Siglio publishes three new books at the intersection of art and literature
Siglio is an independent press in Los Angeles publishing uncommon books that live at the intersection of art and literature. Visit Siglio at this year’s New York Art Book Fair.
1. TANTRA SONG, selected and with writings by Franck André Jamme
HB / 112 pages / over 50 color illustrations
With an introduction by Lawrence Rinder, and interview with Jamme by Bill Berkson, and an essay by André Padoux
Possessing an uncanny affinity with a range of 20th century abstract art, these rare Tantric paintings are used by adepts in Rajasthan to awaken heightened states of consciousness, yet their magnetic, vibratory beauty inspires acute attention even in the uninitiated. Through his enduring relationships with the secluded communities of tantrikas, acclaimed French poet Jamme draws on his unique body of knowledge to shape a singular and revelatory collection in which East and West, the aesthetic and the spiritual, the ancient and the modern converge.
Exhibition at the Santa Monica Museum of Art, September 10–December 10, 2011.
A LIMITED EDITION of 30 includes an authentic and unique Tantric painting in the motif “pure consciousness,” slip-cased with the hardback book.
2. IT IS ALMOST THAT: A Collection of Image+Text Work by Women Artists & Writers, edited by Lisa Pearson
HB / 296 pages / over 250 half-tone illustrations
With 26 works by Eleanor Antin, Fiona Banner, Louise Bourgeois, Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, Ann Hamilton, Jane Hammond, Susan Hiller, Dorothy Iannone, Alison Knowles, Adrian Piper, Charlotte Salomon, Suzanne Treister, Carrie Mae Weems, Unica Zürn, and several others.
NANCY PRINCENTHAL (ART IN PRINT): Learning to read art, as Lawrence Weiner long ago exhorted, is not a simple process. Where the textual meets the visual, demands outnumber easy pleasures. It Is Almost That is rich in both challenge and satisfaction.
CHRIS KRAUS (BOOKFORUM): Pearson’s boldest editorial move is bringing together works by artists and writers who are not normally thought of together. [Her] genre-defying conflation of formalist language-based work with pieces by confrontationists … suggests new affinities.
A LIMITED EDITION of 85 contains a highly pleasurable and surprising set of original booklets and folded broadsides, housed in a wood box, and authored by ten artists included in the book.
3. BOOK OF RUTH by Robert Seydel
PB / 156 pages / over 120 color and half-tone illustrations
THE NEW YORKER: Burrowing into the pop-detritus archive somewhere between Ray Johnson’s mail art and Tom Phillips’s Humument project, Seydel’s Book of Ruth describes an allusive fantasy about his aunt and alter ego Ruth Greisman, her brother Saul, and their escapades with Joseph Cornell.
JOHN YAU: Book of Ruth is a modern fairy tale unlike any other, arriving from a corner of the world where fiction and fact are interchangeable… . Open this book and lose yourself. Out of bits of ephemera held together by cloud and glue an entire universe will rise up to greet you.”
MAGGIE NELSON: Behold Seydel’s “Ruth”—banker by day, scriber of daily wonders by night, whose art of “damaged things made” pours forth from a “healing imagination [with] animals in it.” … Book of Ruth is an enchanting, mischievous, often deeply moving act of invention and homage.
Book Launch at Printed Matter in NYC, October 21 at 6 p.m. features poet Peter Gizzi and artist Richard Kraft in a conversation about the late Robert Seydel’s work and process, moderated by BOMB senior editor Mónica de la Torre.
LIMITED EDITION sold out.
CONTACT: Lisa Pearson, Publisher
publisher [at] sigliopress.com
phone: 310-857-6935
2432 Medlow Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90041
