Marlene Dumas’ paintings, sourced from a variety of found and stock images rather than life itself, boldly explore our fear of the body in a way that reminds me of B.H. Fairchild’s poetry.
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The Zapotec Bukowski
Molossus is honored to publish these two portraits of Los Angeles poet Charles Bukowski, who for much of his life lived within a few miles of our offices. Painter Soid Pastrana was born in 1970 in Juchitán, Oaxaca, Mexico, a hub of Isthmus Zapotec arts and literature. His paintings have been displayed around the world, [...]
Menstrual Terminology & A Horse with No Eyes
I want you – issue #1, Lisa Hanawalt. (Buenaventura Press) $4.95 Lisa Hanawalt might be the funniest comics writer working today. Her new book, the succinct Buenaventura Press release I want you, showcases the three-page “Menstrual Terminology,” a sort of Illustrated Webster’s defining the “Tampon Wonton” (“Folding used tampon on layers of toilet paper until a [...]
Geoff’s Shelf, December
Art Director Geoff Gossett introduces recent, rare, and random titles that inspire his work at the drawing table. More images from The Upset forthcoming. The Upset: Young Contemporary Art, ed. R. Klanten, H. Hellige, & S. Ehmann. (Die Gestalten Verlag) $60 As far as collections of contemporary art go, Gesalten’s The Upset is a book that [...]
The States, Part 2: From Patrick Henry to Jalalabad
Right: Portraits from the Evangelical Ivy League, Jona Frank. (Chronicle Books) $35 Life as a student at Patrick Henry College is far from the images of beer pong and late morning snoozing that most of us conjure in recalling our university days. Patrick Henry is a school on a mission to return what they see as a lost America [...]
Craigslist & Wine: Ken Dahl’s Comics
Welcome to the Dahlhouse: Alienation, Incarceration, and Inebriation in the New American Rome, Ken Dahl. (Microcosm Press) $7 Welcome to the Dahlhouse is about half bad, self-deprecating stories about not being able to fit in with society and the difficulties of the ‘zine scene, and half personal anecdotes that are thought provoking and sometimes a [...]
Making Space for Creation
The Iconic House: Architectural Masterworks since 1900, Dominic Bradbury (Thames & Hudson) $65 Bradbury’s survey of architecturally significant houses overwhelms with the sheer variety of beauty contained within. From the 1927 Melnikov House in Moscow to the 1962 Milam Residence in Jacksonville, Florida to the 1991 Casa Klotz in rural coastal Chile, Bradbury has covered [...]
The States, Part 1: Homeland, by Nina Berman
Homeland, Nina Berman (Trolley Books) £24.99 Homeland collects photographer Nina Berman’s last seven years of exploring the way fear has manipulated American culture since the beginning of the Homeland Security Era. Her photographs do exactly what the best social commentary does: they capture the essence of things elegantly and succinctly. She’s done a good job [...]
Art from Cuba & Conversation from Cuban America
Despite the redundancy that labels its writers—though I do acknowledge that there are no current improvements—del Rio’s interviews offer a worthwhile exploration of culture and language in our contemporary literature.
Three Portraits of Gary Snyder
Riprap and Cold Mountain Poems, Gary Snyder. (Counterpoint Press) $12.95 Counterpoint’s re-print of Snyder’s first book of poems, Riprap, published forty-five years ago by Origin Press, is accompanied by his early translations of Chinese poet’s Han-Shan’s Cold Mountain Poems, from the sixth issue of the Evergreen Review. Snyder’s early clarity of vision, in response to ” [...]
Two to Make You Laugh, Think
Talking Lines: The Graphic Stories of R. O. Blechman. (Drawn & Quarterly) $29.95 If Vonnegut had concentrated his genius on cartooning, he might have become a Blechman. Born just eight years after the German-American slaughterhouse survivor, Blechman is the undisputed king of the minimalist, political, and funny comics narrative. Interestingly, D&Q has chosen to call [...]
