Congrats to the Walker team on a great re-design.  Super sexy makeover, guys!

Ancient Man: The Beginning of Civilizations

Written and Drawn and Done into Color by Hendrik Willem Van Loon
New York. Boni and Liveright, 1920

……….

Perhaps the lovliest thing I’ve read all week.

(via here)

Freaking gorgeous, this book.  Designed in part by our friend Dante Hong Carlos who now designs at the Walker Art Center.   This is a purchase in our near future..

‘Yves Klein: With the Void, Full Powers’ is published to accompany the first major retrospective of the artist’s work in the United States in nearly 30 years. It includes examples from all of Klein’s major series, including his Anthropometries, Cosmogonies, fire paintings, planetary reliefs and blue monochromes, as well as selections of his lesser-known gold and pink monochromes, body and sponge reliefs, “air architecture” and immaterial works. Essays by curators Kerry Brougher and Philippe Vergne, Klein scholar Klaus Ottmann, art historian Kaira M. Caba?as and curatorial fellow Andria Hickey, as well as archival materials and translations of Klein’s published and unpublished writings, offer insights into the artist’s endeavors and process. Born in Nice, France, in 1928, Yves Klein created what he considered his first artwork when he signed the sky above Nice in 1947, making his earliest attempt to capture the immaterial. The artist carved out new aesthetic and theoretical territory based on his study of the mystical sect Rosicrucianism, philosophical and poetic investigations of space and science, and the practice of Judo, which he described as “the discovery of the human body in a spiritual space.”
Hirshhorn/ Walker Art Center, 2010; Hardcover, 352 pp.

(second image ®seensaidheard)

Thanks to Makelike for contacting me about their current Cactus collection which I’m absolutely in love with!  These cactus tea towels and wallpaper are right up my alley.  As you know I’m a big cacti/succulent hobbyist, and if you’ll indulge me for a second I’d just like to say that I feel like cacti are rarely represented in a way that doesn’t come across as cheesy or “early 90’s”, if you know what I mean.  Also, it’s rare to see anything other than Saguaro depicted on anything.

So yes… this line is fantastic.  Also, everything is limited edition, so get them quickly.  Looking forward to seeing their next collection based on a celebration of the forest.

This is a book that I found (but did not buy) today at a thrift store.  I just loved the title and subject matter.  Not to mention the sweet typeface.

This beautiful line was featured on Refinery 29 and I just love it.  The line is fair-trade, and is hand-loomed and embroidered by women in rural Bangladesh.  Some really gorgeous prints and embroidery.

My friend’s sister Debbie is a super talented photographer who just opened an Etsy shop and is selling half-tone prints of some of her awesome photos.  Check it out.  I’m pretty sure there will be more to come.

One of several vintage first editions I picked up yesterday at a local thrift store for a ridiculously low price.  Louisa May Alcott is one of my favourite authors (I’m sentimental that way), and so I was very excited to find this gem.  It’s from the original run produced in 1891.  If only I had been able to get all six volumes in this series… now I’m getting greedy.

And look what I found inside….!

I really want this book.  The title roughly translates to “Colouring Book Stories”.  It is about learning how to draw and has the most magnificent illustrations.

See this flickr set for more images.

Ilse Firbas / Malbuchgeschichten
Illustrated by Heinz Kiessling

This is a fantastic vintage sticker activity book I found on Flickr, scanned by Maptitefabrique.  There are so many other great books in the set “Livres d’enfants avant 1950” (Children’s books before 1950).  Here are many more vintage children’s books spanning different eras.  Be sure to check out this book & this book.