EX LIBRIS: Herbert Pfostl: The Original List

DATE 8/31/2013

In 2009, Herbert Pfostl--legendary curator and book buyer for the New Museum Store--put together a list of his then-top ten most indispensible books--many of which turned out to be bilingual or German first editions by somewhat obscure international publishers of critical, philosophically adventurous material. No surprise there; we were challenged. A few years later, in 2012, he put together a somewhat more accessible list of philosophically similar books distributed by ARTBOOK | D.A.P. Somewhere along the way, the first list inexplicably disappeared from our site. We are proud to bring it back again, along with a newly edited list of additional suggested readings at bottom.

1. Hans Prinzhorn – Bildnerei der Geisteskranken Beautifuly reprinted by Springer Wien/NewYork as a sober black hardcover design after the original first edition from 1922.

2. The Treasure Chests of Mnemosyne Selected texts on memory theory from Plato to Derrida. Edited by Uwe Fleckner with a picture essay by Sarkis. Dresden: Verlag der Kunst, 1998

3. Witkacy: Metaphysical Portraits Photographs 1910 – 1939 by Stanislaw Ignacy Witkiewicz, Connewitzer Verlagsbuchhandlung Leipzig, 1997.

4. Robert Bresson: Cinematheque Ontario Monographs James Quandt, Editor. Cinematheque Ontario, 1999.

5. The Visions of Arnold Schonberg: The Painting Years Hatje Cantz Publishers; 1st, Bilingual edition, 2002.

6. Antonin Artaud: Works on Paper The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1996.

7. Henry Darger: In the Realm of the Unreal By John MacGregor, Delano Greenidge Editions, 2002.

8. Miroslav Tichy: Dedicated to The Women of Kyjov Roman Buxbaum, Walther Konig, Koln, 2008.

9. The Dark Side of Nature: Science, Society, and the Fantastic in the Work of Odilon Redon Barbara Larson, The Pennsylvania State University Press, 2005.

10. Between Street and Mirror: The Drawings of James Ensor Edited by Catherine de Zegher, The Drawing Center, New York, 2001.

More suggested readings from Herbert Pfostl: Hans Jurgen von der Wense: Werke 1: Von Aas bis Luxuskraftwagen; Werke 2: Von Mandarinen bis Zylinder, published by Zweitausendeins, 2005. Robert Walser: Jakob von Gunten. Ein Tagebuch, published by Suhrkamp. Hans Henny Jahnn: Werke, Jubilaumsausgabe in eight volumes, published by Hoffmann und Campe Verlag, 1994. Louis-Ferdinand Celine: Leben und Werk des Philipp Ignaz Semmelweis, published by Karolinger Verlag (1980). Theodor Adorno: Minima Moralia. Reflexionen aus dem beschädigten Leben, published by Suhrkamp Verlag. Marcel Schwob: The Children's Crusade. Guido Ceronetti: The Silence of the Body: Materials for the Study of Medicine, FSG, 1993. Charles Olson: Call Me Ishmael, City Light Books, 1971.Roberto Calasso: The Ruin of Kasch, Harvard University Press, 1994; Maldoror and the Complete Works of the Comte de Lautréamont, Exact Change, 1994. Cormac McCarthy: Blood Meridian: Or the Evening Redness in the West, first edition, Random House, February, 1985. J. A. Baker: The Peregrine, New York Review of Books, 2004. The Collected Poetry of Robinson Jeffers, Vols 1-3, Stanford University Press, 1988, 1999, 1991. Maurice Blanchot: The Madness of the Day, Station Hill Press, 1981. Erwin Chargaff: Heraclitean Fire: Sketches from a Life Before Nature, Paul & Co Pub Consortium, first edition, 1978.