Welcome

The books described here are only a tiny fraction of an estimated 30,000 books and exhibition catalogues currently in stock. The great majority are on modern and contemporary art and artists--Cubism, Futurism, Expressionism, Dada, Surrealism, Abstract Expressionism, Cobra, Pop Art, Minimalism, Conceptual Art, Fluxus and so on. You also will find photography and unusual books in other areas.Inernational League of Antiquarian BooksellersAntiquarian Booksellers' Association of America

Hungarian caricatures, 1933. For a unique album from Budapest of brilliant, original caricatures worthy of publication and exhibition, please click here.

An additional 40,000 art periodicals include the world's largest holdings of Artforum, Art in America, and High Performance, plus many others.

Shipping is free for most items to US addresses and for some items to international addresses. Please see individual descriptions.

Two free, on-line indexes, to the early years of Artforum and to High Performance (partial), are open to all.

Visitors are welcome by appointment at my nearly invisible offices in central La Jolla, where good restaurants abound and cultural treasures include three other antiquarian dealers within a hundred yards, the Athenaeum (a music and art library), San Diego's Museum of Contemporary Art, several first-rate galleries, and a remarkable private map museum. Nearby are the Salk Institute, the University of California with its splendid special collections, the La Jolla Playhouse, and of course our beaches. Or simply send an email with your inquiries.

We have been members of the Antiquarian Booksellers Association of America and the International League of Antiquarian Booksellers since 1971.

Featured Items

The nine pieces are primarily personal correspondence in the artist's inimitable syle sent in the early 1970s to James Butler, husband of Eugenia Butler, Los Angeles gallery owner in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Byars seemed to turn everything he touched into a work of art. The first seven of these pieces are museum quality. **Nine handmade pieces, mostly correspondence: **1) Scroll letter on matte orange paper 1 foot by about 18 feet long, plus gold triangular tail, 1 foot. Written in blue (?) pencil. **2) Heart-shaped letter. Five leaves of tissue with vivid red matte surface. Written with gold pencil (?). Approximately 12 x 11 inches. Folded in half vertically. **3a & b) Gold egg with gold writing, 13-1/2 x 11 inches, folded crosswise in half; in gold envelope written in blue (?) pencil (?). "I just bought the whole _____(?) world (?)." **4) Letter addressed from DAAD, Berlin, 25 May 1974, in ordinary business envelope. Bone shape; single-sided gold paper written in pen. 8-7/8 inches by about 36 inches; ends about 12-1/2 inches wide. Folded. "The germs love my bone _____? music (?)." **5a & b) Chinese envelope for money gifts on New Year's, birthdays, etc., mailed from Switzerland. Contents: 6 sheets 6-1/2 x 5-1/4 inches with silver-leaf (?) applique on each, 2-3/4 x 2-7/8 inches; folded lengthwise. Writing in ____ (?). **6a, b, c & d) A "sculpture." Gold envelope containing two black paper bags marked "Rat" and Balls," with an instruction card written in silver on black-coated, cover-weight paper 11-5/8 x 8-3/4 inches. The bags are just under 22 x 17 inches and folded in half; titles written boldly in white chalk or pastel on each bag.. Each folded bag has folded within it a red tissue about 20 x 15 inches folded in eight. The bags are to be blown up and then connected at their tops. String not present. Envelope postmarked 30 December 1971. **7) "Spider" letter, though it does not have eight legs. Black tissue, crumpled, with gold writing. Four legs: two about 4 feet 2 inches from center; one L-shaped, 2 feet 7 inches + 2 feet; one L-shaped, 3 feet 3 inches + 2 feet; center about 11 inches each way, so total size about 5 feet or more across. Other similar pieces in galleries and museums are housed under clear plastic boxes. **8a & b) Scroll paper, pink tissue with tails. Black ink. Approximately 5-3/4 inches x approximately 9 feet 6 inches. Loosely folded in manila envelope postmarked "Nov. ____). **9) Letter on 7 sheets of very pale pink tissue 14-3/16 inches square, folded in four. Written in pink crayon (?). **Five printed pieces: **10a & b) "The golden tower 1." Berliner Künstlerprogramm des DAAD zur Ausstellung in der Galerie Springer, Berlin, 1974. 2 sheets black paper printed in gold, 177 x 50 cm (together, the size of the artist's body). 180 lines of type in English and German on each sheet. Weserberg 20. **11) "A white paper will blow through the streets." Kyoto Museum of Art, 1967. Round broadside 68 cm in diameter. Framed. Printed in black offset on white Japanese tissue paper. Weserberg 44b. Reportedly, only 60 copies of this flat, unfolded version exist. Another edition, from New York (Weserberg 43), is on paper 63 cm in diameter and was published in larger quantities for use as an announcement or invitation. Most of these were crumpled or folded. **12, 13, 14) Three items printed in 1-point or smaller type, gold ink on black paper, perhaps for an exhibition at the Stedelijk Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven. These may have been tickets to the opening of "Perfect Is My Death Word," 1995 (?). Byars also appeared at the Van Abbemuseum in 1983 with Piet de Jonge in the exhibition "Gold dust is my ex libris." Perhaps these little pieces of ephemera come from then. **12) A circle 15 mm in diameter bearing the words, "The chair of the artist at Harvard" in tiny capitals. Weserberg 135 (though not dated). Several examples in collection. **13) The same, but the circular piece of paper is 25 mm. Not in Weserberg. **14) A 25-mm square bearing a small, open circle 1 mm in diameter. Not in Weserberg. The collection also includes the following reference work: James Lee Byars: Bücher, Editionen, Ephemera. Neues Museum Weserburg Bremen, [Part of the publication "Perfect Is My Death Word" (1995). A collection of nine unique pieces, plus five printed pieces. 14 items
Byars, James Lee (1932-1997)
The nine pieces are primarily personal correspondence in the artist's inimitable syle sent in the early 1970s to James Butler,.. more
Price: $50,000.00
FREE domestic or international shipping with direct order. **La Jolla, California: 1968. Catalogue in the the form of a vertical hanging poster folded leporello style. 6 plates. 10 panels. About 19.8 cm square when folded; about 190.5 cm (75 inches) unfolded. The artists are Peter Alexander, John Baldessari ("How to sell paintings"), Ron Cooper, Doug Edge, Jessie Jacobs, and Terence O'Shea. Text by James Monte. No copies in OCLC. Slight wear and denting of the stiff, glossy paper. This probably came in an envelope, which no longer is present. New work / Southern California
University of California, San Diego
FREE domestic or international shipping with direct order. **La Jolla, California: 1968. Catalogue in the the form of a vertical.. more
Price: $300.00
FREE domestic or international shipping with direct order. **New York: Roaring Fork Press, 1965-1971 (numbers 8 & 10 published by Aspen Communications). 10 .5volumes. This imaginative publication includes work by and about Andy Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg, Samuel Beckett, John Cage, Merce Cunningham, Marcel Duchamp, Marshall McLuhan, Susan Sontag, John Lennon & Yoko Ono, and Gary Snyder, among many, many others. Each issue comes in a box or envelope containing many parts. There are 11 sound recordings and a reel of film in the set. It includes both the very rare 6A and its even rarer progenitor, Manipulations (NY: Judson Publications, 1967; 500 copies). Both consist of loose sheets in envelopes designed by Ralph Ortiz. Manipulations contains 12 colorful sections from the "12 Evenings of Manipulations" at the Judson Church Gallery printed on legal-size mimeograph paper folded in half (each section has a varied number of pages), and all but the Kaprow (as issued) contain an offset photographic image from the performance plus objects and other supplementary material. Participants include Allan Kaprow, Al Hansen, Kate Millet, and Nam June Paik. The interim issue No. 6A printed only the unillustrated program notes. Condition: all pieces present except as noted: No. 1, 1965 -- The black box; near fine, with two light creases in the cover of the box and a split on the front edge; a skinned spot (black) on the front of the box. No. 2, 1966 -- The white box; some wear to box and light soil; cover joint cracked. No. 3, December 1966 -- Pop Art issue with light cover wear and one small tear in front edge of box. No. 4, Spring 1967 -- the McLuhan issue; spine joints cracked 1 cm at top & 1 break in the usual place in the front edge of the box; a few light spots. Nos. 5+6. Fall-Winter 1967 -- Minimalism issue; complete except for Aspen renewal form; light wear to box. No. 6A, 1968/69 -- fine contents in expertly mended envelope. Manipulations, 1966 -- fine contents in expertly mended envelope. No. 7, Spring-Summer 1968/70 -- The British issue; complete in 14 parts (not 15, per table of contents); lightweight folded box deformed as usual, with repairs and tears at the ends of the cover hinge; in original mailing wrapper to Wittenborn; a few short tears and a crease at the left edge of the flap. No. 8, Fall-Winter 1970-1971 -- Art/Information/Science issue. No. 9, Winter-Spring, 1970 -- "Dream Weapon" psychedelic issue; lacks subscription form; fold rubbed and top end of fold torn. No. 10, 1971 -- the Asia issue; incomplete copy with 7 of 15 items; no case; this atypical issue devoted to classic Japanese screen paintings and other similar works has little connection with the prior issues. For a (nearly) complete list with pictures of the contents of all issues, please visit http://www.ubu.com and click on "Aspen." A marked set of these sheets accompanies each issue. Aspen: the magazine in a box. Numbers 1-9, including the rare 6A and the rarer Manipulations. Also contains a partial copy of number 10, the Asian issue. Edited by Phyllis Johnson
Johnson, Phyllis
FREE domestic or international shipping with direct order. **New York: Roaring Fork Press, 1965-1971 (numbers 8 & 10 published by.. more
Price: $12,000.00
FREE domestic & international shipping with direct order. **[L.A.? The artist? 1970?] Artist's book, INSCRIBED. 600 copies. 24 photographs juxtapose sterile hotel rooms in Los Angeles with messier indoor and oudoor scenes, e.g., a hilltop path overhung by a tree marked X, an action painting of Heinz ketchup on a white tablecloth, a deposit of 2 or 3 dozen empty bottles amid other detritus. The statement reads: "Note: the newspaper shown in one of the 'pieces' is only a marginal statement and is not meant as any kind of blanket over-simplification for the entire book. | A Ruppersberg." At least one other known copy bears a similar holograph text, so it was important to the artist. [28 leaves.] White cover with white plastic spiral binding. 15.9 x 20.5 cm. Small stickers on the front and inside cover plus two shadows of stickers on the front cover; corners of front cover turned; ink drawing, probably by another hand, on lower right corner of rear cover; some dents and scrapes on the glossy paper. Cover title and name underlined. Spot on rear cover. 24 pieces
Ruppersberg, Allen
FREE domestic & international shipping with direct order. ** Artist's book, INSCRIBED. 600 copies. 24 photographs juxtapose.. more
Price: $450.00
Topic Notification


ABAA & ILAB Member
© Laurence McGilvery 2013
Site by Bibliopolis