Book Affair
Saturday, February 11, 2012
10am-4pm
Organized by Fiona Connor & Co.
Various Small Fires
1212-B Abbot Kinney Blvd.
Venice, CA 90291
www.vsf.la
Book Affair will function as both a fair and a temporary library and will take place within the
current installation, ‘Murals and Print’ by Fiona Connor.
While books will be offered for sale, the event will also be an opportunity for local publishers and artists to share titles and editions that are not always available to the Los Angeles community.
Along these lines, each participant will bring five books for either selling and/or sharing. A comprehensive bibliography with all participants and their titles will also be compiled and distributed. There will also be a xerox machine located on the premises for visitors to use.
Textfield, Inc. will display 5 books less than 10 inches, on a shelf provided by the organizers, and an Eduardo Sarabia vase/sculpture, placed on the seat of a chair/pedestal.
Book Affair will also display furniture made specifically for the event by Tahi Moore, Joshua Nathanson, Michael Ned Holte, and Fiona Connor among others.
Participants include: 2nd Cannons, A-Z video, Chinatown: the sequel, Dexter Sinister, Harsh Patel, Henry Glover, Kaleidoscope, Ooga Booga, Prism of Reality, Semiotexte, Textfield, Inc., Works Sited, and WorldFood Books.
2nd Cannons, A-Z video, Anthony Pearson, Antony Hudek, Athanasios Velios, Book Affair, Book Fairs, Bücher & Hefte, Chinatown: the sequel, Dexter Sinister, Distribution, Ed Ruscha, Eduardo Sarabia, Exhibitions, Fiona Connor, Harsh Patel, Henry Glover, John Latham, Jonathan Maghen, Joshua Nathanson, KALEIDOSCOPE Press, Kunstverein, Michael Ned Holte, Midway Contemporary Art, Occasional Papers, Olivian Cha, Omar the Beggar, Ooga Booga, Paul Gerhard Diez, Payam Sharifi, Prism of Reality, Semiotexte, Slavs and Tatars, Tahi Moore, Various Small Fires, Works Sited, WorldFood Books
Anthony Pearson, Solarizations
Hardcover, 72 pp., offset 1/1, 6.25 x 9.75 inches
Edition of 1000
ISBN 978-0-9768664-2-9
Published by Midway Contemporary Art
$25.00 ·
An essay by Tim Griffin and an interview between Anthony Pearson and John Rasmussen discuss Pearson’s unusual approach to photography, his solarization and lens flare pieces, and his process. Twenty plates give the reader a clear sense of this body of work.
Pearson’s work over the past few years has been an exploration of perceptual and historical aspects of photography and abstraction. Working in both chemical and electronic processes, Pearson has melded these photographic methods in a highly personal manner to suggest that the concerns of the analog and digital are not as disparate as supposed. His ongoing series of solarized, silver gelatin prints exploit elements of chance and variability through a highly controlled three-part process. Pearson begins by constructing tableaus of foil, spray-paint, and ripped paper through both additive and subtractive methods, alluding to precedents such as the décollage of the Nouveau Realistes. After photographing details of these drawings and constructions, the prints are then solarized in the darkroom during a process by which tonality of the image is inverted to varying degrees through a brief exposure to white light. While the small scale of these photographs could be read as referencing reproductive plates of gestural mid-century paintings, the unique nature of each photograph elaborates a highly personalized language that builds upon historical strains of abstraction.
Abi Chase, Anthony Pearson, David Kordansky Gallery, Distribution, John Rasmussen, Midway Contemporary Art, Shane Campbell Gallery, Tim Griffin
Contra Mundum I-VII
Softcover, 224 pp., offset 1/1, 140 x 220 mm
Edition of 1000
ISBN 978-0-9830773-0-5
Published by Oslo Editions
$18.00 · out of stock
The inaugural volume from
Oslo Editions,
Contra Mundum I-VII, documents a series of talks held at the Mandrake in Los Angeles on the theme of “contra mundum” or “against the world.” Taking its cue from Evelyn Waugh’s novel
Brideshead Revisited, Contra Mundum posits the world-making potential of (anti)sociality as a subject position and the value of a notion of collectivity grounded in “association without relation.” So doing, the book considers a diverse range of topics, including the furniture of Donald Judd, Private Issue New Age music, animal subjectivity, misanthropy and the trope of self-banishment in Shakespeare, apocalypticism and the zombie film, pirates from Blackbeard to Somalia, and the post-punk vocalist Mark E. Smith. Featuring contributions from artists Rupert Deese, Elad Lassry, Anthony Pearson, and Frances Stark, and critics Aaron Kunin, Matthew Taylor Raffety, and Evan Calder Williams.
Artforum 500 Words.
Aaron Kunin, Alex Klein, Animals, Anthony Pearson, Architecture, Art, Artforum, Aurele Sack, Dallas Acid, Donald Judd, Elad Lassry, Evan Calder Williams, Evelyn Waugh, Frances Stark, Furniture, Grigory Perelman, Jan Tumlir, Jon Pestoni, Mandrake, Mark E Smith, Mark Owens, Matt Anderson, Matthew Taylor Raffety, Michael Metzger, Music, New Age, Oslo Editions, Piper Wynn Severance, RAM, Rupert Deese, The Fall, Wendy Yao
Alex Klein, Words Without Pictures
Softcover, 510 pp., offset 1/1, 5.75 x 8.25 inches
Edition of 2000
ISBN 978-1-5971114-2-3
Published by Aperture/LACMA
$25.00 ·
Words Without Pictures was originally conceived by curator Charlotte Cotton and artist Alex Klein as a means of creating spaces for discourse around current issues in photography. Every month for a year, beginning in November 2007, an artist, educator, critic or curator was invited to contribute a short unillustrated essay about an aspect of emerging photography. Each piece was available on the Words Without Pictures
website for one month and was accompanied by a discussion forum focused on its specific topic. Over the course of its month-long “life,” each essay received both invited and unsolicited responses from a wide range of interested parties. All of these essays, responses and other provocations are gathered together here. Previously issued as a print-on-demand title, we are pleased to present
Words Without Pictures to the trade for the first time as part of the
Aperture Ideas series.
A. L. Steiner, Alex Klein, Alex Slade, Allan McCollum, Allen Ruppersberg, Amir Zaki, Amy Adler, Anthony Pearson, Aperture, Art, Arthur Ou, Carter Mull, Charlie White, Charlotte Cotton, Christopher Bedford, Criticism, DAP, Darius Himes, David Reinfurt, Dexter Sinister, George Baker, Harrell Fletcher, James Welling, Jason Evans, John Divola, Kevin Moore, LACMA, Leslie Hewitt, Marisa Olson, Mark Wyse, Michael Queenland, Miranda Lichtenstein, Paul Graham, Penelope Umbrico, Photography, Sarah Charlesworth, Shannon Ebner, Sharon Lockhart, Soo Kim, Sze Tsung Leong, Theory, Walead Beshty, Wallis Annenberg Photography Department
Terminus Ante Quem
Softcover, 8 pp., offset 1/1, 8 x 10 inches
Edition of 500
Published by Shane Campbell Gallery
$5.00 ·
Published on the occasion of the exhibition
Terminus Ante Quem
Shane Huffman, Barbara Kasten, Anthony Pearson, Erin Shirreff
May 1 — June 12, 2010
Organized by Anthony Pearson
Essay by Alex Klein
Designed by Mark Owens
Alex Klein, Anthony Pearson, Art, Barbara Kasten, Criticism, Distribution, Erin Shirreff, Mark Owens, Shane Campbell Gallery, Shane Huffman, Theory