Opening just a few months ago, Aeon Bookstore boasts a large selection of new and expertly selected vintage books. You won’t leave this delightful subterranean bookstore without an armful of gems.
Collecteurs: What do you love most about your neighborhood?
One thing about this neighborhood which I’ve always loved is that it still possesses the increasingly rare quality that has made New York City so special to begin with – a sense of diversity. Despite evidence and fears of rapid and alienating changes in the neighborhood, one can still witness the coexistence of many ethnic, age, and cultural groups within one small stretch. Being on the border of Chinatown and the Lower East Side, I truly feel a sense here of a meeting point of multiple lifestyles, and every day I am charmed by the visibility of multiple cultural and ethnic groups which over years of staggered migration have come to coexist. On a personal level, my eastern European Jewish relatives lived and did much business around here and so I feel connected both to that pocket, which still exists in traces, as well as to the more recently emerging pocket of younger artists who have found relatively affordable rents here. I also love this neighborhood for its geographical relationship to the rest of New York – it somehow has the feeling of being very far from the more obvious destinations in lower Manhattan, which gives it a feeling of openness, but actually its not so far from anything at all!
Collecteurs: Which books are you excited about reading right now?
Intermedia, Fluxus and the Something Else Press – Selected Writings by Dick Higgins (Siglio Press)
I’ve long looked forward to a comprehensive volume on Dick Higgins, an important figure in the Fluxus movement who, branched out to establish his most lasting legacy, the Something Else Press. Over the years Something Else published books of the most unusual ideas and often in unusual formats, always with great charm and intelligence. This publication by the great Siglio Press collects many of his writings and offers intriguing insight into the history and mechanisms behind the Something Else Press, and is in my opinion an incredible contribution to any conversation about the arts, since Higgins legacy in his own writings and publishing help to crystallize the most fluid and dynamic moment in the NYC arts landscape where poets, musicians, visual artists, performers et al shared pages and stages without reticence and often without notion of leaving much evidence behind, thereby making Something Else one of the best sources of access to this moment in time which indeed was altogether something else.
Tosh: Growing up in Wallace Berman’s world
We were lucky enough to host Tosh this past month and the event was every bit an extension of this marvelous memoir, a gloriously personal and idiosyncratic journey through some of the most vital movements of art and culture of the 20th century. Through his father, legendary California assemblage artist Wallace Berman, young Tosh casually grows up with people like Marcel Duchamp, Brian Jones, Marjory Cameron, Dennis Hopper and a staggering constelation of luminaries of counter-culture. An unforgettable and joyous read.
Corita Kent: International Signal Code Alphabet
Radical American artist, educator and Catholic nun, Sister Mary Corita Kent’s provocative and elaborate serigraphy has entranced audiences for over four decades. Originally completed in 1968, Kent’s International Signal Code Alphabet encompasses a series of 26 kaleidoscopic serigraphs integrating scripture, typography, image, icon and the maritime flags of the International Code of Signals. A beautiful volume from this remarkable artist/activist!