Eleven Minus One

Amir Zaki, Eleven Minus One

Amir Zaki, Eleven Minus One
Softcover, 122 pp., offset 4/4, 9 x 9 inches [26 x 36 inches unfolded]
Edition of 500
ISBN 978-0-26172-2-9
Published by LAXART

$75.00 ·

For this project, Amir Zaki carefully reconstructed and reinterpreted, in virtual 3D space, several photographs from a series made in the mid-1980’s by Swiss artist duo Peter Fischli and David Weiss. Their photographs depict precariously balancing temporary sculptures that they intentionally constructed in a slap-dash manner. Their photographs of these sculptures were casually shot in their studio using unprofessional lighting and equipment. Through these photographs of temporary sculptural constructs made of household detritus, Fischli and Weiss subvert the idea of sculpture as a heroic manifestation of a unique and masterfully constructed object. Their work privileges the document over the sculpture, which Zaki interprets as an ironic inverse of the ubiquitous professional photographic documentation of the ‘serious’ sculpture found in so many art books and journals. In Zaki’s adaptation of their work, there is a re-inversion at play as he privileges the sculpture again, but only as a 3D virtual non-object in order to destabilize their relationship. This has manifested as a series of short photorealistic animation loops and a foldout book based on the eleven different ways that a cube can be unfolded. Working with this methodology allowed Zaki to further interrogate the conventions and limitations of photography by exploring depictions of ‘real’ space, but without the restraints of actual physics or forces such as gravity. Zaki is interested in the perversion of using Fischli and Weiss photographs of quickly made, throw-away sculptures as a source to create an incredibly laborious photorealistic virtual 3D scene that can be explored from all angles, both through photographic and orthographic projections. In this project Zaki has also fetishized the sculptures by making them virtual, stylized and idealized. He has resurrected these sculptures and placed them in a world where they need not ever ‘fall’ (fail). In the animations Zaki has created, the sculptures simply spin, teeter or gyrate indefinitely. In the photographs Zaki has rendered for the book, the sculptures hover in a perfect orthographic projection space, surrounded by a black void.

The book is a complex foldout design that is quite difficult to describe in text. It is ten double-sided square pages. Each page spread unfolds into unique configurations of six squares that represent all sides of a cube. The images on each unfolded page spread depict 3D digital recreations of photographs from the series Equilibres by Swiss artist duo Peter Fischli and David Weiss. When fully unfolded, the book opens up to approximately 27 x 36 inches. It is an interactive object, and can be folded and unfolded in multiple ways, creating grids, cubes, and unfolded boxes, each creating a unique experience and juxtaposition of images. It is important to recognize the book in terms of a limited edition or a multiple. It is also more of an object with sculptural qualities and a tactile nature than a ‘book’ in the traditional sense.

Amir Zaki, Eleven Minus One

Amir Zaki, Eleven Minus One

Amir Zaki, Eleven Minus One

Amir Zaki, Eleven Minus One

Amir Zaki, Eleven Minus One

Live

Ken Seeno and Jeremy Sigler, Live

Ken Seeno and Jeremy Sigler, Live
12-inch vinyl record, silkscreened 1/1, 12 x 12 inches [12.75 x 12.75 in poly sleeve]
Edition of 150, numbered
Published by The Kingsboro Press

$25.00 ·

A side: Ken Seeno, A Breezy Memory/Cool Hand, Shadow; Jeremy Sigler, excerpt from Plankticus Erectus
B side: Jeremy Sigler, excerpt from Plankticus Erectus; Ken Seeno, Spirit of 77
Recorded in Baltimore in May 2011, Live marks not only the first ever vinyl release from The Kingsboro Press, but also the first officially released project from longtime friends, colleagues, and schemers Seeno and Sigler. 3 tracks from Seeno (ex-Ponytail) highlight his uniquely ambient and immersive new age-tingled solo work, alongside 2 poems read from New York-based poet Sigler. L.L. Being, an accompanying text (a dialogue between Sigler and Seeno that covers everything from 2 Fat Ladies and Being There, to Windham Hill and khakis) is available here .

Shit Karmas

David Armacost and Nik Planck, Shit KarmasDavid Armacost and Nik Planck, Shit Karmas

David Armacost and Nik Planck, Shit Karmas
Stapled w/ clear poly sleeve*, 12 pp., mimeograph 1/1, 10.75 x 12 inches
Edition of 75
Published by The Kingsboro Press

$8.00 ·

A new collaborative artists book from Baltimore-based painters Armacost and Planck. Sourcing their longstanding and fervent correspondence, Shit Karmas scrutinizes all elements of artistic practice, from grandiose pursuits to foolhardy routine. Deeply rooted in painting, Armacost and Planck have etched out a collaborative process in which every element informs the next, and drawings and paintings are endlessly referenced and parodied in a seemingly-endless back and forth interchange between artists.

*Note: mimeograph printed on matte coated paper (ink may transfer during handling).

In the Beginning it was Humid

Bastien Aubry and Dimitri Broquard, In the Beginning it was HumidBastien Aubry and Dimitri Broquard, In the Beginning it was Humid

Bastien Aubry and Dimitri Broquard, In the Beginning it was Humid
Softcover, 48 pp., offset 4/4, 195 x 255 mm
Edition of 1000
ISBN 978-3-905999-03-7
Published by Nieves

$20.00 · out of stock

For several year, Bastien Aubry and Dimitri Broquard have been making work inspired by outsider art or the applied arts like handcrafts or ceramics. It appears as if they both don’t think much of rules and that they just spontaneously adapt their ideas. That makes their work fresh and full of expression. In the Beginning it was Humid — their fourth publication with Nieves — features a broad selection of their ceramic works from the last few year, and concludes with a short story by A.C. Kupper.

Bastien Aubry (1974) and Dimitri Broquard (1969) established the two-man design studio Flag in 2002. They work for art and cultural institutions, producing catalogues, artists books, magazines and posters. FLAG also creates drawings, illustrations for editorials and private projects. Both Broquard and Aubry respectively teach at art schools in Switzerland.

The Dead Sea

Stefan Marx, The Dead Sea

Stefan Marx, The Dead Sea

Stefan Marx, The Dead Sea
Hardboard/gatefold record sleeve, 3 posters, offset 1/1, 600 x 900 mm
Edition of 1000
ISBN 978-3-905999-01-3
Published by Nieves

$18.00 ·

With his debut release on co-owned Smallville record label Stefan Marx presents an exclusive three-part poster collection coated inside a gatefold 12-inch cover sleeve. Giving the Smallville shop and label a visual face since the very beginning Stefan Marx created hundreds of posters and flyers, painted the shop windows regularly and conceived every record cover.

Now is the time for himself to release an extraordinary Smallville/Nieves issue in 12-inch format. Three folded posters (each has the size of 90 x 60 cm) including a first appearance of his Band project The Dead Sea (aka Stefan Marx, RVDS, Lawrence and Birte Löschenkohl).

The Book Trust Prospectus

The Book Trust Prospectus

The Book Trust Prospectus
Edited by Benjamin Critton, Harry Gassel, Brendan Griffiths, Zak Klauck and Mylinh Nguyen
Softcover, 160 pp., offset 1/1, 4.25 x 7 inches
Edition of 500
ISBN 978-1-928570-15-8
Published by IFS, Ltd.

$19.10 ·

The Book Trust, a site-specific publication and installation, was originally presented at the NY Art Book Fair, 5–7 November, 2010. During those days, the semi-fictional Investment Futures Strategy, Ltd., comprised of five graduate students from the Department of Graphic Design at the Yale University School of Art, offered an original publication for trade in a series of barters executed by its authors.

The Trust and the accompanying Book Trust Prospectus address matters of micro-economy and distribution, as well as prescribed versus perceived value. The project suggests a new currency specific to the setting of the Book Fair, a context in which a distinct set of commodities is exchanged by like-minded vendors in a finite space and time. It is only in this setting that a book could be posited as capital — a literal stand-in for the money that commonly exchanges hands at the Fair. Perceived worth is thus no longer dictated by edition or price, but instead by a trader’s subjective notion of the values they assign each book.

Over the three days of the Fair, the book, produced in a fixed quantity of 500, varied in value as each negotiation determined and redetermined its worth in the marketplace. With each transaction, the Prospectus assumed the value of the book for which it was exchanged. The traded commodities now comprise The Book Trust — a value-appreciating book bank. By trading with IFS, Ltd., participants acquired a single theoretical share of the bank, the Prospectus acting as a document of that transaction. In framing the project in a format similar to that of a stock exchange, IFS, Ltd. hopes that the Trust emphasizes the tenuous, abstract value of the book: as a designed object, as a medium for content, as a traded commodity, and as a symbol of participation in the project itself.

Prospectus
The Book Trust Prospectus is, in non-equal parts: a local currency, a stock prospectus for The Book Trust, an exploration into the nature of small-scale publishing and its presence at the NY Art Book Fair (R. Giampietro), a survey of precedented alternative currencies (B. Critton), a platform for hyperbolic re-representations of anonymous fiat money (R. Rozendaal), a foray into corporate branding and rebranding (Metahaven et al.), a proposal for a time-based repurposing of existing banknotes (N. Hirsch & Z. Kyes), an analysis of the current state of [art] book-publishing and -design (L. v. Deursen et al.), a venue for research into non-essential commodity futures like tulips and Beanie Babies™ (H. Gassel), a profile of independent art book vendors (Golden Age), and a podium for experimentation with anti-counterfeiting guilloché renderings (B. Griffiths & Z. Klauck). It is the story of its own making and financing as well as an evaluation of the context in which it was made and financed. The Prospectus is a 160-page, perfect-bound, one-colour book, offset-printed in an edition of five hundred by GHP printing in West Haven, Connecticut, USA.

Footnote to a Project*

Sharmini Pereira, Oliver Knight and Rory McGrath, Footnote to a Project*

Sharmini Pereira, Oliver Knight and Rory McGrath, Footnote to a Project*
Softcover, 536 pp., offset 4/1, 210 x 310 x 35 mm
Edition of 2000
ISBN 978-0-9560704-5-6
Published by Abraaj Capital Art Prize

$35.00 ·

Conceived in collaboration with curator Sharmini Pereira design studio OK-RM and published on the occasion of the 2011 Abraaj Capital Art prize, Footnote to a Project* is a collection of images, citations and references that support and inform the creation of the five selected artworks. Informed by the book’s title, the headline concept was to express the historical traditions of footnoting and its relationship with reading and writing. The designers adopted the use of a variety of typographic symbols traditionally used by type setters to indicate footnotes. The book takes the form of an enlarged paper back and is split into 5 equal parts — one for each artist — providing an in-depth documentation of the works through images and extended captions. The book is accompanied by two book marks intended to facilitate navigation between image and text.

No More Reality (the poster)

Jonathan Maghen, No More Reality (the poster)Jonathan Maghen, No More Reality (the poster)

Jonathan Maghen, No More Reality (the poster)
Silkscreen poster/print, 1/0, 19 x 35 inches
Printed on archival Kromekote ultra high-gloss 14 pt cover stock
Edition of 25 + 2 proofs, unnumbered
Published by Textfield

$25.00 ·

The poster/print, No More Reality (the poster), was produced for the temporary bookshop and exhibition No More Reality, July 21 — August 25, 2011, which featured the works of Phil Chang, Arthur Ou, Eduardo Sarabia, and Anna Sew Hoy.

The bookshop and exhibition (and poster) title have been appropriated from the Philippe Parreno work, No More Reality (the demonstration), 1991, which is a four-minute video of children demonstrating, and chanting the slogan and title (“No More Reality”). The poster, illustrated by Darius Maghen, is based on a sign held by one of the children in the original Parreno work.

Reference Work

Martine Syms and Marco Kane Braunschweiler, Reference Work

Martine Syms and Marco Kane Braunschweiler, Reference Work
Softcover, 98 pp., mimeograph 2/1, 5.5 x 8.5 inches
Edition of 250, numbered
Published by Golden Age and the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago

$15.00 · out of stock

Reference Work is a conceptual business textbook.

As stated by Syms “Reference Work is the text I wish we had read prior to opening our business Golden Age. It contains original essays from Marco Kane Braunschweiler and I, the syllabus from the only business class we ever took, summaries from our favorite business books and a collection of resources that we’ve found helpful over the past four years. The book may be interpreted as sarcastic or irreverent, but I hope readers will notice our sincerity. It is difficult trying to enter the business world as a right brain thinker, not because those skills aren’t essential, but because that world is structured around hard metrics and art is difficult to quantify. Reference Work is intended to demystify some of the day-to-day operations of a cultural business and expand the definition of commercial success.”

The text was edited by Zachary Kaplan. The book was published with the assistance of the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago on the occasion of We Are Here: Art & Design Out of Context, an exhibition curated by James Goggin.

Research Notes

Jürg Lehni and Alex Rich, Research Notes

Jürg Lehni and Alex Rich, Research Notes
Softcover, 20 pp., offset 1/1, 195 x 255 mm
Edition of 500
ISBN 978-3-905714-95-1
Published by Nieves

$14.00 ·

In an attempt to celebrate how we find ourselves doodling while on the phone, testing pens in stationery shops, our belief in folklore, the need to misuse technology or whose idea it was to fly aero planes in formation to write messages across our skies.

The research notes selected from the archive A Recent History of Writing & Drawing hopefully provide references to things old, new and maybe forgotten which together can offer an alternative understanding of our habit to document thoughts and ideas. Upending assumptions that any one kind of communication is more authentic, more direct or more valid that any other, A Recent History of Writing & Drawing finds meaning, texture and poetry in the most unlikely places.

Social documentaries amid this pist

Mark Borthwick, Social documentaries amid this pist

Mark Borthwick, Social documentaries amid this pist
Softcover, 240 pp., web offset 1/1, 210 x 270 mm
Edition of 250
Published by Mark Borthwick (2002)

$150.00 ·

condition: good, minor edge wear, binding intact.

A social documentary. An appropriation of distinctions between elements. Grey area. An essay in images that repeat themselves. An apparent way to dilute the importance of one over another. Black and white photographs, hand written texts, and xeroxed pages.

Sunsets & Other Colour Photographs

Ann Woo, Sunsets & Other Colour Photographs

Ann Woo, Sunsets & Other Colour PhotographsAnn Woo, Sunsets & Other Colour PhotographsAnn Woo, Sunsets & Other Colour Photographs

Ann Woo, Sunsets & Other Colour Photographs
Softcover, 6 pp. tri-fold, offset 4/4, 300 x 230 mm [900 × 230 mm unfolded]
Edition of 500
ISBN 978-0-9813947-1-8
Published by Schnauzer

$10.00 ·

Ann Woo is a photographer based in Hong Kong. Sunsets & Other Colour Photographs features a small collection of the artists work with a focus on her Sunsets series. For this project, Ann created various colour fields out of a single negative; which was originally an image of the sun setting that developed as a pure tonal gradient. The front and back covers represent the possible environments that could surround these surreal sunsets and also show the viewer the diversity of Ann’s practice.

My photographic practice is grounded in an obsession to capture “reality.” I use standard documentary methods to photograph and analog methods to print, all the while working to eliminate judgment, imposed ideas, and preconceived meanings. Clearly, that is all rather naïve — can photographs ever present “truth?” Or can they only represent what is “remembered” as “truth?”

— Ann Woo

Directory

Ari Marcopoulos, Directory

Ari Marcopoulos, Directory
Softcover, 1200 pp. + signed print, offset 1/1, 215 x 275 x 70 mm
First edition
ISBN 978-0-8478-3532-4
Published by Nieves

out of print

Ari Marcopoulos’s unique style of raw immediacy has made him one of the most important contemporary photographers. For thirty years, photographer Ari Marcopoulos has been pioneering contemporary photography by documenting subcultures such as skateboarders and graffiti artists, as well as landscapes and his own family and friends. Since his days printing photographs for Andy Warhol, he has amassed a huge body of work marked by its arresting and unsentimental intimacy that has been influential to the worlds of art, fashion, and photography. Bound to mimic a phone book, Ari Marcopoulos, Directory presents a collection of approximately 1,200 photographs, with curator and critic Neville Wakefield providing insightful commentary on some of Marcopoulos’s singular images. Copublished with Rizzoli, each book in this limited-edition series includes a print signed by the artist.