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5 / 5 / 5


LEANNE SHAPTON


I couldn't post about Leanne's wooden books (see next post down) without asking her to play 5's. Seeing her shelves (above) make me wish I'd asked her to also share the 10th book, then 20th, etc., etc...

The rules are simple. I ask someone brilliant to go to their bookshelves, count 5 shelves up from the floor, 5 books in from the left, and then answer 5 questions. Artist and writer Leanne Shapton plays along.




1. What's the book?

la PROSTITUTION


2. What's it about?

It is a french paperback-- a report on prostitution published in1959. My french is not perfect but it is part of a collection  that "...Addresses the complex problems of the modern world facing mankind
in 20th century France." Other books in this collection are titled "LeCatholicisme", "La Scienece Nucléaire" and "La Pèche", (but I think that means sin, not peaches.) The author appears to have
been a high-ranking judge with plenty of experience in "la pègre" (the underworld).


3. What memories do you associate with it?

This takes me right back to my old apartment in Toronto, 158 Argyle Street. I bought this book for it's cover, and for the crude photo-collages illustrating the chapters inside. At the time I was art-directing Saturday Night magazine, and Jason Fulford and I had just started J&L Books, so I was collecting any and every piece of text and image that caught my eye. I loved the use of pink, the cutout
composition, and the black and white photograph, of a perfectly groomed woman's legs, a man, smoking, headed for her corner. Other free-associated memories accompanying this cover: A green medicine ball, lattes from Faema on my drive to Don Mills, and the blue-grey gloss enamel paint halfway up the wall and on the banister in the hallway of that apartment.


4. Where did you get it?

Most likely from a used bookstore on Queen Street near
Euclid that is no longer there.


5. What kind of shelves does it rest on?

Now the book sits in a wooden built-in bookshelf in my studio. I
had the shelves made and painted (F&B Hardwick White) when I could not
find the ping pong table under all of the books, paper and art supplies.

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5 / 5 / 5

MEGAN WILSON


After stumbling across Megan's book covers blog, I realized that I had quite a few editions on my shelves that were bought because of her handiwork. Her work is fantastic, as is her shop, Ancient Industries.

Here, she takes part in my summer feature, 5/5/5. The rules are simple. I ask someone brilliant to go to their bookshelves, count 5 shelves up, 5 books in from the left, and answer 5 questions. Designer and merchant Megan Wilson plays along.



1. What's the book?

Sara & Gerald by Honoria Murphy Donnelly, published in 1982.


2. What's it about?

This is a memoir of the author's parents, the Murphys. Wealthy American ex-pats who "discovered"  the Riviera off-season (ie summer), and set up a beautiful home in Juan les Pins, called Villa America. They created a life style that was both admired and envied by their artist friends, including Picasso, Léger, Fitzgerald and Hemingway. Some abused their hospitality and friendship (Fitzgerald) while some respected it (Léger). Gerald was an important painter and a rather snappy dresser, Sara a beautiful, gracious hostess. Together they were very dedicated parents but were dealt the double blow of losing their two sons in adolescence. Honoria was the only surviving child.


3. What memories do you associate with it?

When I was at art school in London in the mid-80s, I went through my F. Scott Fitzgerald phase (I'm still in it). My flat mate suggested I read Living Well is the Best Revenge by Calvin Tomkins, as she had just read it and her head was full of it. I'm not sure why I didn't just borrow her copy but Honoria's memoir was the only book on the Murphys that I found at the book shop. It was indeed a revelation and told from a unique perspective. I didn't read Tomkins' book til years later, but it is Honoria's book that stays with me because it represented a curtain lifted.


4. Where did you get it?

The Angel Book Shop, in Camden Passage, Islington. An excellent local bookshop that closed recently.


5. What kind of shelves does it rest on?

This was plucked off the shelf in my library (see last image, above), a drab spare room that we then painted Scottish red*. A carpenter custom built the shelves, floor to ceiling on all 4 walls and around the windows. We painted these an off white and you can still see the red peeking through above the books and around the door. The books are arranged alphabetically, by necessity.

* a Scottish country house red, the kind of bold colour that they use in dining rooms, sitting rooms or hallways.

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5 / 5 / 5

CHARLES TRUEHEART


The rules are simple. I ask someone brilliant to go to their bookshelves, count 5 shelves up, 5 books in from the left, and answer 5 questions. Charles Trueheart, Director of the American Library in Paris,  plays along.



1. What's the book?

The File by Timothy Garton Ash.


2. What's it about?

The book is a memoir written by Garton Ash, a journalist who spent many years reporting in East Germany before the fall of the Berlin Wall, where the government agency assigned to spy on its own citizens, the Stasi, kept a close eye on him. After the collapse of the Wall, Garton Ash was able to go into the agency's records and examine the file they were keeping on him.


3. What memories do you associate with it?

I wouldn't have been able to answer this question if it weren't for the fact that I always note the city and date of where I begin reading a book on the book's title page. I see here that I began this one in Oslo in September of 1997.  I remember I was there as a journalist [Trueheart's long-time profession] covering a conference on banning land mines for the Washington Post.


4. Where did you get it?

Brentano's in Paris. It was 180 francs.


5. What kind of shelves does it rest on?

The File sits on a 7-shelf high cherrywood bookcase, one in a row of 4 cases. The shelves are organized alphabetically by author within sections by subject, and Garton Ash's books nearly begin my non-fiction section (right after James Agee). I should probably shelve it under G not A, but...

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5 / 5 / 5

JONATHAN SCHILDER BROWN

The rules are simple. I ask someone brilliant to go to their bookshelves, count 5 shelves up, 5 books in from the left, and answer 5 questions. Jonathan Schilder Brown of the beautiful Leadapron galleries in Los Angeles, plays along. (The Leadapron book gallery shown above.)

1. What's the book?

 
Tokyo by William Klein
Crown Publishers, New York, 1964. (INSCRIBED by William Klein)

2. What's it about?

 
Published in 1964 Tokyo rounds out the set of four city books by photographer and graphic designer William Klein. The first and most famous of which Life is Good and Good for You in New York was published in 1956 and was a completely new approach not only to photography but to photobook design. In each of his city books Klein captures the unique personality of each metropolis with his chaotic, chiaroscuro double page images that throw the viewer head first into the vibrant street life of New York/Rome/Moscow/Tokyo. 

3. What memories do you associate with it?

 
My first trip to Japan. The wonderful Rat Hole Gallery. Cherry Blossoms. Since I don’t speak Japanese, having to rely purely on visual information to navigate and select books and the striking graphics of this cover.

4. Where did you get it?

 
This book was purchased in a collection from a photographer.


5. What kind of shelves does it rest on?

 
The shelves are custom made crit-bar type shelves for displaying books face out. (you can see the shelves on our website in the South Gallery Photos)

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5 / 5 / 5

CHAD BURI


The rules are simple. I ask someone brilliant to go to their bookshelves, count 5 shelves up, 5 books in from the left, and answer 5 questions. Colette blogger (and fellow Arizona native) Chad Buri plays along.



1. What's the book?

Sun Father's Way by Bertha P. Dutton.


2. What's it about?

The book explores the mythological symbolism of the Kiva murals discovered at Kuaua, a 15th and 16th century pueblo ruin on the west bank of the Rio Grande near Bernalillo, NM.


3. What memories do you associate with it?

Growing up in Arizona, I was surrounded by Native American symbolism. The sparse, vibrant images are so direct, but mysterious, strange and loaded with meaning. The book is a nice balance between archeological detail and the mythological stories the murals tell.


4. Where did you get it?

I found the book at Guidon Books in Scottsdale, AZ. Guidon is a quirky bookshop specializing in the American Civil War and Western Americana. Guidon, lunch at the Tee Pee Tap Room, and a drink at the Coach House is a perfect afternoon home. If I had my way, I’d arrange an evening rain shower, and cap off the day taking in the smell of the desert.


5. What kind of shelves does it rest on?

Sun Father’s Way lives on the top shelf of an old barrister bookcase.



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