$49.95
(available to order)
Summary:
"Last Landscapes" is an exploration of the cult and celebration of death, loss and memory. It traces the history and design of burial places throughout Europe and the USA, ranging from the picturesque tradition of the village churchyard to tightly packed ‘cities of the dead’, such as the Jewish Cemetery in Prague and Père Lachaise in Paris. Other landscapes that feature(...)
Last landscapes : the architecture of the cemetery in the west
Actions:
Price:
$49.95
(available to order)
Summary:
"Last Landscapes" is an exploration of the cult and celebration of death, loss and memory. It traces the history and design of burial places throughout Europe and the USA, ranging from the picturesque tradition of the village churchyard to tightly packed ‘cities of the dead’, such as the Jewish Cemetery in Prague and Père Lachaise in Paris. Other landscapes that feature in this book include the war cemeteries of northern France, Viking burial islands in central Sweden, Etruscan tombs and early Christian catacombs in Italy, the 17th-century Portuguese–Jewish cemetery 'Beth Haim' at Ouderkerk in the Netherlands, Forest Lawns in California, Derek Jarman’s garden in Kent and the Stockholm Woodland Cemetery. It is a fact that architecture ‘began with the tomb', yet, as Ken Worpole shows us in Last Landscapes, many historic cemeteries have been demolished or abandoned in recent times (notably the case with Jewish cemeteries in Eastern Europe), and there has been an increasing loss of inscription and memorialization in the modern urban cemetery. Too often cemeteries today are both poorly designed and physically and culturally marginalized. Worse, cremation denies a full architectural response to the mystery and solemnity of death. The author explores how modes of disposal – burial, cremation, inhumation in mausoleums and wall tombs – vary across Europe and North America, according to religious and other cultural influences. And Last Landscapes raises profound questions as to how, in an age of mass cremation, architects and landscape designers might create meaningful structures and settings in the absence of a body, since for most of history the human body itself has provided the fundamental structural scale. This evocative book also contemplates other forms of memorialization within modern societies, from sculptures to parks, most notably the extraordinary Duisberg Park, set in a former giant steelworks in Germany’s Ruhr Valley.
Gardens
The Neutral
$50.00
(available to order)
Summary:
"I define the Neutral as that which outplays the paradigm, or rather I call Neutral everything that baffles paradigm." With these words, Roland Barthes describes a concept that profoundly shaped his work and was the subject of a landmark series of lectures delivered in 1978 at the College de France, just two years before his death. Not published in France until 2002, and(...)
The Neutral
Actions:
Price:
$50.00
(available to order)
Summary:
"I define the Neutral as that which outplays the paradigm, or rather I call Neutral everything that baffles paradigm." With these words, Roland Barthes describes a concept that profoundly shaped his work and was the subject of a landmark series of lectures delivered in 1978 at the College de France, just two years before his death. Not published in France until 2002, and appearing in English for the first time, these creative and engaging lectures deepen our understanding of Roland Barthes' intellectual itinerary and reveal his distinctive style as thinker and teacher. "The Neutral" ( le neutre), as Barthes describes it, escapes or undoes the paradigmatic binary oppositions that structure and produce meaning in Western thought and discourse. These binaries are found in all aspects of human society ranging from language to sexuality to politics. For Barthes, the attempt to deconstruct or escape from these binaries has profound ethical, philosophical, and linguistic implications. "The Neutral" is comprised of the prewritten texts from which Barthes lectured and centers around 23 "figures," also referred to as "traits" or "twinklings," that are possible embodiments of the Neutral (sleep, silence, tact, etc.) or of the anti-Neutral (anger, arrogance, conflict, etc.). His lectures draw on a diverse set of authors and intellectual traditions, including Lao-tzu, Tolstoy, German mysticism, classical philosophy, Rousseau, Baudelaire, Walter Benjamin, and John Cage. Barthes' idiosyncratic approach to his subjects gives the lectures a playful, personal, and even joyous quality that enhances his rich insights. In addition to his reflections on a variety of literary and scholarly works, Barthes' personal convictions and the events of his life shaped the course and content of the lectures. Most prominently, as Barthes admits, the recent death of his mother and the idea of mourning shape several of his lectures.
Critical Theory
$35.95
(available to order)
Summary:
''Oceans'' cover more than 70 percent of the Earth’s surface, dividing and connecting humans, who carry saltwater in their blood, sweat, and tears. They also represent a powerful nonhuman force, rising, flooding, heating and raging in unprecedented ways as the climate crisis unfolds. Artists have envisioned the sea as a sublime wilderness, home to mythical creatures and(...)
Oceans: Documents of contemporary art
Actions:
Price:
$35.95
(available to order)
Summary:
''Oceans'' cover more than 70 percent of the Earth’s surface, dividing and connecting humans, who carry saltwater in their blood, sweat, and tears. They also represent a powerful nonhuman force, rising, flooding, heating and raging in unprecedented ways as the climate crisis unfolds. Artists have envisioned the sea as a sublime wilderness, home to mythical creatures and bizarre species, a source of life and death, a site of new beginnings and tragic endings, both wondrous and disastrous. From migration to melting ice caps, the sea is omnipresent in international news and politics, leaking into popular culture and proliferating in recent art and exhibitions. This anthology gathers artists and writers to address the ocean not only as a theme but as a major agent of artistic and curatorial methods.
Art Theory
$39.95
(available in store)
Summary:
The 30th anniversary cloth edition brings back into print Dragon's four essays on beauty and commingles them with newly discovered essays by the MacArthur Foundation "genius." Art by Caravaggio, Bellini, Vel zquez, Raphael, Warhol and Mapplethorpe is complemented by Hickey's tributes to Dolly Parton and Richard Pryor, outing of John Rechy's gay novel ''Numbers'', essays(...)
The invisible dragon: essays on beauty and other matters
Actions:
Price:
$39.95
(available in store)
Summary:
The 30th anniversary cloth edition brings back into print Dragon's four essays on beauty and commingles them with newly discovered essays by the MacArthur Foundation "genius." Art by Caravaggio, Bellini, Vel zquez, Raphael, Warhol and Mapplethorpe is complemented by Hickey's tributes to Dolly Parton and Richard Pryor, outing of John Rechy's gay novel ''Numbers'', essays on the art of writing and witty analysis of paintings by Ed Ruscha. An afterword by Hickey's friend and Dragon's editor queers the brash, heterosexual gambler as it situates the creation of Dragon squarely within the AIDS plague. At the time, the book made beauty visible under the looming presence of death and bodily decay. Today, Hickey's prescient diagnosis of the "therapeutic institution" resonates even louder and artists respond by harnessing beauty as a source of meaning and of joy.
Art Theory
$33.95
(available to order)
Summary:
Housing is more than bricks and mortar. The home is where our hopes and dreams play out, and it lies at the heart of our lives. This is where we rest, eat, and relax. The home we enjoy can determine our health, life expectancy, and day-to-day well-being. In contrast, the lack of a stable residence can lead to mental and physical illness and often premature death. This is(...)
Feeling at home: Transforming the politics of housing
Actions:
Price:
$33.95
(available to order)
Summary:
Housing is more than bricks and mortar. The home is where our hopes and dreams play out, and it lies at the heart of our lives. This is where we rest, eat, and relax. The home we enjoy can determine our health, life expectancy, and day-to-day well-being. In contrast, the lack of a stable residence can lead to mental and physical illness and often premature death. This is central to how we conceive of a good and dignified life. "Feeling at home" grapples with the practical and emotional questions of housing – domestic labour, privacy, security, ownership, and health. Is it possible to imagine success without home ownership? Alva Gotby makes clear that solving the housing crisis is about much more than housing stock. It is about revolutionising our everyday lives and labours.
Humans and cities
$200.00
(available to order)
Summary:
Aino and Alvar Aalto together founded Artek and created some of the most celebrated objects and buildings of the twentieth century. Through letters, documents, drawings, and family photographs, Alvar and Aino’s grandson tells the stories of their life together, in Finland and abroad, drawing on many of the never-before-published letters they sent to each other and to(...)
Aino and Alvar Aalto: A life together
Actions:
Price:
$200.00
(available to order)
Summary:
Aino and Alvar Aalto together founded Artek and created some of the most celebrated objects and buildings of the twentieth century. Through letters, documents, drawings, and family photographs, Alvar and Aino’s grandson tells the stories of their life together, in Finland and abroad, drawing on many of the never-before-published letters they sent to each other and to family, friends, and colleagues, until Aino’s death in 1949. The first monograph to specifically examine and celebrate the life and work of Aino and Alvar as a shared endeavour, this personal and intimate look at the unconventional lives of one of the most influential design couples of the twentieth century has been warmly and accessibly written by Aino and Alvar’s grandson, who has drawn on the family’s largely unpublished archive, including personal letters, snapshots, and sketches.
Architecture Monographs
$18.00
(available to order)
Summary:
Set somewhere between here and the heat-death of the universe, Jim Oaten’s debut collection serves up random samples of literal and literary truth scooped up at top speed. Whether peeking out from the backseat of Mom and Dad’s car or surveying the grimy wings of mental wards, Accelerated Paces hurdles that uneasy terrain between creative fact and honest fiction. These(...)
Accelerated paces: travels across borders and other imaginary boundaries
Actions:
Price:
$18.00
(available to order)
Summary:
Set somewhere between here and the heat-death of the universe, Jim Oaten’s debut collection serves up random samples of literal and literary truth scooped up at top speed. Whether peeking out from the backseat of Mom and Dad’s car or surveying the grimy wings of mental wards, Accelerated Paces hurdles that uneasy terrain between creative fact and honest fiction. These short stories and pieces ignore borders as they jaunt thorough external trips and internal voyages. This is both creative non-fiction and creative fiction, which follows the idea of crossing boundaries and blurring borders. Think part of this collection will be an explicit demonstration of how the two genres interplay, of how a non-fiction event can inspire a fictional piece, and, interestingly enough, the reverse as well.
Architectural Theory
$35.95
(available to order)
Summary:
Marcel Duchamp's disguises and countless photographic self-portrayals, and his humorous commentaries on art, the art industry, art criticism, and art history, are legendary in word and image. Less well known is a Marcel Duchamp who, with great empathy and strategic awareness, embraced the cause of the artists in his contemporary cultural environment: as curator of(...)
Marcel Duchamp: the curatorial work
Actions:
Price:
$35.95
(available to order)
Summary:
Marcel Duchamp's disguises and countless photographic self-portrayals, and his humorous commentaries on art, the art industry, art criticism, and art history, are legendary in word and image. Less well known is a Marcel Duchamp who, with great empathy and strategic awareness, embraced the cause of the artists in his contemporary cultural environment: as curator of exhibitions from the early 1910s to his death in 1968, as juror and consultant for some of the most important collections, museums, and galleries of modern art. The volume outlines nearly seventy exhibitions, supplemented by recent research findings, and illustrates Duchamp’s close cooperation with leading figures of his time, including Louise and Walter Conrad Arensberg, Katherine S. Dreier, Francis Picabia, Sidney and Harriet Janis as well as André Breton, Julien Levy, and Peggy Guggenheim.
Contemporary Art Monographs
$62.50
(available to order)
Summary:
Nikolai Vavilov anticipated the disappearance of plant diversity and within the space of a few decades through study and travel all over the world he found the means of saving it. For political and ideological reasons, Vavilov was condemned to death and left to starve in the dungeon of a Soviet prison. Gradually, on both sides of the iron curtain, his memory began to(...)
Mario del Curto: seeds of the earth
Actions:
Price:
$62.50
(available to order)
Summary:
Nikolai Vavilov anticipated the disappearance of plant diversity and within the space of a few decades through study and travel all over the world he found the means of saving it. For political and ideological reasons, Vavilov was condemned to death and left to starve in the dungeon of a Soviet prison. Gradually, on both sides of the iron curtain, his memory began to fade. One hundred years after Vavilov's first expedition, the photographer Mario Del Curto retraced his footsteps. For four years he met with those who, despite overwhelming obstacles, perpetuate Vavilov's seed prospecting, selection and conservation work in order to save the planet's staple food crops. This book is the unprecedented story of his journey to the heart of the Vavilov Institute and its twelve research stations.
Photography monographs
$67.95
(available to order)
Summary:
"The Architecture of Ruins: Designs on the Past, Present and Future" identifies an alternative and significant history of architecture from the sixteenth century to the twenty-first century, in which a building is designed, occupied and imagined as a ruin. This design practice conceives a monument and a ruin as creative, interdependent and simultaneous themes within a(...)
The architecture of ruins: designs on past, present and future
Actions:
Price:
$67.95
(available to order)
Summary:
"The Architecture of Ruins: Designs on the Past, Present and Future" identifies an alternative and significant history of architecture from the sixteenth century to the twenty-first century, in which a building is designed, occupied and imagined as a ruin. This design practice conceives a monument and a ruin as creative, interdependent and simultaneous themes within a single building dialectic, addressing temporal and environmental questions in poetic, psychological and practical terms, and stimulating questions of personal and national identity, nature and culture, weather and climate, permanence and impermanence and life and death. Conceiving a building as a dialogue between a monument and a ruin intensifies the already blurred relations between the unfinished and the ruined and envisages the past, the present and the future in a single architecture.
Architectural Theory