Ex Libris: Herbert Pfostl

DATE 9/28/2009

Herbert Pfostl is a frequent visitor to our SoHo office as the buyer for the New Museum in New York. For our Ex Libris, he decided to contribute not one but two top ten selections: one of art monographs, and one of reading books.

1. Hans Prinzhorn: Bildnerei der Geisteskranken. "Beautifully reprinted by Springer Wien New York 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, ed. Uwe Fleckner, with a picture essay by Sarkis (Verlag der Kunst, 1998).

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

4. Carl Fredrik Hill: Ball Season in Sweden (Edition Blondal, 1994).

5. Robert Bresson: Cinematheque Monographs, ed. James Quandt (Cinematheque Ontario, 1999).

6. The Visions of Arnold Schonberg (Hatje Cantz, 2002).

7. Antonin Artaud: Works on Paper (The Museum of Modern Art, 1996).

8. Henry Darger: In the Realm of the Unreal, by John MacGregor (Delano Greenidge Editions, 2002).

9. Miroslav Tichy: Dedicated to The Women of Kyjov (Walther Konig, 2008).

10. The Dark Side of Nature: Science, Society and the Fantastic in the Work of Odilon Redon, by Barbara Larson (The Pennsylvania Press, 2005). And: Between Street and Mirror: The Drawings of James Ensor, ed. Catherine de Zegher (The Drawing Center, 2001).

...and readings: 1. Hans Jurgen von der Wense, Von Aas bis Luxuskraftwagen Werke 1/2 (Zweitausendeins, 2005). 2. Guido Ceronetti, The Silence of the Body: Materials for the Study of Medicine (FSG, 1993). 3. John Williams, Stoner (New York Review Books Classics, 2006). 4. Charles Olson, Call Me Ishmael (City Light Books, 1971). 5. Hans Henny Jahnn, Werke Jubilaumsausgabe (8 vols) (Hoffmann und Campe Verlag, 1994). 6. Fernando Pessoa, The Book of Disquiet (Exact Change, 2004). 7. Roberto Calasso, The Ruin of Kasch (Harvard University Press, 1994). 8. Maldoror and the Complete Works of the Comte de Lautréamont (Exact Change, 1994).  9. Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian: Or the Evening Redness in the West (Random House, 1985). 10. Michael Ondaatje, Coming Through Slaughter (Vintage International, 1996).