We’re pleased as punch to announce a new & Pens pop-up location in Silver Lake’s Sunset Junction! We’ve teamed up with our friends at Reform School and installed an art book/zine annex in the front corner of their beautiful shop. Come on down, we’re open daily from 11:00-7:00 PM through the end of October.
Since we are a little belated with our blog posts from the holiday weekend we decided to combine Monday Meditations and Poetry Tuesday by introducing an inspiring and unique book that represents both worlds: The Cliffs by Bertrand Fleuret.
French photographer Bertrand Fleuret, born in 1969, is a maker of beautifully produced photo books. The Cliffs, published by JL Books, continues the exploration of his earlier work in Landmasses and Railway’s by combining imagery and imaginary worlds, leading the viewer through surreal pathways with poetic narrations.
The inspiration behind The Cliffs was to reconstruct a vivid dream of Fleuret’s that began with him standing by a wall of dark cliffs. When he awoke from the dream he still found the imagery completely vidid and compelling even after being long awake. The collection of color images and written accounts of the dream reproduces the sequence of events he experienced both awake and asleep.
Available here.
“I am standing by a wall of dark cliffs. They form a circle of about 100 meters in diameter.”
Yesterday we were excited to open a new shipment and find Poemotion had arrived! This beautiful soft bound interactive book features a collection of graphic patterns, hand drawn by Japanese designer Takahiro Kurashima. These drawing are magical as they have the capacity to delight and bewildering viewers of all ages.
Following the theme of “School of Seeing”, a motif that resonates throughout Lars Müller publications, Takahiro’s book explores the ways in which optical overlays, patterns and shapes can create motion.
By sliding the screen included in the book across the pages the viewer activates a moiré effect, allowing for complex forms to develop by setting shapes in motion and graphical patterns to vibrate.
In the era of digitalization this book shows that interactivity is also possible in the format of an analogous, bound book.
Available in our analog bookstore or online here.
Here is a great video demonstration of Poemotion we found from PORT on Vimeo. Directed by Nick Thompson, edited by Neil Drummond and with music by John Barber
[vimeo http://vimeo.com/40808542]
Festus, by Canadian artist and illustrator Jason Logan, is another gem published by J&L Books that we are particularly stoked about having in the & Pens Press shop currently.
Published in 2010, this handheld hardcover publication depicts the classic figure of the frontiersman in various incarnations.
Logan made these works while traveling to the Klondike Institute in the outer reaches of Yukon, by the Alaska border.
Loose, colorful and confident, these thirty-five variations on the frontiersman carry through the book in different forms as the hustler, magician and logger just to name a few. Feeling like a mixture of incantations and studies Logan’s characters feel simultaneously iconic and refreshing. He’s traveled in his own path and loving this work feels like rooting for the underdog.
Available in the bookstore here.
Save the date for our two Grand Opening events – Saturdays, September 7 & 14!
John Waters stopped by the & Pens Press store yesterday.
What a pleasure.
Tuesday in the bookshop brings us Pøems by Nick DeMarco, published in 2012 by Peradam.
This 20 page handheld book features a series of visual poems composed by using typography and glyphs.
Some poetry communicates through flowery vocabulary but DeMarco reminds us that communicating viscerally in a more abstract and formal language can elicit interesting responses as well.
It’s official, & Pens Press is open for business! We are pretty excited to share what we’ve been working on so come on by, say hello and celebrate with us. Open 12-7pm, Tuesday- Saturday, and 12-5pm on Sundays at 8564 Washington Blvd in Culver City, CA.
Stay tuned for upcoming events!
