Memorial Day Mash-up

To kick the summer off right, we've prepared a seasonal picnic: a couple light bites, some comfort fare, and a few exotic delicacies, all in-season, locally sourced, sustainably harvested, free range, non-GMO, and hormone-free... 
Click here for a catalog featuring works by Jenny Holzer, Jasper Johns, Martin Kippenberger, Jannis Kounellis, Living Theatre, Olaf Nicolai, Stephen Shore and LaMonte Young.

Memorial Day Mash-up

10 x 10 American Photobooks

Our selection for the ICP's 10 x 10 American Photobooks project is representative of the sort of artists’ books that we focus on at 6 Decades Books. In each of these titles, the artist has used photographic imagery in the process of making a book which is itself an artwork, not a book where the main point is to reproduce a series of individual images. These are all compelling photobooks, but in several cases the artists who made them are not generally thought of as photographers, or the photographic content consists primarily of pre-existing, or anonymous images. Mike Kelley and Paul Schiek, whose titles are the chronological bookends of the list, both created their works by editing and curating images, rather than making new ones. It is not great photography that interests me so much as the way an artist engages with the book as a medium, using the form to shape content and convey an artistic vision so that the book as a whole communicates in a way that no single image could.

Mike Kelley. The Uncanny. (Sonsbeek, 1993).

[link to Kelley's essay: Playing With Dead Things]

Ryan McGinley. Black Jack. (Self-published, 2007).

Jason Polan. The Land Can Handle It. (Parts & Labor, 2012).

Roe Ethridge. Spare Bedroom. (Self-published, 2004).

Jeff Brouws. Twentysix Abandoned Gasoline Stations. (Self-published, 1992)

Shannon Ebner. Signature. (Wallspace, 2008).

Sam Falls. Paint Paper Palms. (Dashwood, 2011).

Wade Guyton. Zeichnungen für ein kleines Zimmer.  (Walther König, 2011).

Paul Schiek. Dead Men Don't Look Like Me. (TBW, 2012).

Carrie Mae Weems. And 22 Million Very Tired & Very Angry People. (San Francisco Art Institute / Carrie Mae Weems, 1992).

March 2013

We survived the Ides of March, and St. Patrick's Day... here's a brief listing of posters and ephemera by Duchamp, Kaltenbach, Kippenberger, Polke and Warhol.

February: New Location, New Catalog

It was a busy January--two book fairs and a move--but we are happy to announce that our new location is now open for business. We didn’t move far, just down to the second floor in the same building: 265 Canal Street, suite #210. Click this link for our February catalog, a sampling of new things now available in the new space, including Inflammatory Essays by Jenny Holzer, two great Yves Klein items, a Paolozzi poster, more Mai ’68 material, and John and Yoko and Flux... 

LA Art Book Fair

Sunny and 75 degrees in Los Angeles today... sure glad we came out for Printed Matter's LA Art Book Fair. If you're in town, come join us. The Fair is at LA MoCA's Geffen Center. The opening is tonight (Thursday, Jan. 31) from 6-9 pm, and continues Friday, Saturday, with the big finale on Super Book Fair Sunday! (I don't know who is playing but I'm sure it'll be a helluva contest). We're in room J. Here's a preview of our booth:

Bi-Coastal Book Fairs

6 Decades Books is kicking off the New Year by participating in two books fairs, in two weeks, on two coasts. This week come see us at the EAB Fair. Next week we're in Los Angeles for Printed Matter's first annual LA Art Book Fair at the Geffen Contemporary at MOCA. We have put together a brief catalog as a preview of a few favorites we will be showing. 

EAB INFORMATION

24 - 27 January 2013 

Thursday to Saturday 11 AM to 7 PM

Sunday Noon to 5:30 PM

LOCATION

The Altman Building, Enter 125 West 18th Street, NYC between Sixth and Seventh Avenue

L.A. ART BOOK FAIR INFORMATION

The fair is free and open to the public.

Preview: Thursday, January 31, 6-9 pm

Friday, February 1, 11-5 pm

Saturday, February 2, 11 am-6 pm

Sunday, February 3, 12 pm-6 pm

LOCATION

The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA

152 North Central Avenue

Los Angeles, CA 90012

END OF DAYS

As if there weren’t already enough to worry about, as 2012 draws near its conclusion, the Mayan long-count calendar predicts… The End.  Sure, this interpretation has been debunked. But, still… In light of this, we at 6 Decades Books found ourselves compiling a list with a slightly apocalyptic undertow. So, whether you're concerned about the Mayan calendar, or the fiscal cliff, are still unsettled after recent anomalous weather events, or are just worried about the rapidly dwindling number of holiday shopping days, we hope you’ll find some brief solace as you look over our most recent listing. Enjoy! The End of Days…

BLACK FRIDAY!!!

To honor the-day-after-Thanksgiving, aka Black Friday, the unofficial holiday on which Americans celebrate retail commerce with a variety of odd rituals (gathering in Wal-Mart parking lots at 3am, grappling with strangers over reduced-price cashmere, et cetera), 6 Decades has prepared a brief catalog in which posters, advertisements, magazines, and records meet Pop, Op, Punk and Pictures at the intersection of art and commerce.

Click the link above for the full listing. The catalog includes a poster from Barbara Kruger’s Pictures and Promises exhibition in 1981, four LPs designed by Andy Warhol, a complete run of Punk magazine (including two hard-to-find supplements), a poster each by Bridget Riley and Ray Johnson, and the advertisement Ruscha placed in Artforum to promote Twentysix Gasoline Stations.