Our store in downtown Los Angeles’ arts district is located in Hauser & Wirth’s gallery complex. We have a sizable selection of books on artists represented by the gallery. Like most bookstores worldwide, with our inventory frozen, I am reaching out to our regular visitors, and introducing the store to a larger community, by highlighting part of this selection. It’s part of the store’s ever-evolving inventory that includes books I consider of interest, that address the shifts in current culture. I hope to see my regulars, and new visitors, when it is safe for us to meet. I miss my store terribly and all of you. 

Be safe. My kindest.

 --Lacy Soto, Director Artbook @ Hauser & Wirth LA Bookstore

Please shop at our store Here: Artbook at Hauser & Wirth Los Angeles

April 12, 2020 (In The Year of the Trump Virus)

April 12, 2020 (In The Year of the Trump Virus)

Oddly enough, I feel at ease being alone here with Lun*na.  I enjoy the hours of solitude and being at home.  As well as e-mailing and texting friends to see how they are holding up.  Some get back to me right away, and others, after a week, I haven't heard a squeak from them.  Which is OK, because it means that they are not feeling well, or doing what I do for a hobby.  Which is to shop for food online, and being consistently frustrated in not only getting the food I desire but also no window for deliveries.  It's ironic for a few decades now, we have been sold that Amazon is the answer to our shopping needs, yet, it is this website that now disappoints us in a very frustrating matter. Ironically, I can locate and find the rarest album in a $10 range on the far reaches of the Internet, yet, I'm a total failure in obtaining toilet paper.

It is also strange that I got a writing job during lock-up, and it's a fascinating project.  I can't talk too much about it, because it is at the very start of this exciting proposal, but I have to do a lot of research, and that is enjoyable to me.  It keeps me occupied and not think about the daily grind of everyday life in the Year of the Trump Virus.  Still, I had to refresh my grocery list on an hour-by-hour basis.

Life has drastically changed for a lot of people, but for Lun*na not that huge of a change and me, due that we always work from home, when we can.  Money is still a problem for us, and ever since I left the bookstore work at Book Soup, it has been a struggle.  Once I left the store, I decided to become a full-time writer. In the power of Positive Thinking frame-of-mind, I kept to my promise.  What is extremely difficult is being the sole family member taking care of my aging mom and Uncle.  They are OK, but there is always the fear of the shoe falling off, and I trained myself to be alert and ready for any emergency.  Even that, my first thought is to go to them, but the truth is that it is too dangerous.  I try to make sure that they can get help from professionals when the need is upon them.

Before the Trump Virus hit Los Angeles, I was working part-time at Artbook at Hauser & Wirth.  I had to be laid off during the crisis, which is understandable to me.  I asked my manager if I can do volunteer work from home, and I have been organizing friends and artists that I admire, to put together a reading list so that we can put it on our Artbook web page.   Lots of indie bookstores are on Bookshop.org, and I beg you to all buy books from this website, which promises to be the alternative version of Amazon.  All you need to do is type your favorite bookstore, and it will take you to their order page.  It's essential that you must feed your stomach, but you also have to feed your mind.  Reading right now is one of the best things one can do to fight the boredom or anxiety of being contained in one's home or space.

Yesterday afternoon Kimley and I put together another podcast episode of Book Musik, where we discuss various books on music.  The subject matter is David Bowie's Diamond Dogs, and it's a book written by Glen Hendler and published by 33 1/3 Books.  That episode will be up on April 15.  We both need to keep up with this show, not only to entertain you, dear listeners but also to keep a schedule - the purpose of doing something positive.

I hope all of you are having a lovely holiday today, and remember never to lose your sense of the absurd or humor.  I'll be seeing you. -Tosh Berman

Tosh's Top 20 Book Titles: Buy them here through Artbook at Hauser & Wirth Los Angeles

This is my top 20 list of books that I recommend for readers and fans.  As you can gather, Independent bookstores are having a difficult time.  Please support Artbook at Hauser & Wirth Los Angeles as well as your local indie bookstore in your area.  You can purchase any of these titles here: 

Tosh's Top 20 Books for Now: Buy them here!

"Once Upon a Time in the West: Shooting a Masterpiece" at Artbook at Hauser & Wirth Los Angeles

"Once Upon a Time in the West: Shooting a Masterpiece" (Reel Art Press) is a masterpiece of a book. The author Christopher Frayling will be at Artbook at Hauser & Wirth Los Angeles, discussing his book on a film that changed in what we think of the Western genre. Not only that, but Sir Frayling is an expert on the Spaghetti Western. The book, in-depth, discusses the Italian film industry and its artists. Not only on the genius of Sergio Leone, but also the brilliant soundtrack music by Ennio Morricone and the script by Dario Argento, Bernardo Bertolucci, and Leone. Sir Frayling will present this beautifully illustrated book that is essential to the film fanatic but also the fascinating history of the Spaghetti Western. The event will take place on Saturday, February 8th, at 3 pm.

Artbook @ Hauser & Wirth Los Angeles

917 East 3rd Street

Los Angeles 90013

French New Wave: A Revolution in Design" Edited by Tony Nourmand. Introduction by Christopher Frayling. Design by Graham Marsh. Text by Alison Elangasinghe.

The French New Wave, of course, has a presence as cinema, but also, and equally important is how the international graphic arts contributed to these markable films. I believe most of us who were touched by the French New Wave was first seduced to its greatness by its movie posters. In an obsessive (and love is always obsessive) manner, we look at the graphic genius of Jean-Michel Folon, Boris Grinsson, Waldemar Swierzy, Christian Broutin, Tomasz Ruminski, Hans Hillman, Georges Allard, René Ferracci, Bruno Rehak, Zdenek Ziegler, Miroslav Vystrcil, Peter Strausfeld, Maciej Hibner, Andrzej Krajewski, Maciej Zbikowski, Josef Vylet’al, Sandro Simeoni, Averardo Ciriello, Marcello Colizzi and many more. From France to the U.S. to Poland, Japan, and elsewhere, The French New Wave was a foundation where graphic art was made and equally as important as the actual films.

The editor Tony Nourmand will be in conversation with Christopher Frayling. A book signing will follow. At Artbook @ Hauser & Wirth Los Angeles, 917 East 3rd Street. Sunday, February 9th at 3PM. - Tosh Berman

Two Artbook at Hauser & Wirth Los Angeles Events that Excite Me - Reel Art Press (RAP)

Tony Conrad Writings with Andrew Lampert, Tyler Hubby, and Tosh Berman

"Tony Conrad: Writings" with Andrew Lampert in Conversation with Tyler Hubby and Tosh Berman

Save the date for Saturday | January 4th | 3 PM for the Los Angeles book launch of 'Tony Conrad: Writings' with editor Andrew Lampert in conversation with Tyler Hubby and Tosh Berman. This should be a super fun event... don't miss this!

Tosh Berman Signs "TOSH: Growing Up in Wallace Berman's World" Saturday, July 20th, 2019 at 4PM

Saturday, July 20th at 4 PM, Artbook at Hauser & Wirth Bookstore and City Lights Books invite you to join Tosh Berman for a special book signing of 'TOSH: Growing Up in Wallace Berman's World". The signing will take place during LITLIT: Little Literary Fair in the courtyard of Hauser & Wirth Los Angeles.

'TOSH' is a memoir of growing up as the son of an enigmatic, much-admired, hermetic, and ruthlessly bohemian artist during the waning years of the Beat Generation and the heyday of hippie counterculture. A critical figure in the history of postwar American culture, Tosh Berman's father, Wallace Berman, was known as the "father of assemblage art," and was the creator of the legendary mail-art publication Semina. Wallace Berman and his wife, famed beauty and artist's muse Shirley Berman, raised Tosh between Los Angeles and San Francisco, and their home life was a heady atmosphere of art, music, and literature, with local and international luminaries regularly passing through.

Signed copies of 'TOSH" are available to pre-order with free domestic shipping! Email us: bookshw-la@artbook.com

Tuesday, April 2, 2019

I wrote a piece for Please Kill Me website on the legendary and brilliant Scott Walker.  His death was a terrible blow to me, and in many ways, perhaps my last pop music or cultural idol.  When he died last week it was hard for me to put in words how I feel about him and his music.  Gillian and Alan at Please Kill Me offered a platform to do an essay on him, and I did so.  Scott Walker.

Yesterday I spent the entire day at our home, while it was being fixed for various leaky pipes throughout the house.  I'm somewhat like a cat who doesn't like their place disturbed by neighbors or other animals.  I felt trapped in my room as the workers tore away the downstairs ceiling, and then eventually work on both of our bathrooms.  Of course, once they started to do serious work in my bathroom, I immediately needed to use the toilet.   Which got me thinking that perhaps we should get a Japanese computer toilet that can blow, wipe, and practically dress you up again after using the bog. But that will be expensive, and we decided that the American toilet is perfectly fine for our daily habitual use.  

After being stuck all day (and night) yesterday in my office space at home, I decided to spend the afternoon at Artbook at Hauser & Wirth Los Angeles to do my work.  I officially work for them, by writing on books for their Facebook page.  But I also do my own writing as well as studying culture, which means long hours reading posts on Facebook.  It's chilly inside the store and in all the galleries, so I decided to sit in the 'farm' part of the complex to do work.  I'm here with the chickens and herbs and personally, I feel that the chickens here are working harder than me. 

Citizens of the World can Special Order "Tosh: Growing Up in Wallace Berman's World" (City Lights)

Dear Future Readers, I just want to let you know that you can now special order my book "Tosh" Growing up in Wallace Berman's World" at your local bookstore. What you do is call or go into your local store, give them the title above, and then if you need to, give them the ISBN number which is 9780872867604. And I believe a foreign bookstore can order the book for you as well. Ingram is a wholesaler that sells books to bookstores, and they now have my book in their warehouse. So order away, and enjoy reading my book - Tosh Berman. Photo by Lacy Soto at the Artbook location in Los Angeles.

September 23, 2018 / Tosh's Diary (Paris/Los Angeles)

September 23, 2018

The flight was somewhere between 10 and 11 hours long, and it was boring as hell. The service on the airline Air France was outstanding.  But there were delays at the airport, and the plane took off about an hour late. The Charles DeGaulle airport is enormous of course, but one of the interesting aspects of its architecture is the wooden ceilings.  At LAX Bradley terminal I feel we are in a series of confined spaces, but the vastness of the boarding gate in Paris is immense, and it actually becomes a vanishing point when you look in the front of you.   

As one gets to their seat, you are confronted by a lack of space, but I’m mentally prepared for that. I brought two books with me for the reading.  The main book is Alexander Trocchi’s “Cain’s Book” which I purchased in a bookstore in Paris called the Red Wheelbarrow.   Across from the Lexingburg Gardens.  As far as I know, or at least on this trip, I came upon four English language bookstores. All were good.  Any John Calder publication is a good book.  It’s the British version of Grove Press or the sister or brother of that excellent publishing house.  Calder had an extraordinary vision as a publisher.  I still haven’t finished the book, and every time I feel sleepy, I try to close my eyes to drift off to sleep.

Nevertheless, sleep is impossible for me on a plane.  My sense of travel is being at a location. I don’t actually like the physical aspect of traveling.  I hate luggage.  I really don’t like airports. I loathe going through security.  And I generally don’t enjoy the ride to or from the airport.  I love being at my destination.  But the compromise to get to that direction of the destination is a horror show for me.  I envy fictional characters like James Bond, or Tom Cruise in “Mission Impossible,” where there is a subtitle that says “Berlin,” and therefore you know the main character is there in that city.  I too want to travel in such a manner where a subtitle shows up under my body, and I’m immediately at that location.  You never see Bond buying a plane ticket or waiting at the airport. Nor is he busy making sure he has a European wall plug for his laptop computer.  The one groovy thing I do have is that I rent a portable wi-fi set.  I discovered this when I went to Japan, and in that country, there is not that many ‘hot spots’ for internet use.   Carrying this small pocket-sized wi-fi is a dream.  The battery lasts for six hours, so one should turn it off when not in use. Other then that, it’s perfect. 

We got back home around 10 PM, and I drank a few glasses of wine, checked my e-mail, and tried to feel like I was back home in Los Angeles.  My brain was here, but my body thought it was still walking on Germain-des-Prés. I have a hard time with jet-lag.  Forcing the body and mind to be in one place is a problem for me.  I heard one should just drink water on the jet, but of course, I drank wine.  It’s free on international flights!  Still, I don’t think I can ever beat this feeling of being displaced in time and space.  I got up early and went to work at ARTBOOK (917 E 3RD Street, Los Angeles 90013) to take images for me to write about - and then I walked around Downtown Los Angeles.  It still feels like I was in Paris.  Even though I was walking down Spring Street, I felt the next corner will be rue Oberkampf in the 11th arrondissement.  Which by the way is named after Christophe-Philippe Oberkampf, an 18th-century German-born French industrialist. He invented the first machine for printing wallpaper.  

Lun*na and I went to the Tony Berlant opening at the Kohn Gallery (North Highland Avenue, Los Angeles 90038) and the dinner afterward at Michael and Caroline’s home for the artist.  The show is pretty great.  Tony’s work is basically collaged with images printed on metal, or tin, and put together by steel brads, which gives the art a multi-textural feel.  Some are flat pieces while others are sculptures.  Also, I really like the works that are horizontal when placed on the wall.   They stick out so one can see both sides of the artwork.  So, in a sense, they are sculptural, but flat as well.  Interesting combination. I made a note to myself to come back to the exhibition to spend more time with the art. 

 Tosh Berman