Arcana:

(WILLIAMS, MASON) (RUSCHA, EDWARD). Williams, Mason. Los Angeles: Self-Published, 1966. First Edition 1/500. 8vo. Cloth. Artist's Book. Near Fine/No Jacket - As Issued. np, 21 b&w illustrations + endpapers. Designed by Ed Ruscha. In a protective clear acetate dustwrapper. A year prior to Ed Ruscha, Mason Williams and Patrick Blackwell's Consumer Reports-style crash test involving a Royal manual typewriter ejected from a 1963 Buick LeSabre traveling at ninety miles per hour along US Highway 91 that became "Royal Road Test", the same Oklahoma-born trio collaborated on self-published "The Night I Lost my Baby...". It features Mason Williams's first-person prose poem narrative of shattered romance illustrated with Patrick Blackwell's vintage photographs of Sin City - all art directed by Ed Ruscha. A most handsome example of the uncommon first and only edition limited to five hundred unnumbered copies additionally bearing the BOLDLY SIGNED AND DATED PRESENTATION "To ... / Mason Williams / 1967" in black ink on the front free endpaper showing some light soiling and dulling to the metallic cloth covers. Inventory Number: 026020

(WOOD, JONAS) (KUSAKA, SHIO). Wiley, Chris. New York: Gagosian Gallery & Rizzoli International Publications, 2015. First Edition. 4to. Pictorial Boards. Artist Monograph. As New/No Jacket - As Issued. 220pp, profusely illustrated in color and b&w. Designed by An Art Service. This is the nicely appointed hardbound catalogue published in conjunction with a 2015 joint exhibition of work by the noted Los Angeles-based artists Shio Kusaka and Jonas Wood at Gagosian Hong Kong. A brand new, most handsome example of the unavailable 2015 first printing additionally BOLDLY SIGNED by both artists WITH A LARGE DRAWING OF A BASKETBALL DATED "2015" by Jonas Wood in black marker on the front pastedown. 0-8478-4701-2 Inventory Number: 026474

(WOODRUFF, HALE). Woodruff, Hale. NP. ND (Circa 1935).: Self-Published. First Edition. 4to. Printed Paper. Color Linoleum Block Print. Near Fine.. One 8 x 10 ¼" sheet of cream wove paper printed in colors recto only, neatly folded vertically to make 8 x 5 1/8" mounted with archival photo corners in a heavy white 14 x 11" beveled mat, 1 color illustration. This is the vibrant linoleum block print in colors entitled "The Travelers" self-published in the 1930s by the noted muralist, painter, and printmaker Hale Woodruff. Sent to a friend as a holiday card, it features three doves flying above three riders on asses underneath a brilliant star, in what was likely a stylized depiction of the three wise men. The recipient was Ms. Marjorie Green, a modest art collector and employee of Los Angeles' Golden State Mutual Insurance Company, the city's largest black-owned insurer for most of the twentieth century. Golden State Mutual collected work by many of the major "negro artists" of the period, and in 1949 commissioned a mural from Woodruff in collaboration with Charles "Spinky" Alston entitled "The Negro in California History". A native of Cairo, Illinois, Hale Aspacio Woodruff began his career as a political cartoonist, first for a high school newspaper in Nashville, Tennessee, and later for an African American newspaper in Indianapolis. In 1926 he won an award from the Harmon Foundation that enabled him to study art in Paris from 1927 to 1931, where he met Henry Ossawa Tanner, leading figures of the French avant-garde, and began collecting African art. Returning to the U.S., Woodruff secured work as an art teacher to support himself, and subsequently became the art director at Atlanta University - a Historically black college - where he taught classes at the university's Laboratory High School, as well as for students at Morehouse and Spelman, a related college for black women. He founded the annual competition, "Atlanta University Annual Exhibition of Paintings, Sculpture, and Prints by Negro Artists". In 1936 Woodruff traveled to Mexico to study as an apprentice under the renowned muralist Diego Rivera, learning his fresco technique and becoming interested in portrayal of figures. Keenly aware of the racism and poverty African Americans in the South faced during the Great Depression, the artist turned to painting and printmaking for social advocacy. Woodruff returned to Atlanta later that same year to his teaching position, and began traveling to Talladega College in Alabama to teach and work on a commission for what became his "Amistad Mutiny" murals. In 1946, Woodruff joined the faculty at New York University in Manhattan, where he helped establish the Spiral Group (with fellow artists Romare Bearden, Charles Alston, and Norman Lewis) and taught for more than twenty years before retiring in 1968. Woodruff died in New York City on September 6, 1980. A bright, unfaded, most handsome example of this exceedingly uncommon artwork - identified by the African-American Art department at Swann Auction Galleries as the earliest example located of a graphic work in color by Hale Woodruff - TITLED AND SIGNED "The Travelers" / "H. Woodruff" in pencil along the lower margin, as issued. Inventory Number: 026310

Swallow, Ricky. Alexis Kerin & Stuart Krimko, Editors. New York & Los Angeles: Rainoff & David Kordansky Gallery, 2013. First Edition 1/500. 4to. Printed Self-Wrappers. Exhibition Catalog. As New.. 88pp, profusely illustrated in color. Designed by Sinisa Mackovic and Robert Milne. With a fully illustrated exhibition checklist. "Grapevine~" documents an exhibition curated by artist Ricky Swallow at David Kordansky Gallery during the summer of 2013. It focuses on the work of five California-based artists who redefined the use of clay in contemporary art, and includes images of works created over a period of more than fifty years. Ceramic sculptures by Magdalena Suarez Frimkess, Michael Frimkess, John Mason, Ron Nagle, and Peter Shire exemplify the ways in which the medium underwent dramatic changes after World War II. Also included are select works by other artists influential in this dialogue, such as Ken Price and Peter Voulkos. An essay by Swallow explores the movement's idiosyncrasies and cross-currents, as well as its influence on subsequent generations of artists." A brand new, bright white example of this exquisitely designed and printed labor of love limited to five hundred unnumbered copies additionally signed by Magdalena Suarez Frimkess, Michael Frimkess, John Mason, Ron Nagle, Peter Shire, Peter Voulkos and curator Ricky Swallow at an after-hours publication party at Los Angeles' Mandrake Bar following the exhbition opening. 0-9806516-6-2 Inventory Number: 026582

Van Der Marck, Jan. Chicago, IL: Museum of Contemporary Art, 1969. First Edition. Large Square 4to. 12" Vinyl LP in Jacket. Exhibition Catalog. Near Fine. (But Incomplete)/No Jacket. One 12", two-sided vinyl 33 1/3 rpm long playing phonograph record in an unprinted cardstock sleeve, no illustrations. "Shortly after its opening, the Museum of Contemporary Art planned an exhibition to record the trend, incipient then and pervasive today, toward conceptualization of art. This exhibition, scheduled for the spring of 1968 and abandoned because of technical difficulties, consisted of works in different media, conceived by artists in this country and Europe and executed in Chicago on their behalf. The telephone was designated the most fitting means of communication in relaying instructions to those entrusted with fabrication of the artists' projects or enactment of their ideas. To heighten the challenge of a wholly verbal exchange, drawings, blueprints or written descriptions were avoided". Taken from the album jacket, this was curator Jan van der Marck's summation of the infamous Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago "Art by Telephone" show. This is a copy of the 1969 record which reproduces the phone calls of participating artists Siah Armajani, Richard Artschwager, John Baldessari, Iain Baxter, Mel Bochner, George Brecht, Jack Burnham, James Lee Byars, Robert Cumming, Francoise Dallegret, Jan Dibbets, John Giorno, Robert Grosvenor, Hans Haacke, Richard Hamilton, Dick Higgins, Davi Det Hompson, Robert Huot, Alain Jacquet, Edward Kienholz, Joseph Kosuth, Les Levine, Sol LeWitt, Robert Morris, Bruce Nauman, Claes Oldenburg, Dennis Oppenheim, Richard Serra, Robert Smithson, Guenther Uecker, Stan Van Der Beek, Bernar Venet, Frank Lincoln Viner, Wolf Vostell, William Wegman, and William T. Wiley giving instructions to the MCA staff on how to execute their various pieces for this exhibition which alas, went unrealized. A most handsome, unplayed example of the LP (cited on page 215 of Guy Schraenen's "Vinyl: Records and Covers by Artists" and page 235 of Giorgio Maffei's "Records by Artists 1958-1990") showing some minor surface abrasions. PLEASE NOTE: This copy is LACKING the publisher's printed album cover, and so we are offering the original vinyl LP and paper inner sleeve in an unprinted black replacement cover. It has been priced accordingly. Inventory Number: 026811

Various Artists. New York: Rudolf and Limbo, 1985. First Edition. Folio. Printed Poster. Exhibition Poster. Very Good -.. One 17 x 11" sheet printed color offset recto only, machine folded in fourths. Artwork by Huck Snyder. This is the poster announcing a one night only exhibition and live painting show by artists affiliated with New York's then-burgeoning East Village scene held on Wednesday, July 17th, 1985 at the recently opened Manhattan megaclub Palladium. Organized by nightlife impresario Rudolf - who was running The Limbo Lounge as well as Limbo Gallery at the time - it featured works by artists showing at Art Et Industrie, Art Mart, Avenue B., B-Side, Cash Newhouse, Civilian Warfare, Frank Barducci, Fun, Gracie Mansion, Hal Bromm, Limbo, Nature Morte, New Math, Piezo Electric, PPOW, Semaphore East, Sensory Evolution, Sharpe, Steven Adams, T. Greathouse, and Vox Populi. It reproduces a 1985 painting by Huck Snyder, who surely was a participant along with David Wojnarowicz and dozens more. A most presentable example of this striking, exceedingly uncommon poster that was folded by the printer and subsequently flattened showing some mild handling creases, minor ink loss with some touch-up at the bottom center, and two tape remnants along the top edge. Inventory Number: 026463