World Food Books' programme is largely produced on Kulin Nation land. We acknowledge the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation as the first and continuing custodians of this land, and pay respect to their Elders past, present, and emerging.
World Food Books is an arts and special interests bookshop in Naarm / Melbourne. Founded in 2010, World Food Books is devoted to the presentation of a rotating, hand-selection of international art, design, literary and counterculture publications with an emphasis on the anti-traditional, the experimental, the avant-garde, the heretic, the marginal.
Presenting new titles alongside rare and out-of-print books, catalogues and journals spanning the fields of modern and contemporary art, design, photography, illustration, film, literature, poetry, cultural theory, philosophy, sexuality, popular and underground culture in its many radical forms, World Food Books wishes to encourage adventurous, thoughtful and open-minded reading, looking, writing, and exchange of publishing and ideas, both current and historical.
As well as our bookshop, located in Melbourne's historical Nicholas Building, all of our inventory is available internationally via our online mail-order service.
World Food Books semi-regularly co-ordinates "Occasions", a programme of exhibits and events at the bookshop and in partnership with other hosts (such as museums and art galleries) that develop out of the activities, relationships and content of the bookshop itself.
World Food Books
The Nicholas Building
37 Swanston Street
Room 5, Level 6
Melbourne 3000
Australia
SHOP HOURS:
THU—SAT 12—6 PM
WEB-SHOP OPEN 24/7
World Food Books
Postal Address:
PO Box 435
Flinders Lane
Victoria 8009
Australia
info@worldfoodbooks.com
Art
Theory / Essay
Architecture / Interior
Graphic Design / Typography
Photography
Fashion
Eros
LGBTQ+
Fiction / Poetry
Weird / Speculative / Science Fiction / Horror
Transgressive / Visceral / Abject
Symbolism / Decadence / Fin de siècle
Film / Video
Painting
Sculpture / Installation
Performance / Dance / Theater
Drawing
Sound / Music
Curatorial
Group Shows / Collections
Periodicals
Out-of-print / Rare
Posters / Ephemera / Discs
Signed Books
World Food Books Gift Voucher
World Food Book Bag
Australian Art
Australian Photography
Japanese Photography
Conceptual Art
Minimal Art
Dada
'Pataphysics / Oulipo
Fluxus
Concrete Poetry
Pop Art
Surrealism
Arte Povera
Arte Informale / Haute Pâte / Tachism
Nouveau Réalisme / Zero / Kinetic
Situationism / Lettrism
Collage / Mail Art / Xerox Art
Art Brut / Folk / Visionary / Fantastic
Illustration / Graphic Art / Bandes Dessinées
Furniture
Italian Radical Design / Postmodernism
Textiles
Ceramics / Glass
Counterculture
Protest / Revolt
Anarchism
Socialism / Communism / Capitalism
Literary Theory / Semiotics / Language
Feminism
Fetishism / BDSM
Drugs / Psychedelia
Crime / Violence
Animal Rights / Veganism
Occult / Esoterica
Ecology / Earth / Alternative Living
Whole Earth / Crafts
All prices in AUD (Australian dollars)
Pick-Ups
Pick-up orders can be collected in our bookshop during opening hours after order date. Please collect any Pick-up orders within 2 weeks of ordering as we have limited storage space. Orders will be released back into stock if not collected within this time. No refunds can be made for pick-ups left un-collected. If you cannot make it in to the bookshop in this time-frame, please choose postage option.
Return Policy
All sales are final. We do accept returns (for refund or exchange) for items received in error. All our orders are packed with special care using heavy-duty padding and cardboard book-mailers or bubble mailers (for smaller books), using reinforcement where required. We cannot take responsibility for any lost, stolen or damaged parcels.
Insurance
Should you wish to insure your package, please email us directly after placing your order and we can organise this at a small extra expense. Although all standard/express tracked packages are very safe and dependable, we cannot take responsibility for any lost, stolen or damaged parcels. We recommend insurance on valuable orders.
Interested in selling your old books, catalogues, journals, magazines, comics, fanzines, ephemera? We are always looking for interesting, unusual and out-of-print books to buy. We only buy books in our fields of interest and specialty, and that we feel we can resell.
We base these prices on desirability, market value, in-print prices, condition and our current stock levels. We offer cash, store credit, and can take stock on consignment. All
about 25% of the price we expect to get when we sell them, or 30% in store credit. We base these prices on desirability, market value, in-print prices, condition and our current stock levels.
Sell your books any day of the week. You can drop them off and return later. If you have a lot of books, we can visit your Sydney home.
We buy books that we feel we can resell. We offer about 25 % of the price we expect to get when we sell them, or 30% in store credit. We base these prices on desirability, market value, in-print prices, condition and our current stock levels.
Philadelphia Wireman
03 August - 01 September, 2018
World Food Books is proud to announce our next Occasion, the first presentation of sculptures by Philadelphia Wireman in Australia.
The Philadelphia Wireman sculptures were found abandoned in an alley off Philadelphia’s South Street on trash night in 1982. Their discovery in a rapidly-changing neighbourhood undergoing extensive renovation, compounded with the failure of all attempts to locate the artist, suggests that the works may have been discarded after the maker’s death. Dubbed the "Philadelphia Wireman" during the first exhibition of this work, in 1985, the maker’s name, age, ethnicity, and even gender remain uncertain. The entire collection totals approximately 1200 pieces, all intricately bound together with tightly-wound heavy-gauge wire (along with a few small, abstract marker drawings, reminiscent both of Mark Tobey and J.B. Murry). The dense construction of the work, despite a modest range of scale and materials, is singularly obsessive and disciplined in design: a wire armature or exoskeleton firmly binds a bricolage of found objects including plastic, glass, food packaging, umbrella parts, tape, rubber, batteries, pens, leather, reflectors, nuts and bolts, nails, foil, coins, toys, watches, eyeglasses, tools, and jewellery.
Heavy with associations—anthropomorphic, zoomorphic, and socio-cultural responses to wrapped detritus—the totemic sculptures by Philadelphia Wireman have been discussed in the context of work created to fulfil the shamanistic needs of alternative religions in American culture. Curators, collectors, and critics have variously compared certain pieces to sculpture from Classical antiquity, Native American medicine bundles, African-American memory jugs, and African fetish objects. Reflecting the artist’s prolific and incredibly focused scavenging impulse, and despite—or perhaps enhanced by—their anonymity, these enigmatic objects function as urban artefacts and arbiters of power, though their origin and purpose is unknown. Philadelphia Wireman, whatever their identity, possessed an astonishing ability to isolate and communicate the concepts of power and energy through the selection and transformation of ordinary materials. Over the course of the past two decades, this collection has come to be regarded as an important discovery in the field of self-taught art and vernacular art.
Presented in collaboration with Fleisher-Ollman Gallery, Philadelphia, and Robert Heald, Wellington.
Susan Te Kahurangi King
02 February - 10 March, 2018
Susan Te Kahurangi King (24 February 1951 - ) has been a confident and prolific artist since she was a young child, drawing with readily available materials - pencils, ballpoint pens and felt-tip markers, on whatever paper is at hand. Between the ages of four and six Susan slowly ceased verbal communication. Her grandparents William and Myrtle Murphy had developed a special bond with Susan so they took on caring responsibilities for extended periods. Myrtle began informally archiving her work, carefully collecting and storing the drawings and compiling scrapbooks. No drawing was insignificant; every scrap of paper was kept. The King family are now the custodians of a vast collection containing over 7000 individual works, from tiny scraps of paper through to 5 meter long rolls.
The scrapbooks and diaries reveal Myrtle to be a woman of great patience and compassion, seeking to understand a child who was not always behaving as expected. She encouraged Susan to be observant, to explore her environment and absorb all the sights and sounds. Myrtle would show Susan’s drawings to friends and people in her community that she had dealings with, such as shopkeepers and postal workers, but this was not simply a case of a grandmother’s bias. She recognised that Susan had developed a sophisticated and unique visual language and sincerely believed that her art deserved serious attention.
This was an unorthodox attitude for the time. To provide some context, Jean Dubuffet coined the term Art Brut in 1945 to describe work created by self-taught artists – specifically residents of psychiatric institutions and those he considered to be visionaries or eccentrics. In 1972 Roger Cardinal extended this concept by adopting the term Outsider Art to describe work made by non-academically trained artists operating outside of mainstream art networks through choice or circumstance. Susan was born in Te Aroha, New Zealand in 1951, far from the artistic hubs of Paris and London that Dubuffet and Cardinal operated in. That Myrtle fêted Susan as a self-taught artist who deserved to be taken seriously shows how progressive her attitudes were.
Susan’s parents Doug and Dawn were also progressive. Over the years they had consulted numerous health practitioners about Susan’s condition, as the medical establishment could not provide an explanation as to why she had lapsed into silence. Dawn educated herself in the field of homeopathy and went on to treat all twelve of her children using these principles – basing prescriptions on her observations of their physical, mental and emotional state.
Doug was a linguist with an interest in philosophy who devoted what little spare time he had to studying Maori language and culture. To some extent their willingness to explore the fringes of the mainstream made them outsiders too but it was their commitment to living with integrity and their respect for individuality that ensured Susan’s creativity was always encouraged.
Even though Susan’s family supported her artistic pursuits, some staff in schools and hospitals saw it as an impediment to her assimilation into the community and discouraged it in a variety of ways. Her family was not always aware of this and therefore did not fully understand why Susan stopped drawing in the early 1990s. However, rather than dwell on the challenges that Susan faced in pursuit of her artistic practice, they prefer to highlight her achievements. In 2008 Susan began drawing again in earnest, after an almost 20 year interruption, and her work is now shown in galleries around the world.
Susan grew up without television and has been heavily influenced by the comics she read as a child. She is absolutely fearless in the appropriation of recognizable characters, such as Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse, in her work. She twists their limbs, contorts their faces, compresses them together, blends them into complex patterned backgrounds - always imbuing them with an incredible energy. Although Susan often used pop culture characters in her work they are not naive or childlike. These are drawings by a brilliant self-taught artist who has been creating exceptional work for decades without an audience in mind.
Mladen Stilinović
"Various Works 1986 - 1999"
02 February 16 - September 10, 2016
Various works 1986 - 1999, from two houses, from the collections of John Nixon, Sue Cramer, Kerrie Poliness, Peter Haffenden and Phoebe Haffenden.
Including: Geometry of Cakes (various shelves), 1993; Poor People’s Law (black and white plate), 1993; White Absence (glasses, ruler, set square, silver spoon, silver ladel with skin photograph and wooden cubes), 1990-1996; Exploitation of the Dead (grey and red star painting, wooden painting, black spoon with red table, red plate), 1984-1990; Money and Zeros (zero tie, paintings made for friends in Australia (Sue, John, Kerrie), numbers painting), 1991-1992; Words - Slogans (various t-shirts) - “they talk about the death of art...help! someone is trying to kill me”, “my sweet little lamb”, “work is a disease - Karl Marx”; Various artist books, catalogues, monographs, videos; Poster from exhibition Insulting Anarchy; "Circular" Croatian - Australian edition; Artist book by Vlado Martek (Dostoyevsky); more.
Thanks to Mladen Stilinović and Branka Stipančić.
Jonathan Walker
Always Will Need To Wear Winter Shirt Blue + Ochre Small Check Pattern
21 August - 21 September, 2015
Untitled
I am not a great reader of poetry but I always return to the work of Melbourne poet, Vincent Buckley (1925- 1988). Perhaps I find his most tantalising piece to be not a finished poem but a fragment left on a scrap of paper discovered on his desk after the poet’s death.
The poetry gathers like oil
In the word-core, and spreads
It has its music meet,
Its music is in movement.
This fragment is more the shell left behind from a volatile thought than a finished poem. I find the last two lines honest but awkward whereas the first two lines work like an arrow. Most likely he could not find a resolution so it was left. Still, in its present form, it remains an eloquent testimony to the ultimate failure of a medium to express mobile thought and sensation, in Buckley’s case, through verbal language. It’s an important matter because this is something all artists have to deal with regardless of the medium.
I have never written a poem, however, I am forever copying fragments from books on paper scraps in a vain effort to fix certain notions in my head. At first, they function as bookmarks that are sometimes returned to when I open the book. But before long, as they accumulate, they fall out littering the table interspersed with A4 photocopies, bills, books and medications.
To return to Buckley’s fragment, the first two lines very much evoke how I paint nowadays. As you age, detail diminishes and patches of light become more luminous and float. I feel the most honest way of dealing with this is by smearing the oil paint on the canvas with the fingers and working close-up, blind. Only if the patches coalesce into an approaching image can the work gain a life.
-
Jonathan Walker was born in Melbourne, Australia and brought up on a dairy farm in Gippsland. In the 1970’s he studied painting at RMIT and won the Harold Wright Scholarship to the British Museum, London. During the 1980’s he exhibited at Pinacotheca Gallery, Richmond and had work shown at the NGV and Heidi City Art Gallery. Over the same period he designed the cover for the “Epigenesi” LP by Giancarlo Toniutti, Italy and conducted a mail exchange work with Achim Wollscheid, Germany. The work with artists through the post resulted in an article published in the bicentenary issue of Art and Australia 1988. He showed in artist run spaces such as WestSpace in the 90’s and 2000’s, and until 2012, taught painting at Victoria University, which is where we (Colleen Ahern and Lisa Radford) as organisers of the exhibition, among many others, had the privilege of being his student.
Walker’s knowledge was imparted to students through the careful selection of music, literature, and artists found in books that he himself had ordered for the library. Walker’s strategy was the generosity of sharing his vast knowledge with references specific to each student and their context.
Walker’s paintings share a similar focus and intimacy.
This exhibition presents a small selection of recent paintings alongside a publication that includes Walker’s writing. Observational and analytical, Walker’s work is a type of material notation — the time of day, colour and how it is blended, the both specific and fleeting location of a reflection on lino or the question of whether a chair leg should be included in a painting.
Please join us on Friday August 21 between 6-8pm to celebrate the opening of the exhibition.
Curated by Colleen Ahern and Lisa Radford.
B. Wurtz
Curated by Nic Tammens
March 26 - April 4, 2015
B.Wurtz works from a basement studio in his home on Manhattan’s Lower East Side.
This local fact is attested to by the plastic shopping bags and newsprint circulars that appear in his work. As formal objects, they don’t make loud claims about their origins but nonetheless transmit street addresses and places of business from the bottom of this long thin island. Like plenty of artists, Wurtz is affected by what is local and what is consumed. His work is underpinned by this ethic. It often speaks from a neighborhood or reads like the contents of a hamper:
“BLACK PLUMS $1.29 lb.”
“Food Bazaar”
“USDA Whole Pork Shoulder Picnic 99c lb.”
“RITE AID Pharmacy, with us it’s personal.”
“H. Brickman & Sons.”
“Sweet Yams 59c lb."
Most of the work in this exhibition was made while the artist was in residence at Dieu Donne, a workshop dedicated to paper craft in Midtown. Here Wurtz fabricated assemblages with paper and objects that are relatively lightweight, with the intention that they would be easily transportable to Australia. This consideration isn’t absolute in Wurtz’s work, but was prescriptive for making the current exhibition light and cheap. Packed in two boxes, these works were sent from a USPS post office on the Lower East Side and delivered to North Melbourne by Australia Post.
Wurtz appears courtesy of Metro Pictures, New York.
Thanks to Rob Halverson, Joshua Petherick, Sari de Mallory, Matt Hinkley, Helen Johnson, Fayen d'Evie, Ask Kilmartin, Lisa Radon, Ellena Savage, Yale Union, and "Elizabeth".
John Nixon
"Archive"
December 15 - January 20, 2014
The presentation of John Nixon's archive offered a rare showcase of this extensive collection of the artist's own publications, catalogues, posters, ephemera, editions and more, from the mid 1980s onwards, alongside a selection of his artworks.
Organized by John Nixon, Joshua Petherick and Matt Hinkley.
"Habitat"
at Minerva, Sydney (organised by Joshua Petherick and Matt Hinkley)
November 15 - December 20, 2014
Lupo Borgonovo, Janet Burchill & Jennifer McCamley,
Lewis Fidock, HR Giger, Piero Gilardi, Veit Laurent Kurz,
Cinzia Ruggeri, Michael E. Smith, Lucie Stahl, Daniel Weil, Wols
Press Release:
“...It contained seven objects. The slender fluted bone, surely formed for flight, surely from the wing of some large bird. Three archaic circuitboards, faced with mazes of gold. A smooth white sphere of baked clay. An age-blackened fragment of lace. A fingerlength segment of what she assumed was bone from a human wrist, grayish white, inset smoothly with the silicon shaft of a small instrument that must once have ridden flush with the surface of the skin - but the thing’s face was seared and blackened.”
William Gibson, “Count Zero”, 1986
"Autumn Projects Archive"
Curated by Liza Vasiliou
March 6 - March 15, 2014
World Food Books, in conjunction with the Virgin Australia Melbourne Fashion Festival 2014, presented the Autumn Projects archive, consisting of a selection of early examples in Australian fashion with a particular interest in collecting designers and labels from the period beginning in the 1980’s, who significantly influenced the discourse of Australian Fashion.
Curated by Liza Vasiliou, the exhibition provided a unique opportunity to view pieces by designers Anthea Crawford, Barbara Vandenberg, Geoff Liddell and labels CR Australia, Covers, Jag along with early experimental collage pieces by Prue Acton and Sally Browne’s ‘Fragments’ collection, suspended throughout the functioning World Food Books shop in Melbourne.
H.B. Peace
presented by CENTRE FOR STYLE
November 14, 2013
"Hey Blinky, you say chic, I say same"
Anon 2013
H.B. Peace is a clothing collaboration between great friends Blake Barns and Hugh Egan Westland. Their pieces explore the divergences between 'character’ and ‘personality’ in garments....etc
Special Thanks to Joshua Petherick and Matt Hinkley of WFB and Gillian Mears
and a Very Special Thank you to Audrey Thomas Hayes for her shoe collaboration.
Janet Burchill & Jennifer McCamley
"Aesthetic Suicide"
May 10 - June 8, 2013
The first of our occasional exhibitions in the World Food Books office/shop space in Melbourne, "Aesthetic Suicide" presented a body of new and older works together by artists Janet Burchill & Jennifer McCamley, including videos, prints, a wall work, and publications.
During shop open hours videos played every hour, on the hour.
2023, English
Softcover, 425 pages, 17 x 24 cm
Published by
Korm Plastics / Netherlands
$65.00 - Out of stock
Published by Korm Plastics, this heavy book compendium collects all six issues of the Neumusik fanzine which David Elliott edited between 1979—82 while at university. The fanzine focussed on European, electronic and experimental music which had come out of krautrock, French progressive rock and the more esoteric side of British post-punk. David travelled extensively meeting musicians in Germany and France, and for a year was based in Strasbourg. Interviews and articles range from Conrad Schnitzler and Richard Pinhas to Florian Fricke and Chris Carter. Most issues were 60-80 pages long so, together with new text and photos, this compendium weighs in at a heavy 425 pages. It also touches on the parallel YHR label.
1998, English
Softcover, 192 pages, 24.5 x 17 com
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Creation Books / London
The Tears Corporation / London
$40.00 - Out of stock
Long out-of-print, and only issued in one volume, Suture was a "collection of illustrated essays on and by some of the most highly acclaimed figures in the global underground today" (c. 1998). Edited by Jack Sargeant, Suture documents radical artists, filmmakers, and writers working at the fringes of contemporary culture, including: Lydia Lunch, Joe Coleman, Romain Slocombe, Suehiro Maruo, John Hilcoat, James Havoc, Trevor Brown, Dame Darcy, Mark Hejnar.
Jack Sargeant (b. 1968) is a British writer specialising in cult film, underground film, and independent film, as well as subcultures, true crime, and other aspects of the unusual. In addition he is a film programmer, curator, academic and photographer. He has appeared in underground films and performances.
Very Good copy, light corner, cover wear.
1988, English
Softcover (staple-bound), unpaginated, 21.5 x 14 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / fine
Published by
Johnny Marr / San Francisco
$35.00 - In stock -
Special issue presented by Murder Can Be Fun, John Marr's seminal fanzine devoted to the underside of human curiosity — crime, disaster, weird books and even weirder people. Founded in San Francisco in 1986, for each issue of Murder Can Be Fun Marr painstakingly researches the bizarre, documenting his subjects in a unique and entertaining way. Devoted to the "underside of human curiosity," previous topics have included postal massacres, Karen Carpenter's anorexia, assassination attempts on Andy Warhol, the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, historical cannibals, faith healing, Fatty Arbuckle, Cornell Woolrich's fiction, and many more bizarre subjects not often addressed in the mainstream media. Precisely what made 1980's—90's zine culture so exciting.
This Anti Sex Tips For Teens special one-shot publication "outgrowth" of Murder Can Be Fun is dedicated to Marr's collection of vintage Teenage Sex Advice books, 1897-1987, with commentary and excerpts from misguided advice manuals published for adolescents, from Victorian times to the near-present. "They're mindless. They're pointless. They're patronizing. They dish out bad advice on irrelevant topics for a world that never existed. [...] Boy, do I love them!"
Fine copy.
1993, English
Softcover (staple-bound), approx 60 pages, 21.5 x 13.5 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
The Drawing Legion / Iowa City
$50.00 - In stock -
Extremely rare copy of the "First Dispatch" of the CVS (Copyright Violation Squad) Bulletin, issued in February 1993. The Copyright Violation Squad (CVS) was founded in 1992 in effort to make publicly available those cultural works which have been suppressed because they theoretically violated copyright law. "It is our view at the CVS that, in spite of the the questionable legal nature of these releases, they are nonetheless valid products of cultural work ethically valid in their own right — and as such, deserve to be heard by those who are interested in them."
The CVS Bulletin is edited by Lloyd Dunn and sponsored by the Drawing Legion, a non-profit performance and intermedia company based in Cedar Rapids, lowa, publishers of Retrofuturism, YAWN, and PhotoStatic Magazine. Lloyd Dunn was a founding member of The Tape-beatles, a multi-media and experimental audio art group that formed in Iowa City in December 1986, informed by musique concrète and heavily involved in the new networked mail art, cassette and ‘zine sub-cultures of the late 1980's.
This first (possibly only?) issue centres heavily around the 1991 legal case of San Francisco experimental sound collage/art collective/intellectual property law activists Negativland being sued by U2 over their U2 EP on SST Records, which the editors here have put into redistribution alongside John Oswald's Plunderphonic CD. Stories on these cases, plus graphics and news and commentary by CVS; "Disclaimer" by Brian Goldberg; "Parallel Culture" by Luke McGuff; "What Happens to the Reader?" by Ross Martin from Your Name Here; "How SST Sees It: Negativland's U2" by Greg Ginn; "Negativland Gets Their Say"; "The Electric Triad" by Fortner Anderson; plus many artworks and reviews on radical publishing.
Very Good copy, aged staples/edges.
1993, English
Softcover (staple-bound), approx 60 pages, 21.5 x 13.5 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
The Drawing Legion / Iowa City
$30.00 - In stock -
Very rare issue of Retrofuturism, the sporadically appearing hyper-media magazine edited by The Tape-beatles, a multi-media and experimental audio art group that formed in Iowa City in December 1986, informed by musique concrète and heavily involved in the new networked mail art, cassette and ‘zine sub-cultures of the late 1980's. Retrofuturism was one of their many editorial periodical projects.
Retrofuturism no. 17, April 1993 features: Excess Culture From A Culture of Excess by Scott Gray; The Role of Disdainists within the International Art Dump Project by Dvid Richter; Keynote Address to the Southwest Decentralised Mail Art Congress and Rodeo by Dr. Al "Blaster" Ackerman; Media—Countermedia by Stephen-Paul Martin; plus many artworks, book reviews and contact listings...
Very Good copy, aged staples/edges.
1992, English
Softcover (staple-bound), approx 60 pages, 21.5 x 13.5 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
The Drawing Legion / Iowa City
$35.00 - In stock -
Very rare issue of Retrofuturism, the sporadically appearing hyper-media magazine edited by The Tape-beatles, a multi-media and experimental audio art group that formed in Iowa City in December 1986, informed by musique concrète and heavily involved in the new networked mail art, cassette and ‘zine sub-cultures of the late 1980's. Retrofuturism was one of their many editorial periodical projects.
Retrofuturism no. 16, March 1992 features: The group NEGATIVLAND presents THE CASE FROM OUR SIDE in their dispute with Island Records; The IMMEDIAST UNDERGROUND unveils its plans for SEIZING THE MEDIA; Stephen Perkins and Mark Palmer offer new insights concerning the subject of PLAGIARISM: is it a BASTARD CHILD, or is there some TRUTH IN DOUBLING? And, of course, the usual columns, reviews, and listings of other marginalia from around the world. RETROFUTURISM, the sporadic quarterly, uses only the finest ingredients, and encourages your input into the process.
Very Good copy, aged staples/edges.
1991, English
Softcover (staple-bound), approx 60 pages, 21.5 x 13.5 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
The Drawing Legion / Iowa City
$35.00 - In stock -
Very rare issue of Retrofuturism, the sporadically appearing hyper-media magazine edited by The Tape-beatles, a multi-media and experimental audio art group that formed in Iowa City in December 1986, informed by musique concrète and heavily involved in the new networked mail art, cassette and ‘zine sub-cultures of the late 1980's. Retrofuturism was one of their many editorial periodical projects.
Retrofuturism no. 14, January 1991 features: STATE OF THE ART FOR TODAY'S ARTIST by the Bureau of Control; THE MAGIC OF BIGAMY by Dr. Al Ackerman; SENSORIA MEDIA-TORS; CODES AND CHAOS by Thomas Wiloch; CASSETTE REVIEWS by Paul Neff; PRINT REVIEWS; TAPE-BEATLE NEWS; REPORT from the IOWA CHAPTER of the AGGRESSIVE SCHOOL of CULTURAL WORKERS; and much more!
Very Good copy, aged staples/edges.
1989, English
Softcover, 384 pages, 22.5 x 15 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / good
Published by
Semiotext(e) / Los Angeles
$60.00 - Out of stock
HEBEPHRENIA SF, NO WAVE SF, ALL MEAT SF, UNREAL SF, BAD BRAINS SF, GODGROPE SF, SHITFUCK SF, CRACK SF, FREE DOPE SF, TERRORIST SF, TENTACLESUCKER SF, TRANSCYBERGNOSTIC SF, NO FUTURE SF, ELECTRO-SEIZURE SF...
Rare copy of the first edition of one of the remarkable book issues of the original Semiotext(e) journal — Semiotext(e) SF, the Science Fiction issue, published in 1989, edited by Rudy Rucker, Peter Lamborn Wilson (Hakim Bey), Robert Anton Wilson and Jim Fleming, and designed by Mike Saenz. Co-published by Autonomedia.
Includes fiction by Don Webb, Bruce Sterling, Freddie Baer, Bruce Boston, Ernest Hogan, John Shirley, Nick Herbert, Rachael Pollack, Bob McGlynn, Rudy Rucker, Kerry Thornley, William Gibson, Sol Yurick, James Koehnline, J. G. Ballard, Paul Di Fillippo, Sharon Gannon & David Life, Richard Kadrey, Hakim Bey, Ian Watson, Michael Blumlein, Thom Metzger, Lewis Shiner, William S. Burroughs, Daniel Pearlman, Ron Kolm, Greg Gibson, Lorraine Schein, T. L. Parkinson, Marc Laidlaw, Colin Wilson, Robert Sheckley, Denise Angela Shawl, Luke McGuff, Richard Kadrey, Philip Jose Farmer, Hugh Fox, Bart Plantenga, Anonymous, t. winter-damon, Robert Anton Wilson, Ivan Stang, Jacob Rabinowitz, Barrington J. Bayley...
Good copy. Old moisture rippling to top of front section of pages.
2023, English
Softcover (staple-bound), 82 pages, 14 x 19 cm
Published by
Fugitive Materials / New York
$24.00 - Out of stock
For War, Nothing is an exploration of war and peace in Colombia by Colectivo Contrainformativo Sub*versión, an anarchist editorial and political collective based in Bogotá. An analysis and critique of the 2016 peace agreement signed between the Colombian government and the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC), the country’s oldest guerrilla organization, this political tract investigates capital’s interests in war and peace in Colombia.
Perhaps most importantly for anglophone readers, the collective provides a framework for understanding armed conflict as an extension of the sharpened conditions of class war in which many who live in the periphery of the global circuits of capital accumulation find themselves.
For War, Nothing was originally published as Reflexiones Libertarias Sobre el Acuerdo de Paz en Colombia in 2017 by RojiNegro in Bogotá, Colombia.
2024, English / Portuguese
Softcover (staple-bound), 30 pages, 21.59 x 13 cm
Ed. of 150,
Published by
Fugitive Materials / New York
$19.00 - Out of stock
This zine reproduces some of the covers in a substantial collection of Brazilian cordel literature from the period of the military dictatorship and shortly thereafter – self-publishing from Brazil’s margins, documenting politics, religion and folklore, and even an early treatment of AIDS in Brazil during a period of extreme censorship and repression.
Text in English and Portuguese.
2022, English
Softcover (staple-bound), 18 pages, 21.59 x 13.97 cm
Published by
Fugitive Materials / New York
$19.00 - Out of stock
Work is Hell…Let’s Go To War! reproduces a selection of anti-war flyers and posters produced by Arch D. Bunker, an anonymous artists’ collective that mobilized in the early 1990s in response to the First Gulf War. The short-lived group detourned and criticized the distant and calculating language of military officials, arms dealers, politicians, and corporate media pundits. Produced in the first decade of cable news and the 24-hour news cycle, these prints also brought early attention to disinformation and the distorted ways in which most Americans were being shown the conflict, on television: the spectacle of war.
2024, English
Hardcover, 384 pages, 29 x 22 cm
Published by
Grim Roar / UK
$160.00 - In stock -
A whirling, twirling, panorama of satanic sleaze! The Return…. The 2nd Coming…the long-awaited next dose is finally unleashed and ready to melt minds and devour souls.
During the height of the turned-on 1960s and 70s Occult explosion even the under the counter adult men’s magazines got in on the act and began a surreal exploration of the haunting netherworld of Witchcraft and Satanism. This monumental art book reveals a world of diabolical smut that was so compelling and obscure that many people today would actually question whether or not the magazines were real or just an elaborate and detailed modern photo editing invention. A few salacious titles and images on the internet sparked imaginations, and strongly inspired bands in the doom/black//heavy metal genre, eventually these alluring images found their way to record covers and T-shirts, but mostly remaining shadowy, mysterious, and elusive. Magazines so impossible to hunt down that their very existence seemed an urban myth. Well, they are real, and they are spectacular!
These magazines are in fact, out there in the world. They are collecting dust in attics, basements, and garages. Hidden away from sight. Unsavory treasures deemed too filthy and then forgotten by their lustful owners. This massive 288 pages deluxe hardcover book is a glimpse into a vast and shocking world that remains virtually unknown and unexplored. These artifacts come from a bygone era promoting sexual revolution and freedom with overt and unholy occult themes. If you have any issues with hardcore witchcraft and Satanism, body hair or nudity, don’t pick this book up and quickly get it out of your sight, and forget everything we've mentioned. Just remember life's too short to take everything so seriously. Flesh is beautiful! It’s time to once again descend into the infernal witches’ cauldron and deep down into the hellish pit for a real Black Mass. Includes a thorough review and collector’s guide of each rare publication as well as illuminating essays on the subject. Entirely new visions of vintage devilish smut to shatter your senses and ignite pagan lust worldwide. Hardcover, 288 pages, limited edition 1000 copies.
1971, Japanese
Softcover (staple-bound), 160 pages, 21.5 x 15 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / good
Published by
Lemon Inc. / Tokyo
$80.00 - In stock -
Rare first May 1971 (w. Ken Katayama cover) issue of legendary Japanese underground arts periodical, Black Magazine (or Black Notebook), a taboo-shattering vehicle of the 1970s subculture in Tokyo. A magazine like no-other, each issue, "a paradise of 1970's heretical culture", was a who's who of non-conformity, introducing a new wave of illustrators, painters, doll-makers and photographers, "taboo" sexuality and fetish culture, avant-garde comics, sadistic literature, radical criticism, queer poetry, activism, black humour, underground film and theatre, and all manner of transgressive, esoteric and erotic material, new and historical. Black Magazine featured the work of Yukio Mishima, Toshio Saeki, Izumi Suzuki, Simon Yotsuya, Shūji Terayama, Ken Katayama, Nobuyoshi Araki, Genpei Akasegawa, Keiichi Tanaami, Kikuji Yamashita, Aoi Fujimoto, Tadanori Yokoo, Hiroshi Nakamura, and so many others. It was also where Japanese photographer Satomi Nihongi's Tokyo Transgender photographs were first printed. Black Magazine was heavy with queer and trans content, and Nihongi's "The Most Beautifuls" was a regular photo-feature in its pages. A lot of great things started in the pages of this unique magazine. A highly recommended publication!
This scarce first issue with incredible cover by Japanese illustrator Ken Katayama, features work/contributions by author Izumi Suzuki, film director Michio Okabe, artist Genpei Akasegawa, critic Junzo Ishiko, author Boris Vian, film director Eiichi Uchida, film critic Jin'ichi Uekusa, manga artist Shotaro Ishinomori, author Mieko Kanai, music critic Masaaki Hiraoka, artist Koichi Tanigawa, manga artist Shigeru Sugiura, graphic designer Mad Amano, doll artist Shimon Yotsuya, illustrator G. Akechi, art critic Junzo Ishiko, art critic Yoshida Yoshie, film director Toshio Matsumoto, graphic artist Keiichi Tanaami, author Koji Suzuki, artist Toshio Saeki, manga artist Shigeru Mizuki, manga artist Mori Masaki, manga artist Mitsuhiko Yoshida, artist Tsunehisa Kimura, playwright Jūrō Kara, and many more.
1971, Japanese
Softcover (staple-bound), 160 pages, 21.5 x 15 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / good
Published by
Lemon Inc. / Tokyo
$70.00 - In stock -
June 1971 issue of legendary Japanese underground arts periodical, Black Magazine (or Black Notebook), a taboo-shattering vehicle of the 1970s subculture in Tokyo. A magazine like no-other, each issue, "a paradise of 1970's heretical culture", was a who's who of non-conformity, introducing a new wave of illustrators, painters, doll-makers and photographers, "taboo" sexuality and fetish culture, avant-garde comics, sadistic literature, radical criticism, queer poetry, activism, black humour, underground film and theatre, and all manner of transgressive, esoteric and erotic material, new and historical. Black Magazine featured the work of Yukio Mishima, Toshio Saeki, Izumi Suzuki, Simon Yotsuya, Shūji Terayama, Ken Katayama, Nobuyoshi Araki, Genpei Akasegawa, Keiichi Tanaami, Kikuji Yamashita, Aoi Fujimoto, Tadanori Yokoo, Hiroshi Nakamura, and so many others. It was also where Japanese photographer Satomi Nihongi's Tokyo Transgender photographs were first printed. Black Magazine was heavy with queer and trans content, and Nihongi's "The Most Beautifuls" was a regular photo-feature in its pages. A lot of great things started in the pages of this unique magazine. A highly recommended publication!
1971, Japanese
Softcover (staple-bound), 160 pages, 21.5 x 15 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / good
Published by
Lemon Inc. / Tokyo
$90.00 - Out of stock
July 1971 (w. Simon Yotsuya cover) issue of legendary Japanese underground arts periodical, Black Magazine (or Black Notebook), a taboo-shattering vehicle of the 1970s subculture in Tokyo. A magazine like no-other, each issue, "a paradise of 1970's heretical culture", was a who's who of non-conformity, introducing a new wave of illustrators, painters, doll-makers and photographers, "taboo" sexuality and fetish culture, avant-garde comics, sadistic literature, radical criticism, queer poetry, activism, black humour, underground film and theatre, and all manner of transgressive, esoteric and erotic material, new and historical. Black Magazine featured the work of Yukio Mishima, Toshio Saeki, Izumi Suzuki, Simon Yotsuya, Shūji Terayama, Ken Katayama, Nobuyoshi Araki, Genpei Akasegawa, Keiichi Tanaami, Kikuji Yamashita, Aoi Fujimoto, Tadanori Yokoo, Hiroshi Nakamura, and so many others. It was also where Japanese photographer Satomi Nihongi's Tokyo Transgender photographs were first printed. Black Magazine was heavy with queer and trans content, and Nihongi's "The Most Beautifuls" was a regular photo-feature in its pages. A lot of great things started in the pages of this unique magazine. A highly recommended publication!
This third issue, themed "Heaven and Hell", features incredible cover by renowned Japanese doll artist (and female doll actor) Simon Yotsuya, and contributions by ero guro master Toshio Saeki, artist Genpei Akasegawa, art critic Junzo Ishiko, "Funeral Parade of Roses" director Toshio Matsumoto, Butoh dancer Natsu Nakajima, poet and critic Akiko Baba, photographer Masatoshi Naitō, manga artist Ryuzan Aki, literary critic Katsutarō Isogai, illustrator Akechi Goro, writer Masaki Umehara, author Utagawa Taiga, literary critic Nobuo Kasahara, essayist Shinichi Kusamori, critic Hidetomo Kanaoka, illustrator (Flower Travellin' Band) Shinobu Ishimaru, manga artist Shigeru Sugiura, scholar Aoi Suenaga, artist Takahashi Shōtei, illustrator Yosuke Inoue, and many more. A lot of great things started in the pages of this unique magazine. A highly recommended publication!
1973, Japanese
Softcover (staple-bound), 250 pages, 21 x 15 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Sun Publishing / Japan
$60.00 - Out of stock
December 1973 issue of S&M Collector, the legendary cult pioneering Japanese kinbaku magazine published monthly by Sun Publishing from 1972—1985 and founded by Shin Miyasaka and Toshiyuki Suma. Cover artwork by Haruo Shinozaki. One of the finest examples of SM publishing in Japan in the 1970s and 1980s, each issue of S&M Collector included a perfect combination of colour and b/w bondage photo features, illustrated fetish fiction, articles and a heavy selection of the most talented bondage artwork galleries, with contributors including Oniroku Dan, Ran Akiyoshi, Shoji Oki, Yoji Muku, Namio Harukawa, Tadao Chigusa, Mito Akiyoshi, Sanpei Akashi, Juan Maeda, Yoko Ozuma, Toshimi Fuji, Hakuzan Shiraishi, Ran Akiyoshi, Haruo Shinozaki, Akira Minomura, Bill Ward, Osamu Nakahara, and many more. Beautifully designed with printing on many various paper-stocks, finishes, and fold-out spreads.
Very Good copy with some loose but present central pages.
1974, Japanese
Softcover (staple-bound), 250 pages, 21 x 15 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Sun Publishing / Japan
$65.00 $50.00 - In stock -
February 1974 issue of S&M Collector, the legendary cult pioneering Japanese kinbaku magazine published monthly by Sun Publishing from 1972—1985 and founded by Shin Miyasaka and Toshiyuki Suma. Cover artwork by Haruo Shinozaki. One of the finest examples of SM publishing in Japan in the 1970s and 1980s, each issue of S&M Collector included a perfect combination of colour and b/w bondage photo features, illustrated fetish fiction, articles and a heavy selection of the most talented bondage artwork galleries, with contributors including Oniroku Dan, Ran Akiyoshi, Shoji Oki, Yoji Muku, Namio Harukawa, Tadao Chigusa, Mito Akiyoshi, Sanpei Akashi, Juan Maeda, Yoko Ozuma, Toshimi Fuji, Hakuzan Shiraishi, Ran Akiyoshi, Haruo Shinozaki, Akira Minomura, Bill Ward, Osamu Nakahara, and many more. Beautifully designed with printing on many various paper-stocks, finishes, and fold-out spreads.
Very Good copy.
1975, Japanese
Softcover (staple-bound), 250 pages, 21 x 15 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / good
Published by
Sun Publishing / Japan
$60.00 - Out of stock
May 1975 issue of S&M Collector, the legendary cult pioneering Japanese kinbaku magazine published monthly by Sun Publishing from 1972—1985 and founded by Shin Miyasaka and Toshiyuki Suma. Cover artwork by Haruo Shinozaki. One of the finest examples of SM publishing in Japan in the 1970s and 1980s, each issue of S&M Collector included a perfect combination of colour and b/w bondage photo features, illustrated fetish fiction, articles and a heavy selection of the most talented bondage artwork galleries, with contributors including Oniroku Dan, Ran Akiyoshi, Shoji Oki, Yoji Muku, Namio Harukawa, Tadao Chigusa, Mito Akiyoshi, Sanpei Akashi, Juan Maeda, Yoko Ozuma, Toshimi Fuji, Hakuzan Shiraishi, Ran Akiyoshi, Haruo Shinozaki, Akira Minomura, Bill Ward, Osamu Nakahara, and many more. Beautifully designed with printing on many various paper-stocks, finishes, and fold-out spreads.
Good copy with general wear/age.
1984, Japanese
Softcover, 330 pages, 21 x 15 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Million Publishing / Tokyo
$65.00 $40.00 - Out of stock
September 1984 issue SM Spirits, the ‘obscenity graphic monthly’ cult kinbaku magazine from S&M Sniper publisher Million Publishing, published between 1984—1993. Heavy with glossy sadomasochistic bondage photo stories, manga, SM art galleries, illustrated fetish stories and articles, SM Spirits featured the regular contributions of kinbaku masters such as Oniroku Dan, Ran Kousei, Arisue Go, Tadao Chigusa, Suehiro Maruo, Shin Tendouji, Junichi Tate, Shima Shikou, Akira Ishigaki, Keiichi Nakahara, Kinichi Tanaka, Hiroshi Urado, Eikichi Osada, Chimuo Nureki, Haruki Yukimura, and cover artwork by the amazing Takashi Niida. From the late ‘80s, each monthly issue explored a title theme, such as: Women in masochism, Suicide, New pleasures in SM, Anarchy Readers, My Lolita Angel, The Kinbaku, Eros Feminine, Pornography, Secret Amusement, Comic Spirits (featuring artist Suehiro Maruo), to name a few.
Very Good copy.
1975, Japanese
Softcover (staple-bound), 250 pages, 21 x 15 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Sun Publishing / Japan
$65.00 $50.00 - In stock -
October 1975 issue of S&M Collector, the legendary cult pioneering Japanese kinbaku magazine published monthly by Sun Publishing from 1972—1985 and founded by Shin Miyasaka and Toshiyuki Suma. Cover artwork by Haruo Shinozaki. One of the finest examples of SM publishing in Japan in the 1970s and 1980s, each issue of S&M Collector included a perfect combination of colour and b/w bondage photo features, illustrated fetish fiction, articles and a heavy selection of the most talented bondage artwork galleries, with contributors including Oniroku Dan, Ran Akiyoshi, Shoji Oki, Yoji Muku, Namio Harukawa, Tadao Chigusa, Mito Akiyoshi, Sanpei Akashi, Juan Maeda, Yoko Ozuma, Toshimi Fuji, Hakuzan Shiraishi, Ran Akiyoshi, Haruo Shinozaki, Akira Minomura, Bill Ward, Osamu Nakahara, and many more. Beautifully designed with printing on many various paper-stocks, finishes, and fold-out spreads.
Very Good copy with some loose but present central pages.
1974, Japanese
Softcover (staple-bound), 250 pages, 21 x 15 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Sun Publishing / Japan
$60.00 - Out of stock
December 1974 issue of S&M Collector, the cult pioneering Japanese kinbaku magazine published monthly by Sun Publishing from 1972—1985 and founded by Shin Miyasaka and Toshiyuki Suma. Cover artwork by Haruo Shinozaki. One of the finest examples of SM publishing in Japan in the 1970s and 1980s, each issue of S&M Collector included colour and b/w bondage photo features, fetish fiction, articles and incredible artwork, with contributors including Shoji Oki, Yoji Muku, Namio Harukawa, Tadao Chigusa, Mito Akiyoshi, Sanpei Akashi, Juan Maeda, Yoko Ozuma, Toshimi Fuji, Hakuzan Shiraishi, Ran Akiyoshi, Haruo Shinozaki, Osamu Nakahara... This issue includes the work of Tadao Chigusa, Youji Muku (Toyonaka Yumeo), Haruo Shinozaki, Yoko Ozuma, Akira Minumura, Yoji Muku, Shiro Kasama, Takashi Koizumi, Youji Muku, Akira Kito, Makoto Miyama, Juan Maeda, Bill Ward, and many more.
Very Good copy.
1975, Japanese
Softcover (staple-bound), 250 pages, 21 x 15 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Sun Publishing / Japan
$60.00 - Out of stock
February 1975 issue of S&M Collector, the legendary cult pioneering Japanese kinbaku magazine published monthly by Sun Publishing from 1972—1985 and founded by Shin Miyasaka and Toshiyuki Suma. Cover artwork by Haruo Shinozaki. One of the finest examples of SM publishing in Japan in the 1970s and 1980s, each issue of S&M Collector included a perfect combination of colour and b/w bondage photo features, illustrated fetish fiction, articles and a heavy selection of the most talented bondage artwork galleries, with contributors including Oniroku Dan, Ran Akiyoshi, Shoji Oki, Yoji Muku, Namio Harukawa, Tadao Chigusa, Mito Akiyoshi, Sanpei Akashi, Juan Maeda, Yoko Ozuma, Toshimi Fuji, Hakuzan Shiraishi, Ran Akiyoshi, Haruo Shinozaki, Akira Minomura, Bill Ward, Osamu Nakahara, and many more. Beautifully designed with printing on many various paper-stocks, finishes, and fold-out spreads.
Very Good copy with some loose but present central pages.
1974, Japanese
Softcover (staple-bound), 250 pages, 21 x 15 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / good
Published by
Sun Publishing / Japan
$40.00 $20.00 - In stock -
June 1974 issue of S&M Collector, the legendary cult pioneering Japanese kinbaku magazine published monthly by Sun Publishing from 1972—1985 and founded by Shin Miyasaka and Toshiyuki Suma. Cover artwork by Haruo Shinozaki. One of the finest examples of SM publishing in Japan in the 1970s and 1980s, each issue of S&M Collector included a perfect combination of colour and b/w bondage photo features, illustrated fetish fiction, articles and a heavy selection of the most talented bondage artwork galleries, with contributors including Oniroku Dan, Ran Akiyoshi, Shoji Oki, Yoji Muku, Namio Harukawa, Tadao Chigusa, Mito Akiyoshi, Sanpei Akashi, Juan Maeda, Yoko Ozuma, Toshimi Fuji, Hakuzan Shiraishi, Ran Akiyoshi, Haruo Shinozaki, Akira Minomura, Bill Ward, Osamu Nakahara, and many more. Beautifully designed with printing on many various paper-stocks, finishes, and fold-out spreads.
Good copy with some loose but present central pages and disconnected cover.
1980, Japanese
Softcover (staple-bound), 250 pages, 21 x 15 cm
1st Edition, Out of print title / used / very good
Published by
Sun Publishing / Japan
$60.00 - In stock -
SM Kitan September 1980 issue, featuring cover artwork by legendary erotic fantasy artist Ran Akiyoshi (1922–1982). A cult classic of vintage Japanese BDSM and Kinbaku (Japanese bondage), SM Kitan was a leading SM magazine published by the great Sun Publishing house, and was formerly known as S&M Abuhunter (changing its name to SM Kitan from August 1975). Heavy with wonderful artwork galleries in colour and bw, glossy bondage photo-features, illustrated fetish fiction, manga, fold-outs, and much more. Ran Akiyoshi (1922–1982) illustrated many of the iconic covers, with regular contributors including Sotaro Aki, Tadao Chigusa, Namio Harukawa, Yoko Ozuma, Reiko Kita, Akiyoshi Akiyoshi, Hakuzan Shiraishi, Shoji Oki, Namio Harukawa, Akira Kasuga, and Gekko Hayashi (Gojin Ishihara).
Very Good copy. Light wear/age.