Rare books from Harper's Books, Inc.

New York: Self-published, 1959. A little light wear; near fine in heavy spiral-bound wrappers.. First Edition. Spiral-bound oblong quarto. Handmade book by photographer Frank Espada documenting opening day at the rebuilt Aqueduct racetrack in 1959. One of two known copies; the other was given to the track and is likely lost. SIGNED and dated by Espada with his cover design and layout. Illustrated with 21 vintage silver gelatin photographs of the daily vagaries of the track: from the post parade, to punters huddled over Racing Forms, to a rails-eye shot of the finish line. Espada did not have access to a dark room; these photographs were printed by his friend Dave Heath, and have Heath's trademark brooding tonality. In fact, many of the images - especially those of people - bear an eerie similarity to Heath's Dialogue With Solitude. Without pulling punches, this remarkable book is the best document I have ever seen of the race track: combining the beauty, poetry, and pathos of the experience in one… Read More

[New York: n.p., 1983-1987]. Contents uniformly in near fine to fine condition.. Collection of 120 flyers and posters from New York's hottest and most inventive nightclub, Area, during the mid-1980s. Although it was a disco, Area was a purely visual, happenings-based venue, where New York's art, music, design, fashion, and literary worlds collided; Andy Warhol, Keith Haring, or Jean-Michel Basquiat might be brushing up against Michael Forbes, David Byrne, or Georgio Armani, and Stephen Saban would be there to remind them what happened afterwards in his Details magazine column. Unlike other downtown clubs that focused on music or dancing, Area was driven by art and the scene that it engendered, through its theme nights, elaborate installations, and inventive flyers that seemed to embody Warhol's concept of business art. This archive includes Area's famously unconventional invitations, posters, articles, booklets, and other ephemera from the nightclub's short-lived, yet significant, four-year history.… Read More

Los Angeles: Edward Ruscha, 1965. HInt of toning to the extremities, else near fine in printed wrappers in the near fine publisher's glassine, lightly tanned. Letter folded in four to fit inside the book, and one short corner crease, otherwise near fine.. First Edition. Small octavo. One of 700 copies, printed by Anderson, Ritchie and Simon. Ruscha's third book, uncommon in the first edition. Designed and photographed by Ruscha, with 34 black and white reproductions of mid-sixties Los Angeles apartment buildings, each identified by address. (Parr / Badger, v2, 140). Together with a letter dated Sept. 30, 1966, on 8 X 10 stationery; Ruscha's apology and explanation for only having Some Los Angeles Apartments to send in a book trade: '"TWENTYSIX GASOLINE STATIONS" is out of print but Wittenborn's in NYC may have a few copies left. "Various Small Fires" may also be at Wittenborn's. They will soon have a 4th book of mine which I have no copies available, entitled "The Sunset Strip" and opens to 27… Read More

Bruce Conner: [San Francisco], 1970. Prints are in fine condition, each with the original tissue guard, in a fine portfolio folder in brown cloth with title in gilt; fabric tie. Though signed and unsigned individual plates from this set do show up at auction with some regularity, complete suites in the portfolio are rarely offered; this example in beautiful, as new condition.. Limited Edition. Quarto. Edition of 90. Suite of fifteen offset lithographs on Rives BFK paper, each one SIGNED, titled, and hand-numbered 1/90 by Conner. Printed a Kaiser Graphics; Typography by Grabhorn-Hoyem. This is one of 80 copies in a hand made portfolio by Schuberth Bindery. Sheet size 10-3/4 x 7-3/4 inches. The prints are each from one of Conner's meticulous maze-like drawings. Unhappy with his creative control in prior collaborations with the fine art presses Tamarind Lithograph Workshop (LA) and Collector's Press (SF), for Book One, Conner opted to work with a commercial lithography press, Kaiser Graphics; under the… Read More

New York: The Anderson Galleries, 1923. Two horizontal creases, presumably from mailing; paper remains supple. A remarkable copy of a significant catalogue, with 7 OCLC records located.. Exhibition catalogue. Octavo (two folded leaves). SIGNED by O'Keeffe to front cover, with presentation inscription: "I am sorry you can't come- Hope all is well with you." Scarce catalogue for O'Keeffe's first significant solo exhibition, organized by Alfred Stieglitz at Anderson Galleries in the year prior to their marriage. Robinson speculates that the show attracted some 500 visitors per day. "The whispering that had gone on about her 'uninhibited' work in 1917, and the remarkable photographs of the artist exhibited [by Stieglitz] in 1921, made the event border on the sensational." Featuring a strikingly bare artist statement from O'Keeffe and an excerpt from Marsden Hartley's appreciation of her work. No checklist of the show has been preserved, heightening the bold statement to rear panel: "There is no… Read More

New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1952. This copy of the text near fine with some wear to corners; bound in the red cloth variant (in addition to those in blue and gray cloth, without priority). Some stress to front joint of jacket, with wear to corners and closed tear to rear panel; overall a bright and sharp specimen from an alternate history of American book design.. First Edition. Octavo. A remarkable copy of Malamud's classic first book, featuring a trial version of the now-iconic jacket design, printed before-letters in blue, rather than green, colorway. Accompanied by typescript letter signed by Gerald N. Greenberg of Harcourt, Brace and Company, suggesting that the jacket was likely used on a sample copy.

Stuttgart: Jonathan Williams, Publisher, 1953 and 1956. Near fine copies, save for rounding to corners of second volume, with faint stain to lower portion of half-title page. Volumes each housed in original card-stock portfolios, further housed in cloth clamshell cases with leather lettering pieces to spines.. Deluxe Editions. Slim quartos. Two-part publication of Olson's magnum opus, with textured wrappers designed by Jonathan Williams; both volumes present here in their deluxe states. The first volume, published by Williams as Jargon 7, being one of fifty SIGNED by Olson and accompanied by prospectus leaf for second volume, featuring an introductory text by Robert Creeley. This association copy further INSCRIBED by Olson to writer Fielding Dawson, one of his students at Black Mountain College. The second volume, published as Jargon 9, being one of 25 from the scarce Patron's Edition. Of the patrons named in the colophon, we note Robert Duncan, the Menils, and Robert Motherwell.

Köln: Galerie Michael Werner, 1971. A fine copy of the catalogue. Minor some scuffing to white printed jacket; close to fine. This copy unsigned; of the purported 19 copies from this edition, our research reveals that only six of them include inscriptions from Broodthaers-addressed to individual eagles-with another six unsigned. Scarce outside of museum collections, with no OCLC records located.. Limited Edition. Folio. Another mise-en-abyme structure from Broodthaers, produced as one of the final installments-i.e. the Section Financière-to his conceptual Musée d'Art Moderne cycle (1968-1972). For the 1971 edition of the Köln Kunstmarkt catalogue, Broodthaers was granted a take-over of the Galerie Michael Werner spread, designing a fire-sale advertisement for his imaginary modern art museum, "for reasons of bankruptcy." To complete this time-based work, Broodthaers then offered a limited edition of the appropriated catalogue at Werner's gallery in Cologne (Nov. 8-13), each of these copies… Read More

Santa Barbara: Arabesque Books, 1981. Very minor curling to sheet corners, else fine in a near fine slip case with minor edge-wear. An impressive production.. Limited Edition; number 77 of 150 copies, SIGNED to colophon by both artist and author. A poem cycle by Harvey Mudd brilliantly illustrated by Ken Price; a collaborative ode to Los Angeles. With 19 loose folio gatherings of text (76 pages), accompanied by 20 original serigraphs-nine in colors-designed by Price and printed by Gary Lichtenstein (15.5 x 12 inch sheets); each with respective blind-stamps of artist, publisher, and printer. Three of the prints signed and dated in pencil by Price; two of those also hand-numbered. Publisher's pamphlet also laid-in loose. Contents laid into a clamshell case fully-illustrated by Los Angeles map, housed within orange cloth slipcase with printed label to front panel.

Praha: E. Beaufort, [1930]. Orange cloth boards with printed label to front panel; save for some bowing to boards and tight binding, a near fine copy. In a remarkably sharp copy of the rare photo-illustrated jacket, with only minor scuffing to rear panel; fine. Housed in custom cloth clamshell case with leather lettering piece. An exquisite copy.. First Edition. Octavo. A masterpiece of interwar photobooks, with 46 black-and-white nudes blending Drtikol's pictorial sensibility with modernist lighting and staging. (Parr / Badger, v1, 79; Roth 64-65).

Santa Rosa: Black Sparrow Graphic Arts, 1995. A fine copy in cream cloth boards, with publisher's plexiglass slipcase; all elements housed within the scarce foam-lined mailing box, with titles printed directly to front panel. Box lightly worn with a few small stains, but well-preserved. A beautiful copy of an evocation of mid-90s L.A. by two of its foremost artists.. Limited Edition. No. 61 of 170 hand-numbered copies. Perhaps the greatest visual achievement of John Martin's Black Sparrow Press, featuring 15 color serigraphs from Ken Price-of Los Angeles scenes in smoggy hues-to accompany a series of poems from Charles Bukowski (e.g. Traffic Report, Junk, Piss, Cockroach, Traffic Ticket, Flophouse, Bright Red Car, Decline). As called-for, four of the serigraphs are SIGNED by Price, with all of them blind-stamped by artist's and publisher's marks; housed in a die-cut tray built-into the rear board. With a CD housed in sleeve affixed to front pastedown, featuring an audio recording of Bukowski… Read More

London: John Lane The Bodley Head, 1936. This copy bumped to top of spine, with thumb-soling to vellum and some dusting to textblock edges. Overall: a close to near fine copy with remarkably crisp interior and firm hinges. Accompanied by the publisher's original patterned slipcase-now increasingly uncommon-with printed Bodley Head label affixed to front panel; no. 10 of 100 accomplished in manuscript. Original slipcase shows some scuffing and wear at corners, with previous collector's label to spine. Housed in custom half-leather slipcase with pull-tab chemise and gilt lettering to spine. A very pleasing copy of this milestone Joyce edition.. First Edition printed in Britain. Thick quarto. Deluxe Edition, bound in full vellum; gilt-stamped boards famously designed by Eric Gill, with his Homeric bow motif. Hand-numbered as 10 of 100 copies and SIGNED by Joyce to colophon. This much-anticipated luxury edition of James Joyce's opus-advertised by Bodley Head as the work's "final and definitive" edition,… Read More

New York: Thea Westreich / Cologne: Gisella [sic] Capitain, 1989. This is a remarkably fine copy, with only a hint of scuffing to the plain black papered boards-and still accompanied by the publishers' original box, featuring a typescript Thea Westreich label to the front panel, identifying this as one of Wool's proofs. An astounding copy of one of the most important artist's books from the last three decades.. Limited Edition. Oversized folio (23 in. tall). One of 8 Artist's Proof copies (III/VIII), in excess of the edition of 350 numbered copies; SIGNED and hand-numbered to colophon. Christopher Wool's first major bookwork, fully illustrated after 17 of his canonical word paintings: spokesman, insomniac, pessimist, prankster, chameleon, adversary, comedian, terrorist, hypnotist, hypocrite, celebrity, authority, extremist, persuader, assistant, assassin, and paranoiac.

Paris: Éditions Jeanne Walter, 1931. Trace foxing to the top edge of textblock, else a beautiful, close to fine copy. In plain wrappers, enclosed by the distinctive French-fold jacket that boasts the masterful superimposition of smokestacks over stone colonnade; also close to fine. Housed in custom cloth slipcase with a matching lettered chemise. A memorable copy of this consensus high-spot.. First Edition. Quarto. Number 682 of 1000 press-numbered copies. Simultaneously one of the greatest avant-garde photobooks and one of the most insightful Parisian paeans; Parr & Badger remark on the absolute gulf that stands between the dynamism of Moï Ver's Paris-with its complex photomontage techniques and kinetic layout-and the conservative stillness of Atget, whose monograph on the city was published, remarkably, only one year prior. Introduced with text from Fernand Léger. (Roth 70-71; Parr / Badger, v1, 128-129).

Mostly Southern California, 1963-1978. Uniformly fine to near fine in printed wrappers, with original glassines where called-for. These volumes each housed in custom plexiglass cases, allowing for wall-mounted display.. Few contemporary artists have incorporated the book into their practice quite like Ed Ruscha. As the recent MoMA retrospective (Ed Ruscha / Now Then) so brilliantly displayed, the book was not only a means of distribution for Ruscha, but an integral element of his formal and thematic explorations. Present here: a collection of Ruscha's sixteen artist's books, in near fine to fine condition, with six of the works either inscribed or signed by Ruscha. All First Editions, Namely: (1) Twentysix Gasoline Stations (1963), number 128 of 400 copies, SIGNED by Ruscha in black ink to dedication page; (2) Various Small Fires and Milk (1964), one of 400 copies, INSCRIBED to front endpaper in blue ink ("Hello John / Ed Ruscha / July 27 '66"); (3) Some Los Angeles Apartments (1965), one of 700… Read More