november-books: January 2015

Whole Earth Catalog : March 1970 : The World Game

Steve Job's fave The Whole Earth Catalog- which was the free thinking internet before the internet. The newsprint issues are more article based rather than a directory of Geodesic dome supplies and how to get wasted or levitate etc. March 1970 has Buckminster Fuller (of course), seeds, subversive science, sprouts and acorn meal, windmills, diy funerals, brazil revisited, mathematics and much more. Oh how the world could have been different! Albeit with awful food, but still.

Steve Job's fave The Whole Earth Catalog- which was the free thinking internet before the internet. The newsprint issues are more article based rather than a directory of Geodesic dome supplies and how to get wasted or levitate etc. July 1970 has space (it's the place you know), corrections, sustainable cultures, soybeans, the monastic way of death, women, primitive weapons, biospheres, stones. Awesome.

So rare, with only a handful of copies produced, most of which were lost. 16 pages of the best Wedge has produced, some has been seen in The James Wedge book, Ritva campaigns and Nova. Super super good.

Scarce. The legendary magazine created by Anna Piaggi and showcasing her favourite designers and illustrators. Like a parallel fashion universe. Very Antonio Lopez heavy- in fact almost every article/editorial and many of the advertisments are by him. Plus Horst, Roxanne Lowit, Chloe (by Lagerfeld), menswear, Gaultier for Gibo, Prada, Fendi, Sportmax, Versace and all the usual Italian stuff. Clothes are great, but what made Vanity special was Piaggi's eye and Lopez's interpretations. The best thing Conde Nast did in the eighties. Very special.

Scarce. The legendary magazine created by Anna Piaggi and showcasing her favourite designers and illustrators. Like a parallel fashion universe. Very Lopez heavy, nearly everything is illustrated by him, and nearly all the photographs are by Castaldi. India, Studio Alchimia (wow!), Lagerfeld and the new Chanel, Bill Cunningham, Venice, Westwood and World's End, Fiorucci and more. So good it's difficult to believe it actually exists.

Scarce. The legendary magazine created by Anna Piaggi and showcasing her favourite designers and illustrators. Like a parallel fashion universe. Very Lopez heavy, nearly everything is illustrated by him, and nearly all the photographs are by Castaldi. Versace, Lagerfeld, lots of Bill Cunningham shooting Mugler and a lot of catwalk action amongst other things, polaroids by Juan Ramos, JC/DC, Westwood, Yohji Yamamoto, Valentino, Roxanne Lowit. The best thing on paper from 1983- and that's by a long shot.

The Alchymia (sic) research program into decor, in collaboration with the centrodomus. Split into sections, architecture, furnishings and objects, cars, fashion. Full of Memphis-esque patterns, hand tint photocopies and textiles patterns. The whole books is produced on a colour photocopier, and is about as good as a research project or potential sourcebook could get! Superb, and extremely scarce.