Friday, November 25, 2016

Paris Launch: Doctor Seek And Mister Hide


 

A long overdue thanks to Paris, especially to Mirka and Gilles and Eric Cez of Editions Loco for hosting the launch party in October at his new space on the rue Montmorency. And merci a tous to our friends, colleagues, artists and models who helped celebrate the latest from Vasta Editions. More info about Doctor Seek And Mister Hide and how to purchase the book, is here.











Tuesday, October 11, 2016

New York POSTCARD SHOW Nov. 4 and 5 2016



My next show will be the New York City International Postcard show November 4 and 5th at the midtown Holiday Inn. Details here. I will be presenting recent arrivals in various areas including nudes and erotica, advertising, propaganda, mechanicals, artist signed and illustrated postcards. I look forward to seeing you there.


Wednesday, October 5, 2016

Paris VASTA EDITIONS Launch + PAPER SHOW Oct'16



I'm off to Paris next week to catch up with what's going on, see all the usual suspects at the Bibliomania book and paper show 10.20-10.23. I will also be there for the "official" Paris launch of the latest book from Vasta Editions, Doctor Seek And Mister Hide at an in-store, one night "pop-up" event. Please join us starting at 4pm until 8pm, Saturday 10.22 at the Editions Loco bookstore, 6 rue Montmorency 75003. I will be in Paris 10.12-10.26. If you're in town for the paper show get in touch for coffee or drinks and join the book party!


 



Tuesday, October 4, 2016

VASTA @ New York Art Book Fair '16 MoMA PS1



Thanks to all our friends, clients and colleagues who showed up at the art book fair braving the crowds and the heat. We ran out of hand-fans early on Sunday, we will bring more next year. Our gallery space might even get a new air conditioner between now and September'17

It was a very special four days for Vasta with the launch of our latest publication Doctor Seek And Mister Hide at MoMA PS1 two weeks ago. Thanks to everyone who spent time exploring and purchasing books, 'zines, artist's books and sexpapers at our stand. Above, the Doc Seek wall installation. Next stop for Vasta Editions will be the official Paris launch later in October. Watch my posts, details to follow soon.

click any image to enlarge 

Doctor Seek And Mister Hide available for purchase in my eBay store.
Go here for the standard edition and here for the deluxe edition.


My amazing crew, Kirin and Simon


<< vintage vitrine >>

rockets, asses, !WOW! robots and UTO


Icinori Peche Capital aka The Circus Book silk screened pop-up book


twenny buxxx a Screw


Two silk screened books by Antoine Bernhart published in Berlin 
by BonGout aka re:Surgo!

_____

vasta@earthlink.net

Saturday, October 1, 2016

Jacques Noel October 1, 2016 ~ Un Regard Moderne


  

As I was preparing my post this morning, about the outcome of the PS1 art book fair, I received very sad news from Paris. Jacques Noel, the owner of Un Regard Moderne, the Paris bookshop, passed away last night. A modest man of few words, his influence on the underground art scene in Paris, via his bookshop and gallery is inestimable. Jacques was a champion of and for artists emerging on the scene, who were exploding with ideas while eagerly fighting conformity. 


They included Pierre La Police, Kiki and Loulou Picasso, Bruno Richard, Stephan Blanquet, Blexbolex, Anne van der Linden, Remi, Pyon, Pascal Doury and many others. He provided an outlet for their publications and an attached, small gallery space in which to exhibit their work. The publishers who rose out of the scene in the early 1990s, inspired by the Bazooka group (creators in 1978 of the stand alone newspaper, published by Liberation, Un Regard Moderne from which Jacques derived the name of his bookshop) were Le Derniere Cri, United Dead Artists, Editions CBO and an uncountable number of artists creating and publishing their own micro-editions and 'zines.


 Title of this book sums up the Un Regard Moderne inventory

Jacques was the first person to show me and encourage me to take a closer look at the artist's book genre that I now vigorously support here in the United States. My first exposure was at a shop where he worked, Les Yeux Fertile, just a few blocks away from his rue Git-de Couer location which he opened in 1991 as Un Regard Moderne. I still remember him showing me, what I have referred to in my head for years as, "the black book". I saw the book only that one time after Jacques handed it to me and suggested I take a look. The imagery was so powerful, so hard for me to look at, that after a few pages I turned away, disgusted.

 Jacques at the entrance

He noted my reaction. As I handed the book back to him, he said something like "... yes it is a very difficult, but very important and impossible to find book". That was probably 1989. The book was published in 1984. I know now that it is part of the Elle Sont des Sortie (aka ESDS) series created by Bruno Richard and Pascal Doury. And indeed, the now rare and sought after, "black book", is in fact an exhibition catalogue published by ELAC, the l'Espace Lyonaise d'Art Contemporain. It's rarity can be attributed to censorship. The book was suppressed after publication due to the subject matter and most copies were destroyed. 

I often thought about the book while in Paris and wondered if I would ever see it again. A nondescript black book, plain binding, no title on the spine and never getting a second look. I didn't even know the title! Years later I asked Jacques about the book as he seemed to posses an amazing memory. Not only for where books were located in his seriously over stocked, claustrophobia inducing store, but probably a memory for most of the books he handled as a bookseller.

 Front window, an indication of what was inside. Little room for anything else!

"Yes, of course I remember the book" he said. I asked if he had one for sale. This was years prior to my serious interest in the ESDS books which began publication in 1976 and continues to this day. He suggested in his own particular fashion, that no, he did not have a copy to sell and that not buying the book, when it was in my hand, was a mistake. Recently, last year, I was offered a copy of ESDS "the black book" (there is another "black book", The Masters and Mistresses Association Handbook clandestinely published in 1974 by John Sutcliffe, the man behind the latex catsuit and Atomage magazine) along with an extensive collection of other ESDS publications. 

Finally, unexpectedly, there it was once again in my hands. I sold all the other ESDS books I recently purchased. Except for "the black book" which I decided to keep, not only for its rarity, but also as a souvenir of a certain moment in time in Paris, which is a vivid reminder of Jacques.

 

Not only is Jacques passing a great loss and shock to all who knew and admired him, but for all the books lovers, for all the artists, for all the micro-publishers, for all the weirdos, for all the collectors, for all the deviants, for all the fanzine fanatics, for all the designers and academics, for all the pervs. For all of us, flocking to URM from around the world, our Paris agendas might look like this: arrival day sleep, eat, drink, sleep; day two breakfast, go to Un Regard Moderne!! 

All of the photos are from a URM post I did in February, 2011. Today I found this wonderful post by Simon Cutts and Erica Van Horn, originating on their notes from an urban hibernation page located on the bookssite.org website. Also found this marvelous hommage on tumblr last night on the Le Feu Sacre page.

 Jacques at his "spot" seen by holding the camera over my 6'4" head to get an 
unobstructed view above the "central pile".
 Details including limited edition books from Le Dernier Cri in Marseille



repose en paix
_____

vasta@earthlink.net 

Wednesday, August 3, 2016

Vasta Editions: Doc Seek & Mr Hide Sept'16 Launch



Vasta Editions announces the publication of Doctor Seek And Mister Hide the second book featuring the work of Mirka Lugosi and Gilles Berquet. Published in a limited edition of 223 copies: 200 copies in the standard edition + 23 copies in the deluxe edition. Each book is signed and numbered by the artists. Design and production by Gilles Berquet. The official launch was at Printed Matter's New Art Book Fair, 2016 at MoMA PS1.

You can order the book from my website, from my eBay store or directly from me via email. Click here for deluxe edition and the standard edition.

Above, the cover and below, the book housed inside its limited edition black box with silver embossed cover.  

Click any image to enlarge






Beautifully printed in Italy on medium weight, lightly textured paper, measuring 9.25 x 13" with 32 pages including six fold-outs. The edition is comprised of 223 copies: 200 in the regular edition + 23 copies in the deluxe edition. Each book is signed and numbered.


The standard edition: $40.00, the deluxe edition: $1,350.00, prices do not include shipping and packaging. The deluxe edition includes an original piece of art, one of the 23 collaborative images used in the book, housed along with a copy of book in a beautiful black box with the title and design engraved in silver on the box cover. Official launch date was September 15 at the MoMA PS1 Art Book Fair.


 
__

Introduction

Creating Doctor Seek And Mister Hide, their second book for Vasta Editions, Mirka Lugosi and Gilles Berquet found inspiration in twentieth century art history, from surrealism to abstraction.

The book's terrestrial origins are based in Gilles' photographs of the nude female figure. His prints, on high quality matte paper, become the ground beneath Mirka's celestial imaginings. With pencil and gouache, her beautiful compositions interact with the figures and space in his images in surprising ways, from playfully colorful to mysteriously dark.

Viewed individually, their artwork is sublime, filled with erotic sensibilities. When brought together their combined visions enhance as well as contradict each other, reflecting the multiple personalities of an inseparable couple. The results, as dark as they are luminous, seduce us with delicacy as much as they frighten us with cruelty.
   
Their alter egos, hidden in the pages and fold-outs, anticipate the viewer's discovery: the redhead with venous necklace, a Nereid looking out at a foreign sea, decorated voluptuaries offering refreshment or themselves, a book lover bathed in red light

Where is your favorite image hiding?
- Joseph Vasta


vasta@earthlink.net

Tuesday, June 21, 2016

SPANKING PEN PALS Fetish S/M Magazines '50s/60s



In the '50s, at the beginning of the era of digest sized, independently published fetish magazines, there was a particular interest in female domination, spanking and corporal punishment. Following in the shadows of John Willie's Bizarre magazine founded in 1946 in Canada, some of the earliest adherents were, what can be best described as fetish-zines. Diy "cellar jobs" produced with the aid of simple printing techniques and a stapler. 

My favorite of the genre: Spanking Pen Pals, ran for only a hand full of issues and like all of the titles posted here, is quite rare. Here, in no particular order, are some covers from deep in my archives including, an early version of Corporal, Conqueress Club Magazine a comic book-like, fem/dom s&m title; a few Satellite Publications titles: Bondage Promanade, Spanking Sisters and Miss Flagella In Bondage (published "off-shore" in Jersey City due to censorship restrictions brought on by the Irving Klaw prosecution in New York City) plus a miscellany of other rarely seen, one-shot titles: Captive Wolf, Unmanned and Captive Stud.


click any image to enlarge