What's been going on lately Archives

Posted on February 20, 2025February 17, 2025 by Jim — Leave a comment

From Shelf to Press: Starting My Journey as a Bookseller, Letterpress Printer, and Publisher

A picture of the Charles Bukowski poetry book Crucifix in a Deathand

Every career starts somewhere—this one just happens to begin now, aged 61, with a storage locker full of books and the rhythmic whirl of the old Vandy in my garage. Becoming a bookseller, letterpress printer, and publisher wasn’t something I planned as a young man. It was something I discovered through passion and collecting and a deep-rooted love for the tangible, tactile world of print and paper.

Jean Baudrillard from his essay “The System of Collecting“: Among the various meanings of the French word “objet”, the Littré dictionary gives this: “Anything which is cause or subject of a passion. Figuratively and most typically: the loved object”. I remember holding a copy of Bukowski’s Crucifix in a Deathand and being amazed not only by the poetry, but Jon Webb’s creation and thinking I love this book — this object — so much I am going to this is, too.

When I was a kid and my folks took us shopping and couldn’t find me, all they had to do was look in a B. Dalton’s or Walden’s or Brentano’s. Books weren’t just knowledge, they took me places. They were also things that for some unexplained reason I needed to possess. And I needed to buy all of them.

I’m pretty sure almost all dealers start out as collectors, but not all collectors wind up being dealers. Maybe the same thing can be said of publishers? John Martin sold his collection of books (DH Lawrence mainly) to start Black Sparrow, and James Laughlin (New Directions) was a serious book collector whose personal library was extensive and reflected his deep engagement with literature, modernist poetry, and avant-garde works. Charles Scribner (1821–1871) and his descendants, particularly Charles Scribner Jr. (1854–1930) and Charles Scribner III (1890–1952)—who ran the legendary Charles Scribner’s Sons publishing house—were all serious book collectors, too.

Collecting. Printing. Dealing. Publishing. It isn’t just about selling books or printing pages—it’s about preserving history (maybe creating some, too), creating tangible beauty (especially in a digital age), and sharing the written word.

Posted on February 9, 2025February 17, 2025 by Jim — Leave a comment

5ive Times Floyd: Exploring Memory, Obsession, and Identity Through Art and Bookmaking.

What happens when visual art and narrative collide? 5ive Times Floyd was more than an exhibition—it was my journey through memory, obsessions, and artistic exploration.

With five paintings and an accompanying artist’s book, 5ive Times Floyd delved into my ever-shifting nature of personal experience and how creativity reshapes the stories I tell myself.

Here’s a brief look at the making of 5ive Times Floyd, its artistic inspiration, and how the paintings and book came together at These Days LA last October to create a what I’d like to think was a multi-sensory experience for the people who attended.

Sometimes results arrive from things unplanned. Take for instance, stumbling across an original publicity still of two-time heavyweight boxing champion Floyd Patterson in the middle of a box of junk at a flea market in Southern California. I really can’t explain why some things Found speak to me so clearly. Floyd’s picture gets turned into a gel-transfer diptych on the backs of boards removed from a broken, hardbound book.

But, for some reason, that’s not enough: a book needs to be assembled with Floyd’s image as the central motif. Still not enough: so, combine other found imagery, text, and items into this book in the same way Joseph Cornell did with his Manual of Marvels, turning a simple book into an object.

This can’t be a one-off, either. A short run, limited to no more than something I could accomplish in a reasonable amount of time. Then, with forty hand-sewn into wraps, the only way to really make it right is to add a hardbound edition as well. Still not enough. Somehow, multiple paintings evolved directly from the Rauschenberg / Warhol / Berman sphere of influence using the same found elements in the books. Art from the book as opposed to a book coming from art. As many times as I could pull it off—which, in this case, was 5ive.

That’s what I wrote for my gallerists, Jody and Stephen at These Days. I should talk about them really quick. What started with a close friendship turned into my Sexual Fictions and Floyd shows. Let’s talk about things that often don’t get talked about when you talk about gallerists: the mentorship and advocating and promoting and making sure their artists thrive creatively — while building long-term success and recognition. Also, without mentioning it once, both helped me deal with the one thing I dread most as a creative — the varying degrees of imposter syndrome that fuck with my head almost daily.

I’ll end this post here: 5ive Times Floyd invites you to explore the tension between memory and reinvention through found, vibrant visuals and non-narrative storytelling.

The paintings are still available. I made 50 total books; 40 hand-sewn in wraps and 10 bound in cloth and slipcased. There’s still some copies in wraps available.