NUS de Harlem by Charles Stewart
Les Editions Prisma, Paris, 1961
Good condition
Nus (Nude) is a series of French photobooks celebrating the female form. This edition features a series of portraits of women from Harlem, New York, elegantly produced with richly printed photography and fold-out pages. The photographs were taken by Charles ‘Chuck’ Stewart, best known for his iconic portraits of jazz and R&B legends, including Louis Armstrong, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, and Ella Fitzgerald.
Stewart’s photographs bring the same sensitivity and atmosphere found in his celebrated music portraiture to the nude form. Published in France, the book is regarded as one of the earliest major showcases of his work in photobook form, highlighting his distinctive eye for light and mood at a time when opportunities for publication in the United States were limited for Black photographers.
#chuckstewart
Robert Rauschenberg: Cardbirds Gemini G.E.L., 1971
Cardboard cover, staplebound Very good condition
Issued in conjunction with Robert Rauschenberg’s Cardbird series, produced at the Los Angeles print workshop Gemini G.E.L. (Graphic Editions Limited), which was founded in 1966 by Sidney Felsen and Stanley Grinstein. It became one of the key American collaborative studios for artists working in printmaking and editioned sculpture.
For Cardbirds, Rauschenberg used lithography, screenprint and collage techniques to replicate the surface and structure of found cardboard, extending his longstanding interest in vernacular materials and mechanical reproduction.
I’m taking a collection of these prison scrapbooks to the book fair @referencepoint180 this weekend. The volumes are marked “HMSO”, Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, and stamped “Haverigg”, referring to HMP Haverigg in Cumbria, which operated as a borstal and youth custody institution before later becoming an adult men’s prison.
The scrapbooks mainly contain clippings relating to punk, rock, new wave, and metal bands, alongside football material connected to Sheffield and early 80s counterculture. I believe they were compiled by the figure behind The Motivator, a Sheffield-based punk promoter and distributor, during a period in prison.
The covers are collaged with hand-cut lettering and images. Inside, the pages are filled with magazine and newspaper clippings, sometimes with handwritten notes added.
Some recent acquisitions, collected whilst thinking about interior spaces and those that fall outside aesthetic ideals, and how materials resist control.
*The cleaning products from my late aunt aren’t for sale, though they were on display in the shop last week
Workplace: 1991-1993 by Don Prince
Coracle Press, 1993
Spiral Bound
I know little about the artist beyond what can be understood from this artist’s book, which I believe was produced to accompany a touring exhibition. I was drawn to its tactility and to the reappropriation of tools and materials in the making of the book itself.
The format is slender, with holes punched along both edges of the pages. It is bound on one side with a wire spiral, leaving the second row of holes exposed and giving the object an industrial quality.
The content consists mainly of photography, including numerous images documenting workshop processes in action, such as removing a crucible from a furnace, that’s filled with molten metal. Working with metal appears as a distinct theme throughout. This is evident towards the back of the book, where several pages have been printed using rust from a piece of mesh laid directly onto the paper, leaving an orange, lattice-like imprint.
Rasheed Araeen: Making Myself Visible
Kala Press, 1984
Softcover
Sold -
Available to view + download in full at Asia Art Archive - Link in bio.
Rasheed Araeen is an artist, activist, writer, editor, and curator who has been based in London since 1964. Born in Karachi, Pakistan, he initially trained as a civil engineer. He later became a pioneer of minimalist sculpture in Britain, developing geometric structures informed by engineering principles and industrial materials. Alongside his artistic practice, Araeen has been a leading voice challenging the marginalisation of artists of African, Asian, and other non-Western backgrounds within British and Western cultural institutions.
In 1978, he founded the journal Black Phoenix, later followed by the influential art journal Third Text, which addressed questions of postcolonialism, identity, and global contemporary art.
Making Myself Visible brings together a selection of his articles, essays and correspondence with gallery directors and funding bodies, interspersed with documentation of his multi-disciplinary work. #rasheedaraeen
A small selection of QSL cards, between the size of a postcard and business card. Historically, listeners tuned in to distant shortwave and longwave broadcasts and sent reception reports to stations. In return, the stations sent QSL cards confirming their signal had been received. The exchange became a global pen-pal network, part hobby and part feedback for broadcasters.
A trade catalogue of metal fixings, Paris, circa 1920. Over 200 single loose-leaf pages housed within a portfolio, secured with a belt closure. Contains detailed illustrations of ornate metal decorations.
