and stringent Margiela fans must also go to work and find time to care for their clothes." (Apartamento, 2025)
Book of the Day Posted Aug 13, 2025

Book of the Day: Lora Webb Nichols — "Heap-O-Livin’"

This here is our book of the day! From the publisher: "Heap-O-Livin’ features a selection of images by Wyoming photographer and diarist Lora Webb Nichols (1883-1962). Nichols created and collected approximately 24,000 negatives and 65 years of diaries throughout her lifetime in the town of Encampment. In addition to the industrial and economic aspects of this sparsely populated ranching and copper mining town, Lora’s images and diaries documented the lives of the girls and women within private households. Despite the inherent isolation created by geography, the long brutal winters, and the patriarchal ideology that undervalued the role of women in Encampment in the late 19th and early 20th century, a robust female-led community emerged that provided a network of spiritual and emotional support. This was cultivated through the habitual visitations of immediate and extended family and friends into each other’s homes during their transition from children to wives and mothers. In Nichols’ sphere, these visitations often involved the act of picture-making. Lora photographed their duties as mothers and homemakers but also made photographs that reveal the pleasure they experienced in simply being in each other’s company. Heap-O-Livin’ is following the sold-out book Encampment, Wyoming."

Events Posted Aug 07, 2025

UPCOMING EVENTS!

Please join us for these upcoming events at the store (and beyond it)!
All events are free, no purchase required, and open to all. No RSVP needed.
 
SATURDAY, AUGUST 16th, 4:00 - 6:00 PM
TODD HIDO: INTIMATE DISTANCE
BOOK SIGNING + DISCUSSION WITH MARINA LUZ

SATURDAY, AUGUST 23rd, 4:00 - 6:00 PM
ARTHUR JAFA: LIVE EVIL
BOOK SIGNING + DISCUSSION

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 13th, 2:00 - 5:00 PM
SUSAN MEISELAS: NICARAGUA
BOOK SIGNING + DISCUSSION 
**AT THE AERO THEATER IN SANTA MONICA**
IN CONJUNCTION WITH PAC-LA

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 20th, 4:00 - 6:00 PM
DAVID ALEKHUOGIE: A REPRISE
BOOK SIGNING + DISCUSSION WITH AWOL ERIZKU

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 27th, 4:00 - 6:00 PM
LAURI GAFFIN: MOVING STILL
BOOK SIGNING

 

Book of the Day Posted Aug 06, 2025

Book of the Day: BRICK STOWELL'S ALM*ST FAMOU$ - PLANES, TRAINS & AUTOMOBILES

Brick Stowell was the staff photographer and tour manager for Odd Future (OFWGKTA) from 2011 to 2016, capturing the collective's rise to fame. His work highlights a transformative period in the music industry, influencing contemporary music culture. Almost Famous: Planes, Trains & Automobiles is the small-format follow up to Stowell's 2024 massive - and now sold out - comprehensive look at Odd Future's history entitled Almost Famous:2011-2016 - The OFWGKTA Photographs. Book of the day! Purchase here.
Book of the Day Posted Aug 01, 2025

Book of the Day: Swamp Dogg's "If You Can Kill It I Can Cook It"

Book of the day! From the publisher: Before there was Snoop Dogg there was Swamp Dogg. The original was born Jerry Williams Jr. in Portsmouth, Virginia in 1942. He first won fame as a 12-year old soul singer called Little Jerry–before he later decided, at the end of the 1960s and after several hit records, to create a new identity for making music and mischief. Thus did Little Jerry become Swamp Dogg—a legendary singer, songwriter and record producer whose singular voice and ideas have shaped the history not merely of soul music, but of country and hip-hop and a dozen other genres. He also made history in the music business, early in his career, as the first Black A&R man at Atlantic Records, where he oversaw music by The Drifters and Gary US Bond–just two of the storied acts whose sounds he’s shaped. But if music is Swamp Dogg’s first love, this fabled man of taste has another one: food. In 1972, Swamp Dogg proclaimed that he would write a cookbook so transformative that the legacies of culinary giants like Julia Child, Betty Crocker, James Beard, and even Colonel Sanders would pale in comparison. He stated that 'It is the book that Hemingway wanted to write and that Agatha Christie couldn’t.' Now, more than 50 years later, that book is finally here. If You Can Kill It I Can Cook It is a book for those who appreciate recipes seasoned with personality and history, and stories to go with dinner. This is more than a cookbook: it is a biographical artifact and a journey into the mind of a chef who’ll teach you how to make “Baked Beans Bo Diddley”, “James Brown In Flight Chicken” and “Willie Nelson Potatoes Platter”. It is also a glimpse into the savory life of a musical genius, richly illustrated with tales and photos of family, food, music, and business. As Swamp Dogg says, “This is the book that Hemingway wanted to write, Agatha Christie couldn’t, and Alex Haley didn’t have enough soul for. Now get to cooking!” Presented alongside Magnolia Pictures’ feature length documentary Swamp Dogg Gets His Pool Painted, directed by Isaac Gale and Ryan Olson, and the album Blackgrass: From West Virginia to 125th Street from Oh Boy Records, If You Can Kill It, I Can Cook It resonates with the same fervor as his music, all while satisfying a different sensory palette: taste.
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