September 19, 2010

n/a:
LEVI'S DENIM ART CONTEST: CATALOGUE OF WINNERS
Baron Wolman/Squarebooks, Mill Valley, CA, 1974.

Eye-popping '70s freak culture on parade: 50 prize-winning examples of embellished-denim folk fashion (appliqué, embroidery, patchwork, rivets, etc.), in many cases modeled by the contestants themselves.


<-- front cover

n/a:
THE WORK
Lautir Press, Toronto, [ca. 1954].

A vest-pocket guide to Masonic rituals, with the directions cryptically abbreviated to perplex outsiders: "S.D. steps up and gives S.W. (in a whisper) the P.W. of a F.C. with the P.G."

<-- pp. 130-131


Homsy, Martha, and Doris Keppeler:
THE HULA: THE DANCE AND ITS MEANING
Tongg Publishing, Honolulu, 1950.

As gently erotic as a balmy, hibiscus-scented breeze rustling a grass skirt. Illustrated with many sequential photos of dancers in action -- enchanting of course.

<-- front cover


Davies, D.P.:
HANDLING THE BIG JETS
Air Registration Board, Redhill, Surrey, 1968.

"The demand of jet transport flying can best be met by enthusiasm." Illustrated with 80 dynamic colour graphs and a dozen photographic plates.

<-- front cover

Haikonen, Atte (ed.):
MUNICIPAL COATS OF ARMS OF FINLAND
Suomen Kunnallisliitto, Helsinki, [1976].

An obsessive, even pathological, collection of heraldic escutcheons, representing 570 towns and provinces in one of the world's most thinly populated countries. Text in Finnish, Swedish, and English.

<-- pp. 86-87 [Parikkala to Pihlajavesi]

Wall, Florence E.:
CANITICS: THE TREATMENT OF CANITIES REDUCED TO A SCIENCE, ELEVATED TO AN ART
Beautician Publications Inc., New York, 1926.

Like a bad dye job, this beauty-parlor manual hides behind ominous scientific-sounding language to describe the latest techniques for tinting gray hair.

<-- front cover