Arcana:

(WILLETT, AMANI). Overlapse, I00220408, 2022. 5 x 7 inches, 120 Pages. Hard Cover. New/No Jacket - As Issued.

A romantic concept of ‘The Road’ has been embraced in American popular culture since the mid-20th century. Writers, artists and photographers, many inspired by revelations surrounding the Beat Generation’s legendary road trips, have long portrayed the idea of the road as a metaphorical symbol of freedom, independence and self-discovery.

Strikingly absent from this cumulative portrait is the Black American experience of the road which is often associated with fear, violence and death rather than freedom. This stark contrast is in conflict with the promise of familial fun times that the road trip afforded to white Americans.

In 1936, in response to the grave dangers faced by African American travelers, New York postman Victor Green created the Negro Motorist Green Book, a practical and necessary survival guide listing safe places where Black people could eat, sleep and find services along their journey without a dreadful fear for losing their lives. The guidebook was published annually for thirty years.

Mixing recent portraits and landscapes, digital screenshots and archival material—including pictures from Willett’s own family archive—A Parallel Road pays homage to Victor Green’s book, 84 years after it was first published, and sheds light on an experience of the road that has long been overlooked. It is produced in the same size as the original Green Book.

This nuanced and multi-layered work explores themes of history, racism, violence and Black identity in the United States, reflecting on the nation’s past and present while encouraging inclusivity and dialogue surrounding a complex and integral American story. While 54 years have passed since Green’s book ceased publication, it remains profoundly relevant in a time when the mere act of being on the road still threatens to be lethal for Black Americans. 9781999446871 Inventory Number: I00220408

(WILLIAMS, D’ANGELO LOVELL). MACK, I00220716, 2022. 9 x 11 inches, 104 Pages. Hard Cover. New.

Both an artist’s book and comprehensive inquisition of D’Angelo Lovell Williams’s work to date, Contact High offers an expansive engagement with the visualization of desire and depiction of the Black body. Williams’s narrative images reflect the many forms in which Black queer people exist and have existed historically within each other’s lives, picturing them as sitters, lovers, caregivers, or shadows. Williams’s work is guided by their life experience and an interrogation of their own perspective, as well as wider questions around the representation of race, class, sexuality, gender, and intimacy. The title Contact High references the importance of touch and gesture in Williams‘s work, and alludes to heightened senses and intuitive movement.

From self-portraits to collaborations with community, Williams’s photographs visualize the Black body in performative scenes that are theatrical, dance-like, and occasionally mundane, pointing towards collective histories and Black ancestral practices. At the heart of these intimate, dialogic images are notions of kinship and spirituality interweaved with quietly political and radical gestures. Williams’s unfaltering gaze insists on visibility and deference, and creates scenes in which Black and queer voices are the authority. The dynamics that play out between families, cultures, friends, lovers, ancestors and descendants are visualized as a spectrum of care, tenderness, and vulnerability, speaking to the nuances of our complex lives often overlooked by historical depictions. 9781913620622 Inventory Number: I00220716

(WILLIAMS, KANDIS) Introduction by Ebony L. Haynes. Text by Hannah Black. Conversation between Kandis Williams and Okwui Okpokwasili. David Zwirner Books, I00220922, 2022. 9 x 7 inches, 96 Pages. Hardcover. New/No Jacket - As Issued.

The inaugural volume in a new series of books, Kandis Williams documents the Los Angeles–based artist’s exhibition A Line. Interrogating issues of race, nationalism, authority, and eroticism, her topical work is made across collage, sculpture, and video.

Williams draws on her background in dramaturgy to envision a space that accommodates the biopolitical economies that inform how movement might be read. Looking at the interconnections between popular culture and myth, she relates in her work anatomy, regions of Black diaspora, and communication and obfuscation. Williams’s body of work shapes an alternative language that examines how Black moving bodies are regarded. Williams continues to make visible the inexpressible violence Black bodies have been subjected to in dance and beyond.

Featuring contributions by the curator of 52 Walker—a David Zwirner gallery space—Ebony L. Haynes and the artist and writer Hannah Black, and a stirring conversation between Williams and the artist Okwui Okpokwasili, the book serves as an extension of the exhibition. Included are high-quality illustrations of the artworks alongside rich archival materials. 9781644230688 Inventory Number: I00220924

(WINOGRAND, GARRY). Almereyda, Michael & Susan Kismaric, Editors. Los Angeles: Twin Palms Publishers, I00240117. 2023. First Edition. 12 x 12", Large Oblong 4to. Cloth in Pictorial Jacket. Photography Monograph. New/New. 176pp, 150 color illustrations.

"Garry Winogrand is known primarily for his spontaneous and energetic street photography in black-and-white. What is lesser known is that Winogrand also shot more than 45,000 color slides between the early 1950s and late 1960s. These photographs were often taken between assignments, when the photographer, working on his own, developed and refined an approach to his medium that was increasingly open, independent, and radical. He routinely photographed with two cameras strapped around his neck, one loaded with color film, the other with black and white.

"Winogrand Color" presents one hundred and fifty photographs selected from the archives at the Center for Creative Photography by the American film director, Michael Almereyda and former Museum of Modern Art curator, Susan Kismaric. It is the first monograph dedicated to the artist's rarely seen color work. A brand new, most handsome example. 978-1-936611-18-8 Inventory Number: E000GWC

(WINSHIP, VANESSA) Story by Jem Poster. Deadbeat Club, I00220603, 2022. 10 x 8 inches, 104 Pages. Softcover. New/No Jacket - As Issued.

In Snow, Vanessa Winship’s latest monograph, we see that what’s not entirely comprehended is far more compelling than what is well understood. Perhaps that’s a truism, but it’s one that is rejuvenated and refreshed by each new and peculiar telling. This book is just such a revelation.

The origins of Snow lie in a commission (this from an artist who very rarely works on assignment, although Winship says she often approaches things “as if I have somehow been sent by someone”), but the photographer’s interest in what she found soon eclipsed anything that could properly be thought of as a “story.” So, she made repeated trips to a particular landscape – and, notably, a particular season – in order to fathom what it was that had disconcerted her in the initial making of these photographs.

Winship is well known and highly regarded for her intimate portraits, but in Snow we experience a noticeable physical distance between the photographer and her subjects. What little the viewer can possibly grasp onto is the subtle repetition of the humblest elements of the earth. Collectively, the pictures come to embody the artist’s struggle to connect and to make sense of this place while ultimately acknowledging that she, like us all, is nothing but a stranger in this world.

This estrangement is echoed in a piece of fiction – by the poet and novelist Jem Poster – that’s woven through Snow. It tells of a female portrait photographer and her recalcitrant subject. But this character is not Winship, and the sitter is not someone in a Winship photograph. Poster’s is a fiction based on an imagistic construct – another beguiling layer in a complicated book that seeks always to expose the slipperiness of narrative and to destabilize easy readings. 9781952523038 Inventory Number: I00220603

(WRIGHT, RUSSEL AND MARY). Golub, Jennifer. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, I00220427, 2021. First Edition. Large 4to. Cloth in Pictorial Dust Jacket. Design Monograph. As New/As New. 1-64896-019-7

208pp, profusely illustrated in color and b&w. Designed by Simon Johnston. "In the mid-century era of TV dinners and suburban conformity, Russel and Mary Wright were individualists. Their home Dragon Rock at Manitoga is situated on forested woodlands, sited at an abandoned quarry located an hour north of New York City, now part of the Historic Artists' Homes and Studios program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Although best known for American Modern dinnerware, the Wrights rejected rigid modernism for a life that invited ambiguity. Mary's role as a partner, designer, and entrepreneur is explored here for the first time. This lavish volume is filled with personal histories and over one hundred stunning photographs, synthesizing multiple archives and charting the innovation of their design practice, their lives, and the development of their Dragon Rock home and the Woodland Paths of Manitoga."

A brand new, most handsome example of this charming new work additionally SIGNED by author Jennifer Golub.

Inventory Number: E00JGRMW

(Williams, Senon). Williams, Senon, Richelle Munkhoff & Beth Ann Whittaker. Los Angeles: Hat & Beard Press, I00251213, 2025. First Edition. 8 1/4 x 10 1/2", Oblong 4to. Illustrated Boards. Artist Monograph. As New/No Jacket - As Issued. 978-1955125680

146pp, profusely illustrated in color. Designed by Russell Etchen. Senon Williams is a lifelong musician, visual artist and poet, born and currently based in Los Angeles. Descended from survivors of enslavement and the Holocaust, Williams is an artist whose practice is a response to scarcity and loss with a deep commitment to preservation. He is drawn to the physical scraps of life - and the layering of those scraps into a larger tapestry - believing that these objects have souls. Assembling found pieces, large and small, sometimes literally from yards or the street, Williams collects unwanted things, used things, to create anew. A blending of these objects’ inner character with his own vision into an assemblage, not only of the physical but also of the spirit. Williams’ work is grounded in a love of language play, sounds, textures, and associations of word and object. Working in various media in his visual art practice - sculpture, painting, serigraphy, and printmaking - he counters what we think we know. Something familiar gives us pause and words we know well induce questions. Always blending the visual with poetry, we are addressed with layers of contrasts. 

This book forms a graveyard or a scrapyard of items one might typically discard. In our time of extreme wastefulness, assembling the detritus from his artmaking into a scrapbook gives each of these items a collective home and value. Gathered from his day-to-day studio practice, they are thoughts jotted down, remnants of materials used, random receipts, which suggest a sense of care, like acts of preservation, mending and repurposing. Each piece is held, suspended from its final dissolution, forming a new place in which to exist. Interspersed within are vignettes looking at the histories of scrapbooking and ephemeral collection over time by Richelle Munkhoff and Beth Ann Whittaker of Plain Sight Archive. There is a long legacy and history of this artistic action and this publication represents now another documentation of time and place. A brand new, most handsome example of this charming new work additionally SIGNED "Senon Williams" in black ink on the title page.

Inventory Number: E00251213

(YEMCHUK, YELENA). Yemchuk, Yelena & Ioana Pelehatai. Zurich, SWITZERLAND: Edition Patrick Frey, I00240213. 2024. First Edition. 10 x 7 1/2", 4to. Pictorial Self-Wrappers. Photography Monograph. New.. np (176pp), 121 color illustrations. Text in English, Ukranian, and Romanian. 978-3-907236-67-3

(176pp), 121 color illustrations. Text in English, Ukrainian, and Russian. "Ukrainian-born, Brooklyn-based photographer and painter Yelena Yemchuk is most commonly known for her fashion and portrait photographs, which have appeared in Italian and Japanese Vogue, V, the New Yorker and The New York Times. Yemchuk makes images that teeter on the threshold between her Eastern European heritage and her daily life in New York; between fiction and reality; between the grand beauty of 1960s cinema and the social and built environments of post-Soviet realms. As with all of her work, "Malanka" is a personal, feminine, surrealist and magical project. The eponymous tradition is a pre-Christian folklore ritual driving out winter and welcoming spring, an ancient custom reminiscent of Persephone’s return in Greek mythology. It is celebrated on January 14th, the old New Year in the Julian calendar, by ethnic Romanians in western Ukraine. In 2019 and 2020, Yemchuk traveled to Crasna (Krasnoilsk in Ukrainian) to document the night-long festival. Accompanying Yemchuk's striking photographic documentation is a poetic essay by Romanian cultural journalist Ioana Pelehatai. A brand new example additionally SIGNED by Yelena Yemchuk on the title page.

Inventory Number: E000YYM

(YOKOO, TADANORI). Kokushokankokai, I00220315, 2022. 10 x 12 inches, 460 Pages. Hardcover. New.

Tadanori Yokoo held his first solo exhibition of paintings in 1966 in Tokyo. His revolutionary work, which oscillates between conceptual art and pure design, rapidly gained attention in the international art world. With a signature style of colorful psychedelia and pastiche, he engages a wide spectrum of modern visual and cultural phenomena from Japan and elsewhere. The subject matter often clashes with what seems a nonsensical collage of images. ‘Genkyo’ is an exuberant, far-reaching anthology of Yokoo’s work throughout the years, with a special focus on how the artist constantly revisits and remakes the same images and themes in a mind-blowing variety of styles and artworks. 9784336071019 Inventory Number: I00220315

Simon, Harper. Los Angeles: Hat & Beard Press, 2023. 9 in. x 12.25 in., 352 p. New.

“Everyone is fascinated by crime,” says Harper Simon. “When you look at the history of song, romantic love songs may be the dominant mode of songwriting, but second would probably be songs involving crime—murder ballads for one. Crime is a major theme in all songwriting.”

Simon offers a new and expansive contribution to this legacy with Meditations on Crime, an ambitious multi-media project that includes an album he produced of musical collaborations with a sweeping range of contributors (Julia Holter, Gang Gang Dance, King Khan, the Sun Ra Arkestra) and a book he edited featuring essays by such notables as Miranda July, Hooman Majd, and Jerry Stahl, alongside artwork from giants like Cindy Sherman, Tracey Emin, Julian Schnabel, and Raymond Pettibon.

The genesis of Meditations on Crime came in 2016 as a confluence of several ideas. Simon was interested in collaborating with musicians he knew and admired on the creation of a vinyl LP with an accompanying book, which would be “a beautiful physical object to stand outside the digital world.” Given what America was going through during that particular election year, though, he thought the times called for something more politically charged.

“I was trying to come up with a collective, curated project that had political content, but wouldn’t be so obvious and agenda-driven,” says Simon. Something “that would give people the freedom to express some ideas that might meet that volatile period in culture and in politics. One of the titles I came up with was Meditations on Crime—if you get down to it, crime is politics and politics is crime, so crime can go a lot of different ways. It seemed to be a way of approaching the moment that was a little more subtle and left space to explore.”

The songs were developed in a variety of ways: Sometimes Simon sent his collaborators guitar tracks or demos he was working on and had them write over them, sometimes he collaborated on lyrics. On the Sun Ra Arkestra track, he composed melodic themes and went to the group’s home base of Philadelphia with the legendary producer Hal Willner, where they fleshed out two songs. (Willner passed away in 2020 from Covid. “To have that creative moment with him makes it really touching for me,” says Simon.)

“Since I wasn’t out in front singing, it freed me up to go into a lot of different styles and genres that I wouldn’t attempt on a solo project,” says Simon. “It was liberating and fun—that was part of what I wanted to do, and it turned out to be gratifying in all sorts of ways.”

As he reached out to more musicians (“I kind of just went with my gut, and one person led to the next”), he retained a consistent backing band for most of the tracks, allowing for some cohesion. He played most of the guitars, with Paz Lenchantin from the Pixies on bass and Carla Azar, who has played with everyone from Jack White to PJ Harvey to The Who, on drums, as well as members of Ariel Pink’s band and Nick Zinner from the Yeah Yeah Yeah’s.

For the book, Simon points to “On Crime,” the essay by Nigerian novelist and poet Ben Okri, as a central piece. “It almost felt like an introduction because it was so philosophical,” he says. “It set the tone. The book started to become less political and more interesting. Once the tone was set, you could go to this beautiful essay on war crimes by Janine di Giovanni, the famous foreign correspondent. You could see it go to a humorous place in a piece by Jerry Stahl or an interview with Kenneth Anger. Wayne Kramer from the MC5 has a foundation called Jail Guitar Doors that brings musical instruments and songwriting to prisoners, and has spent time in prison himself, so I thought he would have an interesting perspective.”

Simon was committed to including visual art that investigated the idea of crime, so he enlisted his friend Jonah Freeman, from the art team Freeman-Lowe, as a co-curator. “He brought in a great deal of artists and really became my partner,” says Simon. “Julian Schnabel came on, Nate Lowman, Laurie Anderson, just so many great people. And then Jonah got Raymond Pettibon, who made this original portrait of John Dillinger, and we put that on the cover—which I loved, because I grew up listening to albums with Raymond Pettibon covers, like Black Flag and Sonic Youth.”

Though the concept sprang from Simon’s inspiration, he emphasizes the collaborative aspect of Meditations on Crime. “This is a counterculture project that integrates different areas of creativity into a collective effort,” he says. In the end, 38 artists contributed across the various media, three of whom remained part of the endeavor despite facing online controversies after their collaborations were recorded. “I made the decision not to cut them,” says Simon. “One of the reasons being that I think canceling, in quotes, is blacklisting, and blacklisting, in my view, is wrong whether it comes from the left or the right.”

Meditations on Crime is already expanding into other areas, as Simon and Freeman are completing a short film based on Okri’s essay, narrated by actress Katherine Waterston. There’s talk of possible art shows and benefit concerts in the future based around the theme.

“A lot of the old models of how things are done in the music world are becoming more and more obsolete and uninteresting,” says Simon. “Make an album and make an album cover and put it out and get a review in the music press and go on tour and make a poster—I don't know if it's just been exhausted creatively or made obsolete due to technology. It’s time to play with different ways of approaching how to put things out, and how to play with different areas of creativity and weave them together in new ways and create new models. I don't think people even have the language yet to know how to speak to this transitional moment in culture.”

“This project allowed me to explore different worlds other than the music world,” he says. “To have different platforms for different audiences, and to do a whole bunch of things that people don't normally do when they make an album.” 9781955125284 Inventory Number: I00230827

. I00250702. Our first bit of ARCANA merch! A big, strong bag with a zippered top & 6 1/2 inch square zippered inside pocket. 20″ x 15″ with a 5″ squared-off gusset and 10 1/2″ handles. Made from 12 oz. canvas and reinforced at stress points to carry even your biggest, baddest books. In “natural” with hot pink print (not pictured here). Printed with love in Venice, CA by Tony Mac.
More colorways available seasonally - call or write to find out what's in stock now. Inventory Number: BAGWP

. I00250702. Our first bit of ARCANA merch! A big, strong bag with a zippered top & 6 1/2 inch square zippered inside pocket. 20″ x 15″ with a 5″ squared-off gusset and 10 1/2″ handles. Made from 12 oz. canvas and reinforced at stress points to carry even your biggest, baddest books. In “natural” with black print. Printed with love in Venice, CA by Tony Mac.
More colorways available seasonally - call or write to find out what's in stock now.


Inventory Number: BAGWB

. I00250702. Our first bit of ARCANA merch! A big, strong bag with a zippered top & 6 1/2 inch square zippered inside pocket. 20″ x 15″ with a 5″ squared-off gusset and 10 1/2″ handles. Made from 12 oz. canvas and reinforced at stress points to carry even your biggest, baddest books. In black with hot pink print. Printed with love in Venice, CA by Tony Mac.
More colorways available seasonally - call or write to find out what's in stock now.

Inventory Number: BAGBP

By Ilisa Barbash, Molly Rogers, and Deborah Willis. Foreword by Henry Louis Gates, Jr.. Contributions by Carrie Mae Weems. Aperture and Peabody Museum Press, I00201006, 2020. 9 x 7 in., 488 pages. Hardbound. New/No Jacket - As Issued.

To Make Their Own Way in the World is a profound consideration of some of the most challenging images in the history of photography: fifteen daguerreotypes of Alfred, Delia, Drana, Fassena, Jack, Jem, and Renty—men and women of African descent who were enslaved in South Carolina.

Photographed by Joseph T. Zealy for Harvard professor Louis Agassiz in 1850, they were rediscovered at Harvard’s Peabody Museum in 1976. This groundbreaking multidisciplinary volume features essays by prominent scholars who explore such topics as the identities of the people depicted in the daguerreotypes, the close relationship between photography and race, and visual narratives of slavery and its lasting effects.

With over two hundred illustrations, including new photography by Carrie Mae Weems, this book frames the Zealy daguerreotypes as works of urgent engagement. 9781597114783 Inventory Number: I00201006

FURTH, OLIVER. . Rizzoli, I00240901. 2024. 280 pages. Hardcover. Design Monograph. New. 9780847873609

AD100 and Elle Décor A-List Interior Designer Oliver Furth masterfully combines bi-partisan enthusiasm for classical and contemporary influences with California cool, to create sophisticated, livable spaces with relaxed rigor, infused with color and joy.

Known for his timeless approach to design, as well as his irreverent ability to blend different styles and eras seamlessly, Furth combines his expertise in historic decorative arts and contemporary collectible design to create encyclopedic interiors where aristo-irreverence meets West Coast optimism.

A fourth-generation Los Angeles native, Furth’s homes conjure something magical, with optimism for the power of design as a guide to life well-lived. His signature style—a mix of freewheeling creativity, scholarly historicism and unabashed joie de vivre—has been applied to an array of homes over the past fifteen years, resulting in interiors full of personality and calibrated elegance that are prized by celebrities, creatives, and collectors.

Furth grounds his interiors with a sense of place and people over trends, considering his collaborators’ individuality and the materials, objects, textures that tell their story. His sophisticated eye for color is the antidote to misconceptions of current mass beige-ness.

The first monograph from the internationally celebrated designer, OP! Optimistic Interiors shines a light on Furth’s ingenious approach, showcasing homes that strike a balance between modernity and tradition, aesthetics and functionality, all while leaving room for self-expression and that most important ingredient: joy.

All photos by Roger Davies

Inventory Number: I00240827

Jeffery, Josh, Pouria Khojastehpay & Jennifer Venditti. 550 BC, I00241214. 2024. Second Edition. 9 3/4 x 7", 8vo. Cloth with Pastedown. Crime Photography Monograph. New./No Jacket - As Issued. 252pp, 241 color illustrations. "In 2015, Josh Jeffery launched @mugshawtys, a platform dedicated to showcasing archived American female mugshots along with details of their crimes in the caption. This initiative extends across Twitter and Instagram, with daily updates. Over the years, Mugshawtys has not only curated a compelling archive but its community has also actively contributed to bailing out multiple girls caught in legal entanglements. Now, the Mugshawtys book, edited and designed by Pouria Khojastehpay and featuring an introduction by casting director Jennifer Venditti of JV8INC – renowned for her work on projects like "Euphoria", "Uncut Gems", and more – stands as the inaugural and official publication of this widely popular social media account, serving as a testament to its impact and influence." A brand new example of the 2024 second edition of this sure to sell out again quickly curiousity. 978-9083389806 Inventory Number: I00241214

Wayne, Bob. Foreword by Marty Kaniger. Culver City, CA: Flutterblast Books, I00250614. 2025. First Edition 1/100 Copies. 9 1/4 x 6 1/4", 8vo. Illustrated Boards. Music Monograph. New/No Jacket - As Issued. 368pp, profusely illustrated in b&w. Illustrated by Bill Plympton. Designed by Bonnie LeBrun. Bob Wayne is known in music circles far and wide not only as the owner and recording engineer par excellence at Culver City's own legendary Sunburst Studios, but also as a founding member of rock 'n' roll icons Big Daddy. Drawing from his decades of creativity behind the recording console and on the bandstand, "Reel to Real Tales" shares Bob's practical studio tips and tricks along with scores of fascinating tales of his encounters with the greats, near greats, and not-so-greats of the record business. A brand new example of this engaging memoir limited to one hundred unnumbered copies only additionally SIGNED "Bob Wayne" in blue ink at our shop in the year of publication. 979-8-88170-528-2 Inventory Number: E00250614