Gėlės
Algirdas Šeškus
Published by Biel Books, New York, 2018, 24 pages (colour & b/w ill.), 24 × 30 cm, English / Spanish / Lithuanian
Price: €28

Gėlės, flowers in Lithuanian, features an extremely rare series of pictures taken by photographer Algirdas Šeškus in the 1980s. The series is comprised of ten portraits of flowers originally commissioned as decor for an institutional building in the then Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic. Yet, decoration wasn’t their only purpose. In reality, the flowers were intended to lift the spirit of the workers, making them happier and more productive. Expectations that Šeškus’ images were unable to fulfill. Not finding them encouraging enough, the authorities in charge deemed the photographs unfit for the task and rejected them. And that’s how they ended up forgotten under the photographer’s couch, where they remained for the last 40 years, until now. Eventually, it is due to their quiet, dramatic character that these photographs outlived their socialist duty and reached our days. Never exhibited or published before, this book presents the complete series of rejected flowers, along with a brief account of the episode written by Šeškus. Sorrowful, yet strikingly erotic, these images ultimately belong to today: a time unfit for the uplifting.

Editied and designed by Gabriel Pericàs.

#2018 #algirdasseskus #gabrielpericas #photography
One to One
Marc Camille Chaimowicz
Published by Mousse Publishing, Milan, 2018, 72 pp. (colour & b/w ill.), 22 × 26.5 cm, English
Price: €45

Produced on the occasion of the exhibition One to One at Kestner Gesellschaft, Hanover, 29 September, 2017–7 January, 2018. With a text by Kirsty Bell.

#2018 #kirstybell #marccamillechaimowicz #moussepublishing
Kunst ≠ Propaganda
KP Brehmer
Published by Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König, Köln, 2018, 232 pages (colour & b/w ill.), 21 × 28 cm, German
Price: €29

This comprehensive book on the work of the “capitalistic realist” KP Brehmer, who engaged with sociopolitical issues and tackled the visual media of the BRD and the conditions of capitalist image production and reception in a complex manner, is published on the occasion of what would have been his 80th birthday. He left behind a diverse, experimental, analytic and humorous oeuvre, which poses questions that are again becoming increasingly topical. In it he made use of image material from advertising and political propaganda in the form of posters, images from public television and from magazines and newspapers, which he presented in an altered context in the form of graphic art, paintings, printed editions, books or films. In collaboration with the artist’s estate and his former gallerist and collector René Block, the catalogue offers a multifaceted insight into work of KP Brehmer and facilitates a revaluation of the work.

#2018 #kpbrehmer #verlagderbuchhandlungwaltherkonig
Art ≠ Propaganda
KP Brehmer
Published by Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König, Köln, 2018, 232 pages (colour & b/w ill.), 21 × 28 cm, English
Price: €29

This comprehensive book on the work of the “capitalistic realist” KP Brehmer, who engaged with sociopolitical issues and tackled the visual media of the BRD and the conditions of capitalist image production and reception in a complex manner, is published on the occasion of what would have been his 80th birthday. He left behind a diverse, experimental, analytic and humorous oeuvre, which poses questions that are again becoming increasingly topical. In it he made use of image material from advertising and political propaganda in the form of posters, images from public television and from magazines and newspapers, which he presented in an altered context in the form of graphic art, paintings, printed editions, books or films. In collaboration with the artist’s estate and his former gallerist and collector René Block, the catalogue offers a multifaceted insight into work of KP Brehmer and facilitates a revaluation of the work.

#2018 #kpbrehmer #verlagderbuchhandlungwaltherkonig
Vacant Possession
John Knight
Published by Cabinet Gallery, London, 2018, 32 pages (colour & b/w ill.), 20 × 22.7 cm, English
Price: €22

Robert Snowden, the author of Vacant Possession, takes as his starting point the occasion of the closing show of the same name by the artist John Knight at Cabinet Gallery, Old Street in 2016. The text becomes an enquiry into the unrealised projects in the archive of the artist, and a reflection on the nature of the unmade, of memory and material evidence.

#2018 #cabinetgallery #johnknight #robertsnowden
Pool 2
Nora Turato
Published by Nora Turato, Amsterdam, 2018, unpaginated (colour & b/w ill.), 14.8 × 20 cm, English
Price: €50 (Out of stock)

In Nora Turato’s performances, spoken word, graphic design, and bookmaking are intertwined to explore the possibilities of language in a culture oversaturated with information. Turato collects words and phrases from a range of sources: the Internet, media headlines, advertisements, conversations, books, commercial products, and her own thoughts. Pool 2 assembles and arranges these pools of text from 2017 and 2018. Designed by Sabo Day (assisted by Claes Storm).

#2018 #noraturato #saboday