BENAH BOOK CLUB | WRITTEN IN THE WEST

Welcome to Benah Bookclub. Where we explore books we love, own or admire and celebrate independent and interesting publishers, books stores and sites. Owning beautiful books is one of the great joys in life. Print is not dead, just more luxurious!

WIM WENDERS - Written In The West

Publisher: teNeues
Copyright: Schirmer/Mosel / Munich

Pages: 108 / 58 Colour Pictures

Cover: Soft with dust jacket

Publication Date: August 2000

Language: English

One of the best films of our time has to be Paris, Texas by Wim Wenders. Written in the West is a series of images Wenders shot in 1983 while looking for subject and locations for the film. Driving through Texas, Arizona, New Mexico and California, he was captivated by the unique, saturated, colourful light of the vast wild landscape of the American West.

The series was 1st exhibited in 1986 at the Centre Pompidou in Paris and later published as this book in 2000.

Strangely, even though the film takes its name from a sleepy town of Paris, Texas, no footage was ever actually shot there.

Read more about the new revisited edition on AnOther Magazines site here. And if you haven't seen the film, do yourself a favour and watch it immediately!

View Post

BENAH BOOK CLUB | THE AGE OF COLLAGE

Welcome to Benah Bookclub. Where we explore books we love, own or admire and celebrate independent and interesting publishers, books stores and sites. Owning beautiful books is one of the great joys in life. Print is not dead, just more luxurious!

THE AGE OF COLLAGE - Contemporary Collage in Modern Art

Publisher: Gestalten / Berlin

Pages: 288

Cover: Hard

Publication Date: August 2013

Language: English

Whats not to love about collage? It is a juxtapose of images that forces the viewer to rethink the ideas first associated with each visual. Seemingly innocent images are layered and paired with others that often stretch their meanings into unfamiliar territory.

Collages are part of our daily lives. We are flooded by images every day. Some touch us only briefly; others are burned into our memory' - Silk Krohn

The Age of Collage is a striking documentation of today's continued appetite for destructive construction. Showcasing outstanding current artwork and artists, the book also takes insightful behind-the scenes look at those working with this interdisciplinary and cross-media approach. The collages featured in this book are influenced by illustrations, painting, and photography and play with elements of abstraction, constructivism, surrealism and dada. Referencing scientific images, pop culture, and erotica, they reflect humanity's collective vital memory and context. Through confident cuts, brushstrokes, mouse clicks, or pasting, the work in The Age of Collage gives the impossible a tangible form. It expands the possibilities of the genre while turning our worldview on its head along the way. - SuperSalon

Purchase The Age of Collage from one of our all time favourite book stores SuperSalon based in Warsaw, Poland. This store and site is a gem and covers all your well known publishers such as Gestalten, Taschen, Rizzoli and Steidl plus many you never knew existed.

View Post

BENAH LOVES | JOAN DIDION

Joan Didion is well-known for her novels of social exploration and cultural chaos. 

Little is known about Joan's private life, until now - a documentary We Tell Ourselves Stories In Order to Live invites us into the world of Joan, through her own writing and words.

The documentary, made possible through a Kickstarter campaign, includes interviews with fellow artists, writers and actors such as Patti Smith, Anne Leibovitz, Liam Neeson and Anna Wintour.

'After hours of watching her read and reflect it became clear that we could not stop there–we had to do something much larger and deeper. Storytelling was a way of enduring the potent rawness Joan experienced through life, and through loss. Now we must be the ones to preserve this. To preserve her legacy...'

For news and updates on the making of Joan's film - follow the official Twitter page.

View Post

IN CONVERSATION | Jessica Stanley

We've always loved Jessica Stanley - she's a clever, funny, warm writer, late of Melbourne, currently of London - and we've never been afraid to show it. She's featured here a few times (and even wrote one of our most popular city guides, to London). And, since we last spoke to her, she has gotten married and had a beautiful baby girl, Sunday. She's about to head off to the Italian Riviera for a much-earned summer holiday ("Sunday has never seen the ocean," she tells us), so we asked her to share with us her vacation, beach-side reading list. We also asked her to become the second person to dig deep and share with us their answers to the Proust Questionnaire. She said yes! Read her answers below.

 All photos | Jessica Stanley

Jessica says: What I’m looking forward to reading… Last time I went to Italy I read How Should A Person Be and it was revelatory! This time I’ll be packing:

• Henning Menkell’s Wallander series 
• Rupert Thomson Jenny Offill’s Dept. of Speculation, and Eimer McBride’s A Girl is a Half-Formed thing 
• Jonathan Safran Foer’s Eating Animals, Alison Gopnik’s The Philosophical Baby 
•  I might crack open Karl Ove Knausgaard 
• If I hadn’t already been lucky enough to read a galley I’d pack Emily Gould’s Friendship - that would be a perfect seaside read, modern but moving, brisk but deep. 
• I should really take Jess Walter’s Beautiful Ruins, since I’ve been meaning to read it and it’s partially set on the Italian coast.

What is your idea of perfect happiness? 

Being alone, but knowing I’ll soon see someone I love.

What is your greatest fear? 

A tragedy I could have prevented.

What is the trait you most deplore in yourself? 

Going for the jugular.

What is the trait you most deplore in others? 

Not listening.

Which historical figure do you most identify with? 

Felt something of an affinity as I walked round Churchill’s wartime bunker.

What is your greatest extravagance? 

Books and organic meat.

What is your current state of mind? 

Calm mastery.

What do you consider the most overrated virtue? 

GSOH (people who prize their funniness normally aren’t).

Which living person do you most admire? 

My husband. 

What is your favorite color and flower? 

Navy blue; pink roses.

Which words or phrases do you most overuse? 

"Worst case scenario..." 

What is the quality you most like in a man? 

In addition to kindness: verbal dexterity.

What is the quality you most like in a woman? 

Being deeply analytical and strategic.

When and where were you happiest? 

On holidays in a cheap all-white hotel room by the sea.

Which talent would you most like to have? 

Being able to tell an anecdote.

What is your most treasured possession? 

A toy mouse I've had since my first Christmas.

Who are your heroes in real life? 

Everyone says their mum but mine actually is heroic. 

Where would you like to live? 

London Fields!

What is your favorite song? 

Jarvis Cocker on Top of the Pops singing "Walk like a panther." 

What do you value most in your friends? 

Sensitivity. 

Who are your favorite writers? 

Easier to say books than writers, but: PD James, Alan Hollinghurst, John le Carre, Elizabeth Jane Howard, Virginia Woolf, Siri Hustvedt, A.S. Byatt, Nancy Mitford, Evelyn Waugh, Ian McEwan, Jonathan Franzen.

Who are your favorite painters? 

Easier to say artists than painters, but: Albert Tucker, Sydney Nolan, any artist who lives a brave life and their art embodies it. 

Who are your heroines of world history? 

The wives and secretaries and de facto chiefs of staff of the men who got all the glory.

Who is your favorite hero of fiction? 

Sherlock Holmes.

What is your motto?

Hissed scathingly to myself or others: "Just relax."

View Post

READ | Sketches

Dutch photographer Vivianne Sassen spent most of her childhood in a remote village in the West of Kenya. This, according to many critics of her work, has given her a daring and original eye as both a fashion and artistic photographer. Her book, Sketches, is a showcase of her original and unique outlook on a world marked by parallel existences between the Netherlands and Africa and one pursuant of a strong visual identity.  

View Post

READ | Book of Odes

Quiet, still and undemonstrative are but a few words to describe the black-and-white beauty that Chinese artist, Taca Sui, captures. Pictures of landscapes, statues and rivers enclose their possible meanings to the viewer; instead what remains is purity, one echoing that of nature itself.

Sui’s Book of Odes is the published collection of these photographs, all of which refer to ancient poems within Chinese culture, understood to be the first recorded works of oral poets gathered from rural China by the philosopher, Confucius. Each of these short, nuanced poems, were intended to produce attentive listening, acute observations, and a reflection upon nature that have been corresponded seamlessly into Sui’s Odes, bringing the ancient into the now Modern China.

You can see Taca Sui’s work at Artspace as part of the 19^th Biennale of Sydney, from 21^st March – 9^th June 2014. 

View Post

BENAH LOVES | Selexyz Dominicanen

It's no secret that we worship books. They are beautifully crafted vessels of infinite information, refined thought, stunning imagery, exquisite prose and timeless characters. It makes sense, then, to house these priceless objects in an equally important and thought-provoking setting. Enter the Selexyz Dominicanen  in the Netherlands, seriously amazing bookstore that has been converted from a church that was originally built in 1294. The thirteenth century? The mind boggles!

We're optimistic in our belief that book stores will still be a thing, regardless of growing sales of Kindles and iPads - a book with pages won't run out of battery and it ages just as we do. Maybe it's pages get a little tattered, or it's pictures a little faded, but it most certainly is a friend for life. Therefore, isn't it wonderful that there are still some existing, individual stores that truly are an experience to lose your self in... much like any good novel.

View Post

READ | Here Art Grows On Trees

Here at Benah, we hold books as of utmost importance. They are vehicles for imagination, creativity, and most importantly knowledge and expanding our sense of self. Also with a soft spot for the visual arts, it is a true joy when these two mediums join forces to create something truly wonderful. Enter, Here Art Grows On Trees, the beautifully rendered monograph of artist Simryn Gill.

Sydney-based film and design collective, Collider, was commissioned to create the identity and supporting materials for Australia’s representation at the 55^th International Art Exhibition at La Biennale di Venezia just last year, and the team spent six months working with Gill to better understand her practice. Following this, the dream-team of creative individuals commissioned curator Catherine de Zegher to punctuate and edit the 300-page catalogue and monograph, which was published by Belgian publishing house MER that same year.

A beautifully rendered book, Here Art Grows On Trees boasts a hard cover and stunning colour images, all paying tribute to the delicately sensitive art of Simryn Gill. 

View Post