David Hamilton Intimacies

New York. Bloomingdales. 1977. First Edition. Small 4to. 28pp. Printed wrappers as issued. Numerous Colour plates. In an L.A. times envelope, postmarked August 1977. 

Just one year after Bloomingdales commissioned Bourdin for the incredible 'Sighs & Whispers', they comissioned Hamilton to shoot 'Intimacies', feeling that after the controversy of 'sighs', something softer was required. Hamilton delivers probably his best work- the colour work is phenomenal, with all of the hallmarks of 'good' Hamilton, and none of the pitfalls of his later work. Quite why it is so rare is unknown, it is possible that it was withdrawn before publication as the only 2 copies I have ever seen have been for review. This copy was sent to Doris Grumbach, feminist writer and essayist, who at the time was writing for the NY Times book review.

James Wedge Photo Graphics Ltd folio

London. Photo/James Wedge. 1973. First Edition. 4to, 16pp. Printed wraps. Numerous colour plates. 

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.

Masahisa Fukase Karusa / Ravens (The Solitude of Ravens)

Tokyo. Sokyusha. 1986. First Edition. 4to, 132pp. Blindstamped cloth in card slipcase. 63 Black & White plates. Text in English and Japanese. 

Cited in both Parr and Badger's "The Photobook: A History Volume I" and Kaneko and Vartanian's "Japanese Photobooks of the 1960s and 70s", and described by the BJP as 'an obscure masterpiece' when it was nominated as the most important photography book of the past 25 years. "The depth of solitude in Masahisa Fukase's photographs makes me shudder" - Akira Hasegawa.

L'Hiver de L'Amour Bis

Paris. Musee D'Art Moderne. 1994. First Edition. 4to, 96pp. Numerous Colour and Black & White plates. Text in French and English. 2 pieces of epherema inserted- Gray Goo flyer by Dike Blair , and an Ami Garmon booklet from the show. 

Brilliant 1994 book from the exhibition of the same name, curated by Purple magazine titans Zahm and Fleiss. Shows some super Margiela work, Larry Clark, Viktor & Rolf, Inez van Lamsweerde, Dike Blair, Carsten Holler, Alix Lambert, Wolfgang Tillmans, General Idea, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Anders Edstrom etc. So basically an exhibition of what would have appeared in Purple at the time. Design negation at its best.

Studio Alchimia La superficie modificante

Milan. Alchymia/Centro Xerox. 1980. First Edition. Small 4to. Unpaginated (ca 48pp). Spiral bound wraps as issued. Colour photocopy pages. Numerous Colour and Black & White plates. Text in Italian and English.

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!

Le Palace Agenda 1982

Paris. Societe de Presse. December 1982. First Edition. 8vo, Unpaginated (ca 300pp). Printed boards as issued. Numerous Colour and Black & White plates. Text in French. 

A strange one- in thats it's a diary for 1983, probably given away at the time. The clincher though, is that every other spread is a photo spread- making it the only book on Le Palace published by Le Palace, and to be fair, it's the best book on Le Palace. The majority of the photographs are by Roxanne Lowit and Dominique Lauga, and most of them I haven't seen before. Pretty incredible.

Deborah Turbeville Maquillage 1975

New York. Rizzoli Gallery. 1975. First Edition. 4to. 36pp. Printed wraps as issued. Profusely illustrated in duotone. 300 copies were signed and numbered by Turbeville, with the first 50 copies being accompanied by a silver gelatin print. This is copy number 13, though the print is not present. It does however, appear that this was Turbevilles own copy, as she has made annotations to titlepage. Covers a little creased and stained. More images available on request.. Softcover.. Book: VG+. .

Scarce, especially when signed. Her first book, commissioned by Rizzoli gallery in 1975. An incredibly beautiful piece of work that foreshadows her obsessions and future career.

Guy Debord Memoires

Copenhagen. Privately Printed. 1959. First Edition . 4to. Unpaginated (64pp). Wraps in sandpaper dustwrapper. Full colour pages. Text in French. Printed in an edition of between 200 and 500 copies at the workshop of Verner Permild, though the actual number produced is unknown. 

One of the rarest (and by contrast most famous) artist's books. A legendary artefact of the twentieth century.

Mark Borthwick Xerox (all 4 volumes) 1978 / Syntheric Voices / Margiela 2000-1 / Social Documentaries Amid this Piste

New York. Self Published. ca 2002. First Edition. small 4to, 4 volumes (200-240pp each). Printed wraps. Numerous Black & White plates. 

A complete set of Borthwick's self published photocopy books. All four titles are quite something as single volumes, but all four together are really a tour de force. Inspirations, d.i.y. shoots, personal work, Margiela, Purple, Hussein Chalayan, Chloe Sevigny, sketches and writings. Self published 'photocopy' versions, which Borthwick produced himself around 2002. He did them in a very small print run, though the total number is unknown. Rendered in grayscale tones, the work is much more unified, and typifies Borthwick's obscure and quotidien style. Social documentaries is signed to titlepage. Incredible!

Mickey Demourelle Mardi Gras in New Orleans

London. Self Published. 1970. First Edition. Square 8vo, Unpaginated (ca 120pp). Stiff printed wraps as issued. Numerous Black & White plates. A little rubbed and soiled. Stamped by Demoruelle to cover and signed by him to the last page. .

Local man Demoruelle shoots Mardi Gras, but ignores the floats and performers to document the crowd, the streets, the drunks, the sailors and the families. A very striking, natural and individual document of a very special (and long gone) phenomenon, Demoruelle has an excellent eye for detail and a natural flair for capturing the somewhat ethereal spirit of New Orleans in the late sixties. Really the best book on the subject.

Bruce Weber Men & Women : Images from Nicole

Tokyo. Doeisha. 1983. First Edition. Folio, 102pp. Printed wraps as issued. Numerous Black & White plates.

Absolutely astounding book comprising shots Weber took at Gilgo beach NY for Nicole. A lost Bruce Weber classic, and maybe his best book.

Steven Morrissey New York Dolls

Manchester. Babylon Books. February 1981. First Edition. Small 4to. 48pp. Printed wraps as issued. Numerous Black and White plates. Text in English. In superb condition with a little toning and rubbing to covers. 

The young Morrissey's ode and love letter to the New York Dolls. Some excellent images and sharp and astute text by Morrissey. The Dolls were a huge influence on Morrissey- he was president of their UK fan club. "Some bands grab you and they never let you go and, no matter what they do, they can never let you down ... the Dolls were that for me." Fandom aside, Morrissey has produced a brilliant book on what is a quite important chapter in the history of popular culture, the Dolls not only signified the end of the 60s, but crossed boundaries in taste, dress and sexuality. Very scarce, the book was written and published before Morrissey then became famous with the Smiths. An important and informative piece of cultural ephemera.

Tom Wood Not Only Female

Koln. Schaden. 2004. First Edition. Square 8vo, 48pp. Printed wraps as issued. Numerous Colour and Black & White plates. Text in English and French. 

The toughest Tom Wood book to turn up. Beautiful early collection of his work from 70s and 80s Liverpool. Teenagers, nightclubs and street photography. Quietly stunning.

Olivetti Concept and Form

Tokyo. Olivetti. 1971. First edition. Narrow 4to. (unpaginated). 21 loose leaf sheets in folder, housed in card slipcase. Numerous Black & White and Colour plates. 

Stunning Olivetti showcase using different paperstocks, photographs, graphics and plans.

Playboy Guia Ibiza

Barcelona. Playboy. 1979. First Edition. Small Square 4to, Unpaginated (ca 120pp). Printed wraps as issued. Text in Spanish. Numerous colour plates. 

Some amazing things in unexpected places! so as one would expect there are a few now rather kitschy nudes, but they don't take up too much space. What does however is page after page of Ibiza subculture and nightlife in the form of 70s Pacha, Paula's (Heinemann's incredible boutique), Yacht parties and faces about town, shot by Toni Riera- who was Pacha's in house photographer in the 70s and knew all the people on the island who mattered. A perfect portrait of the island when it was still the countercultural hub for the aristocracy of Europe's hip down and out. Very much an underdocumented cultural phenomenon, considering it's massive later impact on popular and youth culture.

Punk Rock in London 1977-1979

Tokyo. Buronzu Sha. 1979. First edition. 8vo. Unpaginated (ca 160pp). Paper wraps in Dustwrap. Numerous Black & White plates. Text in Japanese. 

One of the highlights of punk documentary on par with Costa Punk or 100 Nights at the Roxy. There's a tiny bit of Roxy in there but the focus is really North and West London- The Roundhouse, The Electric Ballroom, Dingwalls, The Rochester Castle (Stokey) and Acklam Hall (Ladbroke Grove). Fans, Bands, gigs, street and club/pub scenes. Real grassroots stuff!

Purple Sexe 1

Paris. Purple Institute. 1998. First Edition. 8vo, 32pp. Printed wraps. Numerous Colour and Black & White plates. 

The first of the controversial, but very good Purple Sexe. Lots of high quality filth from the world of high quality fashion- the highlights being Vivier's work and Richardson's Dynamic Duo shoot.

Paolo Roversi Secrets

Sold out immediately! Which came as a surprise to me, but is is probably his nicest book so far, beautiful production and such a beautiful, delicate object. Some commercial and personal work, a beautiful selection. A very personal book, really sums up his practice. This copy is also signed.

Purple Sexe (complete run)

Paris. Purple Institute. 1998-2008. First Edition. 8vo, 9 volumes. Unpaginated (ca32-96pp each). Printed wraps. Numerous Colour and Black & White plates. Volumes 1 to 9- plus Purple Magazine no.1 (summer 1998) where purple sexe no.2 was published.

The anti fashion aesthetic of Purple applied to sex. A complete run of the controversial, but retrospectively groundbreaking Purple Sexe. Lots of high quality filth from the world of high quality fashion- Terry Richardson starts things off- and in the subsequent volumes produce arguably his best work. But in addition there is some incredible work from Viviane Sassen, Hiromix, Anders Edstrom, Vanessa Beecroft, Jack Pierson, Mark Borthwick, Richard Prince, Katja Rahwles. "Like it or not, sex is so commercial it has become banal, it's become a service industry for your body the way mechanics take care of your car.... ...Today, sex is varied, but not transformed. It has evolved, but remains the same river through which we all flow. Thus Purple Sexe, the first in a series of magazines to frame the subject that frames us all." A very ambitious project- and a successful one, pushing the boundaries and aesthetics of sexuality and the act of sex itself.

Baron Wolman Rags (Complete run including dummy issue)

San Francisco. Rosy Cheeks. March 1970-July 1971. First Edition. 4to, 13 volumes. ca 32pp each. Printed wraps as issued. Numerous Black & White and duotone plates, text in English. 

Incredible countercultural artefact with just a few copies being held institutionally. Baron Wolman worked for Rolling Stone in the 60s and decided to club together with a couple of others to document more interesting people i.e. the ones they all saw walking along the Haight and hanging around San Francisco's more left leaning squats and communes. The result is Rags, the first ever street style magazine, and one of the first magazines to document fashion (or anti fashion) from the street rather than the catwalk or society, the magazine's echoes and legacy can be seen today in early i-D, The Face, Purple and pretty much every modern fashion magazine. The contents are brillant, from straight ups as they were later called by Terry Jones to articles on what barbers, corpses and make up counter clerks wear along with killer shoots and articles. Also features half the SF scene of the time such as Sylvester, The Cockettes, various groups of groupies (GTO's I think). '...fashion is not an isolated moment on some exotic island with a porcelain model, but simply an everyday sense of how people are dressing themselves.' - Baron Wolman. A key moment in the history of fashion publishing.

Raf Simons Redux

Milan. Charta. 1995. First Edition. Folio, 224pp. White cloth in vellum paper dustwrapper. Numerous illustrations. 

Very well produced book published to celebrate 10 years of Raf Simons. As the publisher says- "Published for the tenth anniversary of the Belgian fashion designer's career, the volume 'Raf Simons Redux' narrates through images and texts the intellectual and creative evolution of Raf Simons, one of the main innovators of contemporary men's fashion. By Peter De Potter and Raf Simons. Edited by Maria Luisa Frisa. Special contribution by Cris Brodahl, Stef Driesen, Pieter Mulier, Olivier Rizzo, Collier Schorr, Robbie Snelders, Willy Vanderperre. Texts by Francesco Bonami, Peter De Potter, Marc Foxx, Jo-Ann Furniss, Ashley Heath, Terry Jones, Collier Schorr, Raf Simons."

Keizo Kitajima Shashin Tokkyubin Okinawa - Photo Mail from Okinawa (issues 1-4)

Tokyo. Parolu-sha. 1980. First Edition. 4 volumes, Small 4to, ca 20pp each. Printed wraps as issued. Numerous Black & White plates. Text in Japanese. From a very small print run, with few copies surviving. The original negatives and photographs have long since been lost. More images available on request. . Hardcover.. Book: Near Fine. .

A complete set of Photo Mail Okinawa, originally produced for his show at CAMP in 1980. No institutional copies at the time of writing, in addition Kitajima reputedly does not have a file copy of the work himself. Very new wave and somewhat zine-ish in feel, they document the people and Scenes of Koza- primarily hostesses, drunkards and African American G.I.'s. The photographs are harsh, haphazard and a filled with a sense of chaos and urgency, channeling an almosy punk like energy. Reads like a gritty and seedy parallel universe. A post Provoke/Workshop masterpiece.

C Ryan Skinheads

London (?). Self Published. 1981. First Edition. 4to, 68pp. Printed wraps as issued. Text in English. Numerous Black & White plates.

The real deal. Lots of grainy photocopies images and brilliant text. One of Ryan Mcginley's favourite books, which is nice to know. An excellent subcultural artefact.

Shoichi Aoki Street no.1 and no.2

Tokyo. Street. 1985. First Edition. 4to, 2 Vols. 32pp each. Printed wraps. Text in English and Japanese. Numerous colour plates.

Really special one here- the first two issues of the legendary 'Street' magazine. Way before the internet street was the definitive source of streetstyle shots, mainly taken outside fashion shows in London, Paris, Milan and New York. So- we basically have a behind the scenes of all the shows in '85, which includes Comme, Alaia, Anthony Price and so on, plus a lot of out and about shots. Seriously amazing.

Willy Spiller Subway New York

Cologne. Stemmle. 1986. First Edition. 4to, 140pp. Printed wraps. Numerous Colour plates. Text in German.

First and only edition, which appeared in the same year as Bruce Davidson's Subway. Incredible document of New York's subway system and the people, graff, commuters, police and oddballs who populate it shot between 1977 and 1984. Gritty portrait of a retrospectively mythologised part of New York Life.

Alan Vincent The Bangy Book New Yorker Street Boys

Berlin. Vis a Vis. 1988. First Edition. 4to, 80pp. Printed wraps as issued. Numerous Black & White plates.

Great document of the guys who 'pass'. Documents the gay black and puerto rican street subculture of NYC. Killer details, self styling, and (some) nudity. The real deal, and the only book that documents the subject.

Mark Borthwick Synthetic Voices

Tokyo. Synergy. 1998. First Edition. 4to, ca 200pp. Printed wraps. Numerous colour plates. With Obi Band. Inscribed by Borthwick to titlepage.

Conceived more as an artists book, and containing his brilliant work for Purple, Self Service, Vogue Italia etc. alongside Margiela, Personal work, texts, Hussein Chalayan, Paul McCarthy, Patti Smith and a lot more. Beautiful- and the best copy I've ever seen.

Burton Y Berry Teenage Styles and Trends 1967-71 A Retrospective

Zurich. Privately Printed. 1972. First Edition. 4oo, Unpaginated (ca 128pp). Glossy boards as issued. Numerous Black & White plates. Text in English. 'This publication was made possible through a generous grant from Mr. Blank'. Privately printed in an edition of 300 copies.

Very little is know of Burton Berry, except that he was an American diplomat and senior member of the American Numismatic Society (thats coin collecting), he was also an important textile collector and served as consul to Istanbul, Bucharest, Cairo and Beirut before becoming Ambassador to Iraq and then retiring to Zurich. It is in Zurich in the late 60's- and when he was in his early sixties, that he shot this book. Presented as a guide to youth fashions (which it is), the book is more a vehicle for Berry's lust, admiration and fascination for the young men he documents. He is partiularly interested in long hair, the feminisation of youth and the flambouyancy of dress at the time. The images are very much what would be later called streetstyle shots, and Berry does an excellent job categorising and presenting them, and seems to have struck up a dialogue with his subjects to really get an understanding of what was going on at the time. The overall feeling though, is that of a tender love affair with youth itself, in a way only a man in his sixties could produce.

The Bible of Punk Rock Poster Art: the Early Years

Los Angeles. Hard Corps. ca. 1996. First edition. 4to. 96pp. Spiral bound wraps. English. Numerous Black & White plates. Wear to wraps. Printed in a small but unknown run.

The definitive reference to punk/hardcore posters and flyers, compiled by an unknown Temple City based author. Artworks run from the late 70s onwards, and are very Pettibon and Black Flag heavy, though most of the SoCal scene is covered. A phenomenal resource, with a lot of rarely seen work.

The Day Glo Designers Guide

Cleveland. Day-Glo Color Corp. 1969. First edition. 4to. 68pp. Spiral bound as issued, with Day-Glo tone chart, a Day-Glo four-colour process chart and the Day-Glo bonus screen colour chart.

A superb artefact of the psychedelic era and it's eventual appropriation by mainstream popular culture. Includes work from Warhol, a fabulous screen printed treatment of Bert Stern's Marilyn Monroe shoot, floral pop up (complete), Martin Sharp, Peter Max. Complete with all inserts, pop up and tear out.