Off The Shelf

For now this is a small selection of the books and zines from my shelves. Big publishers, independent publishers, artist editions, zines, and some things in between. Including the occasional fingertip here and there. Get in touch: [email protected]

[off-theshelf]

Up Late - Dan Witz

I remember seeing Dan Witz's artwork first through a online flash magazine. I can't remember the exact name, but it ended on -nation. I think it started with a B, but really can't remember. Anyways. I saw his 'hoodie' project, and kept digging deeper into his work. This must have been around 2003/2004 or something?

Once i started working at RELOAD magazine, i got in touch with Dan Witz, to see if he didn't want to make a cover for our magazine. This was in 2009.  Surprisingly he was very accessible and we connected right away. He made an amazing cover for his, and for the release of the issue, we had teamed up with Sid Lee to organize an exhibition with Dan's street works. Dan flew over, and we met at the airport. Right off his flight i got him onto a bike and we biked straight through Amsterdam to his hotel. The whole bike ride made a good impression on him.

While in Amsterdam we prepped the exhibition together, and went around town to put some of his street pieces up. Accompanied with journalists and photographers at different times. Metro, Parool and AT5 covered Dan's work and his exhibition. Dan loved it around the streets of Amsterdam and had an amazing time all around.

As a thank you for his time in Amsterdam, Dan had brought some publications with him. The one photographed here is called 'Up Late' and features a series of night paintings. Heavily playing with the lights in the depicted scenery's. The above pictured painting, with the lamp in front of the curtain is my favorite. A beautiful picture.  This little book was published in 2006, for his exhibition at the DFN gallery. We stayed in touch over the years and i went over to New York to meet him, and we later met up in Norway as well. Good times and good stories.

Author: Dan Witz Publisher: DFN gallery Website: http://www.danwitz.com/

[off-theshelf]

Methland, the death and life of an Americam small town - Nick Reding

I remember buying this book about two years ago. I was watching the series Breaking Bad at the time. The whole story of Breaking Bad revolves around Crystal Meth. Coincidentally i had just bought a book about an amazing art installation i had once encountered at Deitch Projects in New York. The name of that installation was Hello Meth Lab In The Sun. But i will write something about that at a later time.

I wanted to know a little bit more about meth, it's origins, history and effects on a broader scale. Through some research i found this book of Nick Reding. Reding is a journalistic writer, and that's exactly the approach he takes in this non-fiction book. He meets heroes, helpless witnesses, innocent victims and perpetrators that are all touched by Crystal Meth and talks with theim about the effects it has on them, their community and America as a whole.

The book is divided into three parts, corresponding with the years he's been working on this book. 2005, 2006 and 2007. He provides a long lasting report of what's happening in this small town called Oelwein, Iowa. And draws parallels and comparisons from what's happening there to what's happening on a bigger level in America. A very interesting read for any fans of Breaking Bad, wanting to know more about Meth and the world behind Meth

Author: Nick Reding Publisher: Bloomsbury

[off-theshelf]

Chris Ware - Mono.kultur #30

I've only recently got into the great comic artist that is Chris Ware. I don't know why it has taken me so long. But 'Building Stories' was the first one that i picked up. I've seen his work around before, but somehow never got around to registering it and picking it up. When i picked up my copy of 'Building Stories' in a store in Berlin, i also picked up a copy of the Mono.kultur magazine. From what i can tell each issue focuses on one person only. This issue was all about Chris Ware. Because the whole issue is about one person, your actually able to get a lot more in depth into the person. The interview is light without avoiding big questions.

At one point Ware talks about telling stories to his daughter and how he sees this as an integral and essential part of parenting. Me becoming a father in not too long makes me look forward to that. Making up stories as i go along and having that interaction with my kid. It will probably take a few years before we get that far though.

My favorite quote of the interview is as following: "I've said this before, but i think adulthood has definitely lost track of itself in the past few decades in America. When it's acceptable adult behavior to get tattoos, wear sleeveless T-shirts and listen to death metal, then something seems very wrong to me."

The magazine is A5 format, and has a sort of booksleeve as a cover. With on the inside of this book sleeve sketches from Chris Ware (as soon above). But also has a fold out page that includes more examples of Chris Ware works taken from his books and comics. It's a perfect publication to highlight Chris Ware's books and his work. You can still order it from the online store, and only costs 6 euro's.

Author: Urs Bellerman Publisher: Mono.kultur Website: http://mono-kultur.com/news

[off-theshelf]

Akelarre - Irkus M. Zeberio

I met Irkus through the EIGHT magazine project i do. He made one of the artworks for issue number five. His work has got a strong quality of anarchy to it for me. And he's got a very distinguishable style to him. He's got some comics out with No Brow, a great publisher which you should check out if you haven't yet.

I picked up a copy of this little zine on his website. It's about 30 pages and A5 format. Beautiful red cover with one of my favorite works from the zine. The zine got an introduction to it, a Spanish written text. In a personal note Irkus told me to to worry about the text and enjoy the fight instead.

The whole zine features fighting/wrestling women, and to me has got a crazy mix of American wrestling culture and the Kamasutra going on. According to Irkus it is "full of fighting women bodies agienst the fallus culture". So i guess i was close.

The zine is still for sale on the website of irkus for just 6 euro's. So don't let it slip and get your copy as well.

Author: Irkus M Zeberio Publisher: self published Website: www.irkus.net

[off-theshelf]

Een jonge reporter aan de hol - een sex parodie op Kuifje

If I remember correctly i bought this comic book at a local flea market somewhere quite a while ago already. It was in pretty bad state already, but it so absurd, I bought it right away. It's a sex parody comic on Tintin. Easily one of the best comics I have in my collection.

The whole story is completely insane, and completely full of porn and bad word jokes. It starts off on a regular Tintin set, and sort of follows the characters behind the scenes. It quickly turns into Milf porn, gay porn, SM, beastiality, cumshots and even some very inappropriate old pervert with a young girl. We learn that the detective duo Jansen & Janssen (Thompson & Thompson) is actually one part hot chick cross dressing as an old detective guy and that they are doing it together. Crazy.

Supposedly, or so the internet tells me, the comics dates back to somewhere in the 1980's when the 'Bastaard uitgeverij' was publishing a few of these sex parody comics. The comics have only been published in Dutch language, and were sold under the counter. Other parodies were made of 'Asterix and Obelix' and 'Suske en Wiske'.

Author: - Publisher: Bastaard Uitgeverij

[off-theshelf]

Shit - Senor B.

Back in the days, fotolog.net was were it was happening. Graffiti and street art people were hanging around here sharing photo's. A maximum of one photo a day, and a maximum of 10 comments a day for the free version. When looking back on it, it was crazy that this site was so popular. Appearently it was huge in Brazil as well, judging by all the spam from Brazilian accounts and young girls being young girls on the internet.

On this website i followed an artist called Senor B. He was doing some street art stuff, and graffiti stuff at the same time. One day he released a zine, and was giving it away to people who commented first i believe. I was one of the people that got a zine sent. The theme of the zine was based around shit. And with a beautiful brown cover, Senor B nailed it right on the head.

The zine is from 2006,features 28 pages and holds mainly photography, along with two sketches. Black and white photo's of derelict and abandoned buildings all decorated by Senor B with throwups and some pieces. Also many by his other moniker, Burns. Solid all the way around. I wonder what this guy is up to now, haven't heard anything recently. I believe he was from Germany.

Author: Senor B Publisher: Self-published

[off-theshelf]

The New New Amsterdam - Mike Perry, Rich Jacobs, Lil' Shy and others

In April 2009 the exhibition Amsterdam loves New York took place in Amsterdam, to celebrate the 400 year old connection between the two cities. Artists from New York and Amsterdam were put together in a amazing space, right in front of the Central Station of Amsterdam.

The exhibition was organized by Ultra de La Rue (which has recently opened a very nice boutique store in the Red Light District). But unfortunately a few of the graffiti artists that were arranged for the exhibition fell through at the last moment. Something about American graffiti artists not realizing on time that they need a passport in order to travel to Europe. Who knew?

I was working at RELOAD magazine at the time, and the organizer, Afaina, got in touch with me if i could knew any New York based artists who would like to come over to Amsterdam to work here for two weeks. The exhibition was only two weeks away at this time. I got in touch with Mike Perry, whom i had just worked with on a cover for the RELOAD magazine. He jumped at the chance, packed his bags and flew right over.  He got an exhibition space, was put up in a hotel, was greeted with open arms and had a very reasonable per diem. What more can you wish for?

Other artists in the exhibition were; Rich Jacobs, Taylor Mckimens, Ellis Gallagher, Chris Stain, and local based artists such as Morkcy, Raymond Lemstra, Lok Jansen, Lil' Shy, Wayne Horse and Jeroen Koolhaas. Mike Perry especially was in a productive streak, banging out a lot of original drawings for the exhibition. Just before the exhibition started, he put his per diem together and banged out this little zine for the opening of the exhibition. I remember biking around in Amsterdam to find a copy shop who could copy it last minute.

The zine features almost all artists in the exhibition. Not everybody was present on the day the zine was created. It mostly features work from Rich Jacobs and Mike Perry, and can really be seen as a sketchbook. On one of the pages Rich Jacobs draws up some Dutch baseball logo's, "or some indian art deco tags? (you choose)". While on another page he's left to explore the letter E. Mike Perry in the meanwhile explores more of his patterns, cupcakes and other typography experiments.

Good memories!

Author: Mike Perry, Rich Jacobs, Lil' Shy, X-O, Morcky and others Publisher: self-published

[off-theshelf]

Car Crashes & other sad stories - Mell Kilpatrick

I believe i bought this book on one of my first trips to Barcelona, quite a while ago. I remember doubting to buy the book or not, mainly because of the size and my baggage allowance for the flight back. Not for the prize because it was really cheap, which was perhaps because the cover sleeve is slightly damaged. Also some of the pages have a almost sand-paper like texture to the paper, which provides for an extra chill while browsing through the book looking at the pictures of these car crashes.

The photo book immediately grabbed my attention because of the at times very graphic and violent car crashes and the almost blunt portrayal of these accidents. All photo's are shot in between the late 40's and 50's, which means that all the cars are, as we call them now, American old timers. It provides for a stark contrast of the image of the American dream and the unexpected and horrible accidents, which is further enhanced by the black and white photography. An unusual combination now, but at those times unfortunately a common sight.

Mell Kilpatrick, the photographer of all these images used to work in the Orange County (California) news scene, providing photo's to news agency's but also to the police departments and insurance agent's. Remarkably he's never enjoyed any formal photography training, but used to work in the movies, where he developed his eye for images. He didn't pick up a photo camera until much later and started out photography as a hobby. Rumor was that Mill Kilpatrick simply showed up at the Santa Ana Register, unsolicited, showing his work. He soon became a member of its photographic staff even though no one remembers actually hiring him.

Author: Mell Kilpatrick Publisher: TASCHEN

[off-theshelf]

CAP - Crew Against People

I found this book at Arken, a contemporary art museum near Copenhagen, Denmark. It came as a surprise to me, when browsing the obligatory and completely uninteresting graffiti and street art selection of the museum book shop. All of a sudden i found a copy of this book on sale.

The book features a large portion of the work from CAP (Crew Against People), a graffiti crew from Prague. Their work is anti-graffiti, by playfully making fun of each and every convention and unwritten rule of the graffiti scene. In fact they are not even using spray cans for their wall paintings. To me this is the purest form of graffiti. Rebellious and innovative.

Probably my favorite pieces are the painted tree logs, which they use to cross other graffiti writers. It's a very powerful image to paint something as boring as a dead piece of wood over the 'real' graffiti. Another one of my favorites is featured below and shows a karate guy kicking the C, while making the P himself, or a ballarina completing the A with her ballet pose. Simple, but you didn't think of it.

The book is about 250 pages with full colour photos and features a selection of the crew's work. In the middle of the book an apendix is included. Not only does it feature a complete index of all images but also the artists manifesto, which touches some interesting subjects regarding the graffiti scene, but also the art scene and the creative scene of Prague in general.

It turns out that your in luck, because the book is still for sale, on their website. It's only 20 euro's including shipping within Europe. Don't let this one pass.

Author: CAP Publisher: Big Boss Website: http://crewagainstpeople.org/

[off-theshelf]

Cho's trip to the post office - Niels Bonde

I picked up this zine (or perhaps it's more of a self published book) at the Mollegade Boghandel, a little quality bookstore in Norrebro, Copenhagen. Eerie enough it was the day after the recent school shooting in Newtown, America by Adam Lanza. It provided a very current link with this zine by Niels Bonde, and published by the Danish 'Space Poetry'. It counts a total of 100 pages.

The zine describes, in an chronological order and extreme detail, all the events that led up to the school shooting at Virginia Tech campus, which took place at 16th of April in 2007. 32 people were killed and another 17 wounded. It is said to be the "deadliest shooting incident by a single gunman in U.S. history."  The zine starts off with a map showing all the movements of Cho on the day of the 16th of April, following every trace. It's very factual and provides an insight into the entire event, the police response, but also everything leading up to it including his teenage years at elementary and high school.

Perhaps the most chilling facts are listed in the back of the book, where all the notable school shootings in the states are listed and span over a total of 7 pages (from 1966 to 2011). Meanwhile all notable school shootings in Canada span only half a page, and the same counts for South America, Asia and Australia combined. Europe spans a total of 1 page. Food for thought in the current discussion of gun control in the States.

In the end of the zine there is an interview with Niels Bonde, author about the zine, where he was asked why he started this project. In which Niels described that it was the carefully created media package that Cho send out to NBC NEWS. It contained a DVD with videos, photographs and a manifesto. The fact that Cho made a trip to the post office to post his media package two hours after his first kill and forty minutes before his high school shooting is scary and gruesome.

Author: Niels Bonde Publisher: Space Poetry Website: www.nielsbonde.com

[off-theshelf]

Nulla - Blu

I reckon it's safe to assumme that people are familair with the work of the Italian artist Blu. His many murals painted all over the world have seen much love around the internet and countless of books and magazines. The unique scale and style of Blu is instantly recognizable and his paintings are always on point, not being scared of pointing the finger to where it hurts.

I picked up this zine called Nulla, 50 drawings by Blu, at the Arty Farty gallery/store in Cologne, Germany, i believe it was 2010 somewhere.  I was in Cologne for the BLOOOM art fair and we ended up one night at the basement gallery for a late exhibition. In between all of the works and products i found the zine and bought two right away.

The zine features 50 drawings, all black pencil drawings. As nearly always with Blu, there is no accompanying text which leaves you with your own visions and interpretations of his work. For experienced viewers of Blu's work, you can catch a few drawings with references to his wall paintings.

Author: Blu Publisher: Zooo Website: www.blublu.org

[off-theshelf]

The Toaster Project - Thomas Thwaites

I've seen this book before, at the ABC in Amsterdam, a while ago. It's been published in 2011. But somehow i didn't buy it up until last month when i was over in Amsterdam again. It's a beautifully simple concept for a graduation project, which to me proves that simple concepts are the strongest and still a provide a lot of depth.

The story is as following. For his graduation project at the Royal Collage of Art Thomas Thwaites embarked on 'The Toaster Project'. A project in which he wanted to build a simple electronic device completely from scratch. Not by buying all the parts and putting them together, no completely from scratch. This meant going down to mines in remote area's in Britain to dig for ore, from which he was to create metal. Or to create plastic from scratch (which turned out to be as good as impossible) , but also finding the raw materials to create mica, nickel and copper himself.

The journey described by Thomas is not a quest to attack consumerism, capitalism or environmentalism,  although it does touch these subjects. But by not giving these subjects the upper hand the book doesn't become too heavy. As the under title on the cover tells it's foremost a 'heroic attempt to build a simple electric appliance from scratch'. Somewhat naive, but not impossible.

What Thomas ended up with was a functioning toaster (as pictured on the cover) for the cost of 1187.54 pounds, it also involved traveling 1900 miles and took 9 months. All the while the same product can be bought at the price of 3.94 pounds at Argos. One of the most interesting things of the journey was reading how Thomas found out that 16th century techniques on melting ore to create steel were actually the most practical and useful. In this day and age, 16th century techniques still survive.

Author: Thomas Thwaites Publisher: Princeton Architectural Press Website: www.thomasthwaites.com

[off-theshelf]

Object 5 - Killian Eng

'Object 5' is the first self published book of Killian Eng. Printed in a edition of 1000 and unfortunately sold out by now. It's a 14cm by 20,6cm book with a matte print that especially works for the more colorful pages. Unfortunately it doesn't carry dark black very well. It features 60 illustrations from Killian Eng, all made between 2008 and 2011. It's a very good overview of his work during this period. Luckily for me it also features a unique drawing and is signed as well.

I've got to know the artwork of Killian Eng through one of my other projects, EIGHT magazine. I found his work somewhere online, and i believe it was just before his work started to hit the blogosphere. But of course that's easy to say now. His work for the EIGHT magazine has been one of my favorite works of all the EIGHT magazines. It's a beautiful illustration of Stockholm with local elements, and a very contemporary look and feel to it, perhaps more than his other works.

It's not easy to make sci-fi look retro. But Killian Eng has seemed to craft this skill to near perfection. Perhaps it's the little spice of an old Italo look that does the trick. For me personal it's not all my cup of tea. But then again, i've never been attracted to anything sci fi related. Nor Star Wars, Star Trek or 2001 Space Odyssey. That's probably why.

Author: Killian Eng: Publisher: Self-published Website: http://dwdesign.tumblr.com/

[off-theshelf]

MILK - Martine Johanna & Archibaldt à Volonté

This zine is form the hands of Martine Johanna and Archibaldt à Volonté, two old friends of mine. Back in the days we were running around Amsterdam and putting up stickers and posters all over town. By now everybody moved on, Martine Johanna focused on her paintings, while Archibaldt dived into the tattoo world.

They've always had a good creative connection as far as i could tell, and it's interesting to show both of them collaborating on this zine again. The zine got printed in November 2012, so all the work is pretty now as far as i can tell. The combination of the at times soft and girly world of Martine Johanna and the darker tattoo imagery of Archibaldt match together very well in this X rated horror zine.

The zine is riso printed in dual tone, in a limited edition of a 100 pieces. There is a healthy amount of boobs, skulls and spiders and other sexual activities going on to keep anybody interested. Hopefully there is a number 2 coming soon as well. Or perhaps this is the start of a series where Martine Johanna is inviting other artists to collaborate? Something that she has done before with her boyfriend Louis Reith and also resulted in a beautiful zine. Martine, are you reading this?

Author: Martine Johanna & Archibaldt à Volonté 
Publisher: self published 
 Website: www.martinejohanna.com

[off-theshelf]

Animal Farm - Simon Vaeth

This is a graphic novel to the George Orwell classic 'Animal Farm'. It is the graduation project from Danish artist Simon Vaeth, who has been featured on the blog earlier with his zine 'The Very Rough Guide'. This self published book dates back to 2010 already, and also gives a nice time capsule of Simon's style at this point in time. I can see that in the last few years, Simon works more with an analogue and traditional approach and meanwhile found more and more of his personal style.

The complete book is in black and white, and features about a 100 pages, printed in an edition of 100 pieces. It being a graphic novel, there is no text to the book. I guess if you haven't read animal farm, it doesn't do a lot for you. I have read it a long time ago, and even though i don't remember all that much about it anymore, you can tell that Simon captured the essence of the storyline in his illustrations.

I picked up this book at a small store in Aarhus, called Hojkant. I didn't know Simon yet at this point but his work grabbed my attention right away and i got in touch with him. A little while later i invited him to make an artwork for the first issue of EIGHT magazine. I guess Simon is one of the first Danish artists i was working with. I'm glad that we are still working together on various projects and exhibitions. I've been really impressed by his work lately.

Author: Simon Vaeth Publisher: self published Website: www.simonvaeth.dk

[off-theshelf]

Portable ecstasy - Kyoichi Tsuzuki

I bought this book a long time ago, i think at a sale somewhere in Amsterdam. It's a photo book exploring the aesthetics of contemporary adult toys. Or basically a book full of vibrators and dildo's.

It features about 50 of them ranging in different sizes and shapes. There is one that spans a total of 4 pages long! It's pictured on the photo above, the left one, and has a very weird sort of head/face on the end of it. For some reason I've always kept the book. At several times when i was moving apartments I've doubted throwing it out, but each glance at the book is good for a chuckle at least. There are some pretty funny ones out there.

The book is from a Japanese publisher, but does feature a few english written texts. Probably about the aesthetics of contemporary adult toys. I must say i never got around to reading it. It's just a fun book to spark an awkward conversation when casually lying around on the coffee table.

Author: Kyoichi Tsuzuki Publisher: Aspect

[off-theshelf]

The very rough guide - Simon Væth & Max Grünfeld

Last night i opened an exhibition in Copenhagen, together with artists Simon Væth (DK) and Max Grünfeld (NL). For the occasion of the exhibition we produced this zine. A5 size, 24 pages in total, in an edition of 50, featuring illustrations from both artists. Because we only had two days to create the zine, we made some ground rules. Each drawing was only allowed to take 30 minutes. All drawings are in black and white and one supporting color (pre determined along with the words).

For the zine we decided that it would be fun and interesting to illustrate the differences and similarities between the Dutch and Danish cultures. Every day situations,  deep rooted traditions and the mindset of people. We picked nine words in total, and both artists responded to this word with one drawing, capturing the essence of their own country/culture. As the zine states; ‘All of these drawings are the absolute truth, no exceptions’.

We got everything printed a few hours before the exhibition, and were all was really pleased with the result, which exceeded all our expectations. The concept and the rules of the zine, created a really clear framework. The interaction between the Danish side on each left page, and the Dutch side on each right page is simply amazing, and really illustrates the differences between the two cultures. Something that i am experiencing first hand every day, as a Dutch man living in Copenhagen.

The zine is still for sale, for 40DKK or 5EUR. Please contact me for more details. ([email protected]) Shipping is of course possible, and not included in the price yet.

Author: Simon Væth and Max Grünfeld Publisher: YOUR:OWN Website: www.simonvaeth.dk / www.maxgrunfeld.com