GRAPH BOOKS: PRINTED MATTER FROM RADICAL ART AND SOCIAL MOVEMENTS.
FEMINIST HISTORIANS OF MATERIAL CULTURE.
[1985-1987]
From "the last porn theatre in Paris," Le Cinéma Béverley.
(Graphic Design) Four Typographic X-Rated Film Posters
Cinéma Béverley. Four Typographic X-Rated Film Posters. Paris: Imp. Lacroix, n.d. [1985-1987]. 24 x 16 in.; single-color offset on white stock. Cinema stamp verso. Some small dents and light handling marks, very good.
From the “last porn theatre in Paris,” Le Cinéma Béverley, which opened in 1983. These distinctive posters were produced in accordance with the 1975 French law that prevented X-rated films from using imagery in their street-side advertisements. Surviving the advent of video and internet porn, before finally closing in 2019, Le Béverley was an innovative cinema, introducing couples’ screenings to the Paris adult scene.
Film titles: Jeune Filles en Chaleur à Sodomiser (1985); Jouissances Anales pour Adolescents en Chaleur (1986); Le Nain Assoiffé de Perversité (1987); Voluptes Anales (1987).
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Alpha Laboratory, [ca. 1925-30]
Unrecorded Deco contraception leaflet with proto-feminist angle touting "the inalienable rights of women" and "absolute freedom from fear."
(Contraception) The Dawn of Today: Let Va-Jel open the way [...]
(Contraception) Alpha Laboratory. The Dawn of Today: Let Va-Jel [scientific birth control] open the way to a better happier life for all women. Chicago: N.p., n.d. [ca. 1925]. Single sheet, folded: 6-1/2 x 4-1/4 in., printed recto and verso in pink, [6] pp.; near fine.
Elegantly designed Deco leaflet for Va-Jel germicidal jelly, “a new freedom for women,” and “the key to a happier life,” is “voluntary motherhood.” Aimed at well-bred, but working women? See recto, additional advert for “Va’Antiseptic” douche for the woman “who desires her person to be [...] free from [...] the acrid accumulations of an active day, perhaps continuously upon her feet ....”
Not found in OCLC or Atwater.
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Oregon Social Hygiene Society, 1913-1920
Nearly complete run of Oregon's highly successful anti-venereal disease public health campaign, profusely illus.
(Sexual Health) Annual Report of the Oregon Social Hygiene Society. Vols. 2-5, 9 [subtitles vary]
(Sexual Health) Oregon Social Hygiene Society. Annual Report of the Oregon Social Hygiene Society. Vols. 2-5, 9 [subtitles vary]. Portland, OR: The Society, 1913-1920. 5 vols., 8vo, 48; 48; 60; 48;12 pp.; illus. annual reports on the activities of the society. Nos. 1, 6-8 not published. Brown paper wrappers, sl. darkened, ex-library with stamps on front wraps and pencil shelving labels. No. 9 with intact fold out “blue print,” and heavy center crease.
This nearly complete run, lacking no. 10, documents a lively public health campaign that spanned WWI. Illustrated throughout with graphs, charts and b/w reproductions of exhibition materials and photographs of lectures given in industrial and institutional settings. The Oregon Social Hygiene Society’s approach was comprehensive rather than strictly moralistic. The state-sponsored organization relied on exhibits, public lectures, elementary education, “checking the spread of falsehoods” largely through criminalizing quack advertising, and eventually, employing women to lead “mother’s meetings” and make house-to-house calls. Their efforts were seemingly quite successful, the 1919-20 report ranks Oregon with the lowest incidence of venereal disease within incoming US Army recruits in the nation.
Scattered holdings are recorded in OCLC, complete runs scarce.
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1997-2019
Profusely illus., scattered OCLC holdings.
(Sex Work) Group of Nine American Sex Worker Zines and Magazines
(Sex Work) Group of Nine American Sex Worker Zines and Magazines, 1997-2019.
Various sizes, approx. 30-80 pp., profusely illustrated, all offering first-person commentary on the politics of prostitution and/or pornography. Most authors pseudonymous with limited publishing details. Scattered OCLC holdings, one unrecorded.
Comprising: Proof your man ain’t shit: Death to FOSTA & SESTA, 2019; Land of make believe and dress up: some of my experiences doing sex work in NYC as a queer anarchist, New York: 20-?; Danzine: an exciting quarterly for ladies in the ‘biz, No. 12, Portland, OR: 1997; Rocket Queen, Nos 1-2 (all published?), Asheville, NC: 2005-?; $pread [Spread], Vol. 1, Nos. 1-3, New York, NY: 2005. Together with a color promo card for the “2nd Sex Worker Film & Video Festival,” 2001.
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Public Health Institute, 1937
Enamel advertisement for the largest venereal disease clinic in the world, notorious for its challenge to Chicago Medical Society's monopoly.
(Sexual Health) (Medical Advertising) Be Healthy
(Sexual Health) (Medical Advertising) (Graphic Design) Public Health Institute. Be Healthy. Chicago, 1937. Color enamel silkscreen? on tin?, 8-½ x 11 in., date printed at foot. Surface with minor pitting and discoloration, colors worn at edges, possibly from original mounting, small ripples at top and bottom edges, mounting holes at each corner.
Scarce ephemera of a non-profit medical organization that became the largest venereal disease clinic in the world and a test case for the ethics of medical advertising and the right to affordable health-care.
The Public Health Institute (PHI) was established in downtown Chicago in 1919 to cheaply diagnose and treat the epidemic of venereal disease. Its founders hoped to repeat the military’s successful model of curtailing disease during WWI through widespread publicity and testing. The board of trustees was composed of elite Chicagoan businessmen and philanthropists who added a management style rooted in business efficiencies and early industrial medicine. These efficiencies helped it to become solvent during its first year and by 1929 PHI was serving 1500-2000 patients a day at its three branches, including a south side location opened under pressure from black civic leaders.
Patients remained anonymous and no one was denied service because of inability to pay. Its profits were reinvested in other venereal disease programs, including direct support for the Illinois Social Hygiene League (ISHL) and a $100,000 renovation of Provident Hospital, the first African-American owned and operated hospital in the US.
The PHI’s relationship with ISHL and its director, Dr. Louis Schmidt, brought it notoriety when Schmidt was expelled from the Chicago Medical Society (CMS) for violating its ban on advertising. According to its own reports, the PHI not only advertised in daily newspapers but placed 25,000 posters in public toilets, factories, and streetcars. The CMS’s unanimous action against Schmidt and the Institute—based on how PHI’s advertising challenged the social and economic power of their monopoly—was publicly ridiculed, since it punished a charity that had healed thousands. The case brought attention to the increasing cost of medicine and inadequate health care for the lower classes, initiating a conversation about a universal right to health care that continues to this day.
The clever PHI advertising slogans were well-known from Chicago’s newspapers: “Wild Oats are Watered by Tears,” “Self-Treatment Won’t Cure ‘Social’ Diseases,” etc. The present example, “Be Healthy,” was printed in April 1937.
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Mrs. J.C. Winter, 1894
Unrecorded trade catalogue of "Human Hair Goods and Fine Toilet Goods," incl. an illus. of the newly invented hair dryer.
Hand Book on Beauty [title from cover]
(Trade Catalogue - Cosmetics) (Human Hair) Winter, Mrs. J. C. Hand Book on Beauty [title from cover]. Syracuse, NY: [Zobel & Otis], 1894. 6 x 4-1/2 in., 16 pp.; illus. catalogue of beauty products, largely for the hair; in illus. stapled wrapper, nicked and chipped, a few small losses.
From half-title: “Mrs. J.C. Winter, manufacturer and dealer in Human Hair Goods and Fine Toilet Goods, Manicure Goods, Face Bleach, Dandruff Cure, Hair Tonic, Hair Restorer, Curling Fluid, Etc., Etc., Valuable Hints for the Toilet Table.” With introduction to Mrs. Winter’s career (including first prize coiffure at the New York State Fair, 1890, pictured) and her Madison Street emporium (depicted on rear wrap), followed by discussion of various proprietary products. Including an illustration of the newly invented hair dryer.
Not found in OCLC.
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[1934]
Argentinian anarchist publication on worker insurrections in Spain.
España de abril 1931 a octubre 1934: C.N.T. / F.A.I.
(Anarchism) (Argentina) (Spain) [Comité Regional de Relaciones Anarquistas]. España de abril 1931 a octubre 1934: C.N.T. / F.A.I. [Buenos Aires, Argentina]: [Ediciones Comité Regional de Relaciones Anarquistas], [1934]. 8vo, 32 pp.; illus. stapled wrapper, small split at foot, chip to rear wrap, toned.
Describing anarchist and communist worker’s insurrections in Spain, the movement’s actions against fascism and capitalism, and arguing for the same in Argentina. OCLC finds no North American institutional holdings.
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1943-1945
Leaflets calling for working-class action against Nazi-fascism in the German-occupied Italian Social Republic.
Fourteen Italian Antifascist, Communist, and Revolutionary Socialist Party Leaflets
“Lavoratori Torinesi! L’ora dell’insurrezione popolare contro il nazifascismo e giunta ... Lo sciopero insurrezionale ad oltranza apra la via alla nostra liberazione! Viva il Socialismo!”
(Antifascism) (Socialism) Fourteen Italian Antifascist, Communist, and Revolutionary Socialist Party Leaflets, 1943-1945. Various sizes, most single-sided, four recto and verso, two on red papers, most good, with scattered fraying, creases, small chips, bent corners, and toning, one closed tear, one example much larger, creased with losses. Together with: Fronte Del Lavoro: Per un’Italia nuova del lavoratori. [3] pp. mimeograph party manifesto, dated September 2, 1943, sl. faded with small pencil annotations, possibly corrections; Lo Stato Moderno: Rivista di critica, politica, economica, e sociale. Anno 1, N. 1 (Luglio 1944). [Rome]: 1944. 8vo, 16 pp.; newsprint darkened; stapled wrapper, front with small stain and closed tear; and 3) Foglio Volante: Portato dalle Forze Aeree delle Nazioni Unite. No. 6. Np. Nd. ca. 1943. Single sheet of a French? Resistance aerial leaflet with solidarity messages for Italian workers from leaders of the trade union movement in France and Britain.
Leaflets calling for working-class action against Nazi-fascism in the German-occupied Italian Social Republic from communist, socialist, and revolutionary parties belonging to the National Liberation Committee coalition or the armed resistance movement: Partito Socialista Italiano di Unità Proletaria, Partito d’Azione, Il Fronte della Gioventù (part of the Italian Communist Party [PCI]), Fronte degli Intellettuali (PCI?), and Partito Repubblicano Italiano.
With the exception of Foglio Volante and Lo Stato, most of these examples were presumably published clandestinely in Turin and environs. At least two published in the days following liberation, either celebrating the first postwar Labor Day (May 1) or insisting on a new democratic Italian republic to represent the working class.
No OCLC holdings found. A few similar leaflets in the Library of Congress holdings. Foglio Volante held only at the BNF.
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Gruppi di difesa della donna, 1943-1946
Rare examples from the clandestine presses of the Italian women's resistance movement.
(Clandestine Press) (Women) Italian Women’s Resistance Leaflets and Serials
(Clandestine Press) (Women) Gruppi di difesa della donna e per l’assistenza ai combattenti della libertà. Three handbills and a clandestine issue of Noi Donne. [Turin?]: n.d., ca. 1944-45. Sizes vary, from 8-¾ x 6-½ in. to 4 x 9-⅛ in.; all sl. toned, one with chipped edges. Together with Le Donne e la resistenza: Un documentario Noi Donne da conservare, per non dimenticare. Rome: Noi Donne, n.d. [ca. 1946]. Large 4to, [48] pp.; profuse b/w illus. from photographs, newsprint toned with small dampstain affecting most pages, pages numbered 16-61; stapled illus. color wrapper with red star pasted to front cover, worn at corners and spine.
Rare examples from the clandestine Piedmont presses of the Italian women’s resistance movement, Gruppi di defesa della Donna (Gddd). Led in Turin by Ada Gobetti, Gddd’s partisans risked their lives to produce antifascist and feminist literature in the German-occupied Italian Social Republic. They collaborated with and supported the Corpo volontari della libertà (CVL) through mutual aid activities including propaganda, industrial sabotage, and first aid. Some joined the CVL’s armed resistance, in the Brigate Garibaldi.
The present group includes calls to action against “nazi-fascisti” and a previously unidentified? example of the women’s movement serial, Noi Donne, which originated in Paris in 1937 in the antifascist exile community, and was reborn during the Italian resistance as a clandestine paper allied with the Gddd. Regional editions varied widely; most groups did not have access to presses so they brought mimeograph machines to kitchens and women’s shops, and printed during the night; this example probably issued by the Turin section, edited by Dina Ermini
After liberation, the Noi Donne editorial office was located in Rome under the auspices of the feminist organization Unione Donne Italiane. In the present group is the large format Noi Donne supplement Le Donne e la resistenza. The special edition tells the story of Italian women’s participation in the resistance through texts and photographs solicited by the editors from the partigiane themselves.
Gddd documents and early issues of Noi Donne are virtually unknown outside of Italian archives. Scholars have noted that individual print runs might range from 500 to 10,000 copies, and that possession of an issue (let alone the dangers of printing) could lead to deportation, torture, or death.
Three Gddd flyers are included in the Library of Congress archive of wartime European underground publications. We are unable to confirm any physical copies of Noi Donne from the 1940s in North American institutional collections.
See Marisa Rodano. “Introduction.” Noi Donne, 1944-1945: Ristampa. Rome: Editrice Cooperative Libera Stamp, 1978.
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Associació d'Arquitectes de Catalunya; Sindicat d'Arquitectes de Catalunya, 1931-1937
Near-complete run of a rare Catalonian architectural serial, charting the political and cultural upheaval of the Spanish Second Republic.
Arquitectura i urbanisme
(Architecture) (Urbanism) (Spanish Second Republic) (Anarcho-Syndicalism) Associació d’Arquitectes de Catalunya; Sindicat d’Arquitectes de Catalunya. Arquitectura i urbanisme. [Primer Epoca] No. 1 (1931) - No. 4 (1933); [Segona Epoca] No. 1 (1934) - No. 2 (1934), No. 6 (1935) - No. 15 (1936); [Tercera Epoca] No. 16 (1937?) - No. 19 (1937). Barcelona, 1931-1937. 19 vols., [20 of 23 nos. issued, lacking Segona Epoca, Nos. 3-5], [30-76] pp., most approx. [36-50] pp.; profusely illustrated in b/w with limited use of color papers and inks beginning with No. 10; Primer Epoca, No. 1 with orig. introductory letter laid in, No. 14 loose but holding; in stapled color wrappers, Primer Epoca, No. 1 front sl. abraded at tail edge, Segona Epoca, No. 2 and No. 11, covers separated but present, No. 19, front covered darkened, spine chipped. Attribution changes to Sindicat d’Arquitectes de Catalunya, Nos. 13-19. Primer Epoca, Nos.1-3 also written as Any 1-3.
Near-complete run of the rare Catalonian architectural journal published by the Associació d’Arquitectes de Catalunya (AAC) during the Spanish Second Republic. The editors aimed to merge Northern European avantgardism and Mediterranean vernacular architecture with the Catalonian independence movement. Though aspects of this vision for a unified and autonomous Catalonian modernism had been present in the more conservative Noucentisme movement, they were reinvigorated by the establishment of the self-governing Generalitat de Catalunya in April, 1931.
In the serial’s three “epocas,” architecture and urbanism coincide with major political shifts in the Generalitat and the Second Republic. In the first exuberant phase, the editors differentiate themselves from the internationalism of the celebrated Grup d’Arquitectes i Tècnics Catalans per al Progrés de l’Arquitectura Contemporània (GATCPAC), led by Le Corbusier associate, Josep Lluís Sert. However, a review of Arquitectura i urbanisme (AU) reveals that its early years were deeply sympathetic to GATCPAC’s avantgardism. The AAC and GATCPAC worked closely on several initiatives, including architectural expositions and competitions, and a Congrés d’Arquitectes de llengua Catalana. Though AU offered more space for Catalonian issues and architects, there are clear links between the magazine’s graphics, urbanist policy, and emphasis on modern industrial materials and technologies, to those espoused in GATCPAC’s stylized serial, A.C. (Actividad Contemporánea). Both groups were invested in proving a natural relationship between the modern and Mediterranean popular culture.
The second phase of AU took place after the 1934 national elections brought a conservative majority to power; the new government suspended the Generalitat de Catalunya and violently crushed a worker’s rebellion in Asturia. The magazine adopted a larger format with increasing ads, arts reviews, illustrations, and nationalism, turning from internationalist to local solutions in design, decoration, and planning. This period of suppression radicalized many Catalonians, culminating in the elections of 1936 and the Popular Front. This revolution was also realized in AU, which was seized (incautaba) in issue No. 13 by a new Catalonian architect’s union, organized under the authority of the anarcho-syndicalist CNT-UGT.
The magazine’s third era, Nos. 13-19, is credited to “El Comite” of the Sindicat d’Arquitectes de Catalunya, but the initial bylaws of the union are signed by Josep Torres Clavé, a principal member of GATCPAC, which seems to have assumed control of the magazine. Clavé was also the of A.C. In this final phase, the magazine prioritized the social mission of architecture, its moral and economic responsibilities, and principles of solidarity between various industrial workers’ unions and architects. Nos. 15-16/17 address the collectivization of construction, the municipalization of housing, and the impending total transformation of Catalonian society. The new editors call for monographic studies of social and human problems: sanitation, hospitals, and the urbanization of unhealthy neighborhoods.
The magazine undertook these monographic studies in Nos. 18 and 19, reviewing public health architecture and urban policy in France, Germany, the USA, and the USSR. Additionally these issues introduce the reorganization of architectural studies for revolutionary purposes in the Catalonian university system and provide further details and bylaws for the collectivization of the construction industry within the Generalitat de Catalunya. Probably authored by Clavé, these themes correspond to his editorial in the final number of AC, subtitled “Problèmes de la revolución.” No. 19 with color back wrapper advert for the Spanish translation of Upton Sinclair’s “No Passaran!”, published by the Generalitat’s propaganda commission in 1937.
Substantial runs of AU are rare to the market and institutionally. As of February 2020, we find four? North American OCLC holdings, all incomplete: Met, NYPL, UMich, Northwestern.
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1932
Substantial presentation album documenting the reurbanization of Rome in the fascist era.
Quattro Lustri di Attività dell’Impresa Ferrero & Grossi, Roma, MCMXII-MCMXXXII
(Architecture) (Italy) (Photography) (Fascism) Ferrero & Grossi. Quattro Lustri di Attività dell’Impresa Cav. Uff. Ferrero Carlo & Cav. Uff. Grossi Vittorio, Roma, MCMXII-MCMXXXII. Rome and Florence: 1932. Oblong presentation album, 13-⅛ x 10-½ in., 70 heavy card leaves: first leaf with gilt title recto and photograph of Vittorio Grossi verso, incl. Grossi’s dated manuscript dedication to an unspecified Italian municipality [Sede Podestarile], 15/8/32; followed by 69 leaves, each with a mounted photographic print recto and printed caption, print sizes vary slightly, most approx. 9 x 6-½ in., final third of leaves with minor uniform warp, approx. 6 examples with some discoloration at edges from dyed card mount, the rest VG to near fine. Cord-bound leather album, front cover gilt, spine beginning to split, heavily worn with some losses, esp. to rear board.
Comprehensive document of the revolutionary urban planning initiated by Italian fascists in Rome during the 1920s, and the diverse modernist architectural forms that supplanted many of the city’s densely built historical areas.
Rapid population growth during the 1920s and 1930s caused a housing crisis that led to unprecedented partnerships between Mussolini’s fascist government and Roman private construction companies, including Ferrero & Grossi. These public housing projects were coordinated by the Istituto Case Popolari (ICP; Institute of Popular Housing), led from 1925-1931 by the rationalist architect Innocenzo Costantini. Blocks of case popolari rose swiftly, creating new neighborhoods aimed at the huge influx of working class and lower-middle class residents, including thousands of new city employees (under the aegis of the Case dei Dipendenti del Governatorato di Roma, known as INCIS).
The speed of Roman redevelopment, often accompanied by the programmatic demolition (sventramento) of ancient districts, was celebrated as a critical aspect of the fascist revolution and its reconfiguration of modern, urban life. This album presents the significant contributions of one construction company to this effort, providing a survey of the period’s astonishing modernization and the vocabulary of vernacular and civic architecture in which it took place: case popolari for the working class, INCIS districts for the middle-class, villini and palazzini for the bourgeoisie, and monumental government buildings. These typologies of residential architecture further promoted the social segregation central to Mussolini’s fascist ideology.
The first quarter of the album addresses early, pre-fascist, ICP modernization projects in Rome’s rural outskirts—the infamous industrial and agricultural zones of the borgate, e.g. a school and sanitation center in Marcigliana. There are also a few examples from the Italian co-operative housing movement, including the Cooperativas Luigi Luzzati (named for the Jewish Prime Minister of Italy) and Tesoro Parioli.
The fascist era documentation begins with numerous rationalist ICP apartment blocks in various areas of Rome, lingering on several massive urban projects built by Ferrero & Grossi, including architect Dario Barbieri’s innovative redevelopment of Piazza Verbano, which housed nearly 10,000 people. The Verbano photos include a cornerstone ceremony with the King Vittorio Emanuele III, various stages of construction, and the inauguration by Minister Antonio Mosconi. Not all of these projects were groundbreaking formal experiments, but they were highly conspicuous alterations to the Roman built environment that delivered on the Mussolini’s promise of a new cityscape for a new society.
Photographs of Il Duce at the inauguration of an enormous governmental autopark further testify to the symbolic importance of urban development to the fascist revolution.
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John R. Dossey and Guillermo Trotti, 1977
Scalable space colony study with countercultural architectural methodologies.
An Investigation of the Needs and the Design of an Orbiting Space Station with Growth Capabilities
(Space Architecture) (Experimental Living) (Futurism) Dossey, John R. and Guillermo Trotti. An Investigation of the Needs and the Design of an Orbiting Space Station with Growth Capabilities: Final Report. Contract No. NASW 2776. [Houston, TX]: Rice University Space Station Study, 1977. 4to, [1], 44 pp. of text illus. with [57] full-page figures, bound throughout; in plastic comb binding, front and rear covers worn, beginning to separate.
A fascinating report to NASA addressing the challenge of developing a scalable space colony from initial outpost to urban community. The recommended architectural program, which offers surprisingly countercultural solutions, reveals the authors’ radical intellectual heritage. Dossey and Trotti trained under architect Howard Barnstone (Rothko Chapel; Rice University/Menil’s “Art Barn”) at the University of Houston and completed their thesis project, “Counterpoint—A Lunar Colony” (1974), under the supervision of Buckminster Fuller.
Their report investigates the futuristic possibilities of modular space architecture, and the role of both architects and social scientists (rather than just engineers or industrial designers) in providing solutions for long-term life in space. Inspired by “visionary urban design” models such as those by Paolo Soleri (architect of the experimental desert communities Cosanti and Arcosanti) they take on the “complex space environment” where “issues of transportation, ‘land use’, urban economics, density, public services, and so forth, become important problems.” Taking their study in an unorthodox direction, Dossey and Trotti, stress the importance of aesthetic stimuli during “prolonged confinements in a spatially limited environment.” Architectural methodologies, they suggest, are capable of addressing the aesthetic demands of space colonies by developing designs that can be adapted to human scale and using graphic and symbolic forms that “give identity to space.” The architect, understanding “how people act in certain kinds of space,” can design “areas of privacy, public contact, [...] and areas which encourage spontaneous activity and personal expression.”
With dozens of compelling drawings reproducing both interiors (farms, restaurants, theaters, hotels, farms, industrial facilities) and exteriors of the space colony, this volume summarizes and draws final conclusions from previous technical reports delivered to NASA. Trotti would later establish a firm (TAI) that continues to work closely with NASA and MIT on components related to space architecture.
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1978
Unrecorded program for UIA architecture congress, Mexico City
Arquitectura y Desarrollo Nacional: XIII Congresso Mundial de la UIA, Mexico
(Architecture) (Trueblood, Beatrice) [La Federación de Colegios de Arquitectos de la República Mexicana; Sección Mexicana de la UIA]. Arquitectura y Desarrollo Nacional: XIII Congresso Mundial de la UIA, Mexico [title from cover]. [Mexico]: 1978. 4to, 47 pp.; profuse b/w illus.; pictorial wraps, fore-corner bumped, resulting small crease affecting front wrap and succeeding pages.
Graphic design for modern Mexican architecture booklet by editor and designer Beatrice Trueblood, head of publications for the ‘68 Mexico Olympiad. This vol. prepared for an annual congress of the International Union of Architects, held in Mexico in 1978 with a focus on economic and socio-cultural impacts in contemporary architecture.
Includes conference schedule and an index of participating countries and architects. A few other publications from the congress are recorded in OCLC with limited institutional holdings, this one seemingly unrecorded.
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Virgilia D'Andrea,
Scarce issues of the antifascist cultural magazine, edited by the Italian anarcho-syndicalist leader, D'Andrea.
Veglia: Anarchica Mensile. Anno 1, No. 5 (Oct.-Nov. 1926) through Anno 2, No. 7 (Apr.-May 1927)
D’Andrea, Virgilia, Ed. Veglia: Anarchica Mensile. Anno 1, No. 5 (Oct.-Nov. 1926) through Anno 2, No. 7 (Apr.-May 1927). Paris: Imp. La Fraternelle, 1926-1927. Three issues, 4to, numbered continuously [97]-168 pp.; with b/w reproductions of various artworks and graphics throughout, toned and worn, with warping near staples; in stapled illus. wrpprs., with wear at corners and spine, No. 6 with lower fore-corner separated but present.
Virgilia D’Andrea (1888-1933) was a poet and leader of the Italian anarcho-syndicalist movement, Unione Sindacale Italiana, from 1919-1920, during the so-called “red years.” Along with Errico Malatesta and her lover Amando Borghi, she was imprisoned in 1921 as part of the government’s repression of their revolutionary working-class movement. In 1923, following Mussolin’s consolidation of power, she and Borghi fled into exile.
Settling in Paris, she continued organizing and writing. She published eight issues of Veglia, an irregular bi-monthly antifascist cultural magazine, to raise money for the anarchist community in exile and the Sacco and Vanzetti defense. In addition to her own impassioned introductory essays and poems, literary and artistic contributions to Veglia included those by well-known anarchists Felice Vezzani, Luigi Fabbri, and Albert Daenens, among others. No. 7 reproduces a letter written to D’Andrea by Nicola Sacco. Each issue ends with a summary of new subscribers and their locations in the United States and Europe, offering an unexpected geographic survey of Italian anarchist immigration.
The end of Veglia’s run coincided with D’Andrea’s move to the US, where she became a prominent antifascist and labor organizer until her death from cancer, in 1933.
Scarce. Scattered issues in five European libraries; OCLC records the only North American holding at Northwestern, incomplete.
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Juanita Cruz, 1933-1945
Illustrated promotional materials for the groundbreaking Spanish bullfighter Juanita Cruz.
Fifteen Illustrated Handbills and Programs for Bullfights with Headlining Woman Matador
[Cruz, Juanita]. Fifteen Illustrated Handbills and Programs for Bullfights with Headlining Matador Juanita Cruz. Argentina, Ecuador, Mexico, Venezuela, and Spain, 1933-1945. Most approx. 18-¾ x 8-½ in., largest 16-⅞ x 12-½ in., a few smaller, printed on various colored papers, most with worn edges, a few chipping with small closed tears or minor losses. Together with a handbill for Las Hermans Palmeño and a real photo postcard advertising torera Carmen Madrid.
Women were prohibited from performing as matadors when groundbreaking Spanish bullfighter Juanita Cruz made her debut in 1933 under special license. She later successfully sued the Republican government to abolish the discriminatory statute, ushering in a brief era of equality for women matadors in Spain. When the Civil War ended in 1938, Cruz was touring in South America. Franco quickly reestablished the ban on women matadors, and Cruz chose a life in exile where she continued as a celebrated headliner until she retired in 1946.
This collection spans almost her entire career, from one of her first outings as a matador in Málaga, in 1933, to her final season in Ecuador in 1945.
Two additional promotional items relate to famed women matadors from the Civil War period: Las Hermanas Palmeño (Enriqueta and Amalia) and Carmen Madrid.
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E. Cornu, 1899-1900
Superb chromolithographic plates of sealing waxes for letters, bottles, and champagne. By master printer Charles Verneau.
Cires á Cacheter, Goudrons pour Bouteilles, Méches Soufrées, Encres.
(Trade Catalogue) (Wax) (Wine) Cornu, E. Cires á Cacheter, Goudrons pour Bouteilles, Méches Soufrées, Encres. Edouard Cornu, Fournisseur du Ministère des Postes & Télégraphes. Paris: Imp. Charles Verneau, [1899-1900]. Folio, [19] pls.; frontispiece followed by 17 chromolithographic plates and a table of contents, some printed recto and verso; colors remarkably fresh with minor bumping to lower corner progressing to heavier creasing until the final color plate with a small loss, not affecting the image; bound in, but separated from, orig. stamped cloth portfolio, chipped at edges, lower corner bumped. Manuscript note from manufacturer to potential client tipped in, dated 1899 but changed by same hand to 1900.
Detailed plates advertise rainbow-hued sealing waxes for letters, packages, bottles, and champagne; sulfur wicks and powders for sterilizing wine barrels; and inks. The catalogue was produced by master arthouse printer Charles Verneau, the Parisian publisher of many famous posters, including most of Théophile Alexandre Steinlen’s oeuvre.
Edouard Cornu was the official supplier of waxes and inks to the Ministère des Postes & Télégraphes. The ministry had assumed control of the French telephone system when it was nationalized in 1889. The Cornu factory telephone, still a relative rarity in France in 1899, is advertised prominently on the portfolio cover and frontispiece. Many of the catalogue’s examples display Cornu’s trademark beehive, others with various winemaker, liquor (violette, grappa), and industry trademarks.
Rare. As of September 2019, not found in OCLC or the trade.
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ca. 1928-1929
Printmaking in the revolutionary libertarian educational curriculum at the Stelton Colony's Modern School
Linoleum Cuts by Children of the Modern School
(Anarchist education) (Printing) Linoleum Cuts by Children of the Modern School. Stelton, NJ: Ferrer [Stelton] Colony, n.d. [ca. 1928-1929]. Portfolio: 12-¾ x 9-⅜ in.; prints approx. 3-½ x 3-½ in. on [32] 8-½ x 11 in.; index of children’s names and ages followed by [31] printed sheets as issued, most single plates, two with multiple prints; paper toned, some sheets with faint crease in upper corner, not affecting images, index and one print with 1/16 in. closed tears at fore-edge, one with small loss at edge, not affecting image. Orig. portfolio wrapper re-backed, housed in recent custom case.
Printmaking, typesetting, and printing were part of the revolutionary libertarian educational curriculum at the Ferrer Colony’s Modern School in Stelton, New Jersey (1915-1953). The school was established at the anarchist colony following the closure of the first iteration of the The Modern School in New York City (1911-1915). Based on the pedagogical theories of Francisco Ferrer and others who believed that public school had become a system of governmental control, historian Paul Avrich has written that the Modern School was founded on the idea that children should be learning “in [an] atmosphere of freedom and self-reliance.” The aim was to create, through a new kind of education, “a new culture, a new life, a new world.”
Arts and crafts were fundamental to this new culture, including music, dance, weaving, metal work, pottery and and printing techniques—initially taught to the children by Joseph Ishill (later of Oriole Press). From 1922-1935?, the students printed their own magazine, Voice of the Children, with the prominent claim “Linoleum cuts and stories are made by children of all ages with no assistance or suggestions of any kind by members of the staff.”
The present portfolio carries a similar statement on the index: “All work connected with this portfolio was done by children of the school.” One of the listed participants, Jimmy Dick Jr., was the son of the school’s co-principals, Jimmy and Nellie Dick, who returned to Stelton in 1928 to re-assume control of the school from Alexis and Elizabeth Ferm when individualistic libertarianism came into conflict with the desire for parents to have their children learn basic academic skills. Jimmy Jr.’s age is given as nine, dating the portfolio to 1928-1929.
The Modern School was proud of its demographics, bringing together local working-class and immigrant families with the Ferrer colonists, but despite an emphasis on class and ethnic diversity, a majority of the students were Eastern European Jewish associates of the early Ferrer Association founders, including Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman. Sexual and family relations at the colony were often untraditional; men and women lived together unmarried and their children, cared for communally, sometimes took their mothers’ surname. Several of the those indexed in the portfolio are related to women of Goldman’s circle, including Dora Keyser, Bertha Blackman Rolland, and Kate Blackman Wolfson.
Early printed ephemera from The Modern School comes to market infrequently, a copy of the portfolio is located in the Modern School papers at Rutger University special collections.
Avrich, Paul. The Modern School Movement: Anarchism and Education in the United States. Princeton: Princeton University Press. 1980.
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National Advisory Police Committee to the Federal Security Administrator, 1943
Tactical suggestions ("not for general distribution") for sting operations and vice squads.
Techniques of Law Enforcement Against Prostitution: A Manual [...]
(Antiprostitution) (Law Enforcement) United States. National Advisory Police Committee to the Federal Security Administrator. Techniques of Law Enforcement Against Prostitution: A Manual for the Guidance of Enforcement Officers in Proceeding Against Prostitutes and Procurers. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1943. 6-3/16 x 4-5/16 in., 75 pp.; stapled brown wrapper, small mark on front wrap, else near fine.
A manual for “vigorous and intelligent police action,” “Not for general distribution,” sheds light on the criminalization of individual prostitutes in the 1940s. Gives tactical suggestions for arresting streetwalkers, sting operations on call girls and taverns, plainclothes assignments, and independent vice squads.
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Lili St. Cyr, 1965
Scandalous autobiography of the renowned burlesque dancer.
And Men My Fuel …
(Burlesque) St. Cyr, Lili. And Men My Fuel … : The unique autobiography of the world’s most famous exotic, her six divorces and her seven even more bizarre experiences, but more important, her hidden desires and shocking values. Chicago: Novel Books, 1965. 8vo, 126 pp.; 24 pp. b/w “photo gallery”; pages somewhat toned, orig. color pictorial wrapper with rear wrap creased, very good.
Renowned burlesque and striptease dancer Lili St. Cyr’s inventive use of exotic props and theatrical staging (e.g. making love to a parrot) were matched by an unusual amount of drama in her offstage life. In addition to her six marriages she claimed to have had 10 abortions and an affair with Marilyn Monroe.
Uncommon institutionally.
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[Mrs. R. A. Goodwin, Photographer]. , ca. 1875-1880
Carte de Visite
[Goodwin, Mrs. R. A.]. Carte de Visite of an Unknown Woman. St. Johnsbury, VT: ca. 1875-1880. Albumen print mounted to card, 4-⅛ x 2 in., backmark of Mrs. R. A. Goodwin.
The photographer, Mrs. Goodwin, operated her business in St. Johnsbury, VT, as listed in Walton’s Vermont Register, 1877, p. 141. Also inscribed recto in pencil is the name “Herbert J. Shaw,” a contemporary St. Johnsbury resident. Subject unidentified.
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Panait Mușoiu, 1899
Romanian feminist manifestos.
Emanciparea Femeei
(Anarchism) (Feminism) Mușoiu, Panait. Emanciparea Femeei. Bucharest: Marinescu & Şerban, 1899. 6-¾ x 4-¼ in., 79 pp.; in printed wrapper, rear adverts for other Mușoiu books and translations (incl. the first Romanian trans. of Marx’s Communist Manifesto), wrapper smudged with small mark from a paperclip to top edge, pages largely uncut, toned and brittle but still very good.
Early Romanian feminist manifestos by author, publisher, and leader of the Romanian anarchist-syndicalist movement. Mușoiu’s work was overlooked in histories of European anarchism until 2013, when the first major monographic study of his life and philosophy was published (Martin Veith, Unbeugsam: Ein Pionier des rumänischen Anarchismu). These papers were radical statements of women’s equality at a time when Romanian women lacked basic legal and political standing.
OCLC finds a single holding worldwide, none in North America.
ROM536
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1977
Sensationalist news coverage of a transgender criminal case.
Press Photograph of Geraldine Elizabeth Carmichael
[Transgender] [Crime]. Carmichael, Geraldine Elizabeth. Press Photograph. Black and white print, sheet: 8 ⅛ x 10 ¼ in.; 1977. United Press International (UPI) caption recto, stamped verso “Filed May 18, 1977.”
Geraldine “Liz” Carmichael, aka Jerry Dean Michael, founded the Twentieth Century Motor Corporation to produce three-wheeled, futuristic high-efficiency cars. She defrauded investors of more than $3 million dollars before the authorities revealed her history of criminal behavior and shut down the company. This photograph is taken from her trial and the caption reveals the sensationalist news coverage of her trans identity in which her financial and gender “cons” are conflated.
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[1909]
Rare documentation of a major Japanese industrial exposition.
Tōkyō kangyō hakurankai jimu hōkoku jōkan
[Expositions] Tokyo Prefecture [Tōkyōfu]. Tōkyō kangyō hakurankai jimu hōkoku jōkan [Tokyo Industrial Exposition Report, Vol. 1]. Tokyo: Tōkyōfu, Meiji 42 [1909]. 4to, 331 pp.; profusely illus. with b/w plates reproducing photographs of the exposition and architectural and engineering plans, including approximately 30 folding plates, reproducing site plans, photographs, and pavilion elevations and floor plans, some with color, light foxing throughout; in embossed wrapper, sunned with foxing.
The first volume of a two-part governmental report on the Tokyo Industrial Exposition, 1907. This volume surveys the overall operations and organization of the exposition, with maps and plans for the spatial arrangement of the pavilions in Ueno Park, each building represented photographically and in architectural plans, with further interior plans describing use and displays. The exhibition configurations provide granular information about how the organizers visually communicated a nationalistic narrative about modern, industrial Japan as it entered into a period of colonial expansion. This westernized and modern self-representation (most of the main exhibition buildings were stylistically western) differed greatly from Japanese pavilions at the previous century’s World Fairs, where traditional arts and crafts were prioritized.
Although not technically an international exposition, foreign products and processes were featured, including Japan’s second Ferris Wheel (first exhibited in Osaka a year earlier), and a Crystal Pavilion which became the target of Korean protests and was eventually removed.
Uncommon documentation of a major industrial exposition. OCLC locates no institutional holdings outside of Japan.
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1971
[Photographs and poems by children with Muscular Dystrophy].
Kurumaisu no me: Suji jisutorofī-shō no kodomo no shibun to shashin-shū
[Photobook] [Muscular Dystrophy] Kurumaisu no me: Suji jisutorofī-shō no kodomo no shibun to shashin-shū [Photographs and poems by children with Muscular Dystrophy]. Tokyo: Nishitaga Hospital Association, 1971. 8vo, [102] pp.; illus. throughout from b/w photographs, most full- or double-page spreads; stapled illustrated wrapper, detached, else very good.
The book offers an uncomfortable look inside a Japanese MD sanitarium from the perspective of patients for whom “the camera is already heavy.” These closed wards were often the only long-term treatment option before educational integration and financial support for home care were legally required in the 1990s.
Including short contributor bios and an introduction by the novelist Tsutomu Minakami. OCLC records one copy at the National Diet Library.
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Underground Enterprises, ca. 1970
Unrecorded countercultural matchmaking service.
FUK: The Underground Dating-Service.
FUK: The Underground Dating-Service. New York, NY: FUK/Underground Enterprises, ca. 1970. [4] pp.; folded questionnaire, illus. wrpps; worn with some small marks and creases, good.
Otherwise unrecorded countercultural matchmaking questionnaire for “Turned-On People Only!” Questions about sexual preferences mingled with political ones (“Do you expect another American Revolution? When? What are you doing to promote it?”) and drugs (“How many times have you tripped? Have you come down yet?). Acceptable occupations (“if any”) were limited to “a) Artist b) Writer c) Musician d) Dealer e) Revolutionary f) Panhandler g) Student.”
Published during the Vietnam War draft years, per question no. 33 “Males: What did you do to evade the draft? ___________ If you got taken anyway, give this application to some horny Viet Cong.”
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ca. 1890
Anarchist and revolutionary feminist who led a women's brigade during the Paris Commune.
Cabinet Card of Louise Michel
[Michel, Louise]. Cabinet Card of Louise Michel. Paris: Albert Capelle, ca. 1890. Albumen print mounted to heavier card; overall: 6-½ x 4-¼ in. Slightly faded, very good. Michel’s name inscribed in blue crayon, verso.
Vintage photograph of the revolutionary feminist who led the Montmartre Women’s Vigilance Committee during the Paris Commune, earning the nickname “Red Virgin of Montmartre.”
Transported to New Caldonia following the end of the Commune, Michel politics further radicalized. She was pardoned in 1880 and returned to France where she became a leader in European anarchist circles. Her books and lectures inspired the next generation of anarchist activists, including Emma Goldman.
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Vittorio Vidali, 1982
Biography of the famed photographer by her lover and possible assassin.
Ritratto di donna: Tina Modotti [Signed Association Copy]
[Modotti, Tina]. Vidali, Vittorio. Ritratto di donna: Tina Modotti [Signed Association Copy]. Milan: Vangelista, 1982. 8vo, 117 pp.; b/w pls., color illus. wraps, near fine. Author’s dated gift inscription to half-title.
Illustrated biography of the famed Italian photographer by her longtime partner, the Soviet operative Vittorio Vidali. Vidali was the mastermind (and possibly the killer) behind the 1929 assassination of Julio Antonio Mella, a Cuban revolutionary and Modotti’s lover. Modotti and Mella were walking together in Mexico City when he was was murdered, and although official reports concluded Cuban dictator Gerardo Machado ordered the killing, intraparty testimonials have always claimed that it was Stalin’s first move against Trotsky in Mexico.
Modotti was swept up in the investigation and deported from Mexico in 1930. She traveled to meet Vidali in Berlin and they worked as clandestine Stalinist agents in Germany, the USSR, and Spain before finally returning to Mexico at the end of the Spanish Civil War. She died a few years later under suspicious circumstances; Diego Rivera maintained that Vidali killed her.
Gift inscription from the author to Robert “Bob” Colodny (1915-1997), professor and former member of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade. Colodny survived a shot to the head during the Spanish Civil War, and was brought before the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1961 during one of its final anti-Communist investigations. Dated: March 23, 1982.
An uncommon chronicle of the lesser-known, second half of the artist’s life, including Vidali’s own account of Mella’s assasination, with an important American association. OCLC locates 5 US holdings.
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(CNT-AIT), ca. 1936-1939
Propaganda celebrating Mexican support of Republican Spain.
Saluda a Méjico
[Confederación Nacional del Trabajo; Asociación Internacional de los Trabajadores]. Saluda a Méjico: Two Posters. [Madrid?, Spain]: ca. 1936-1939. Each sheet approx. 15 x 10-⅞ in.; colors fresh with minor edge-wear and a few pinholes not affecting images, very good.
Mexican President Lázaro Cárdenas assumed a huge domestic political risk in his support of the Republicans during the Spanish Civil War. Despite widespread public opposition to the Republican cause, Cárdenas equated his own revolutionary project with the Spanish one; Mexico sent overt military and financial aid and also smuggled arms in direct contravention to the embargo placed by the London Committee of Non Intervention (1936). Historians have claimed that the Republican loss in the Civil War was a turning point in Mexico’s own politics and set the stage for a strong conservative turn after 1940.
But many Mexican workers, intellectuals, artists, and soldiers embraced the Frente Popular coalition of unions, communist and anarchist parties. They volunteered in the war and became passionate supporters of the thousands of exiles who fled to Mexico when it ended.
Propaganda depicting the evolving war-time relationship between Spain and Mexico is rare. We find no examples in the trade or in institutional collections.
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ca. 1975-1981
Otomí brujo manuscript on amate paper.
(Brujería) [La] Historia de la Curación de Antigua de San Pablito Pahuatlan, Pue. 10 Agosto de 1975
(Brujería) [La] Historia de la Curación de Antigua de San Pablito Pahuatlan, Pue. 10 Agosto de 1975. [cover title]. [Mexico]: ca. 1975-1981. SIZE, [28] leaves; off-white amate with manuscript explanations of magical rituals in black ink, most with dark amate cut-out figures of deities and demons, known as muñecos, odd pages numbered; bound or re-bound in amate wrapper with title and date in pencil on upper cover, near fine.
The Otomí village of San Pablito is famous for its brujería traditions and the preservation of prehispanic paper-making techniques. Shamans (a.k.a. brujos and curanderos) perform ceremonies for sick or cursed persons using cut-out paper figures (muñecos) representing spirit entities drawn from both indigenous and Christian mythos. Before encountering the Otomí prehispanic papers (called amate, from the Nahuatl āmatl) and their magical uses in the early-20th century, anthropologists believed that traditional paper-making had disappeared in Mexico.
In 1975, a well-known San Pablito brujo, Alfonso Garcia Tellez, made the first documented manuscript testimonial of the Otomí paper-based magical practices, “HISTORIA DE LA CURACION DE ANTICUA [sic] DE SAN PABLITO PAHUATLAN PUE.” In it he described the shamanic rituals for various maladies (enfermedades) next to mounted examples of his muñecos. His texts were reportedly dictated to his daughter(s), since he could not write in Spanish, and were gathered in a leporello-style codex in front of the anthropologist Ferdinand Anders. Soon after, at least two other San Pablito brujos also produced manuscripts with muñecos, closely following Garcia Tellez’s format. European and US Bibliographic scholarship has focused on separating the “original” signed versions by Garcia Tellez from these “imitations.” A few of the manuscripts made their way to Mexico City tourists markets in the late 1970s, a few others were collected by anthropologists (including this example). Dating them is problematic because the covers often present with matching manuscript dates from August 1975 or 1978, although at least two are dated as late as 1981.
The present example shares the date and partial title of Garcia Tellez’s first manuscript. It describes the shamanic rituals and their associated gods and offerings and includes approx. 28 muñecos entities in dark amate paper. It differs slightly from other examples, most notably in spelling and the order of the spirits. Every fourth leaf includes a section of joined paper that could be material evidence for it having been created as a leporello (in imitation of prehispanic codexes like the Garcia Tellez examples) and rebound, or it may have been produced as a folio (in imitation of other brujo manuscripts).
Recent Mexican scholarship has called into question earlier bibliographic interest in identifying the “true” San Pablito manuscripts (see Martin, 2014) versus those that were made as imitations. Given that none of the brujos are known to have written Spanish or to have created these spell-books before the mid-1970s, none of the manuscripts are unmediated representations of an original, pre-contact religious practice. On the contrary, each was produced for a commercial and secular market; instead of trying to distinguish the “real’ vs “fake” manuscripts, ethnographers are now creating a correspondence to record all the variations and compare them.
Thus, their value as indigenous, magical testimonies lies not in their singularity, but in these variants: each an artifact of the evolving shamanic practices existing in the community—and that community’s intentional self-presentation to a larger (secular) world.
Martin, Sandra. Historia de la Curación: Antonio López M. Mexico: [Adugo Biri, un proyecto de UNAM], 2014.
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Comité Organizador de los Juegos de la XIX Olimpiada, 1968
In the route of friendship. México 68: Programa cultural de la XIX Olimpiada
Comité Organizador de los Juegos de la XIX Olimpiada. In the route of friendship. México 68: Programa cultural de la XIX Olimpiada. México, D.F.: 1968. Square 8vo, [44] pp.; each artist’s project illus. in b/w with route map and bios, sl. toned; in pictorial color wrappers with design attributed to Lance Wyman, rear wrapper with bent corner minor rippling sl. affecting interior; good.
Catalogue of an ambitious public sculpture project designed to “bring contemporary art and the public together through total planning.” All the works were commissioned by an Olympic Committee and executed in concrete. Participants included: (in order of appearance) Ángela Gurría; Willi Gutmann; Miloslav Chlupáč; Kioshi Takahashi; Pierre Székely; Gonzalo Fonseca; Costantino Nivola; Jacques Moeschal; Todd Williams; Grzegorz Kowalski; Clement Meadmore; Herbert Bayer; Joop J Beljon; Itzhak Danziger; Olivier Seguin; Muhhammad Maliihi; Helen Escobedo; and Jorge Dubón. The monumental works lined the “Route of Friendship” leading to the Olympic Stadium. Most remain in their original sites, despite being abandoned by the government.
A scarce iteration of the iconic ‘68 Olympic graphics, whose authorship is now contested. New scholarship gives credit to Beatrice Trueblood, director of Olympic publications, and the architect Pedro Ramirez Vazquez, in addition to Lance Wyman.
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Comité Organizador de los Juegos de la XIX Olimpiada, 1968
Three gallery guides issued by the '68 Olympic Committee's Cultural Program.
Guía de Exposiciones: Mayo; Junio; and Julio. México 68: Programa cultural de la XIX Olimpiada
Comité Organizador de los Juegos de la XIX Olimpiada. Guía de Exposiciones: Mayo; Junio; and Julio. México 68: Programa cultural de la XIX Olimpiada. México, D.F.: 1968. 3 vols., square 8vo, 71; 65; 67 pp.; profuse b/w illustrations of contemporary Mexican art; in color wraps with design attributed to Lance Wyman and Bob Pellegrini; color wraps sl. toned with edge-wear and a few creases.
The ‘68 Olympic Committee’s cultural program sponsored a series of art gallery guides for México City. Issued monthly from April-December (with the exception of the October-November double issue), the guides introduced visitors to contemporary Mexican and Latin American art in private and public venues. B/w plates reproduce works by Julio Le Parc, Manuel Alvarez Bravo, and Angela Gurria among others.
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Massimo Bontempelli and Vicente Rojo, Illus., 1962
Hors-commerce edition with illustrations and typographic design by Rojo.
Diccionario de ideas
[Rojo, Vicente. (Illustrator)]. Bontempelli, Massimo. Pacheo, José Emilio, Trans. Diccionario de ideas. México, D.F.: Libreria Madero, 1962. Small 4to, [14] leaves; 11 full-page color pls., one corner chipped, final leaf, pages sl. toned; in orig. decorative wraps, sunned, with small shelf sticker.
Librería Madero was founded in Mexico City in 1939 by an exiled Spanish Republican, Tomás Espresate. In the early 1950s, Espersate and his partner, Eduardo Naval, opened a small press, later directed by the Mexican painter and graphic designer Vicente Rojo. Librería Madero became well known for its fine press and art editions.
This example is one of a series of annual limited editions produced by Rojo—who was responsible for the illustrations and typography—and presented to friends of the press as a New Year’s gift. Evidently the eminent Mexican poet, Pacheco, was often a collaborator on these projects and here he provides the translation for Bontempelli’s brief text, which had recently been discovered in his papers at the time his death in 1961.
Rojo described this end-of-the-year commemoration: Cada una era diferente a la anterior, lo que me permitía una vez más (con la complicidad anónima de José Emilio Pacheco), buscar nuevos divertimentos visuales. (Entre paréntesis quiero aclarar que en el diseño gráfico, como en la vida, el humor me parece indispensable.)
OCLC records no US holdings.
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Museo Nacional de Cuba and Centro Wifredo Lam, 1984
Scarce [association] copy of the first Cuban contemporary art biennial catalogue. Signed? by Mexican artist Fanny Rabel.
Primer Bienal de la Habana ‘84: Catalogo General
(Fanny Rabel) Museo Nacional de Cuba and Centro Wifredo Lam. Primer Bienal de la Habana ‘84: Catalogo General. Havana, Cuba: [Ministerio de Cultura], 1984. 4to, 318 pp.; incl. 249 pp. of b/w reproductions of the works in the biennial, together with artist index and bios, and exhibition statement; in color pictorial wraps, lightly worn, spine cracked but sturdy. Ownership inscription in pen, Fanny Rabel.
The first Cuban biennial catalogue is a comprehensive guide to Latin American art in the early 1980s. This copy possibly belonged to Mexican muralist Fanny Rabel, represented in the exhibition.
OCLC locates fewer than 10 copies in North American institutions.
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Geles Cabrera, 1950
Otherwise unrecorded exh. catalogue of works by the Mexican sculptor.
Once Esculturas
Cabrera, Geles. Once Esculturas. Catalogue for an exhibition held at Galeria “Arte Moderno,” México, May 26-June 15, 1950. Small 8vo, [10] leaves; 11 reproductions of the sculptures in the exhibition with index, preceded by short intro., partially removed price sticker on tp; in orig. stapled wrapper, toned and neatly splitting at spine, but holding.
Cabrera (b. 1929) overcame academic hostility to become one of the most important sculptors of her generation. This rare, early catalogue documents her second(?) solo exhibition which took place shortly after her return from Cuba, where she won first prize at the 1949 Salón de Bellas Artes, Havana. Paul Westheim contributed the catalogue introduction and crucial critical support at this juncture. In the 1970s, Cabrera was a founding member of the first Mexican Land Art collective, GUCADIGOSE.
Not recorded in OCLC.
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Manuel Amábilis, 1945
Yucatán post-revolutionary educational center by the architect of the 1929 Mexican pavilion at the Exposición Iberoamericana, Sevilla.
Album monográfico del Centro Educacional Felipe Carrillo Puerto
(Architecture) (Neo-Mayan) [Amábilis, Manuel and Max]. Album monográfico del Centro Educacional Felipe Carrillo Puerto [cover title]. [Mérida, México]: Zamna, 1945. Oblong 4to, [59] leaves printed recto only; 36 full-page b/w pls. and 16 full-page color pls. with descriptive captions, 7 leaves with only text, all with tissue guards, toned, else very good; orig. wrapper, creased and worn, fore-edges foxed.
Presentation album celebrating the inauguration of a post-revolutionary educational complex, unusual in its integrated design which included: classrooms, a public concert hall, sports fields, 8 gardens, mechanical and wood workshops, an experimental farm, a library, a kindergarten and a children’s theatre. The center was named after an assassinated Yucatan politician and revolutionary hero.
The influential architect, Manuel Amábilis, was known for his Neo-Mayan prize-winning design of the 1929 Mexican pavilion at the Latin American Exposition in Sevilla. He embraced Mayan and Toltec decoration and supported pre-hispanic architectural forms, albeit reimagined for the post-revolutionary period: “The Revolution has transformed Art into an apostle [...] the artists need to express themselves in an [...] accessible language [...] that is appropriate for the American idiosyncrasy and soul. This will only be achieved by going back to traditions, to legends, to the customs of our people and being inspired by the surrounding nature.” See Amábilis’s La arquitectura precolombina (1956), pp. 30–31; trans. Luis Carranza in Architecture as Revolution (2010), p. 96.
The school’s design displays his later efforts to marry these traditional forms and popular arts to functionalism: building materials were local, murals were done by a Mayan artist, Miguel Tzab, and the furniture was built by prisoners at the Penitenciaria Juárez, Mérida. These aspects are all documented in the album, with an entire section of colored plates describing the symbolism of various mural cycles and painted decorations.
The building’s site, in the poorest area of Mérida, was criticized at the time of construction. It was used for as a school and community center for thirty years but was eventually abandoned and then demolished in 1990.
Despite wear to front wrap, a rare, thorough, and well-preserved document of an important piece of regional postrevolutionary architecture, now destroyed.
OCLC lists one institutional holding, the Biblioteca Nacional de México.
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1965
Portrait album celebrating the first debutante ball in Mexico City.
Album del Primer Gran Baile Debutantes de la Ciudad de México
(Debutantes) [Comité Organizador]. Album del Primer Gran Baile Debutantes de la Ciudad de México [cover title]. México, D.F.: [Impresiones Modernas], 1965. 4to, [78] pp.; 26 pls., b/w, or a repeated color logo where images were lacking, reproducing debutante portraits with biographies on facing page; pink and white cloth, bumped and worn, small gouges and other irregularities, interior near fine. No. 81 of 200 examples.
Fascinating artifact of Mexican high-society during and the authoritarian era of President Diaz Ordaz. Lengthy biographic texts describe the lives and achievements of Mexico’s wealthiest young women: the daughters of ambassadors, generals, doctors, judges, etc. Many of the women are musicians and philanthropists who studied at least partially in the United States or Europe, including one nuclear physicist and a writer. President Diaz Ordaz and his wife presided over the ball, modeled after similar traditions in Europe.
Not recorded in OCLC, none on market.
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Xavier and Carolyna Meade, 1978
Vibrant print portfolio with mystical descriptions of Mexico at the end of the Dirty War.
OPTICA
Meade, Javier [sic] and Carolyna. OPTICA. Mexico, D.F.: Taller Grafico Meade, 1978. 4to, [18] color offset and silkscreen(?) plates; printed recto and verso from images by the Meades with texts by “Carlosol Meade” and “Hastatrás Denada,” near fine; loose as issued in orig. portfolio, also printed recto and verso, somewhat sunned with small closed tear at folded fore-edge. Edition of 500.
Vibrant images and mystical descriptions of Mexico at the end of the Dirty War. The journalistic photos, psychedelic palette, and metaphysical texts suggest solidarity and correspondence between rural and urban Mexican experiences. The authors’ poetic texts cover ecology, labor unions and rights, and state violence. A number of graphic choices reference indigenous traditions, including the plates’ pictographic numbering system.
Xavier Meade was a designer at El Arquitecto, an arts and architecture magazine in Mexico from 1977-1978, he also ran his own graphic studio and press in Distrito Federal from 1975-1978.
Not found in OCLC.
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Leonides Guadarrama Jimenez and Leon Gryj Freund, 1954
UNAM thesis by the architect (Guadarrama) of one of Mexico City's most iconic buildings, signed
Tamiahua
Gryj Freund, Leon and Leonides Guadarrama Jimenez. Tamiahua. Thesis Profesional, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Escuela Nacional de Arquitectura. México, D.F.: [1954]. Oblong 4to, 117 pp.; illus. include maps, graphs, elevations and plans, some folding, a few in color; pictorial card wraps, worn, fore-edges foxed. Dated gift inscription from Guadarrama to an engineer, Alberto Barocio.
Guadarrama designed one Mexico City’s most iconic modern buildings, the Museum of Natural History (1964) in Chapultepec Park. It was part of the huge urban renewal project leading up to the 1968 Olympics and its ten futuristic concrete domes, inspired by celestial vaults, were recently restored. Gryj also played a major part in CDMX’s development, as the head of Unidad de Planeación de Desarrollo Urbano (Transportation) from 1972-1976 and more recently, as the director of urban planning for the re-development of Hipódromo.
Their thesis project involved proposals for Tamiahua, a small Gulf town (16,500 inhabitants “profundo mestizaje del indio, blanco, y negro”) lacking modern infrastructure and social services. At the center of the plan is a building for the fishing cooperative that was its main industry, but there are also proposals for a medical center and schools, in keeping with the government’s anti-poverty and opportunity programs.
Not found in OCLC.
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Sergio Gutierrez Rodarte, 1959
Unrecorded urban planning thesis on access to post-secondary education in Mexico City.
Escuelas Tecnico-Practicas en el Distrito Federal
(Urban Planning) (Education) Gutierrez Rodarte, Sergio. Escuelas Tecnico-Practicas en el Distrito Federal. Examen Profesional, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Escuela Nacional de Arquitectura. México, D.F.: [1959]. Oblong 4to, approx. [70] leaves.; leaves printed recto only, most with illustrations: graphs, maps, architectural plans, equations, etc., toned; pictorial wrapper, worn.
Research on the socio-economic problems of access to post-secondary education; particularly geographic distribution of schools and the relevancy of component programs for modern labor forces.
Unrecorded in OCLC.
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Germán List Arzubide, [1927]
Reading copy of the first edition.
El Movimento Estridentista
List Arzubide, Germán. El Movimento Estridentista. Xalapa, Veracruz; Mexico: Ediciones de Horizonte, [1926/1927]. First edition. 8vo, 106 pp.; profusely illus., a few in color, incl. 2 color pls., tipped in; missing orig. wrappers, half-title with small loss at top-edge, first and last pages heavily foxed.
A reading copy of this important illustrated chronicle of Estridentista, the avantgarde Mexican arts movement. Even without wraps, Arzubide’s history is a beautifully realized book. Scores of vibrant illustrations are accompanied by descriptions of Estridentista founder, Manuel Maples Arce, the movement’s headquarters at El Café de Nadie in Mexico City, and its aesthetic principles.
As described by the International Center for the Arts of the Americas, “a good number of the illustrations [...] are unique, given the loss of a large portion of the works by the painters and engravers associated with the group, especially oil paintings.”
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[Horna, Kati] Comite de Ayuda al Pueblo Español, 1964
Solidarity publication illus. by the Hungarian-Mexican photographer with early reproductions of her Guerra Civil images.
España 1936-1965
[Horna, Kati] Comite de Ayuda al Pueblo Español. España 1936-1965. [Mexico]: [1964]. Small 8vo, 7-⅜ x 5-⅝ in., [94] pp.; illus. daily agenda and poems, with 7 b/w pls., printed recto and verso, incl. 10 reproductions of photographs by Horna; final page reproduces pinback worn by the Abraham Lincoln Brigade during a protest against the Spanish Pavilion at the World’s Fair, 1964; in plastic comb binding with glossy pictorial wrappers by Horna, worn at binding and fore-edges, with creases; interior very good.
Thirty years after the end of the Guerra Civil, exiled Republicans and sympathizers continued to agitate in Latin America and Europe for an end to the Franco regime. This agenda calls for daily solidarity with “the sacrifices and suffering” of the heroic Spanish people still fighting against “Nazi-fascism,” particularly political prisoners and their families. The calendar includes radical Spanish and Latin American poetry, including work by Garcia Lorca, Machado, Neruda, Rejano, et al., and is illustrated with wartime photos by Hungarian-born Mexican photojournalist Kati Horna (1912-2000). Horna worked for a number of anarchist magazines in Madrid before she was hired in 1937 by the Republican government to document the war. After two years in Spain she was forced to flee to Paris and then Mexico where her negatives remained largely unseen until the fall of Franco in 1979.
Since that time her unusual subject matter and passionate representation of ordinary lives in communities far from the frontlines (e.g. women and children, wounded soldiers at home) have re-established her reputation alongside her lifelong friend, Robert Capa. She lived in Mexico for the rest of her life, where she contributed to a number of anarchist publications and became a key member of a group of expat artists, including Remedios Varo and Leonora Carrington. Only recently rediscovered, Horna’s published work before 1979 is scarce. The first major publication of her Spanish Civil War-era work was in 1992, almost thirty years after this calendar appeared.
Unrecorded in OCLC.
HOLD
Letizia Repetto Baeza, 1928; 1930
Two rare novels by the Chilean journalist, signed by the author.
La voz infinita and La cenicienta del jazz
Repetto Baeza, Letizia. La voz infinita. Valparaíso, Chile: Roma, 1928. Oblong 8vo, 91 pp.; illus. pls. by Raul del Solar, sl. toned with intermittent light foxing; paper wrappers a bit foxed and bent at forecorner. Together with: Repetto Baeza, Letizia. La cenicienta del jazz. Valparaíso, Chile: Roma, 1930. Oblong 8vo, 96 pp.; cover design and author’s ex-libris (printed on p. 89) by Andrés Zampieri; decorative wraps, corners and spine bumped with creases to covers. Both signed and dedicated in ink from the author to a “Mme.”
Repetto Baeza published her first novel, La voz infinita, at the age of 18 and her second, La cenicienta del jazz at 20. The “femininity” of her writing was praised in the Chilean and European press, as was her youth and beauty. However, her fiction was quickly eclipsed by her work as a journalist. Her reputation grew when she married Luis Beltrán, the ambassador to Spain. Despite her early collaborations with leftist Chilean intellectuals and artists, she supported the Nationalists during the Civil War. Her first child died during the bombing of Madrid and she later wrote a book about her experiences during the revolutionary period. Repetto Baeza’s admiration for Spain, including a romantic appreciation of Arabic culture, arts, and philosophy, made her an unlikely but vocal supporter of Arab immigration in Chile after WWII.
OCLC finds only one North American holding for La voz, two for La cenicienta.
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1902
Complete set of the postcard series depicting "women of the future" in the unbelievable roles of doctor, general, etc.
Les Femmes de l’Avenir (all published)
(Women) Les Femmes de l’Avenir (all published). Nancy, France: A. Bergeret, 1902 [postmarks 1902-1909]. 20 postcards, each, 5-1/2 x 3-5/8 in., various editions, in numbered sequence as follows: conscrit, garde champêtre, gendarme, pompier, petit tambour, zouave, marin, sous-officier, sous lieutenant, général, étudiant, cocher, jockey, maitre d’armes, rapin, journaliste, avocat, docteur, maire et depute; this set with no. 17 misnumbered as no. 7. Some postmarked, others unused, many addressed to women (Mme or Mlle), some with writing recto, foxing, or dirt, one with small loss at corner.
In Bergeret’s imagination, “women of the future” will do the same jobs as men: soldiers, mayors, doctors, jockeys, journalists, artists, lawyers and so on. When images of these postcards went viral in 2015, some commentators wrote about Bergeret’s “progressive vision.” As lovely as that sounds, Bergeret was more likely to have capitalized on the contemporary passion for picture postcards.
Regardless of Bergeret’s intentions, the women are jaunty, slightly sexy, talismans of a future that actually came to be.
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1851?
Drawing (and engraving?) of a modified anaglyptograph, designed to convert sculpture to two dimensions.
[Stokes Patent Engraving Machine]
[Stokes Patent Engraving Machine]. [London?], [1851?]. Engraving(?) with ink and gouache drawing, sheet: 14-3/8 x 8-3/8; inscribed in pencil verso, “Anaglyptograph / 1851 Exhibition / JS Harrison Son,” with typed caption mounted to top edge of leaf reading “Inscribed at back ‘Anaglytograph [sic]. 1851 Exhibition. T.S. Harrison Snr.’” Sheet creased where folded, v. light staining and rubbing, right edge nicked.
Bamber Gascoigne writes that the anaglyptograph was invented in the 1820s as a “fanciful extension of the ruling machine.” It was used primarily to copy or “convert” bas-relief surfaces (mostly medals or coins) into printed lines. The anaglyptograph, also known as a numismatic engraver in France, required a needle to be passed over the medal’s surface; an anaglyptographer generally worked with a plaster mold of the original object. The British version was often called a Bate’s machine, after its patentholder. The 8th edition of the Encyclopaedia Brittanica mentions that when Mr. Bate died, the art was taken up by Mr. Stokes, “who carried the invention to such excellence as to produce copies from entire statues.”
With so much scholarship about 19th-century reproductive technologies and the relationship between science and art, the possibility of a machine that converted sculpture to data would neatly prefigure the 21st-century 3D digital scan. And indeed, Samuel Stokes of Monkwell Street was granted a patent “for engraving from solid bodies” in 1847; his device was called Stoke’s Patent Engraving Machine.
Contemporary descriptions of its mechanics in The Art Journal (1848) and the Literary Gazette and Journal of the Belles Lettres, Arts, Sciences, etc. (1848) permit us to speculate that the machine in this drawing is the Stokes Machine (and not either the anaglyptograph or a sculptor’s pointing machine). Further, both publications mention Stokes engraving of the Laocoön; the Literary Gazette calls it “remarkable for [its] fidelity and for the perfection of the perspective effect, which we should scarcely have thought capable of being produced by any mechanical instrument.”
Although there seems to be little discussion of the Stokes machine after 1850 (excepting the Encylopaedia Brittanica reference), a plaster cast of the Laocoön was included in the Crystal Palace sculpture court in 1851. It is possible, therefore, that this picture depicts a Stokes machine at the Great Exhibition. The section of the work depicting the Laocoön may be printed, meaning this drawing may incorporate a print made by the Stokes machine.
We are unable to confirm a single extant example of a Stokes engraving; though it is entirely possible that such a print would be miscatalogued as an anaglyptograph. Why didn’t a machine capable of accurately—i.e. mechanically—reproducing three-dimensional objects in two-dimensions catch on? Undoubtedly, the nascent technology of photography, also on display at the Great Exhibition, had something to do with it.
See “On the Applications of Science to the Fine and Useful Arts: Machine for Engraving from the Statute,” Art Journal (December 1848): pp. 363-364; “Stokes Engraving Machine,” Literary Gazette and Journal of the Belles Lettres, Arts, Sciences, No. 1659 (November 4, 1848), p. 731; and The Encyclopaedia Brittanica, 8th Edition (1855), Vol. 8: p. 810.
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Scarce catalogue of an exhibition at Ace Gallery, Los Angeles.
Sol LeWitt
LeWitt, Sol. Sol LeWitt. Catalogue of an exhibition held at the Ace Gallery, Los Angeles, December 2, 1968 – January 11, 1969. Los Angeles: n.p., [1968?]. Oblong 4o, , 24 pp.; all illustrations, based on a pattern visually described in reproduced introductory drawing; pictorial stapled wrapper, sl. toned, rear cover with one bent corner, very good+.
This scarce catalogue is from a pivotal moment in LeWitt’s career during the year that he made his first Wall Drawings and just before his inclusion in curator Harald Szeemann’s iconic “When Attitude Becomes Form” exhibition.
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John Mitchell, 1803
A doctoral dissertation describing the effects of Bear-berry on gonorrhea patients.
An essay on the Arbutus Uva Ursi and Pyrola Umbellata …
(Medicine – Botanic) (Sexuality) Mitchell, John. An essay on the Arbutus Uva Ursi and Pyrola Umbellata … An inaugural dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Medicine … [University of Pennsylvania]. Philadelphia: Printed for the author by Eaken & Mecum, 1803. 8vo, unbound pamphlet, stitched, [i, 35] pp.; text preceded by engraving drawn by Univ. of Penn. Professor William Bartram, leaves foxed, rough edges worn with chips and staining, two leaves unopened, fair; faint early ownership inscription on title page, “Mrs.(?) Woods.”
Uva Ursi (Bear-berry) was known from indigenous medicine, it is still used in limited applications such as cystitis. The text details preparation, chemical analysis, and experiments on patients from the Philadelphia Alms House who were suffering from gonorrhea. It was found to be efficacious.
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P.W. Walthall, [1905]
Christian biography of a young teacher, describing her death by firework.
The Sacrifice of Madaline, or, From Earth to Glory by a Skyrocket
Walthall, P.W. The Sacrifice of Madaline, or, From Earth to Glory by a Skyrocket. [Cayuga, IN]: n.p., [1905]. 8vo, 48 pp.; 48 pp.; text memorializing a young schoolteacher, Minna Madaline Marie Ashley (19), who was killed by a firework, and another girl (2), Madaline’s namesake, who was maimed in the same festival by another firework, with five b/w pls. depicting victim and her funeral, very good; paper wraps, chipped at front fore-corner, sl. stained.
Heartfelt testimonials and Christian biography frame a macabre account of the young woman’s death, “the sharp point of the deadly missile struck her squarely in the left eye and buried itself in her brain. It was so tightly wedged in that it took the strength of two men to pull it out of her head.” The booklet includes a letter she wrote to be read in the event of her death.
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1963-1964
Women wrestlers battle Aztec mummies and a henchman named Mao in these Mexploitation classics.
Collection of 66 Film Stills from Cardona’s Las Luchadoras Series
(Cinema – Mexico) (Women) Cardona, René (director); Guillermo Calderón (producer); Elizabeth Campbell and Lorena Velázquez (starring). Collection of 66 Film Stills from Las Luchadoras Contra El Médico Asesino and Las Luchadoras Contra La Momia, 1963-1964. Each photo approx. 8 x 10 in. (slight variations in final trim size), each numbered with abbreviated title in negative; near fine.
According to the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Latin American History, lucha libre (Mexican professional wrestling) has included women’s matches since the 1940s. René Cardona, trained in Hollywood and one of Mexico’s most prolific filmmakers, brought the spectacle of these women fighters to the big screen in the early 1960s in a series of Luchadoras films. The movies share the surreal structure, campy gore, and psychedelic visuals that defined the innovative Mexploitation genre, but they also introduce a complex critique of its gender politics. In the Mexploitation universe, women were almost solely represented as passive victims; it was a radical departure for a woman to assume the heroic role of the luchador. Unfortunately, as scholars have pointed out, this power is limited to the voyeuristic space of a fantastical genre, its commercial success relies on the sexualization of cat-fights and the “narrative punishment” the luchadoras suffer in return for their empowerment.
This collection includes stills from the first two films in the loosely connected series. The stars, Lorena Velázquez and Elizabeth Campbell, were veteran Mexploitation actors; they (and their stunt doubles, whose lack of resemblance creates additional discontinuity in the film) battle transmogrifying monsters, other luchadoras, mad scientists, and Communists (including an “Asian” henchman named Mao). They are aided in Contra El Médico Asesino by a female mummy, the Aztec princess Xóchitl.
Imported and dubbed into English by K. Gordon Murray in the 1960s, the luchadoras were featured on late-night American television and achieved cult-film status.
See Doyle Greene, Mexploitation Cinema, 2005, for an exhaustive discussion of sex and class in the Luchadoras series.
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1957-1961
Wrestling, horror, sci-fi, and Aztec mythology.
Collection of 93 Large Film Stills from the Golden Age of “Mexploitation” Cinema
(Cinema – Mexico) Collection of 93 Large Film Stills from the Golden Age of “Mexploitation” Cinema, 1957-1961. Comprised of film stills from four seminal Mexican horror-exploitation films: 20 from La Maldición de la Momia Azteca (1957); 27 from El Barón del Terror (1961); 14 from Muñecos Infernales (1961); and 32 from La Sangre de Nostradamus (1961). Each photo approx. 8 x 10 in. (slight variations in final trim size), all numbered with abbreviated title in negative; near fine.
These films’ distinctive genre of popular Mexican cinema merged the national tradition of lucha libre with horror, science-fi, surrealism, and Aztec mythology. Dizzying plots and low-budget productions frame violent, erotic, and supernatural tales. Though these can seem clumsy or anachronistic to US audiences, they depend on formal structures and cultural codes that are entirely different from the Hollywood context—ones that may even be said to disrupt those conventions. Film scholar Doyle Greene writes that Mexploitation is a “counter-cinema” that “addresses key issues in Mexican society: the valorization of mexicanidad (Mexican national identity), the cultural conflict between modernity and tradition, and [gender].”
El Barón del Terror (The Brainiac) is one of the best-known movies of the genre. The director, Chano Urueta, also directed El Monstruo resucitado (1953), a Frankenstein remake that is considered a milestone in Mexican horror. The collection includes images of many famous Mexploitation actors, directors, and producers: René Cardona, Ramón Gay, Elvira Quintana, German Robles, Abel and Alfredo Salazar, et al.
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[New Bedford Overseers of the Poor], 1820
Two Manuscript Documents Certifying the Chargeability of “Native Indian” Women
[New Bedford Overseers of the Poor]. Two Manuscript Documents Certifying the Chargeability of “Native Indian” Women. [New Bedford, Massachusetts]: May 25, 1820. Both on wove paper: 9 x 7-1/8 in. and 8-1/2 x 7-3/16 in.; strong creases where folded with small closed tears, one fold more significantly separated, not affecting text; both dated and signed by three selectman: Eli Haskell, Roger Haskell, and William Hathaway; women’s names written verso.
Bureaucratic banality provides a glimpse into the poorly documented lives of Native American people in southern New England in the early nineteenth century. Most tribal lands had been expropriated following the King Phillip’s War uprising; survivors faced the attrition of indentured servitude, slavery, and disease. The receipts address the status of two indigent “Native Indian” women who entered the Commonwealth from Rhode Island: Margaret Pratt, “supposed to have originated in Tiverton”; and Easter Hill, “born on Block Island,” “aged about 34,” and now deceased.
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Aluminium-Walzwerke Singen G.m.b.H, ca. 1936-1939
Eight Sample Albums of Decorative Aluminum Foils
Aluminium-Walzwerke Singen G.m.b.H. Eight Sample Albums of Printed Decorative Aluminum Foils. Singen, Germany: ca. 1936-1939. Each approx. 6 x 10 in. with 40-100+ different patterns and styles, most numbered, a few of the albums with only 10-20 patterns but each shown in 10+ colors, many embossed; one album with introductory text in German; one duplicate; in stapled, embossed foil laminate wrappers, stamped verso with penciled dates on rear wrappers; overall very good, a few creases or small tears, surprisingly few losses given the material’s inherent fragility.
With hundreds of brightly colored abstract, floral, and pictorial designs, the albums offer an attractive overview of exuberant wartime foils. Specific patterns and colors could be customized and were probably used primarily for food packaging.
Parts of the Aluminium-Walzwerke Singen (AWS) business were militarized during this period. Following the end of the war, AWS was identified as having utilized thousands of forced laborers (either “foreign workers” or prisoners of war), most from the USSR.
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1935
Afro-Uruguayan political and cultural periodical advocating racial equality.
Nuestra Raza: Organo de la Colectividad de Color. Año III, No. 25
Nuestra Raza: Organo de la Colectividad de Color. Año III, No. 25 (August 24, 1935). Montevideo, Uruguay: 1935. 8vo, 20 pp.; b/w illus. throughout from community photos, edges worn, with chips or closed tears; stapled illus. wraps, small early repairs; a pair of stab holes from former binder?; fair.
Nuestra Raza was founded in 1917 by the authors, and sisters, Ventura and Maria Esperanza Barrios. The Uruguayan periodical was dedicated to publishing black poets and authors as well as addressing the political and cultural realities of the African diaspora in South America. It folded after less than a year and was resurrected in 1933 by Ventura her brother, the poet Pilar Barrios. By this time, Montevideo had become a center for the Afro-Uruguayan community. Its second run continued for 15 years, until 1948, but issues remain extremely scarce. The impact of the journal as an advocate for racial equality and the expression of black experience cannot be overstated for intellectuals across Latin America.
This issue commemorates founding journalist Maria Esperanza Barrios, who died in 1931. It also celebrates the third year of its publication, evaluating its role in the ongoing fight for racial justice in Uruguay.
OCLC records only one holding, on microform, and only through 1944. See Reid Anderson, Blackness in the White Nation, p. 216.
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ca. 1935-1936
Unrecorded Guerra Civil-Era Sexuality Series
Cultura Sexual. Nos. 3-6, 8-10, 13
Cultura Sexual. Nos. 3-6, 8-10, 13. Barcelona: Publicaciones Modernas (empresa colectivizada), n.d. [ca. 1935-1936]. 10 issues: each approx.. 7-1/4 x 5-1/2 in., 34 pp.; a variety of sexual topics, newsprint sl. toned, a few bent corners; stapled, illus. wraps; good.
A sizable group of 10 (of 15?) sex studies from Publicaciones Modernas, a press collectivized during the serial’s run, probably in 1935-1936. Each issue focuses on a single topic, attributed to various pseudonymous authors (ersatz authors’ signatures nevertheless accompany each introduction).
Resolutely historical and scientific texts—clearly influenced by materialist historiography and Engels—are contrasted with appealing covers and excited, descriptive introductions to each issue’s topic, including sexual communism, sadism, masochism, deflowering and rape, phallus cults, brothels, the “corruption of minors,” and abortion.
The history of the press at Ferrer de Blanes 7 may be of interest to Spanish graphic arts bibliographers: its precollectivization proprietor was the publisher of La Gaceta de las artes gráficas del libro y de la industria del papel.
Unrecorded in OCLC.
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1934
Spanish Republican Sex Ed.
La Cuestion Sexual. No. 1 through No. 9 (all published?)
[Lucenay, A. Martin de]. La Cuestion Sexual. No. 1 (June 1934) through No. 9 (October 1934) (all published?). Madrid: Editorial Fénix, 1934. 9 vols.: 8vo, each approx. 60-100 pp.; texts by “grandes autores,” most attributeable to Lucenay or one of his pseudonyms, many with 4 b/w pls., each with color pictorial wraps illustrated by “Esteban”; edge-worn, some titles with small losses esp. at spine, newsprint toned as expected.
A complete(?) run in nine issues of an informational sexuality series by the prolific author and sexologist, Dr. Angel Martin de Lucenay. Lucenay helped the popular Republican press, Editorial Fénix, develop a number of inexpensive sex ed projects addressed to a leftist audience. Most were written by him (sometimes pseudonymously), including the 60 volume set, Temas Sexuales (1932-1934). After Temas, Lucenay edited La Cuestion Sexual. In addition to his own writing, the series included texts by controversial European sexologists and scientists, such as Sergio Voronoff (monkey gland transplants) and Walter M. Gallichan (eugenicist). Titles cover drug addiction, abortion, rural sexuality, sterilization, frigidity, and prostitution.
Most vols. include black and white plates reproducing erotic or documentary photography (e.g. of prostitutes in the street). Lucenay worked with the Hermanos Mayo on Temas and they may have been responsible for the illustrations in this series as well.
Scarce, OCLC lists only two vols. from the series in institutional holdings worldwide, the rest seemingly unrecorded.
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1937-1941
Scarce Italian Fascist advertising review documenting the remarkable collaboration of the avant-garde with fascist propagandists.
La Pubblicità d’Italia: Nos. 5-20, 25-30, 37-38, and 43-46
La Pubblicità d’Italia: [Organo ufficiale del sindacato nazionale fascista agenzie e case di pubblicità]. Nos. 5-20, 25-30, 37-38, and 43-46. Milan: N.p., 1937-1941. 25 numbers in 11 issues: 7 bound in 2 vols. (nos. 7-18 and 43-46), 4 loose (nos. 5-6, 19-20, 25-30, and 37-38). 4to, approx. 90-150 pp. each; illustrated throughout, many in color, reproducing Italian advertising campaigns for various commercial, industrial, domestic, and agricultural products or brands, with articles on modern marketing strategy, mass communication, the art of propaganda, and collectivism, with a variety of printing techniques and papers, no. 43-46 with numerous folding plates, most issues good to very good internally, no. 7-8 final ten leaves defective, no. 25-30 with an abraded first leaf; bound issues with orig. pictorial wraps (except the back cover of no. 7-8 and the front cover of no. 43-46), loose issues in orig. wraps, no. 5-6 separated with losses to spine, no. 37-38 with rough 4 in. loss to front top edge.
A substantial run (25 of 60 numbers) of the remarkable Italian advertising review, much of it by or about the Fascist Party’s official ad agency, the Unione Pubblicità in Italia (UPI) and its associated artists, many of them well-known futurists. The publication captures the rich collaboration between the Italian avant-garde, advertisers, and propagandists in extravagantly produced issues that highlight fascism’s politically conscious advertising. In particular, it captures the Italian fascist affirmation of mass culture, modern consumers, and the psychology of advertising.
Features on specific markets in advertising include comestibles like food, liquor, and tobacco; arts including cinema, theater, fashion, and exhibitions; science and technology; industry; automobiles and motorcycles; tourism; and the armed forces. Essays discuss economic and technical aspects of advertising, including strategies and psychology, but also formal elements of color, type, design, etc. Also covered are various advertising media including film, television and radio.
Intended to demonstrate the innovation and sophistication of modern Italian advertising, the editors experimented with typography, illustrated plates, intaglio and block printing, and unusual papers ranging from laid to heavy gloss and newsprint. A special issue on Giambattista Bodoni and Gutenberg includes a reproduction of the type form for the title page.
Altogether an exhaustive survey of Italian advertising during the fascist period—and the artists who worked in its service, including: Fortunato Depero, Guido Marussig, Alredo Calvadini, Boccasile, Calze, Carlo Dinelli, Erberto Carboni, Dudovich, Biraghi, etc.
Early issues are scarce. OCLC lists only a few institutional holdings worldwide, all with partial or single-issue holdings. There are two locations recorded in North America: the Library of Congress (no physical copies; the OCLC record appears to be derived from their binding catalog, which references two issues never? held) and UI-UC’s copy, which is nearly complete.
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Ofelia Rodriguez Acosta, 1933?
Signed copy of a rare imprint by the radical Cuban feminist.
La Tragedia Social de la Mujer
Rodriguez Acosta, Ofelia. La Tragedia Social de la Mujer, Conferencia. Havana: Génesis, [1933?]. 8vo, 40 pp.; interior toned with sl. foxing, splitting at hinge; stapled color wrapper foxed, chipping at spine and loose. Ink author’s dedication on ffep, signed and dated “1935, Paris.”
A rare, signed imprint by the novelist and journalist Ofelia Rodriguez, one of Cuba’s most influential feminists. The book reprints a lecture given at the Lyceum (an women’s cultural club in Havana) attacking A.W. Nemilov’s claims about the biological inferiority of women. She argues that the “tragedy” of women is their exploitation, not their biology. Rodriguez’s feminism was more radical than many of her peers: she was in favor of free love, reproductive freedom, and homosexual marriage; her novel La vida manda (1929) scandalized the public with its sympathetic and erotic depiction of lesbianism and she authored one of Cuba’s earliest progressive novels about homosexuality En la noche del mundo (1940).
A rare, signed imprint by this important author. OCLC lists 4 holdings: Northwestern, Claremont, UC Berkeley, and UMich (microfiche?).
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1917
Single issue of a Catalan suffragist periodical, seemingly unrecorded.
Redención: Revista Mensual Feminista. Año III, Núm. 18
Bernal, Ana, Ed. Redención: Revista Mensual Feminista. Año III, Núm. 18 (Febrero 1917). Valencia, Spain: N.p., 1917. 8vo, 12 pp., in center of gathering one unrelated leaf bound in out of sequence, numbered 41-44; stapled self-wrapper, pages creased, small closed tear to fore edge of front wrapper.
Single issue of the suffragist periodical with letters to the editor and short articles discussing cultural and political issues related to women’s rights.
Although the publication ran from at least 1915-1922 and is known to scholars (and discussed in The Woman Citizen, Vol. IV, No. 33 [Mar. 6, 1920]), it is seemingly unrecorded in OCLC. A private library, Biblioteca de Mujeres de Madrid, claims to have the single copy.
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1941
A political tableware catalogue.
Bohemia-Moser-Praha
(Trade Catalogue). Bohemia-Moser-Praha. Prague: [Moser Glassworks], 1941. 4to, [8] typed and carbon copy leaves followed by 23 photographic prints mounted to [12] heavy card leaves, each interleaved with typed guards, photographs near fine, a few corner mounts detached; in stab-sewn paper wrappers, verso sl. soiled.
An attractive and surprisingly political tableware catalogue sent by Bohemia-Moser-Praha to the El Salvadorian legate in Madrid in June, 1941. The introductory materials list the company’s prominent clients: WWII-era heads of state and embassies. The list is a “who’s who” of Axis country leaders and their “co-belligerent” states, puppet governments, and neutral allies (Adolf Hitler, Francisco Franco, Pope Pious XI, the Emperor of Japan, Kings of Bulgaria, Italy, Romania, and Spain, the Sultan of Johore, etc.). A few Allies are also listed, including the King of England and American diplomats.
The interleaves identify the designs and prices of the tableware in the facing photographs, and provide the names of embassies and legations that have ordered the specific patterns shown. Franco’s selection is featured.
Moser was founded by the Czech-Jewish glass artist Ludwig Moser in 1857; a majority interest was sold in 1934 and the company was further nationalized after the Nazi occupation of Czechslovakia in 1939. In September 1941, a few months after this catalogue was released, much of the Moser family was killed in the Nazi liquidation of Jewish Bohemia.
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1922
Otis Escalator and Inclined Elevators
(Trade Catalogue). Otis Elevator Company. Otis Escalator and Inclined Elevators. N.p.: Otis Elevator Company, 1922. 4to, [2], 21, [1] pp.; b/w illus. from photographs and artistic renderings throughout; stapled color pictorial wrapper worn at extremities, center leaf loosened from staples, else good.
Including images of escalators in commercial and industrial use across the world: Earls Court Station, London; Mitsukoshi Department Store, Tokio [sic]; Macy’s New York; New York City elevated trains; Mystic Dock, Boston & Maine Railroad; Fair Store, Chicago; Wm. Filene Sons, Boston; and Denver Dry Goods, Denver, etc.
OCLC lists one institutional holding: Cleveland PL.
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[Ford Motor Co.], ca. 1924
For a modern young lady, nothing beats the personal car.
[Her Personal Car]
[Ford Motor Company]. [Her Personal Car]. N.p.: [Ford Motor Company], ca. 1924. Single-fold brochure, 8-1/2 x 11 in., [4] pp.; with two full-page color pictorial plates (probably pochoir), loose with orig. pamphlet stitch holes visible in gutter, area of glued paper in upper quarter of final page, fair.
An uncommon, finely realized example of Ford’s well-documented “Her Personal Car” campaign to make the motorcar relevant and accessible to the “young woman about town.” “It is doubtful whether any other accouterment of personal service contributes as much to the pleasure of the modern young lady as does her personal car […].”
Not in OCLC, which lists one related holding, a version illustrated from photographs rather than pochoir.
SOLD
1956
Inscribed copy of Japanese book commemorating Gropius's first and only trip to Japan.
Guropiusu to nihon bunka [Dr. Gropius in Japan]
Guropiusu to nihon bunka [Dr. Gropius in Japan]. Tokyo: Shokokusha, 1956. 8vo, [4], 406, [2], pp.; Japanese text illus. with b/w pls. reproducing photographs of Mr. and Mrs. Gropius and their Japanese hosts at various sites of architectural significance; brown cloth, spine and top edge sunned, small stain to spine, else very good. A manuscript gift inscription in kanji was probably written by the trip’s organizer, Shigeharu Matsumoto, a journalist and founding director of the International House, Tokyo. Tipped in manuscript annotations by a previous owner offer personal comments on people and places.
Walter Gropius’s first and only trip to Japan was sponsored by the Rockefeller Foundation in 1954. This encounter was a critical, highly visible moment in the contentious postwar debate over Japanese internationalism and the development of a new, nonwestern modernism. The book describes three months of activity from the hosts’ point of view: visits to important historical and contemporary architectural sites, schools, workshops, and factories; and reproduces lectures as well as transcripts of dialogues between Gropius and Japanese architects, designers and craftspeople. Some chapters written by notable architects, including Kenzo Tange; another lengthy section translates Ise Gropius’s travel journal, as reported to The Architecture Committee (TAC) in Cambridge, MA; the book also includes an early version of Gropius’s essay on Japanese architecture (later published in Tange’s Katsura, 1960).
A note on the inscription: Shigeharu Matsumoto founded the International Cultural Center and the International House, becoming a leader of the internationalist movement that defined cultural and political policy in the postwar period. The handwritten notes in this volume suggest that the recipient, identified in the inscription as Miss McMill[a]n, knew Matsumoto and Gropius personally, and was “good friends” with designer Isamu Kenmochi. It seems possible that this McMill[a]n could be related to Louis McMillen or Robert McMillan, two TAC principles.
OCLC lists only three copies outside of Japan, two in North America: Columbia and Univ. of Chicago.
SOLD
1935
Modern. Cardboard.
L’Emballage Moderne: La Caisse Carton
L’Emballage Moderne: La Caisse Carton. Paris: Laboratoire Général pour Emballages, 1935. 4to, 99, [1] pp.; profusely illus. trade catalogue with b/w reproductions of photos, graphs, and other research; stapled color illus. “Kraft” wrappers, a few creases and spots front and rear; very good.
Cardboard boxes never looked so good. With detailed technical analysis and photographs comparing this modern shipping material to wood. Long section on special uses includes shipping eggs, fish, and live animals; musical instruments; electronics; fruits and flowers; and glass.
OCLC lists no copies in North American libraries.
SOLD
La Habanerita, [1912]
A dancer's trade card, mailed to a talent agency.
BAILARINA Y COUPLETISTA / DANZAS SUGESTIVAS
(Trade Card). “La Habanerita.” BAILARINA Y COUPLETISTA / DANZAS SUGESTIVAS / Grande y variado repertorio / LUJOSA PRESENTACIÓN. [Madrid]: N.p., [1912]. 3-1/2 x 5-1/2 in. postcard with publicity photo, pay rate, etc., printed recto and verso with manuscript notes and address; date from postmark.
Sent by the dancer, La Habanerita, to a talent agency in Granada. “Danzas sugestivas” was a euphemism for the Romani-influenced flamenco popular in Madrid nightclubs in the 1910s. Autographed postcards of famous coupletistas are known, but direct marketing examples from the performer to potential employers and agencies are uncommon.
SOLD
Jacobus Marie Prange, 1938
Woodblock memorializing the first anniversary of the bombing of Guernica.
Pasen
Prange, Jacobus Marie. Pasen. 1938. Sheet: 6-1/4 x 4-3/4 in., woodblock: 3-1/2 x 2-5/8 in.; signed in pencil LR.
Prange (1904-1972) was a surrealist and later an art critic at the Dutch resistance paper Het Parool. The Easter greeting probably references the first anniversary of the German bombing of Guernica on April 26, 1937.
SOLD
1937
Children's stories from an Italian fascist youth organization.
Pagine di un Balilla
(Carati, Cosimo). Brandonisio, Michele, ed. Pagine di un Balilla. Rome: n.p., 1937. Small 8vo, 29, [2] pp.; b/w illus. by G. Ghirlanda; stapled paper wrapper, very good.
Italian fascist youth and paramilitary organization, Opera Nazionale Balilla, or Balilla. The Balilla Ten Commandments, with language referencing fascist “avanguardista,” are followed by short children’s stories.
Not found in OCLC.
SOLD
1926
Flashy Weimar-era swimming catalogue.
Frankfurter Sommerbäder
Nowotoy, M., ed. Frankfurter Sommerbäder. Frankfurt am Main: Städt. Badewesen, 1926. 8vo, 104 pp.; illus. throughout with b/w reproductions of maps, orig. graphics, photos, ads, etc. with descriptions of swimming holes and seasonal bathing news from the greater Frankfurt area; color wrapper with some light spotting, good to very good.
A Weimar-era swimming catalogue, representative of the naturalism movement. Mild nudity. OCLC finds no copies in North America.
SOLD
Jeanne Humbert, 1933
Anarchist, pacifist, and sexual liberation activist Humbert's rare second book about her experience in French prisons.
Sous La Cagoule: À Fresnes, Prison-Modèle
Humbert, Jeanne. Sous La Cagoule: À Fresnes, Prison-Modèle. Paris: Lutèce, [1933]. 8vo, 212 pp.; b/w reproductions of sketches by André Douhin and five b/w pls. reproducing prison photographs by H. Manuel; some pages toned with edge-wear and minor chipping, pictorial wrappers with top corner missing, fair.
Anarchist and pacifist Jeanne Humbert (1890-1986) was a leading activist for legal contraception in France in the 1920s. She was jailed many times for the dissemination of materials related to birth control, abortion, and antiracism. Although her Neomalthusian beliefs have made her a controversial figure, she spent her entire life fighting for sexual liberation, women’s rights, and peace.
Sous la cagoule is the second book she wrote describing her experience in prison and arguing for reform. The first concerned Saint-Lazare, where she was held for two years. Sous critiques the modern French penal system and the horrific conditions at Paris’s model prison, Fresnes, where she was later transferred.
OCLC finds no institutional holdings in North America.
SOLD
1982
Claiming to be the first computer program for matching users based on sexual preference. Not in OCLC.
Sinfonet
(Sex - Computer Programming) Sinfonet. Sin & Answers [title from cover]. Sunnydale, CA: Sinfonet, 1982. 8vo, [2], 26, [2] pp.; promotional brochure for a sexual compatibility (rather than dating) service that relies on a customized computer program; stapled pictorial wrapper, somewhat toned, sl. curve at center crease, very good. With two original Business Reply Cards laid in.
Sinfonet, a.k.a. “Sex-Info” or “The Original Sin and Sexual Information Network (The Original),” claimed to be the first computer service to match users based on sexual preferences. The booklet is styled as a Q&A and is a fascinating read about the early use of computers to find potential sexual partners (rather than dates). The service relied on self-programming, which means members had to arrange to “place their own data directly into the machine.”
Specific questions include: How does it work? Can one communicate directly with the computer? What is meant by self-programming? Do I have to know how to operate a computer? How big is the computer? [A: “The central processing unit will have an approximate capacity of five hundred twelve thousand words.”] Suppose I lie to the computer? What is a code? How does the code work? Do you store data on people who are no longer members? What is your senior citizens’ special?
Unrecorded in OCLC.
SOLD
1975
Gay rights at Buffalo State University, otherwise unrecorded.
Scream. No. 1
Scream. No. 1 (Nov. 1975). Buffalo, NY: n.p., 1975.Oblong 4to, [18] pp.; mimeographed “screamzine” reproducing a few b/w graphics, mostly text by, and for, “radical gay people”; stapled pictorial wrapper, with unobtrusive pen marking upper right.
A monographic gay rights zine presumably published by students at Buffalo State to coincide with Gay Awareness Week at the university. Primarily addressing local events and politics.
Not recorded in OCLC.
SOLD
Elżbieta Jablońska, 2003
Documenting the artist's “Supermother” billboard project.
Supermatka
Jablońska, Elżbieta. Supermatka.
Documents Jablońska’s “Supermother” self-portrait project, in which the artist, dressed in a superhero costume, is posed with her son. The photographs were displayed on more than 400 billboards across Poland in 2002 in a watershed moment for the representation of women and domestic labor in that country.
OCLC finds no institutional holdings in North America.
SOLD
1963
Mrs. States Recipe Book from the Mrs. America Pageant
(Pageants) Mrs. States Recipe Book from the Mrs. America Pageant [title from cover]. Phoenix, AZ: Mrs. America, Inc.: 1963. 8vo, [58] pp.; recipes and personal notes from each state’s participant, heavy card covers in plastic comb binding, some toning at edges of card, interior very good.
Contributions vary widely, many offer personal commentary on domestic matters.
OCLC records one copy: Kansas State.
SOLD
R.V. Pierce, ca. 1910
Patent medicine promotional booklet advertising women’s health treatments.
Beauty Secrets for Women
Pierce, R.V. and V.M. Pierce. Beauty Secrets for Women [title from cover]. [Buffalo, NY]: [Invalids’ Hotel and Surgical Institute], n.d. Oblong, approx. 3-3/4 x 5-1/3 in., 32 pp.; illus. throughout, booklet with stapled pictorial wraps; roughly trimmed, else good.
Patent medicine promotional booklet advertising women’s beauty and health secrets.
SOLD
Late 19th-century trade card for acrobat Marie Latour.
The Great Latour Leap for Life
Latour, Marie. The Great Latour Leap for Life. N.p. [London?], n.d. Trade card: 5-1/8 x 3-1/4 in.; minor wear, left edge sl. trimmed?, else very good.
From verso: “To the Patrons of the Great London Show: The Beautiful Young Lady whose portrait adorns the front of this page will be presented in an Act original with herself, requiring more skill than ever before displayed by mortal, known as the ‘LATOUR LEAP FOR LIFE.’ She ascends a platform placed in the apex of the pavilion and at a signal and with a courage possessed by no man […].”
SOLD
1938
Etching and invite related to the Parisian women's gourmet club. Later members included Julia Child.
Invitation to the Diner Annuel du Cercle des Gourmettes
Cercle des Gourmettes. Invitation to the Diner Annuel du Cercle des Gourmettes, 1938. [Paris]. Together with a photograph presumed to be of the event and an etched New Year greeting card from Ethel Ettlinger. Card: 9-1/9 x 6-5/8 in., illus. after Marie Laurencin; photo: 6 x 7-7/8 in.; etching: 9-1/4 x 7 in.; card with orig. center crease, photo edgeworn, etching toned and lightly foxed with creased corner, else very good.
Invitation to a dinner celebrating Madame Paul (Ethel) Ettlinger*: American expat, president and founder of the French women’s gourmet club Le Cercle des Gourmettes, begun in 1929 as a protest to the all-male Club des Cent. Existing documentation of Les Gourmettes’ early years is sparse, despite being a group that famously included Simone Beck and Julia Child. Child later cited these events as “the real beginning of French gastronomical life for me” (Shapiro, 43). In Bob Spitz’s 2012 biography, he writes that Beck, Child, and Louisette Bertholle considered naming their cooking school “L’Ecole des Gourmettes,” and that Child made a final visit to Mrs. Ettlinger on her last day in Paris in 1953, when the Childs moved to Marseilles. Ettlinger was nominated for the Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur.
The etching, presumably made for the Ettlingers, observes in rhyme the high value of a woman gourmand and depicts a feast in which women are served by men. This is likely a reference to an early Gourmettes château dinner, ca. 1931, whose costumes and menu were influenced by spectacular Louis XIV-era events and included live entremets by Marie Kummer and modern dancer Colette Andris, who scandalized society during this period with nude performances.
*Ethel Ettlinger is referred to in certain sources as Paulette, including by Simone Beck. Thanks to Don Lindgren for suggesting this may have been an affectionate nickname, related to the ironic spelling of Gourmette.
Ref. “Nossa alimentação: A Festa des Gourmettes,” Revista da Semana No. 42 (Outubro 1931); and Laura Shapiro, Julia Child (New York: Penguin, 2007): 43.
SOLD
Gunilla Bandolin, 1993
Exh. cat. for Swedish sculptor and land artist.
Potatisdrömmar
Bandolin, Gunilla. Potatisdrömmar. [Jönköping, Sweden]: n.p., 1993.
Oblong 8vo, 46 pp.; profusely illus., pictorial wraps with small abrasion to upper wrap, else very good. Inscribed by Bandolin on final page.
Exhibition catalogue for the Swedish sculptor and land artist. OCLC finds no copies in North American libraries.
SOLD
Counterculture serial, complete in one issue, contributions by Lynn Hershman and Mimi Parent.
Free Space: A Bulletin of Solidarity. No. 1
Free Space: A Bulletin of Solidarity. No. 1 (Summer 1977) (all published). San Francisco: Friends of Free Space, 1977. 4to, 63 pp.; scattered b/w illus., stapled pictorial wraps, light wear, very good.
Counterculture serial, complete in one issue, associating surrealism and liberation. Essays express solidarity with freedom movements in South Africa and Latin America, Quebecois separatism, and gay rights. Notable artistic contributions by Lynn Hershman and Mimi Parent.
OCLC finds one copy: UC Berkeley.
SOLD
Delia Ingenieros, 1938-1941
Surrealist scrapbook by the Argentinian microbiologist, magician, and Borges associate, Delia Ingenieros.
Album Surrealista de Ovarina Merck
[Ingenieros, Delia]. Album Surrealista de Ovarina Merck. [Buenos Aires]: [1938-1941]. 4to, 9-1/4 x 13-3/4 in., 78 pp.; commercial alphabetized ledger repurposed as a scrapbook, comprised chiefly of drawings, paintings, collages, and other manuscript materials tipped in, a few items laid in, most attributed to Ingenieros’s alter-ego Ovarina Merck, many dated, the first 21 pp. comprised of clippings of images and articles by Surrealists or about Surrealism; cloth with pasted manuscript label, rubbed and bumped. Together with: Kamia, Delia. Memorias de una Maga. Buenos Aires: Ediciones Meridion, 1956 [1952].
Delia Ingenieros (1915-1997), a.k.a. Ovarina Merck, a.k.a. Delia Kamia, a.k.a. Delia de Rothschild, a.k.a. Ikama, had a life as improbable and fascinating as her many pseudonyms. Her father was a prominent Argentinian intellectual, who dedicated his later life to socialism and occultism. (1) Despite his untimely passing, Delia was surrounded from an early age by writers, politicians, and artists. She completed her PhD in microbiology and obtained work as a laboratory scientist, all before women in Argentina were allowed to vote. When science failed to dispel an existential crisis in her early thirties, she turned to magic, illusionism, and “the marvelous,” much like her father. There, in a community of magicians, where her gender was once again unusual, she embraced the traditions of art, theater, and alchemy: “the prism of prestidigitation replaced the microscope’s lens, allowing her to study and know, not only bacteria, but the psychology of human beings.” (2)
If this sounds like fiction, it is because Ingenieros lead her life as the protagonist of a modern novel, creating new identities when it suited. The “surrealist” scrapbook dates from her time in university, a period during which she also began publishing her first scientific papers. It is a rich visual record of an uninhibited imagination, and although it owes a debt to European surrealism (the first section is devoted to reproductions of work by artists—e.g. Dali and Victor Brauner—who most inspired her), it is also distinctly Argentinian. Not content with stock allusions to the unconscious and dream-realities, Ingenieros used the scrapbook to document a parallel reality where absurd and magical events play out in the context of the real world.
Nominally, the book is a collaboration between Ingenieros and three friends, referred to here by the aliases M de la M, HM, MMM, and OM. In reality, the vast majority of the artwork has been attributed through manuscript annotations to OM (Ovarina Merck, Ingenieros’s alias), with a smaller number of items by HM (Hombre Mosca). Cross-referencing materials in the scrapbook (including ersatz university degrees; advertisements; and personal letters) allows us to speculate that HM was an alias for the architect Simon Ungar, a member of Grupo Astral, co-editor of the architecture review Tecné, and later responsible for overseeing completion of the only Le Corbusier building in South America, Casa Curutchet.
Most of the interplay in the scrapbook takes place between Ingenieros’s and Ungar’s numerous pseudonyms; their artwork and games reference Nazism, Boslehvism, the Spanish Civil War, and the student movement in Argentina, with which she was involved. Much of the rest of the content is irreverent, reflecting the deeply nonconformist attitude of contemporary literary and artistic movements in Argentina. The bold forgeries and complicated fictions of the scrapbook remind readers of Ingenieros’s immediate and personal association to these movements during this period: her younger sister Cecilia was dating Jorge Luis Borges.
Although the nature of Borges’s relationship with Cecilia is inexact, biographers and the author agree they dated for a few years, beginning sometime in 1938 and ending around 1943 when she broke it off to travel and study modern dance. In later interviews he claimed he wanted to marry her: he dedicated “The Immortal” to her, and fully credited her with the idea for “Emma Zunz,” one of his only stories featuring a named female protagonist. Borges also described spending time with the Ingenieros family during their courtship; one of his biographers tells how Delia gave him her father’s globe during a visit to their house (it later sat in his office at the National Library).
Other than these few notes, a great silence exists in Borges studies when it comes to Delia, despite the fact that she was his collaborator of record for his anthology Antiguas literaturas germánicas (1951). Borges intentionally erased this from his own bibliography when he wrote, in Blindness, that he hadn’t discovered Old English until the mid-1950s. When the book was republished (largely unchanged) as Literaturas germánicas medievales in 1966, Delia’s name was gone, replaced by his assistant and girlfriend Maria Esther Vazquez. A few sources list Delia as one of his romantic interests, but the mystery remains as to what kind of assistance she provided to the project, and why he renounced the earlier work. (See Vladimir Brljak, “Borges and the North,” in Defining Neomedievalism(s) II, p 107.)
In the intervening years between the scrapbook and Borges project, Delia largely abandoned her work as scientist to become a magician, moving from her alias Delia Kamia to the new nom-de-guerre, Ikama. She chronicles this journey in her autobiographical work, Memoirias de una maga (1952). In this account she shifts from the metaphoric or rhetorical use of surrealist symbols to a metaphysical crisis, ultimately rejecting psychology and embracing of the supernatural—or at least the literal possibilities of magic, prestidigitation, and illusion as a way of life.
HOLD
(1) Her father, José Ingenieros (1877-1925), was a socialist and theosophist who wrote for communist and occulist publications. He played a key role in the development of social policy in Argentina and was a leader of the University Reform of 1918, which had a tremendous impact on the relationship between student and labor movements in Latin America. In the last years of his life he left his position as the Chair of Experimental Psychology at the University of Buenos Aires [UAB], founding an anti-imperial magazine and collaborating with Argentinian anarchists.
(2) Memorias de una Maga. Buenos Aires: Ediciones Meridion, 1956 [1952], promotional text from dust jacket, inside flap: “el prisma de la prestidigitacion ha reemplazado con ventaja las lentes del microscopio, pues le permite estudiar y conocer, no ya las bacterias, sino la psicologia de los seres humanos.”
José Delpini, 1937-1956
Exceptional photographic survey of a groundbreaking Argentinian architect and engineer.
71 Modern Argentinian Architecture Photographs
Delpini, José Luis. Outstanding Collection of 71 Modern Argentinian Architecture Photographs (1937-1956). N.p. [Argentina], n.d., assembled ca. 1958. Seventy-one silver gelatin prints mounted on captioned card stock. Most approx. 9 x 6-1/2 in. (15.5 x 22.5 cm), a few trimmed, prints mounted to 12-1/8 x 9-1/8 in. card with holes punched for a previous binding(?), typed captions tipped-in, some signed in negative by various photography studios. Photographs very good+ with minor undulations. Housed in recent half-morocco clamshell box with marbled boards and gilt title to spine: La Arquitectura de Jose L. Depini.
The collection documents the remarkable career of Argentinian architect and engineer, José Luis Delpini (1897-1964). The photographs encompass twenty buildings and five unrealized or partially realized project models including markets, churches, factories, garages, a bus station, a bridge, a stadium, an airplane hangar, and an apartment building. Typed captions identify and date the projects and offer technical notes about their respective structural innovations.
Delpini was part of a generation of modern Argentinian architects who, beginning in the late 1920s, rejected the nationalist neocolonial revival and struggled to redefine Argentinian architecture in relation to the international vocabulary of modernism. He is best known outside of Argentina for two landmark buildings: the Mercado Abasto (1934) and La Bombonera stadium (1940), the legendary home of La Boca Juniors football team. Delpini designed these buildings in collaboration with architect Viktor Sulčič and surveyor Raul Bes, under the studio name Delpini-Sulčič-Bes. However, scholars credit the firm’s ambitious fusion of art and technology to Delpini and his virtuosic engineering, exemplified in the 1940s and 1950s through large-scale civic and industrial commissions documented in the collection. After the partnership dissolved in 1953, Delpini was solely responsible for a number of the most imaginative projects represented here – including the fantastical “Proyecto de Estadio Racional” and “Proyecto de Hangar de 200 m. de Luz Libre.”
In early projects including the Mercado Abasto and La Bombonera, his work is distinguished by cavernous interior space, achieved through the use of reinforced concrete (often prefabricated), shell roofs, natural light delivered by ceiling louvers, and “luz libre” (i.e. clear span) distances free of intermediary supports. The photographs track the evolution of these ideas in the 40s and 50s, highlighting structural and stylistic features of some of his most famous work, including the Iglesia del Asilo del Hospital Italiano, “El Condor” Garage, and textile factories across the country. Given the format, the level of technical detail in the captions, and the fine quality of the prints, we speculate that someone with access to Delpini’s studio archive prepared the collection, perhaps as a type of portfolio or presentation album. It is also possible that it was related to his teaching: Delpini was a professor in the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Buenos Aires, where he also founded the Laboratory of Structural Research. He became the first Chair of Structural Composition just before his death, in 1964.
Altogether an exceptional and comprehensive survey of an important Argentinian architect who fused the vocabularies of modernist architecture and industrial design. Although a few of the images, particularly of the Mercado Abasto, are known, most seem never to have been published.
SOLD
1972
Rare photobook promoting arts and technology programming at the Museo Tecnológico, Mexico City.
Museo Tecnologico C.F.E
Comisión Federal de Electricidad. Museo Tecnologico C.F.E. [title from cover]. [Mexico City]: Museo Tecnologico, 1972. Oblong 8vo, v, [76], 51 pp.; chiefly b/w reproductions of photographs by Juan Francisco Ríos, followed by 51 pp. of text and graphics explaining exhibitions at the museum; in illus. wrappers, rear wrapper with small chip at lower corner, newsprint sl. toned, else very good.
Uncommon photobook promoting the Museo Tecnológico de la Comisión Federal de Electricidad (MUTEC). MUTEC was inaugurated in 1970 as Mexico’s first technology museum dedicated to modern applied sciences. In director Antonio Rodriguez’s introduction, he writes that MUTEC means to be a “living, dynamic, and open” institution that will promote the newest technologies through ample cultural programming.
The primary photographic section of the book documents activities at the museum, including kinetic art exhibitions, cinema festivals, expositions of industrial design, and concerts (including works of electronic music).
Not found in OCLC.
HOLD
California School of Fine Arts, 1921
Fine example of the dialogue between Californian and Mexican modernisms.
Catalogue of Summer Session
[Decorative Arts – Mayan Revival] California School of Fine Arts. Catalogue of Summer Session. San Francisco: California School of Fine Arts, [1921]. 8vo, 14 pp.; stapled pictorial wrappers, near fine.
Promotional booklet by California fine press Taylor & Taylor advertises the school’s summer courses for 1921, including a “special course” in “Applied Aztec Design” with Mexican sculptor and expert on Aztec-Toltec and Mayan art, Francisco Cornejo, best known in the US for the lavish facades of the Mayan Theater in Los Angeles (1927) and for designing the costumes and scenery for choregrapher Ted Shawn’s Xochitil (1920), which starred the young Martha Graham. The cover is unsigned, but possibly by Cornejo.
Fine example of dialogue between Californian and Mexican modernists in the first half of the twentieth century; OCLC finds one copy in North America: Cal State.
SOLD
Olga de Amaral, 1972
Early catalogue of the renowned Colombian fiber artist.
Muros, tejidos y armaduras
Amaral, Olga de. Muros, tejidos y armaduras. Bogotá: Museo de Arte Moderno Bogotá, 1972. Oblong 4to, [24] pp.; profusely illus. in b/w and color, with introductory texts and artist bio; pages comprised of six folding leaves; in paper wrappers, rubbed at edges, otherwise very good.
Early catalogue of the renowned Colombian fiber artist, just three years after she was included in MoMA’s groundbreaking exhibition “Wall Hangings.”
SOLD
1975
Rare document of a landmark urban planning conference.
Conferencia Latinoamericana Sobre Desarrollo Urbano
Alcaldía Mayor de Bogotá, et al. Conferencia Latinoamericana Sobre Desarrollo Urbano. Bogotá: [Alcaldía Mayor de Bogotá; Universidad de Andes; and IBM Corp.], 1975. Oblong 4to, 132 pp.; reproducing fourteen papers from an international conference bringing together experts from Latin America, Europe, and the United States, each paper proceeded by a photograph and bio of the participant; newsprint toned, in illus. paper wrappers, spine rubbed, front wrapper with bent corner, reinforced verso with tape, otherwise good.
Rare document of a landmark gathering of politicians, urban planners, architects, public service officials, and industry partners to discuss the future of Latin American cities. Reproduces papers by Diego Arria Salicetti, Governor of Caracas; David Grove, Vice-President of IBM; John Lindsay, ex-Mayor of New York; Alfonso Palacio Rudas, Mayor of Bogotá; Jean Taulelle, Prefect of Paris; Jorge Valencia Jaramillo, poet and President of the Society of Colombian Economists; and others.
OCLC finds no copies in North America.
SOLD
Museo de Arte Universidad Nacional de Colombia, 1987
Exhibition surveying abstract art in Colombia. Not found in OCLC.
Arte Abstracto Geometrico
Rubiano Caballero, Germán. Arte Abstracto Geometrico. [Bogota]: Museo de Arte Universidad Nacional de Colombia, 1987. Square 8vo, [20] pp.; introduction by the curator, Rubiano, with 8 full-age b/w illus. and artist biographies; orig. paper wraps, toned with some sl. staining to front wrapper, good.
Catalogue of the exhibition surveying the diverse modes of abstract art in Colombia, from its inception until the present day, including many women artists: Cecilia Coronel, Margarita Gutiérrez, Ana Mercedes Hoyos, Teresa Sanchez, and Fanny Sanín.
Not found in OCLC.
SOLD
1976
Poster with autographed dedication from artist Lisl Steiner.
Mujer: A Photographic Exhibition on the Latin Woman
[Steiner, Lisl]. Mujer: A Photographic Exhibition on the Latin Woman. Exhibition poster for the Institute of Contemporary Hispanic Art: New York, 1976. Approx. 22-3/4 x 15-1/4 in, creased at folds, small tear along fold. Extensive autograph dedication verso from Austrian artist Lisl Steiner to Argentinian artist Gyula Kosice, discussing water sculpture and her involvement in Madí and Arte Concreto.
Steiner was born in Austria but her parents fled to Argentina after the Anschluss. She attended art school in Argentina and was one of the few women artists associated with Madí. She immigrated to the United States in 1960.
We find no record of the poster institutionally or in the market.
SOLD
1939
Unrecorded ephemera documenting the crisis in the Partido Comunista Mexicano following the Soviet-German nonagression pact.
Two Mexican Communist Flyers
Two Mexican Communist Flyers Denouncing Nazism and the German-Soviet Pact. [Mexico City]: [1939]. 5-3/4 x 8-1/4 in. and 8 x 6 in.; toned with small pencil inscriptions noting place and date.
“Sabía Usted…” advertises the daily newspaper El Popular, founded by a group of Marxist labor activists a year earlier in Mexico City. It announces the paper’s editorial independence from the right-wing political interests of other journals and wire services, including Transocean, which it accuses (correctly) of being an organ of Nazi propaganda.
The second flyer is for a speech by Hernan Laborde, then Secretary-General of the Partido Comunista Mexicano (PCM), addressing the significance of the Soviet-German nonaggression pact. Only months later, Laborde and others would be expelled from the PCM by the notorious Purging Commission of the “Extraordinary Congress,” for their refusal to support Soviet efforts to eliminate Trotsky. It advertises entertainment following Laborde’s speech, including “una Gran Pelicula Soviética.”
Not found in OCLC.
SOLD
Comite Central de la Juventud Socialista Popular, 1954
Unrecorded Chilean communist songbook.
Cancionero
Comite Central de la Juventud Socialista Popular. Cancionero. Santiago de Chile: Juventud Socialista Popular, 1954. 7-1/8 x 5-1/8 in., [16] pp.; songs “de lucha y de liberación,” a few b/w illus. and color paper wrappers, newsprint sl. brittle as expected, otherwise very good.
Spanish-language communist songbook, including one for Rosa Luxembourg by renowned anarchist poet Elias Castelnuovo, otherwise unrecorded(?).
Not found in OCLC.
SOLD
1938
Unrecorded Mexican songbook featuring early version of lyrics celebrating the Foreign Oil Expropriation act and music from the film La Adelita.
Cancionero
[Fernandez, Esther] Guerrero, Eduardo, Ed. Cancionero: Album No. 29. [Mexico City]: Eduardo Guerrero, [1938]. 7-7/8 x 6 in., [15] pp.; color illus. stapled wrappers, corners bent, otherwise good.
Songbook featuring popular folksongs and music from La Adelita, with cover illus. of the movie’s star, Mexican actress (and painter) Esther Fernandez. Adelita tells the story of a woman who joins Pancho Villa’s revolutionary army as a nurse and ends up as a soldier. Also includes an early version of a song celebrating the expropriation of foreign oil assets in Mexico, in March 1938.
Not found in OCLC.
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Gustavo Munizaga Vigil, 1970
Experimental poetry by the Chilean urbanism and architecture historian, with manuscript letter describing Allende's socialist revolution.
Meccano
Munizaga Vigil, Gustavo. Meccano. Santiago de Chile: 1970. Oblong small 4to, 10-1/2 x 8-1/2 in., [52] pp.; poems, mostly in Spanish, a few in English, illus. throughout with b/w reproductions of line drawings by the author; sl. toning, pictorial paper wrappers chipped at spine. With five-page manuscript letter in English by the author, dated January 12, 1971, laid-in.
Experimental poetry, mostly on architecture and urbanism, by the Chilean architectural historian, Munizaga Vigil. Accompanied by a fascinating and lengthy letter from the author to a Dutch friend, describing the lived experience of Chile’s political situation during the dramatic months following Allende’s election. His frank appraisal of the socialist revolution depicts a hopeful intellectual class at odds with the philosophy of the Chilean Popular Front: “For the many that constitute the people, this revolution is the only way out. But to others, those of us that grew around ideas and values now foreign or misunderstood, it is difficult … There is an idea of a socialist totalitarian and “everyone the same” state. There is a growing mistrust for freely expressed personal unofficial ideas. This is not new in Chile. But now it can become a machinery. I hope we can build our country around socialism and that we become less static, less formal, more human.”
OCLC locates no institutional holdings in North America.
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1970-2015.
Pamphlets, zines, chapbooks, etc. related to transgender, transsexual, and LGBTQ activism, youth, literature, and civil rights
[Transgender]. Collection of ephemera
[Transgender]. Collection of pamphlets, zines, chapbooks, and other ephemera related to transgender, transsexual, and LGBTQ activism, youth, literature, health, humor, and social justice movements, 1970-2015. (Most 2000-present). 35 items compromised of monographic zines, individual issues of serials, pamphlets, and flyers; most monographs and serials 8vo, many 20-40 pp., most side-stapled or folded, most profusely illustrated, many very good or near fine, a few with edge or corner wear, some older examples rubbed or toned. A few with author’s gift inscriptions.
Many examples feature creative writing of trans individuals and describe the personal experiences of trans youth and adults, others focus on trans resources and definitions; sexuality; poetry and artwork; some describe specific political theories including anarchism and gender; trans people and the prison-industrial complex; a few dedicated to mourning trans deaths by suicide and murder; advocating for violent resistance and self-defense; and advertising trans parties or events. Some additionally address civil rights and economic issues including racism, feminism, gentrification, homelessness, prostitution, and drugs. Authors are often pseudonymous and identify as transgender, nonbinary, MtF, FtM, and queer; most American.
Together the collection presents a diverse picture of the evolving scope of North American trans experience and activism. Most items are not recorded in OCLC or are recorded at only one library, only a few with multiple holdings.
Detailed list available on request.
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Maria Isabel Estrada, 1970
Booklet of contemporary art terms in Spanish, published in conjunction with the second Coltejer Biennial in Medellín, Colombia.
Diccionario del arte actual
Estrada, Maria Isabel [and Leonel Estrada?]. Diccionario del arte actual. Medellin: Departamento de Relaciones Publicas de Coltejer, 1970. Oblong 8vo, 30 pp.; alphabetical definition of contemporary art movements with 4 b/w reproductions of works by various artists; side-stapled blue and white wrappers, wrpprs. worn and splitting at spine, small area of discoloration (partially erased?) on front, interior sl. toned, pen inscription on title page.
A rare coeval document from the 1970 Coltejer Biennial (the official catalogue having been published after it closed), curated by Aguilera Cerni, Lawrence Alloway, and Giulio Carlo Argan. The second Biennial was expanded from the 1968 inaugural edition to include more artists and ambitious contemporary work from all disciplines, including computer art, performance, and installation. The Coltejer Biennials had a tremendous impact on Colombian contemporary art, this booklet was presumably produced as one of the many adaptations made in response to public criticism of the first Biennial and distributed as a helpful key for audiences unfamiliar with current aesthetic tendencies.
The booklet is described as “preparado por Maria Isabel Estrada,” the daughter of art critic and director of the biennial, Leonel Estrada. Leonel Estrada would later publish the highly regarded Arte actual: diccionario de términos y tendencias (Medellín, 1985), with Maria Isabel credited as a coauthor. It is unclear who authored the definitions found in the present volume, but they introduce fascinating translations of important international movements including Arte de Agua, Gutai, Sonocinetismo, Espacio Ambiental (as differentiated from Happenings), Estructuras de Repeticion, Arte de Participation, and Arte Programado.
OCLC locates no institutional copies outside of Colombia.
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David Consuegra and Cecilia Cáceres, 1982
Limited edition experimental graphic design, signed by Consuegra.
Máximas Mínimas
[Latin America] [Graphic Design] Consuegra, David and Cecilia Cáceres [illus.]. Máximas Mínimas. Bogotá: [N.p.], 1982. Oblong small 4to, [24] pp.; text, including poems and thematic introduction to the synthesis of language and images, by Consuegra with b/w illus. by Cáceres; perfect bound white card wrapper, sl. marked at corners and spine, glue visible at gutter between the two sewn sections. Edition limited to 150 signed copies.
Consuegra designed the iconic logo of the Museum of Modern Art in Bogotá and a significant part of the museum’s exhibition materials during the 1960s-1970s. He also created the first professional graphic design program in Colombia, at the Universidad Jorge Tadeo Lozano. This experimental book was produced for and distributed at the 1982 International Book Expo in Leipzig, East Germany. Only one North American holding recorded in OCLC.
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Risedorph, Caroline Wilhelmina and Lillian Elizabeth., 1906
EXPERIENCES IN ALASKA: As Told by the Cook and the Teacher
[Western Americana]. Risedorph, Caroline Wilhelmina and Lillian Elizabeth. EXPERIENCES IN ALASKA: As Told by the Cook and the Teacher [Cover Title - Original Photographic Typescript]. Treadwell, Alaska: The L.E.R. Publishing Co., 1906. Small 4to, custom booklet, beige card wraps around 24 leaves of bond typing paper bound into a maroon calf backstrip over spine via 2 brass rivets at left margin. Hand-watercolor title lettering to front. 15 sepia toned silver print snapshot photographs and approximately 2500 words of typed text to rectos only. Versos blank. Handmade holiday card and an additional silver print class photograph laid-in. Some light chipping, edge wear about wraps. Some toning to title page where ephemera laid-in at front. Otherwise internally bright, clean. Photographs well preserved. About very good overall.
An original account, illustrated by 15 original photographs, composed by sisters Caroline (b. 1877?) and Lillian (b. 1874) Risedorph of Seatle, of their experience working as a teacher and a cook, respectively, in the mining village of Treadwell, Alaska in the winter of 1906. Privately published in this vernacular style by the women, the inclusion of the original photographs and text of the introduction suggests to us a unique publication likely intended for circulation among close friends and family.
The narrative opens with the Risedorphs receiving word one had been awarded the position of teacher in Treadwell: “When the letter reached the sisters, bearing the announcement that one of them had been elected to teach the school at Treadwell, Alaska, and as the other, in an unthinking moment, had promised to act as cook in case of election, consternation and surprise on the part of both were marked [...].”
It continues on in a similarly eloquent and endearing fashion in 12 full pages of text to chronologically describe their journey, becoming settled, preparing the school (each lived in and worked in the school building), teaching and serving the students, etc., with particular focus on life on the frontier of Alaska. The text describes the grandeur of the natural scenery, the harsher realities and privations of life in Treadwell versus Seattle, and a visit into the gold mine.
“The teacher’s past experience has been with blase Queen Anne children, of Seattle accustomed to refinement and even luxury in their homes, and although they were very interesting, it was a problem to keep them interested. These are completely absorbed in all things from the large bottle of library paste to the shirred garters on the teacher’s arms.”
The various ethnicities of the 18 children seem, in the minds of the narrators, to account for this positive, diverse atmosphere (”[...]three Italians, two Slavonians, four Scotch, and the remaining few Americans.”), and the women appear particularly enamored by Spiro, a 6-year old Slovanian boy whose musings and questions seem an endless source of amusement.
A rich and well-executed unique primary source, with vernacular publication details (“to Mr. Willis whom ‘we saw about the paper’ and who gave it to us because it was soiled [...]”) and an uncommon written, as well as visual, glimpse into womens experience, education, and the ethnic diversity in early 20th Century Alaskan gold mine settlements. Not found in OCLC.
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1981-1982
Architectural journal by students at Chile's Escuela de Arquitectura de la Pontificia Universidad Catolica, no locations recorded in OCLC.
Contrapropuesta. Nos. 4-5 (all published?)
[Architecture – Latin America]. Gana Barrios, Rafael, Ed. Contrapropuesta. Nos. 4 (Aug. 1981) and 5 (Autumn 1982) (all published?). Santiago de Chile: [Escuela de Arquitectura de la Pontificia Universidad Catolica]: 1981-1982. Oblong 4to, two issues: 66, 92 pp.; illus. with b/w reproductions of photographs, architectural plans, maps, etc. with signatures and possible private ex-libris marks on half-titles, in color pictorial wrpps, edges and corners sl. worn.
The numbers at hand would seem to constitute the first (and only?) two issues of Contrapropuesta, though their numbering probably refers to earlier iterations of student journals published at the architectural school of Pontificia in three prior years (1898, 1910, and 1929). In original essays and translations from major international architecture publications, the students take up the questions of neoclassicism, modernism, and postmodernism in relation to specific problems in Chilean architecture and culture. No. 4 with letter laid in from one of the collaborators to the editor of a Spanish publication, Grieta.
Recorded in OCLC with no location or holdings.
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1959
First issue of the Chilean avantgarde publication, unrecorded in OCLC.
Ultramar. Año I, No. 1
[Architecture] [Latin America] Bello, Enrique, Ed. Ultramar. Año I, No. 1 (Dec. 1959). Santiago, Chile: 1959.
Folio, 21 5/8 x 15 1/4 in., 12 pp.; profusely illus. with b/w photographic reproductions, self-wrappers, center fold worn, esp. to front, with closed tear along fold at fore-edge affecting multiple pages, edges sl. frayed.
Enrique Bello was previously the founding editor of the Chilean avant-garde weekly, Pro Arte (1948-1956), which covered modern art and literature in Chile and abroad, including writing and criticism by Diego Rivera, Gabriela Mistral, Pablo Neruda, Rosamel del Valle, Roberto Matta, and many others.
Bello intended for Ultramar to provide similar coverage of the Chilean avant-garde, in a global context, “En este barquito de papel, viajaremos pues, todos juntos por Chile y por todos los mares cada dos semanas. Y ahora, todo el mundo a bordo!” The inaugural issue is largely dedicated to three topics, Oscar Niemeyer and Lúcio Costa’s magnum opus, Brasília; the 1959 São Paolo Bienal; and the Interantional Congress of Art Critics which had convened in Brasília, São Paolo, and Rio de Janeiro in September.
Profusely illustrated with photography of Brasília under construction by Rebeca Yáñez, and Chilean artists and their work at the Bienal, as well as caricatures of delegates at the Art Critics Congress by critic and cartoonist Antonio Romero.
Articles are by Bello and luminaries in the field including Andre Bloc, Costa, and Richard Neutra on Niemeyer.
Although there are bibliographic references to a No. 4, we are unable to locate a single issue in OCLC in September 2017.
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1935-1939
Near complete run of a scarce Zionist serial published by a socialist youth organization.
Аноар: еврейско культурно-обществено списание
[Hashomer Hatzair] Ашомеръ-ацаиръ. Аноар: еврейско культурно-обществено списание. Year 1, No. 1 (Dec. 15, 1935) to Year 4, No. 31 (April 25, 1939) (lacking No. 30). Sofia, Bulgaria: 1935-1939.
8vo, 30 of 31 published issues, each 20 pp.; illus. stapled self-wrappers with occasional illus. within, each with handwritten date in Cyrillic and roman numerals on cover, no. 1 front wrapper detached with 1/2 in. loss LL, no. 28 front wrapper detached, otherwise newsprint sl. toned and brittle as expected.
Near complete run of this scarce Zionist serial published by the Bulgarian branch of the socialist youth organization Hashomer Hatzair (“The Young Guard”). Founded in Eastern Europe in 1916, Hashomer Hatzair encouraged Jewish youth to maintain their identity and culture in new environments, resisting middle-class urban life and economics in favor of cooperative labor, agriculture, and the values of social justice. Members participated in service trips and, later, organized illegal immigrations to Palestine. Issue number one of Аноар [Anoar], features a photomontage of Degania, the first kibbutz. Hashomer Hatzair members were also leaders in the resistance movement in Jewish ghettos and in concentration camps (e.g. Ḥaykah Grossman [Białystok], Mordekhai Anielewicz [Warsaw], and Abba Kovner [Vilna]).
The Bulgarian branch began publishing this “Jewish Culture and Society” journal after Hashomer Hatzair had undergone a profound political shift to the left, supporting a bi-national solution in Palestine and resisting the influence of the Soviet communist party. Its contents are varied: supporting the vision of a new, egalitarian and socialist nation of Eretz Yisrael; extolling the virtues of work and farming; reporting on Nazism, anti-Semitism in Bulgaria and across Europe, the Polish ghetto system, and resistance efforts; and reviewing arts and literature.
Anoar also includes intriguing essays on psychoanalysis and the psychologist Alfred Adler, both influences on Hashomer Hatzair and eventually on policy in the new state of Israel, despite the natural opposition of Zionist (collective) and psychoanalytic (individualist) thought.
The serial was printed by “Задружень трудъ” – a cooperative that also printed anarchist materials – and edited by Isaac Bidzherano. The stylized cover photomontages and great interior design are uncredited, though some in-text caricatures and illustrations are signed.
OCLC finds no institutional holdings in North America and only a single issue? at the National Library of Israel. Additional research reveals a partial run at Sofia University, Bulgaria.
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Compañía de Acero del Pacífico, 1953-1954
Monthly journal chronicling the development of a Chilean steel company town.
Huachipato. Año I, No. 1–No. 12.
[Chile] [Intentional Communities] [Graphic Design] Compañía de Acero del Pacífico. Huachipato. Año I, No. 1 (Oct. 1953)–No. 12 (Sept. 1954). [Concepción, Chile]: [Compañía de Acero del Pacífico], 1953-1954.
8vo, 12 issues bound in one vol., each 16 pp.; profuse b/w illus., orig. color wrappers bound in; earlier two-hole punch at left margin, current papered boards rubbed, bumped, and chipped, not affecting contents.
Complete first year of the company journal for the Chilean mining and manufacturing giant, Compañía de Acero del Pacífico [CAP]. CAP opened the Huachipato steel mill in Talcahuano, Chile, in 1947; it remains the only steelmaker in the country that produces steel from raw materials. In addition to the factory, CAP built worker housing, a medical center, and schools, and developed arts and culture in the industrial port. CAP continued to influence urban planning and demographics in the city throughout the 20th century.
The Huachipato magazine chronicles this newly built “company town,” reporting on industrial and technological achievements, social activities, health and human services, sports, union issues, and education. The covers are a celebration of midcentury industrial aesthetics.
A soccer team of the same name was founded by company employees and now competes in Chile’s primer league.
OCLC locates just a single later issue at UT, three at Cornell, and one? at Biblioteca AECID, Madrid.
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Presentation album promoting modernized offices in the iconic Palacio Estrugamou block in Buenos Aires.
Templo Myrurgiano: Erigido en la Argentina por Falcon & Cia. en el año 1939
[Architecture] [Latin America] Templo Myrurgiano: Erigido en la Argentina por Falcon & Cia. en el año 1939. [Buenos Aires]: n.p., 1939.
Oblong 4to (11 x 14 in.), [22] leaves with 21 photos, each 7 x 9 in.; self-published presentation album with printed transparent interleaves, first interleaf partially detached and first leaf foxed, else very good, photos near fine; spiral wire binding, poly-covered boards with decorative wire edges, metallic paste downs, poly sl. rubbed.
Elegant presentation album promoting the opening of Falcon & Cia., the Argentinian distributor of Myrurgia, the Spanish perfumer and cosmetics manufacturer. Falcon & Cia.’s offices were located at 743 Juncal, in the iconic Palacio Estrugamou block, the monumental example of Parisian residential architecture in Buenos Aires. Completed in 1929 in a Second Empire (-ish) style as the world financial markets were collapsing, the building is an exuberant pastiche of French classical architectural references.
In contrast to this visual typology of luxury and leisure, aimed at Argentina’s haute bourgeoisie, the modernized headquarters of Falcon & Cia. celebrate utility and functional forms. The album showcases the renovated interior, with modern open offices and architectural details, and Art Deco furniture and design elements. All the ornamentation has been stripped from columns, windows, and floors, reflecting a popular international style. This subdued classicism may also reflect the economics of the period at the outbreak of WWII, when Spanish companies like Myrurgia expanded into South America – developing new markets and manufacturing their products locally to avoid the chaos of the Civil War.
Unrecorded in OCLC.
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1937
Sizable run of the anarchist film and theater journal with design by Mexican artist Juan Pérez del Muro.
Semáforo
[Spanish Civil War] [Film] Comité Ejecutivo de Espectáculos Públicos de Valencia y Provincia, Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT), and Unión General de Trabajadores de España (UGT). Semáforo: Revista del Comité Ejecutivo de Espectáculos Públicos de Valencia y Provincia. Año II, No. 11 (Apr. 15, 1937)-No.16 (Oct. 15, 1937). Valencia, Spain: UGT-CNT, 1937. 4to, six issues, each [36] pp.; illus. throughout in b/w; color illus. wrappers rubbed with a few small creases and one 1/2 in. closed tear.
Sizable run of the short-lived film journal (1936-37) irregularly published during the Spanish Civil War by a committee of socialist and anarchist propagandists from the UGT and the CNT-FAI. Each issue begins with an editorial promoting the Republican cause and antifascism in arts and culture. These essays address different aspects of art’s role in a socialist society and describe a new, emancipatory path for Spanish film and theater—a necessary corrective for the “poison” administered by the bourgeois film industry before the Republican victory in 1931.
Much of the design can be attributed to Mexican illustrator Juan Pérez del Muro, whose background in pop culture and satire is visible in the erotic covers, interior caricatures, and satirical photomontages of European dictators including Hitler and Mussolini. Under the direction of the anarchist journalist Higinio Noja Ruiz, Semáforo covered cinema, experimental theater, dance, and political philosophy, with features on Soviet films and those of the socialist Spanish production company Film Popular. Essays address scenography, visual arts, music, and the committee-based structure and economics of anarcho-syndicalist film and theater industries. Some advertisements and reviews refer to lost films, destroyed by the government during Franco’s dictatorship. Three of the six issues have rear cover illustrations advertising the Nuestra Natacha, which went missing at the end of the war.
OCLC finds a single incomplete run located in North America (UC San Diego) and two other partial holdings worldwide (University of Barcelona and IISH, Amsterdam).
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1933-34
Sexual liberation and antifascism.
Pentalfa: Magazine Naturo-Desnudista y Trofologica
Capo, Nicolas, Ed. Pentalfa: Magazine Naturo-Desnudista y Trofologica [subtitle varies]. Nos. 170 (May 31, 1933), 198 (1934), and Suplemento No. 1 (1934?). Barcelona: N.p., 1933-34.
Three issues: two 4to (12-1/4 x 8-1/2 in.), supplement small 8vo (6-3/4 x 4-3/4 in.), each [12-18] pp.; illus. throughout with b/w reproductions; self-wrappers printed recto and verso, some thumb wear on fore-edge, toning as expected.
In 1926, naturopath Dr. Nicolas Capo founded the Pentalfa society and magazine to promote nudism, exercise, nutrition, and free love. In addition to advocating pseudo-scientific herbal and sun therapies, Capo’s organization was linked to the international naturist movement and its campaign for sexual and cultural freedoms. This modern, internationalist position was increasingly identified with the radical left during the early 1930s and eventually with anarchist and Republican parties during the Civil War. Following Franco’s victory, Capo lived in exile in Uruguay.
Issue No. 170 was published shortly after the 1933 German national elections and the editors provide a response to Nazi ideology and increasing censure of German nudist groups.
OCLC finds no holdings in North America.
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1935-1936
Two issues of a left-wing nudist magazine by a Spanish anarchist publisher. Unrecorded in OCLC.
Biofilia: Revista Mensual de Culto a La Vida
[Spanish Civil War] [Nudism] Brunet, Laura, Ed. Biofilia: Revista Mensual de Culto a La Vida. Año I, No. 1 (Nov. 1935) and Año II, No. 11 (Dec. 1936). Barcelona: [Editorial Sanxo], 1935-1936. Two issues, 8vo, both 32 pp.; illus. throughout with reproductions from photographs and other artistic media, No. 1 with supplemental plate laid in, newsprint darkened as expected, otherwise very good; stapled pictorial wrappers with some wear, second issue completely separated with 2 in. closed tear recto and foxing.
First and eleventh issues of the Second Republic nudist magazine (1935-1937) edited by anarchist and naturalist Joan Sanxo i Farrerons under the pseudonym Laura Brunet. Editorials and essays in Biofilia draw explicit links between Republican revolutionary ideology and nudism, including worker’s rights, anticapitalism and antifascism, and cultural freedom.
During the Civil War, Sanxo self-published under the names Editorial Sanxo and Imprenta Layetana; the rear wrapper of the Dec. 1936 issue is an advertisement for his series Estampas de la Revolución. In addition to other anarchist and nudist materials, Ed. Sanxo published Civil War propaganda, and artists involved in Biofilia were celebrated designers of Republican graphics.
The first issue’s cover and laid in supplemental broadside are by artist and illustrator Alloza (Josep Alloza i Villagrasa), the creator of many memorable UGT and CNT propaganda posters.
As of June 2017, we locate no record of the magazine in OCLC or on the market.
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