culture

Hardcover. NY, Oxford University Press, 1st, 1984, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. This book examines the far-reaching legacy of one of the great myths of classical antiquity. According to Greek legend, Antigone, daughter of Oedipus, secretly buried her brother in defiance of the orders of Creon, king of Thebes. Creon sentenced Antigone to death, but, before the order could be executed, she committed suicide. The theme of the conflict between Antigone and Creon - between the state and the individual, between young and old, between men and women - has captured the Western imagination for more than 2,000 years. Antigone and Creon are as alive in the politics and poetics of our own day as they were in ancient Athens. Here, Steiner examines the treatment of the Antigone theme in Western art, literature and thought, leading us to look again at the unique influence Greek myths exercise on twentieth-century culture.

Hardcover. New York, Rizzoli, 1st, 2012, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, like new. Best known for dazzling illustrations in Women's Wear Daily, Vogue, the New York Times, Interview, and for high fashion labels, Antonio Lopez (1943-1987) was a major force in the fashion world for three decades. In the '60s, Lopez's vibrant illustrations helped usher youth culture into the pages of magazines, setting a new, free-flowing, sexually liberated standard for fashion imagery. Living in Paris during the 70s with his creative partner Juan Ramos, Lopez launched the modeling careers of Jerry Hall, Grace Jones, and Jessica Lange among others, and worked with design royalty like Karl Lagerfeld and Yves Saint Laurent. Returning to New York City in 1976, Antonio documented the sexy influence of athletic-wear, puffy, down coats, and break-dancing style, inspiring such designers as Norma Kamali and Anna Sui. Lopez produced an incredible number of drawings, illustrations, paintings, photographs, and fantastic mixed-media journals, and the book Antonio Lopez: Fashion, Art, Sex, and Disco showcases his most iconic works, as well as never-before-seen photos, behind-the-scenes Polaroids, letters, and ephemera which, together, provide an understanding of the career trajectory of an extraordinarily talented artist.

Softcover. Millerton, Aperture Magazine, 1st, 1983, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 80 pages. Magazine. Illustrated with black & white photographs. Features articles: 'People and Ideas', 'Real Pictures for just 25 cents', 'The Arctic Voyage of William Bradford', 'Views of Japan', 'Photographer without Photographs', Passion for Genius', 'The Peasant Miners of Morococha'. Light wear. Clean, unmarked.

Softcover. NY, Aperture Foundation, 1997, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 80 pages. A large, beautifully designed photography publication with many full page photographs in black and white and color. Glossy wraps. Many contributors. Features: Manuel Alvarez Bravo: Photographs and Memories. Frederick Kaufman's "Essay of Memories," based on extensive interviews he conducted with Don Manuel in 1996, was commissioned especially for this publication. In his richly descriptive and insightful essay, Kaufman weaves together Alvarez Bravo's recollections, biographical information, and Mexican history in order to illuminate the story of the photographer's life against the backdrop of a complex and ever-changing culture.

Softcover. New York, Aperture Magazine, 1st, 2008, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 88 pages. Aperture Magazine. Features: Josef Koudelka, Jan Tumlir, Fred Ritchin, Robert Hariman, David Campany, more. Illustrated with full color and black & white photography. Light wear. Clean, tight copy.

Hardcover. Princeton NJ, Princeton University Press, 1st, 1995, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket. 327 pages, clean copy. Few diseases have exercised the Western imagination as chronically as hysteria--from the wandering womb of ancient Greek medicine, to the demonically possessed witch of the Renaissance; from the "vaporous" salon women of Enlightenment Paris, through to the celebrated patients of Sigmund Freud, with their extravagant, erotically charged symptoms. In this fascinating and authoritative book, Mark Micale surveys the range of past and present readings of hysteria by intellectual historians; historians of science and medicine; scholars in gender studies, art history, and literature; and psychoanalysts, psychiatrists, clinical psychologists, and neurologists. In so doing, he explores numerous questions raised by this ever-growing body of literature: Why, in recent years, has the history of hysterical disorders carried such resonance for commentators in the sciences and humanities? What can we learn from the textual traditions of hysteria about writing the history of disease in general? What is the broader cultural meaning of the new hysteria studies? In the second half of the book, Micale discusses the many historical "cultures of hysteria." He reconstructs in detail the past usages of the hysteria concept as a powerful, descriptive trope in various nonmedical domains, including poetry, fiction, theater, social thought, political criticism, and the arts. His book is a pioneering attempt to write the historical phenomenology of disease in an age preoccupied with health, and a prescriptive remedy for writing histories of disease in the future.

Hardcover. Woodbury, NY, Barron's, 1st, 1980, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 81 pages. Hardcover with dust jacket. A very clean, unmarked copy with only minor wear to dust jacket edges. Color photographs throughout.

Hardcover. London, Thames & Hudson, 1st, 2015, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, pictorial boards, 192 pages. Arcadia Britannica is the product of photographer Henry Bourne's repeated trips to some of Britain's greatest folk events: striking color portraits capture an eccentric collection of individuals in inventive outfits, including arboreal costumes, pagan-inspired creations, and historical garb. These were captured at events like the annual Jack in the Green festival held in Hastings in May, for which the town and its people are decked in green to welcome summer, and the Easter Sunday celebration in Bacup, Lancashire, where fiercely proud Britannia Coconut Dancers (or "Nutters") perform their traditional seven dances. An accompanying text by Simon Costin provides the historical backstory and explains the folklore behind this wacky, inspiring collection of images. 125 color photographs. Clean copy.

Hardcover. New York, Rizzoli, 1st US, 2002, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 363 pages. Large format with gorgeous color photography throughout. White pictorial dust jacket with some light soiling and wear. Wrinkled wrap-around band. A nice, clean, tight copy. Archeology of Elegance is an exceptional and dynamic collection of 200 superb photographs by sixty-two of today's most acclaimed photographers from Robert Mapplethorpe to Peter Lindbergh, Miles Aldridge, Herb Ritts, Ellen von Unwerth, Nick Knight, David Lachapelle and Jean-Baptiste Mondino, presenting fashion photography as art. During the past twenty years, there is no question that fashion photography has become a driving force for new directions in fashion, design and cosmetics and a vital source of ideas for the visual arts and design-manifesting itself in forms as diverse as punk rock, glamour or high-tech futurism. According to culture critic Ulf Poschardt, fashion photography has become the new, almost self-sufficient leitmedia of international culture, a culture that is expressed increasingly in visual terms. As seen in Archeology of Elegance, this once commercial and functional craft has become, without question, an art form in itself.

Hardcover. Hong Kong, Visionary World, 1st, 2005, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 176 pages. Oversized hardcover with dust jacket. Very clean, unmarked copy with only minor wear to dust jacket. Price sticker on rear dust jacket. Color photographs throughout. Over 20 years worth of photography from Asia.

Hardcover. Boston, Houghton Mifflin , 1st, 2012, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 290 pages, illustrated in b&w and reddish tones by Bechdel. In a bright, unclipped dust jacket. Alison Bechdel's Fun Home was a pop culture and literary phenomenon. Now, a second thrilling tale of filial sleuthery, this time about her mother: voracious reader, music lover, passionate amateur actor. Also a woman, unhappily married to a closeted gay man, whose artistic aspirations simmered under the surface of Bechdel's childhood . . . and who stopped touching or kissing her daughter good night, forever, when she was seven. Poignantly, hilariously, Bechdel embarks on a quest for answers concerning the mother-daughter gulf. It's a richly layered search that leads readers from the fascinating life and work of the iconic twentieth-century psychoanalyst Donald Winnicott, to one explosively illuminating Dr. Seuss illustration, to Bechdel's own (serially monogamous) adult love life. And, finally, back to Mother -- to a truce, fragile and real-time, that will move and astonish all adult children of gifted mothers.

Hardcover. Paris, Bernard Giovanangeli Editeur, 1st, 2010, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 143 pages. Hardcover. French text only. INSCRIBED BY AUTHOR ON HALF TITLE PAGE. Full color illustrations. Clean, tight copy. No dust jacket.

Hardcover. Krause Publications, 1st, 2007, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 208 pages. As the 2004 Presidential Election was beginning to take shape, Kyle Cassidy took note of the important role the simple concept of gun ownership was playing. Hardly anyone he knew didn't have an opinion in the debate over owning guns. Why was a constitutionally protected right so heavily debated, and who exactly as these folks that own guns? "I began to wonder who these seventy or so million Americans were, how they lived and what was important to them. I set out to photographs as many gun owners as I could and ask them one question: "Why do you own a gun." Cassidy traveled over 20,000 miles, crisscrossing the country to meet with gun owners in their homes. Cassidy's photo essays create a powerful, thought provoking and sometimes startling view of gun ownership in the U.S. These "everyman" portraits, and the accompanying views of gun owners, fashion a riveting and provocative book.

Hardcover. Krause Publications, 1st, 2007, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 208 pages. As the 2004 Presidential Election was beginning to take shape, Kyle Cassidy took note of the important role the simple concept of gun ownership was playing. Hardly anyone he knew didn't have an opinion in the debate over owning guns. Why was a constitutionally protected right so heavily debated, and who exactly as these folks that own guns? "I began to wonder who these seventy or so million Americans were, how they lived and what was important to them. I set out to photographs as many gun owners as I could and ask them one question: "Why do you own a gun." Cassidy traveled over 20,000 miles, crisscrossing the country to meet with gun owners in their homes. Cassidy's photo essays create a powerful, thought provoking and sometimes startling view of gun ownership in the U.S. These "everyman" portraits, and the accompanying views of gun owners, fashion a riveting and provocative book.

Hardcover. New York, Macmillan Company, Revised, Limited Edition, 1903, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 371 pages. Hardcover. Revised, limited edition - this edition being two hundred and forty-five copies, of which this is handstamped #38. Black & white illustrations, includes fold-out map. Darkening to spine label. Light wear. Clean, tight copy.

Hardcover. NY, Basic Books, 1st, 1969, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket, 306 pages. Morse Peckham "considers the various roles played by pornography, especially within that hateful siege of contraries which constitutes stability and innovation." Chapters: What is Pornography?, The Art in Pornography, An Explanation for Pornography, Pornography and Culture.

Softcover. Oxford, UK, Oxford University Press, 1st, 1997, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 352 pages. Softcover. Color and b/w illustrations throughout. In excellent condition, clean inside and out. Binding tight.

Softcover. Paris, Reunion des Musees Nationaux, 1st, 1990, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 204 pages. Softcover. French text only. Previous owners stamp on front endpaper. Illustrated with beautiful full color and black & white examples of religious art and artifacts of Tibet and Nepal. Slight toning to page edges. Clean, tight copy.

Hardcover. NY, Art in America, 1st, 1961, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Pictorial boards, 136 pages. Hardcover magazine format. Illustrated in full color and black & white. Features articles on: 'What Should a Museum Be?, 'A Day with John Marin', 'Antiques for the Avant-Garde', 'Notes Toward an Ideal School of Fine Art', 'American Art International', 'Paris Letter: Nouveux Realistes', and more. Cover by Saul Steinberg. Clean, tight copy.

Softcover. University of Chicago Press, 1st, 2005, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 228 pages, b&w illustrations. Art has the power to affect our thinking, changing not only the way we view and interact with the world but also how we create it. In Art in Mind, Ernst van Alphen probes this idea of art as a commanding force with the capacity to shape our intellect and intervene in our lives. Rather than interpreting art as merely a reflection of our social experience or a product of history, van Alphen here argues that art is a historical agent, or a cultural creator, that propels thought and experience forward.Examining a broad range of works, van Alphen--a renowned art historian and cultural theorist--demonstrates how art serves a socially constructive function by actually experimenting with the parameters of thought. Employing work from artists as diverse as Picasso, Watteau, Francis Bacon, Marlene Dumas, and Matthew Barney, he shows how art confronts its viewers with the "pain points" of cultural experience-genocide, sexuality, diaspora, and transcultural identity-and thereby transforms the ways in which human existence is conceived. Clean, like new.

Hardcover. Canada, Voyageur Press, reprint , Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 224 pages. Hardcover without dust jacket. Extensive color illustrations throughout. Light edge wear, otherwise clean, tight copy. Since the late 1960s, the imagery of the heavy metal genre has been closely connected with the music itself. Classic albums evoke memories of famous cover artwork; metal bands have become forever synonymous with their iconic logos; and landmark live shows have led to instantly recognizable gig posters that embody the time, place, and passion of the events. It's even possible to trace the genre's evolution by examining a continuum of its art. In The Art of Metal, renowned music journalist Malcolm Dome offers a beautifully presented chronological collection of the colorful, outlandish, and sophisticated album covers, posters, T-shirts, and more that span decades of heavy metal music. More than 400 gorgeously reproduced works of art are complemented by in-depth features, including quotes from the graphic artists and musicians responsible for them. Dome also spotlights the metal genre's most influential artists and photographers and delves into other topics that include metal merch, magazines, fashion, and tattoos. In the process, The Art of Metal illustrates and explores the close-knit relationship between those timeless riffs that thunder from Marshall stacks and the images that have come to represent the songs, anthems, and sheer nature of headbanger culture--a must for any true thrasher's bookshelf.

Hardcover. North Clarendon, VT, Tuttle Publishing, 1st, 2019, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 176 pages. Hardcover with dust jacket. A very clean, unmarked copy with only minor wear to dust jacket edges. A tight copy. Color photographs throughout.

Hardcover. Seattle, WA, University of Washington Press, 1st, 1967, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover black cloth with silver lettering. 410 pages. 32 pages of color plates; near 1000 black-and-white photographs. Bibliography and index. Authoritative guide to the collections at the University of British Columbia. Clean copy in a bright dust jacket.

Hardcover. New York, Morrow, 1st, 1993, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 160 pages. Illustrated in full color. In a clean, bright dust jacket. A commercial artist who started out sketching in the 1930s for pulp magazines, Lovell advanced to the glossier "slicks" in the 1950s and has since specialized in Old West, Plains Indian, and Civil War themes. He here presents from that long career his best canvases, among them his famed depictions of Lee's surrender and the Fifty-fourth Massachusetts' assault (in film, the climax of Glory). His spark of inspiration is usually to visualize an incident he has read of in the journals of the first white explorers and trappers, such as those of Lewis and Clark. Whether it's Clark firing his rifle or Indians encountering a cannon lost by Fremont, Native Americans are generally presented as wary but curious about the newcomers; Lovell puts the warfare outside of the frame. Themes aside, he works expertly with natural color, and though not a modern George Caitlin, his attention to the detail of Indian dress, carriage, and equipage is quite affecting, fully reflective of his respect for the cultures of Apache, Sioux, etc. A rich tribute to a captivating artist who evokes the West's vast landscape and its individual braves and traders in moods of exuberance and perseverance.