art + arch books

Phaidon monograph covers the preceding 5 years of Pawson's public and residential work. The book showcases the defining elements and architectural anatomy through essential details. It groups a selection of his recent works into domestic projects, including his own house in rural England; extended sacred spaces; and repurposed structures, such as London's Design Museum.
Illustrated with 340 high quality images. 
Sealed copy with small black dot remainder mark at top of page block.  Dust jacket may have very minimal wear.  See photos for details.  Near fine to very good ++ condition. 

JOHN PAWSON | Anatomy of Minimum

First printing, first edition. Thoroughly illustrated monograph of early works with color photographs, plans and drawings. Forward by Steven Holl. Introduction by Juhani Pallasmaa. 

Cover has minimal shelf wear. Pages are clean and crisp. Fine condition. 

"Rick Joy builds with remarkable sensitivity, precision, and grace. The allure of his architecture is often quietly and seductively hidden in the sensual qualities of one's experiences: the sounds, smells, tactile qualities, and moods of his work. Granite crunching underfoot, the gentle trickle of water, and the lacy shadow of a mesquite tree all stir the viewers' sensations. "The simplest things can evoke the deepest feelings," Joy says. "The silence in great music is often more profound than the sounds." 

The nine buildings shown in thins, the first monograph on Joy's work, express his interest in making places that are transcendent moments of space, light, and matter. In each of the projects the physical landscape, its specific environment, and its rich history are revealed and celebrated. While many of the projects here use sustainable materials like rammed earth, Joy's primary interest is in the quality of the spaces he makes. He shows us how efficient and environmentally sensitive architecture can emerge as a by-product from a quest for the timeless qualities that are always associated with great architecture. Presented in the form of lush photography, insightful narratives, and revealing descriptions of his highly collaborative process, this book will bring one to a closer understanding of one of the most interesting architects practicing today.” - from the jacket flap

9.7 x 8.5 inches

RICK JOY | Desert Works

The most comprehensive collection of Carl Andre poems. The poems, which were often typed on 8 x 11 paper, are reproduced in quasi-facsimile to convey Andre’s sculptural intentions. His concrete poetry typically consists of words arranged according to a logic, a technique consistent with his sculptural practice. 
Edited by Lynn Kost. Essays by art historians Gavin Delahunty and Valérie Mavridorakis, and curator Lynn Kost.


CARL ANDRE | Poems

This edition was published in 1990 by Princeton Architectural Press to coincide with an exhibition of Albini's work curated by Stephen Leet, Visiting Professor of Architecture at the New York Institute of of Technology, School of Architecture. The comprehensive exhibition traveled  from 1989-1991 between New York Institute of Technology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, National Institute of Architectural Education and The Graham Foundation for Advanced Studs in the Fine Arts.This is a beautiful book that includes Essays about Albini's work and documents a large amount of the work produced from Architecture to Furniture.
ConditionThe book is in overall wonderful condition. There is some yellowing to the edges of the cover and a very slight tear. Interior pages are in excellent condition.Dimensions9" x 11" x 0.5"


Franco Albini, Architecture and Design 1934-1977, 1990

The book <n>Hans Coper</n>, with text by <n>Tony Birks</n>, was published by <n>Marston House</n> in 2005.

Ad for <n>Donald Judd</n> and <n>Robert Mangold</n> at <n>PaceWildenstein</n>, 2004. From <n>Art + Auction</n> magazine.

Blunk Books has reissued  Undesigning the Bath , in collaboration with the original author,  Leonard Koren , designer Charles De Lisle, and graphic designer  Kajsa Ståhl of Åbäke . In the quarter century since its publication, and long since out of print,  Undesigning the Bath  has accrued a devoted

Undesigning The Bath — Blunk Shop

Catalog published in conjunction with an exhibition held at    Blum &amp; Poe   , Los Angeles, March 12 through May 15, 2010. Includes an essay by    Glenn Adamson    and a conversation with Charles Ray and Gerard O'Brien.    Unbound Softcover; 14 pages. Printed by Blum &amp; Poe, 2010.

JB Blunk Blum & Poe Catalog — Blunk Shop

Very scarce edition of 2000 copies. Published to accompany the exhibit Noguchi's Playscapes at Museum Tamayo, Mexico City. A thorough investigation into Noguchi's playgrounds over fifty years. Extensive and archival scale models, sketches, photographs, and reconstruction of designs in high quality illustrations. Text in English and Spanish. 

Crisp copy with one bumped and worn corner. Bumped corner causes very slight wave or crease to all page corners. Also minor shelf wear to linen boards. Very good condition. 

"In 1933, the visionary sculptor Isamu Noguchi (1904–88) began making design proposals for children’s playgrounds in New York. The first one, Play Mountain (1933), marked the beginning of the artist’s fascination with exploring points of intersection between sculpture, public spaces and, above all, play. Radically experimental in its approach to children’s recreation, the design asserted, with no apparent precedent, that children’s exercise and entertainment could be stimulated by simply providing earth modulations and steps for running, jumping and sliding.

Noguchi’s playground was a spectacular innovation of design, and something never before seen in New York City’s brief 32-year history of building and operating playgrounds. But Play Mountain also initiated a lengthy period of frustrated endeavor, in which Noguchi only saw one of his park designs become a reality. This changed in the 1970s, when public space policies began to favor artists’ participation in project design. Since then, Noguchi’s pioneering playgrounds have become a touchstone for the revival of interest in the golden era of playground design.This is the first volume to bring together all of the artist’s investigations into playgrounds over a period of 50 years. It reproduces his beautiful scale models, sketches and photographs of iconic designs, highlighting a little-known facet of one of the most versatile sculptors of the 20th century.” - from the publisher

8.5 x 11.3 inches

ISAMU NOGUCHI | Playscapes - Parques

2nd, expanded edition, 2001. Contains additional comparative study of Tadao Ando and Mies. Over 100 large black and white photos and drawings accompany the text.
Very minimal toning to page edges and back of cover at spine. Fine condition.
From the back cover : "This book uncovers extraordinary parallels between the traditional architecture of China and Japan and the buildings of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. It shows how an architectonic wisdom and sensibility have managed to transcend borders and invites the reader to witness a surprising encounter as West meets East."
Text in German and English.
9.9 x 10.2 inches

West Meets East - Mies van der Rohe

Exhibition catalog printed to coincide with  100 Hooks  at Blunk Space, December 16, 2023 through February 11, 2024.     100 Hooks  included over 100 esteemed artists and designers from the US, UK, Europe, Mexico, and Japan as a continuation of JB Blunk’s seminal 1981 solo exhibition  100 Plates Plu

100 Hooks Catalog — Blunk Shop

Fine, compact book of beautiful Hockney drawings.  Edition of 3500.  
Hockney portraits and still-life details are reproduced on the page to a similar size of the original drawing. Hockney drew this series directly onto lithographic stone, transfer paper, or aluminum plates. 
Dust jacket has very minimal shelf wear and slight fading at spine. Fine book in near fine jacket. Scarce in this condition.
5 x 6.75 inches

DAVID HOCKNEY | 18 Portraits by David Hockney

Catalog for <n>Josef Albers</n>' 2001 exhibition at <n>Waddington Galleries</n>, with text by <n>Nicholas Fox Weber</n>.

From an edition of 1000. One of the most beautiful and revealing publications on Alvaro Siza. Published by Mag A.  All text in English.
Front board has very minor wear at bottom. Pages have very slight toning at edges. Fine condition.
Siza selected the following projects for the publication for in-depth discussion, photography, and archival drawings : Boa Nova Tea House, Leca Palmeria Swimming Pool Complex, Malagueira Housing Complex, the Porto Architecture School, Galican Museum of Contemporary Art, and the Santa Maria House.
From the publisher's insert: "SIZA by SIZA is a long publishing project, in which Álvaro Siza himself chooses 6 works from among more than 400 done during over a 60-year career.
The architect in an incisive interview conducted by Carlos Seoane explains the reasons for the selection of the works and sheds light on a multitude of topics.
The 157 photographs which make up the photographic report of the six works were taken by Juan Rodríguez exclusively for this Edition. In addition, the book features the careful reproduction of 124 drawings by Alvaro Siza himself. Many of these sketches have never been published before.
This book also features texts written for this homage-testimony by Eduardo Souto de Moura, Kenneth Frampton, Juhani Pallasmaa and David Cohn."
9.5 x 8.8 inches

ALVARO SIZA | Siza By Siza

I Become a Nisei collects a 1942 essay by Isamu Noguchi written from a prison camp for Japanese Americans during World War II. The book includes sixteen color plates of artworks and related correspondence from The Noguchi Museum Archives. Though exempt as a New York resident from the forced relocation program authorize

I Become a Nisei - Fourth Printing

Edition of 1000. Very scarce in this condition. Published by Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, 1987.
Tight, crisp copy with very minimal wear to cover. Pages are clean, crisp, and like-new. Possibly unread. Fine condition.
Seventeen Judd essays not in the previous volume of writings. Essays include "Leo Castelli," "On Russian Art and Its Relation to My Work," "On Installation," "A Long Discussion Not About Master-Pieces but Why There Are So Few of Them (Part I &amp; II)," "On Architecture," "Symmetry," "Marfa, Texas," "Art and Architecture," "On Furniture". Some essays are published for the first time here. From the previous volume, "Specific Objects", "Imperialism”, and “Nationalism and Regionalism" are included.
4.9 x 7.9 inches

DONALD JUDD | Complete Writings 1975-1986

DESCRIPTION &lt;br&gt;1968 A Sculptor's World&lt;br&gt;By Isamu Noguchi&lt;br&gt;First edition&lt;br&gt;by Toppan printing company&lt;br&gt;Printed in Japan&lt;br&gt;Autobiography&lt;br&gt;Hardcover with dust jacket&lt;br&gt;259 pages&lt;br&gt;*This book was one a library book which you can tell by the labeling on the front cover and the pocket on the back of the book*&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;WEAR&lt;br&gt;Great condition&lt;br&gt;Sturdy&lt;br&gt;Dust jacket is a little worn due to its age. It is also attached to the inner part of the hardcover&lt;br&gt;The hardcover does appear to be in good condition&lt;br&gt;There are no tears, rips or missing pages&lt;br&gt;There is some writing on a few of the front pages&lt;br&gt;No stains or markings to any of the pages&lt;br&gt;Book binding is in tact&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;DIMENSIONS:&lt;br&gt;Height:10.5&quot;&lt;br&gt;Width: 10&quot;&lt;br&gt;Depth: A little over 1.5&quot;&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------&lt;br&gt;+ All items are in vintage condition. Please examine the photos and read the full description. You can click on images to enlarge for detail.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;+ If you are interested in purchasing more than one item, please DM us first and we can look into combining shipping&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;+ All orders will ship within 1-2 business days from the date of payment. &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;+ No returns for Retrospect Vintage on Etsy purchases. Please purchase seriously.&lt;br&gt;----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;FULL POLICIES + PROCEDURES:&lt;br&gt;https://www.etsy.com/shop/RetrospectVintage215#policies&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;INSTAGRAM &lt;br&gt;@RetrospectVintage &lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;WEBSITE &lt;br&gt;http://www.retrospectvintage215.com/&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;BRICK + MORTAR&lt;br&gt;508 South St.&lt;br&gt;Philadelphia, PA 19147&lt;br&gt;(215) 925-3761

Vintage Isamu Noguchi A Sculptor's World Book Retro 1960s First Edition + Autobiography + Art + Sculpture + Illustrations + Hardcover 

Echoing an encyclopedia, this publication reflects the natural history museum structure of the exhibition which it accompanies, organized by the Canadian Centre for Architecture. Models and projects by Herzog &amp; de Meuron, as well as by other artists, are structured around six thematic portfolios that suggest an evolutionary history of the architects' work: Appropriation &amp; Reconstruction, Transformation &amp; Alienation, Stacking &amp; Compression, Imprints &amp; Moulds, Interlocking Spaces, and Beauty &amp; Atmosphere. Each section is introduced with a statement from Herzog, and more than 20 artists, scholars, and architects have contributed essays, including Carrie Asman, Georges Didi-Huberman, Kurt W. Forster, Boris Groys, Ulrike Meyer Stump, Peggy Phelan, Thomas Ruff, Rebecca Schneider, Adolf Max Vogt, and Jeff Wall.
800 illustrations. Edited by Philip Ursprung.
Cover has very light shelf wear. Near fine condition.

HERZOG & DE MEURON | Natural History

This beautiful book of forms unveils 116 superb color plates, each capturing Sottsass’s inspired ceramic creations.   Each photo is almost like a still life painting, the lighting capturing the essence of the Memphis design founder's sculptural and colorful forms. 
First edition.  Pages are clean, crisp, and like-new. Small scratches on front dust jacket. Larger scratches on back jacket. Dust jacket is also rubbed and has very minor wear to corners. Back board also has small dent. Book in near fine condition. Dust jacket in good - condition. Good ++ or Very good - overall.
“Famed for his extraordinary contribution to almost every area of modern design, the Italian designer Ettore Sottsass has worked extensively throughout his career with ceramics, creating an exciting repertoire of objects that has added to his reputation as perhaps the greatest of living designers.
Conceived and written by Sottsass himself, this book features in outstanding full page colour plates a selection of his inspired ceramic designs, each individually photographed in close-up detail. Taken from all periods of his career, dating from the 1950s to the 1990s, these imaginative objects are ingenious in their simplicity: strong in colour and line, they are striking in visual impact; diverse in shape and size, they embrace forms both decorative and functional.
Dividing his work into eleven chronological episodes, from the Ceramics of Darkness produced in the late 1950s and the Pop Ceramics of the 1960s, to the Ruins of the 1990s, Sottsass introduces each section with notes that he has kept throughout his career. Reflective and often poetic, his text outlines the ideas that lie at the root of his creativity, and the diverse influences that have shaped his designs - from oriental glazing traditions to Indian philosophy.
Ettore Soltsass: Ceramics is a unique view into a remarkable creative mind. It is also a memorable visual document of some of the finest ceramics of the twentieth century, a book that will be of lasting interest to ceramicists, artists, designers and collectors." - from the dust jacket flap
9.75 x 12 inches 179 pages Printed in Italy

ETTORE SOTTSASS | Ceramics

A pristine copy signed and inscribed by Ellsworth Kelly on the title page.  A scarce signature from the modern master. 
This monograph reproduces thirteen new paintings and one new sculpture included in the exhibition Ellsworth Kelly: Reliefs 2009-2010 at Matthew Marks Gallery, New York. In addition to an essay by Robert Storr, the catalogue also features photographs of the artist in his studio by Jack Shear. Features fold-out spreads of the larger works.
9.9 x 13.2 inches

ELLSWORTH KELLY | Reliefs 2009-2010 - signed

First US edition, second printing, 1998.

264 incredibly beautiful elevational black &amp; white plates of industrial and factory buildings in Europe and the US. 

Dust jacket has moderate wear to edges, tiny tears at some corners, and light rubbing. Book is almost pristine, with a few minor imperfections. Fine book in very good jacket. Very good + condition overall. 

"The more than two hundred striking duotone plates in Hilla and Bernd Becher's Industrial Facades continue the famous Dusseldorf photographers' formal investigation of industrial structures, in this case the frontal elevations of factory buildings. Like the Bechers' earlier books on water towers, blast furnaces, and gas tanks, Industrial Facades once again clearly displays their serenely cool, rigorous approach to the structures they photograph as vaariations on an ideal form. The Bechers make no attempt to analyze or explain their subjects. Captions contain only the barest of information: time and place. 

Industrial Facades covers the whole range of periods and designs representing this building type: from austere brick buildings of the early industrial age and the arched windows and turrets decorating historicist facades, to the concrete and glass functionalist constructions of the 1950s and 1960s, to today's rectangular, windowless halls. 

These photographs give the lie to Louis Sullivan's often misunderstood motto, "form follows function," for the external appearance of the factory buildings shown here are hardly determined by their internal working processes. For this reason, the Bechers' photographs do not really illustrate the development of modern industrial architecture, nor the achievements of functionalist building, but rather the achievements of banal, everyday architecture, produced by builders trained in crafts or by engineers trained in the necessities of the industrial process." - from the dust jacket flap

10.7 x 11.6 inches

BERND + HILLA BECHER | Industrial Facades

With each stroke, Ellsworth Kelly's botanical drawings entrance the viewer, distilling Nature's splendor into its sinuous essentials. Kelly’s obsessive draughtsmanship reveals flora’s elegance.  Fronds unfurl in a single capillary contour. Petals release their spiraling suggestiveness.  Leaf edges curve into tensile embraces. 
The 30 beautiful plates are proof of Kelly‘s position of master artist and high horticulturist.  Published to accompany the exhibition at Matthew Marks Gallery. Essay by John Ashbery.
Edition of 2000 copies. Very scarce and collectible. 
Bottom of front cover has very faint stain in shape of fingerprints. Cover also has very minimal rubbing. Rest of book is clean and crisp. Near fine or very good + condition.
9.3 x 11.75 inches

ELLSWORTH KELLY | Plant Drawings

AboutOriginally published by Yale University Press in 1960, "Katsura: Tradition and Creation of Japanese Architecture" is the most significant photographic publication about the relationship of modernity and tradition in postwar Japan. Designed by famed Bauhaus graphic artist Herbert Bayer, "Katsura" comprises 135 black-and-white photographs by Ishimoto Yasuhiro depicting the 17th-century Katsura Imperial Villa in Kyoto, with essays by architects Walter Gropius and Tange Kenzo.The first edition is the only one featuring Gropius as a contributor, making it the most desirable. After its publication and Gropius's passing, the original film negatives were damaged and had to be reshot. Without his approval of the changes, his involvement was omitted.ConditionThe book is in wonderful condition for its age. The dust jacket is ripped and torn, but preserved with an acetate cover. Just the right amount of patina to make it feel special.Dimensions10.8" x 11" x .8"


Katsura: Tradition and Creation in Japanese Architecture, Gropius, Tange and Ishimoto, 1960

New, sealed copy.  
Features over 40 beautiful plates of Ellsworth Kelly's photographs.  Each photo is a record of Kelly's eye for composition and shape.   
"Ellsworth Kelly is credited with inventing a new kind of painting, one inspired by nature but also by the chance compositions he encountered in the world. He started taking photographs in 1950, using a borrowed Leica to make notations of things I had seen and subjects I had been drawing. Unlike his sketches and collages, the photographs were not part of his process of making a painting or sculpture; they were simply a record of his vision. As such, they convey his enthusiasm for the visible world around him― the compositional possibilities to be found in a barn roof, for example, or a tree branch.
Featuring photographs spanning four decades, this is the first book ever published on Kelly’s photography, and the artist was closely involved in all aspects of its making. In the statement that begins the book, he writes, When you look at the world, everything is separate―each thing is in its own space, has its own uniqueness. When I take photographs, I want somehow to capture that."  - from the publisher
9.5 x 10 inches

ELLSWORTH KELLY | Photographs

Published by The Noguchi Museum on the occasion of the retrospective Toshiko Takaezu: Worlds Within (March 20 – July 28, 2024), this commemorative book celebrates Takaezu’s extraordinary artistic practice as it was showcased in the largest exhibition of her work to date. The book features stunning new installation phot

Toshiko Takaezu: Worlds Within at The Noguchi Museum Catalogue

This beautiful book reproduces final editions, working studies, and trial proofs in exacting color for all of the twenty-four woodcuts. 68 color plates in total. Includes "Anatomy of a Woodcut" section, analyzing three woodcut blockings in detail. Formatted in a catalogue raisonne style. Published to coincide with the exhibition "Frankenthaler: The Woodcuts" in 2002.
Dust jacket has sunning/fading to spine. Boards have wear to one corner. Pages are clean and crisp. Near fine book in very good jacket. Very good + overall.
"This publication is the first devoted to Helen Frankenthaler's woodcuts - a body of work that represents a singular achievement by an American painter. Pulished to coincide with an exhibition of these extraordinary prints organized by the Naples Museum of Art, Frankenthaler: The Woodcuts features all editions of the woodcuts she has made to date.
The oldest printmaking technique, the woodcut has experienced a renaissance among American artists. Frankenthaler, winner of a 2001 National Medal of Arts, is one of the most important artists working in the medium today. No other contemporary artist has achieved such painterly results with woodcut, and yet her woodcuts are never simply translations of painting into print. They are, above all, woodcuts, which acknowledge and utilize the properties of the medium to great effect.
Beginning with the delicate East and Beyond (1973), her first woodcut, and concluding with the triptych Madame Buttery (2000), the history of Frankenthaler's woodcuts is traced. Also reproduced are paintings on wood for Madame Butterfy and the series Tales of Genji (1998), inspired by Murasaki Shikibu's classic work and the Japanese ukiyo-e tradi-tion. The working and trial proofs that precede the final editions and the monotype and unique works that follow them are reproduced, as well as the blocks and progressive proofs for several of the prints, which allow the reader to see how they were made.
Internationally celebrated for her role in the development of abstract painting and for her exquisite color-saturated canvases, Frankenthaler holds an established and honored place in contemporary art. Her woodcuts are a landmark in her evolution as an artist and in the evolution of the woodcut medium." - from the dust jacket flap
9.25 x 10.25 inches

HELEN FRANKENTHALER | The Woodcuts

Book 2 of the Island : To Place series.   One of the most scarce volumes in the series.  Edition limited to 700 copies.
36 four-color plates printed on heavy matte art paper. A series of photographs documenting sheepfolds in Iceland.  72 pages total. 
The Island : To Place series is noted in The Photobook: A History, Volume II by Martin Parr and Gerry Badger as "one of the most epic and ambitious of artists books"
Cover has very minimal shelf wear. Pages are clean and crisp. Fine condition.

RONI HORN | To Place - Book II: Folds

Written by Dr Walter Gropius, this book explores his ideas of Architecture and how it relates to the Bauhaus.ConditionThis book was owned by Charles S Rhyne, Professor Emeritus of Art History at Reed College, and features his hand written notes through out the book, including ideas for home work assignments.Third Edition printed in 1956. Some wear to the cover. Interior pages are in good condition with some yellowing to the edges.Dimensions5.75" x 8" x 0.5"


The New Architecture and The Bauhaus, Walter Gropius, 1956

First Japanese Edition published and printed in Japan in 1960 by Zokeisha Publications.
Seminal analysis and documentation of the 17th century palace by Kenzo Tange, Walter Gropius, and photographer Yasuhiro Ishimoto. Book design by Herbert Bayer
Essay text and illustration captions in Japanese and English.
Page edges and page block have minor toning. Linen boards have light sunning at spine and some edges. No dust jacket. Clear mylar protective coving is included. Binding is solid, and rest of book is clean and crisp. Good + condition
10.7 x 11.25 inches

Katsura : Tradition and Creation in Japanese Architecture

Edition of 1000 published on the occasion of Hammer Projects : Jonas Wood, 2010 at Hammer Museum, Los Angeles. 

5 color and 18 black &amp; white plates of paintings in the exhibition. Also an early photo of Wood and one of his studio. Interview with Corrina Peipon.

Cover and a few first pages have slight dent near top of spine. Otherwise like-new. 

8.25 x 11.75 inches
43 pages