Robert Holyhead

Robert Holyhead, New Paintings

Robert Holyhead, New Paintings
Softcover, 24 pp., offset 4/4, 205 x 275 mm
Edition of 1000
ISBN 978-1-905464-24-1
Published by Ridinghouse

$22.00 ·

This small but beautifuly produced exhibition catalog presents ten new paintings by the British artist Robert Holyhead. His work is marked by expanses of white ground left uncovered and traces of color at the canvas-edge where paint has been carefully removed from the surface. In dialog with Holyhead’s paintings is an in-depth essay by art historian Anna Lovatt. She discusses how the work is temporally bounded by the moment of the paint’s application and the point at which it begins to dry. Together, this group of paintings demonstrates the surprisingly diverse outcomes of this restricted situation.

Rex Reason (solid gaseous liquid synthetic)

Simon Patterson, Rex Reason (solid gaseous liquid synthetic)

Simon Patterson, Rex Reason (solid gaseous liquid synthetic)
Softcover, 116 pp., offset 5/1, 105 x 130 mm
Edition of 2000
ISBN 978-1-870699-13-6
Published by Book Works

$16.00 ·

Rex Reason presents the Periodic Table of the Elements in book form. A colour-coding system is set up (black for solids, blue for liquids and yellow synthetics) but where we might expect to find hydrogen, helium or lithium we find Yul Brynner, William Hogarth and Maria Callas. The selected names relate to the chemical symbol for each element: both letters must appear in the chosen name for example, Bertolt Brecht (Br, Bromine).

A loose logic prevails in the choice of names, for example names in red, gases, are from Greek myth or history and the yellow synthetic elements are given their proper names. However, Patterson disrupts this system with red herrings, mysteries and riddles that test the reader’s knowledge and that expose the inherent human desire to establish order and meaning.

The Last Whole Earth Catalog

Stewart Brand, The Last Whole Earth Catalog

Stewart Brand, The Last Whole Earth Catalog
Softcover, 452 pp., web offset 1/1, 10.75 x 14.25 inches
First edition (1971)
ISBN 0-394-70459-20
Published by Portola Institute

$55.00 · out of stock

condition: good, edge wear, worn cover/spine, interior discolored, very good reference copy.

We can’t put it together. It is together.

The Whole Earth Catalog is an American counterculture catalog published by Stewart Brand between 1968 and 1972, and occasionally thereafter, until 1998. Although the WECs listed all sorts of products for sale (clothing, books, tools, machines, seeds — things useful for a creative or self-sustainable lifestyle), the Whole Earth Catalogs themselves did not sell any of the products. Instead the vendors and their prices were listed right alongside with the items.

The title Whole Earth Catalog came from a previous project of Stewart Brand. In 1966, he initiated a public campaign to have NASA release the then-rumored satellite photo of the sphere of Earth as seen from space, the first image of the “Whole Earth.” He thought the image might be a powerful symbol, evoking a sense of shared destiny and adaptive strategies from people. The Stanford-educated Brand, a biologist with strong artistic and social interests, believed that there was a groundswell of commitment to thoroughly renovating American industrial society along ecologically and socially just lines, whatever they might prove to be.

Function
The Whole Earth Catalog functions as an evaluation and access device. With it, the user should know better what is worth getting and where and how to do the getting. An item is listed in the Catalog if it is deemed:

1. Useful as a tool
2. Relevant to independent education
3. High quality or low cost
4. Not already common knowledge
5. Easily available by mail

Catalog listings are continually revised according to the experience and suggestions of Catalog users and staff.

Purpose
We are as gods and might as well get good at it. So far, remotely done power and glory — as via government, big business, formal education, church — has succeeded to the point where gross defects obscure actual gains. In response to this dilemma and to these gains a realm of intimate, personal power is developing — power of the individual to conduct his own education, find his own inspiration, shape his own environment, and share his adventure with whoever is interested. Tools that aid this process are sought and promoted by The Whole Earth Catalog.

The Kingsboro Press 6

The Kingsboro Press 6The Kingsboro Press 6

The Kingsboro Press 6
Softcover, 52 pp., mimeograph 3/1, 8.5 x 11 inches
Edition of 350
Published by The Kingsboro Press

$20.00 ·

Issue 6 of The Kingsboro Press, mimeograph printed by The Kingsboro Press at The Uses of Literacy in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Contributors: Heather Anderson, Merlin Chowanyun, Paul Cowan, Brian Faucette, Brendan Fowler, Adam Marnie, Ethan Swan, Clare Wohlnick, Bobbi Woods, Yan Yan, Seth Zucker.

The Kingsboro Press 5

The Kingsboro Press 5Amy Yao curates for The Kingsboro Press

The Kingsboro Press 5
Softcover, 52 pp., mimeograph 3/1, 8.5 x 11 inches
supplement: Amy Yao Curates for The Kingsboro Press
Softcover, 44 pp., mimeograph 1/1, 8.5 x 11 inches
Edition of 350
Published by The Kingsboro Press

$20.00 ·

Issue 5 of The Kingsboro Press, mimeograph printed by The Kingsboro Press at The Uses of Literacy in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Contributors: Becca Albee, Jordan Awan, Dan Arps, The Changes, Mason Cooley, Chris Barton, Milano Chow, Dru Donovan, Jason Eberspeaker, Richard Elliot, Ryan Foerster, Alex Gartenfeld, Zoe Ghertner, Petrova Giberson, Bieanca Hester, Matthew Higgs, David Horovitz, Marie Jager, Thomas Jeppe, Josh Kline, Maxwell Krivitsky, Aude Levere, Mondo Mondo, Jeff Morgan, Dan Moynihan, Jason Park, Asher Penn, Megan Plunkett, Jacob Robichaux, Carissa Rodriguez, Joshua Ray Stephens, Ethan Swan, Oscar Tuazon, Alex Vivian, Daniel Wagner, Jessica WIlliams, Amy Yao, Doniella Davy.

Earth and Cave Architecture of Peter Vetsch

Erhard Wagner and Christoph Schubert-Weller, Earth and Cave Architecture of Peter Vetsch

Erhard Wagner and Christoph Schubert-Weller, Earth and Cave Architecture of Peter Vetsch
Hardcover, 136 pp., offset 4/4, 305 x 225 mm
English and German
ISBN 3-7212-0282-1
Published by Verlag Niggli

$49.00 ·

The architect Peter Vetsch of Dietikon, Switzerland is a controversial figure. No one is indifferent to him. His earth-covered-dwellings — often called “cave houses” — belong to the most highly individual, yet simplest and clearest design forms in modern architecture.

Foreword by Max Bill.

Weaverbird & Other Words

Marc Hundley, Weaverbird & Other Words

Marc Hundley, Weaverbird & Other Words
Hardcover, 68 pp., offset 4/4, 183 x 251 mm
Edition of 500
ISBN 978-0-9806516-2-1
Published by Rainoff Books

$40.00 ·

First monograph by Canadian-born, New York-based artist Marc Hundley, traces a curated-selection of his divergent work from the beginning of the century until present.

The Passed Note

Conor OBrien, The Passed Note

Conor O’Brien, The Passed Note
Hardcover, 68 pp., offset 4/4, 203 x 251 mm
Edition of 500
ISBN 978-0-9806516-1-4
Published by Rainoff Books

$50.00 ·

This meticulously produced volume of work by Conor O’Brien further expands on the young Australian photographer’s oblique, unadorned renderings of youth, friendship and the spaces we share. Includes a short story by Amanda Maxwell.

Four Over One

Phil Chang, Four Over One

Phil Chang, Four Over One
Hardcover, 64 pp., offset 4/1, 240 x 320 mm
Edition of 500
ISBN 978-087588720-4-9
Published by LACMA

$39.00 ·

In Four Over One, the Los Angeles based artist Phil Chang employs the format of an artists book to explore ideas of economy and obsolescence. In collaboration with designer Jonathan Maghen, Four Over One is structured around Chang’s interest in how new outcomes arise from an antagonism between perceived and actual forms of value. The photographs that appear in the book were created using expired photographic materials exposed by an archival book scanner. Through a sparse display of color, black and white, and half-tone photographs, in conjunction with a restrained typographic treatment, Four Over One employs an economy of scale in order to consider the roles of abstraction, methods of art production, and modes of distribution in our contemporary culture.

Artforum 500 Words.

Kidnapping Mountains

Slavs and Tatars, Kidnapping Mountains

Slavs and Tatars, Kidnapping Mountains
Softcover, 96 pp., offset 4/1, 20 x 26 cm
Edition of 1250
ISBN 978-1-906012-19-9
Published by Book Works

$32.00 ·

Kidnapping Mountains is a playful and informative exploration of the muscular stories, wills, and defeat inhabiting the Caucasus region. The book is comprised of two parts: an eponymous section addressing the complexity of languages and identities on the fault line of Eurasia, and Steppe by Steppe Romantics, a restoration of the region’s seemingly reactionary approaches to romance.

Muhammad and the Marathon

Christopher Nance, Muhammad and the Marathon

Christopher Nance, Muhammad and the Marathon
Hardcover, 62 pp., offset 4/1, 8.75 x 10.75 inches
First edition, signed
ISBN 0-9648363-2-7
Published by Christopher Productions, Inc.

$40.00 ·

condition: very good, shelf wear, interior unblemished, first edition, excellent reference copy.

Before Christopher Nance arrived in 1985 at NBC-TV in Los Angeles, he began his career as a weathercaster and television personality in 1979 in his hometown of Monterey, California. Since 1982, Nance has talked to over 450,000 students with his self-designed program, offered at no charge, called Let’s Talk Weather. Nance was fired from his job at NBC in 2002 after developing “a reputation for profane and menacing off-air behavior, marked by sexual innuendo and violent outbursts.”

“To my mother Sarah, my daughter Noel and to all the boys and girls who dream the wonderful dreams. You are the future.”

— Christopher Nance, 1995

If not for the weather we would all be naked!

Christopher Nance, If not for the weather we would all be naked!

Christopher Nance, If not for the weather we would all be naked!
Hardcover, 62 pp., offset 4/4, 8.75 x 11.25 inches
First edition, signed
ISBN 0-9648363-8-6
Published by Christopher Productions, Inc.

$15.00 ·

condition: fine, shelf wear, interior unblemished, first edition, excellent reference copy.

Before Christopher Nance arrived in 1985 at NBC-TV in Los Angeles, he began his career as a weathercaster and television personality in 1979 in his hometown of Monterey, California. Since 1982, Nance has talked to over 450,000 students with his self-designed program, offered at no charge, called Let’s Talk Weather. Nance was fired from his job at NBC in 2002 after developing “a reputation for profane and menacing off-air behavior, marked by sexual innuendo and violent outbursts.”

“My new motivation is my God, my wife Nicholette, my family and friends.”

— Christopher Nance, 1998

Round The Way

Maya Hayuk, Round The Way

Maya Hayuk, Round The Way
Softcover, 20 pp., offset 4/4, 195 x 255 mm
Edition of 1000
ISBN 978-3-905714-79-1
Published by Nieves

$14.00 ·

In the olden days — when Europeans still thought the earth was flat — the universe was sometimes compared to the inside of a human skull. This was our notion of the infinite that lies beyond the world we live in, as a reflection of the infinity of our powers of thought and perception. This comparison, and the discovery of the most far-flung corners of the universe using the Hubble Space Telescope, are the basis of Ultra, Ultra Deep Fields by Brooklyn artist Maya Hayuk.

Round the Way is a collection of paintings from the last two years leading up to Ultra, Ultra Deep Fields, Maya Hayuk’s exhibition at MU. Next to Round the Way Maya Hayuk also compiled the double CD soundtrack Inside Spaces, that will be available in a limited edition through MU.