This section of Public Collectors is devoted to scans of entire publications, cover to cover, in PDF form. You can download the PDFs by clicking on the scan of the publication cover. All of the publications included are believed to be out of print, hard to find, and in some cases exceedingly rare or expensive to purchase on the secondary market.
These materials are being made available for noncommercial and educational use only. All rights belong to the author(s). Scanning an entire publication and paying for the web hosting so people can see it is a labor of love. It should be obvious that Public Collectors is sharing these publications because they are interesting, deserve a broader audience, and shouldn't linger in obscurity. If, however, you are the copyright holder of these materials and would like to see them removed, please contact: marc [at] publiccollectors [dot] org. If you have complete PDFs of publications to submit for inclusion, contact Public Collectors using the same email.
The Unforgettable Fire - Pictures Drawn by Atomic Bomb Survivors, Edited by Japan Broadcasting Corporation, 1981, Pantheon Books, New York, 116 pages, offset, perfect bound.
[Click image to download. 35.4 mb PDF file]
From the back cover: "The art in this book was a response to a request broadcast on a morning television program in Japan for drawings from atomic bomb survivors. The results were immediate. The television station was inundated with drawings. So powerful were the survivors' desires to share their memories that they turned to whatever materials were at hand – pencils, crayons, watercolors, Magic Markers, colored pencils, India ink – and drew on the backs of calendars, advertisements, bills, or even the paper used to cover Japanese sliding doors. Some drew on the backs of children's scribbled papers, probably those of their grandchildren."
Cookie Mueller - Walking Through Clear Water In a Pool Painted Black, 1990, Semiotext(e) Native Agents Series, New York, 154 pages, offset, perfect bound.
[Click image to download. 23.1 mb PDF file]
From the back cover recommendation by John Waters: "Cookie Mueller wrote like a lunatic Uncle Remus - spinning little stories from Hell that will make any reader laugh out loud."
Clegg & Guttmann - The Outdoor Exhibition Space: Munich - San Francisco, 1992, published by K-Raum Daxter, Munich, 52 pages, 8 1/2 " X 10 5/8 ", offset, perfect bound.
[Click image to download. 18.7 mb PDF file]
From the introduction by Karola Grässlin: "Clegg & Guttmann declared a road underpass with no relation to art to be an exhibition space that, for the public, was an unfamiliar one and brought back (in the form of photographs resulting from this expansion of potential art sites) the exhibition to its original location, the K-raum Daxer sponsored by art patrons, Mr. and Mrs Daxer."
Erving Goffman - Gender Advertisements, Introduction by Vivian Gornick. 1987 Harper Torche edition, 100 pages, 8 1/2 " X 11", offset, perfect bound.
[Click image to download. 53.3 mb PDF file]
"Gender Advertisements is concerned with the behavioural representations of our cultural assumptions about the nature of the sexes. The first part of the book deals with the properties of gender displays... Erving Goffman then discusses the nature of photography and the relations of photographs to what they purport to picture. Finally he presents in detail the ways in which gender, especially the female gender, is presented in popular advertisements." - from the back cover.
Amputee Love No. 1, Feb. 1975, 36 pages, published by Last Gasp.
[Mature content. Adults only. Click image to download: 16.4 mb PDF file]
This comic was written by a woman named Rene (identified as a double amputee and listed only by her first name) and drawn by her husband Rich. The cover art is by Brent Boates.
Very Rev. Msgr. Edwin B. Broaderick, Ph.D. - TV and Your Child, published by The Paulist Press, 1955, 52 pages, 5" X 7.2", offset, staple-bound.
[Click image to download. 6.9 mb PDF file]
An attempt to deal with the then very new medium of television and its programs. Broaderick, the author, was the first director of radio and television for the Archdiocese of New York. Sample quote: "The vivid attraction of TV, like the rhythmic coiling of a snake, can be so fascinating that the question "Is it poisonous?" may not arise until the children are helpless in its grasp."
Don Celender - Observations, Protestations, and Lamentations of Museum Guards Throughout the World, 1978, 88 pages, 8 1/2 " X 11", staple-bound.
[Click image to download: 24.2 mb PDF file]
For this publication, created for a 1978 exhibition held at O.K. Harris Gallery in New York, Celender reproduced the results of a 2 year survey that he conducted where he sent questionnaires to the Chief Security Officers of 1,200 museums in 125 countries.
FOOD, an exhibition by White Columns, curated by Catherine Morris, published by Walter König, 52 pages, 8 1/4" X 11 11/16", offset, staple-bound.
[Click image to download: 10.8 mb PDF file]
An out of print and hard to find exhibition catalog devoted to FOOD, a collaborative artist-run restaurant in New York City founded by artists Gordon Matta-Clark, Carol Goodden and Tina Girouard in 1971.
Michael Gira - Three Stories By M. Gira: MTV And The Cult Of The Body / The Idiot / My Birth, self-published, 1996, 25 single sided 8.5" X 11" photocopies.
[Click image to download: 9.8 mb PDF file]
From the Swans Discography: "This photocopied packet of stories was sold on the 1997 tour. It includes four illustrations by Gira (one for each story and the cover drawing). The cover is dated 1996 but the copyright information is listed as 1996/97." There are actually six drawings in total but Gira's astonishing writing is the primary reason for posting this obscure publication.
trans formation : arts communication environment, N° 1. 1950, edited by Harry Holtzman, 64 pages, 8 7/16" X 11", staple-bound.
[Click image to download: 27.4 mb PDF file]
A truly multi-disciplinary journal which affirmed that "art, science, technology are interacting components of the total human enterprise..." This publication, which existed for only three issues, treated the arts and sciences "as a continuum."
Bruno Richard - Elles Sont De Sortie (E.S.D.S.) #19 Kolor Love, published by Futuropolis, 1986, 44 pages, 6 " X 7.5", color printing with rubber stamp on cellophane cover, staple-bound.
[Mature content. Adults only. Click image to download: 18.3 mb PDF file]
This early publication by Paris-based artist Bruno Richard consists of garishly colored and highly agressive drawings abstracted from photos of women and men in the military. This rare publication is posted with kind permission from the author. To see more visit: http://lsont2sortie.free.fr/
Marc Fischer - 9 Years of Mail: Bruno Richard / Marc Fischer, published by Columbia College Center for Book & Paper, 2006, 24 pages, 8.5" X 5.25", black and white laser printing, staple-bound.
[Mature content. Adults only. Click image to download: 1.8 mb PDF file]
Created for the occasion of an exhibition at Columbia College, Chicago titled "Exalted Trash", this booklet focuses on the friendship and postal correspondence of artists Fischer and Richard. The booklet includes examples of their mailings to each other, along with a brief interview with Bruno Richard by Marc Fischer.