re-cover nr.64

The Symposium - Plato

This picture was taken at the exhibition Endless Installation: A Ghost Story For Adults by PSWAR, in SMART Project Space in Amsterdam 2009.

Plato was a Classical Greek philosopher, mathematician, and founder of the Academy in Athens. The Symposium is a philosophical dialogue written around 385 BC.
Platonic Love is derived from a concept of love in Plato's Symposium .

"How can you prove whether at this moment we are sleeping, and all our thoughts are a dream; or whether we are awake, and talking to one another in the waking state?"

re-cover nr.63

Intimacy - Hanif Kureishi

This photo was taken in Gaudí's Casa Milà, Barcelona, in 2005.

Hanif Kureishi is a Pakistani-English writer and filmmaker. Intimacy was first published in 1998.
Intimacy was adapted to film in 2001 by director Patrice Chéreau.

"It is the saddest night, for I am leaving and not coming back."

re-cover nr.62

The doors of perception - Aldous Huxley

This photo was taken in La maison Roche-Jeanneret / Fondation Le Corbusier, Paris, 2008. The house was designed by Le Corbusier, and built in 1923-24.
 
Aldous Huxley was an English writer. The doors of perception was first published in 1954. The title comes from William Blake's The Marriage of Heaven and Hell:
"If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is, infinite. For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things through narrow chinks of his cavern.".

"It is a bit embarrassing to have been concerned with the human problem all one's life and find at the end that one has no more to offer by way of advice than 'try to be a little kinder."

re-cover nr.61

Die bitteren tränen der Petra von Kant - R.W. Fassbinder

This picture was taken in Amsterdam in 2003.

Rainer Werner Fassbinder was a German film director, writer and actor.
Die bitteren tränen der Petra von Kant (The bitter tears of Petra von Kant, English translation) is a theater play first performed in 1971, and first published in 1984.
Die Bitteren Tränen der Petra von Kant is also a 1972 German film directed by Fassbinder, and based upon his play.

"I hope to build a house with my films. Some of them are the cellar, some are the walls, and some are the windows. But I hope in time there will be a house."

re-cover nr.60

Song of Myself - Walt Whitman

This picture was taken in Amsterdam in 2009.

Walt Whitman was an American poet, essayist and journalist. Song of Myself was first published in the 1855 edition of Leaves of Grass.

"Do I contradict myself? Very well, then I contradict myself, I am large, I contain multitudes."

re-cover nr.59

La Société du Spectacle - Guy Debord

This photo was taken in Barcelona, in front of MACBA, in 2005.
 
Guy Debord was a French philosopher, writer, filmmaker, and founding member of the groups Lettrist International and Situationist International (SI). La Société du Spectacle (The Society of the Spectacle, English translation) was first published in French in 1967.
La Société du Spectacle is also the name of a film made by Guy Debord in 1973, based on his book.

"In societies where modern conditions of production prevail, all of life presents itself as an immense accumulation of spectacles. Everything that was directly lived has moved away into a representation."

 

re-cover nr.58

Livro de Mágoas - Florbela Espanca

This photo was taken in Amsterdam in 2008.

Florbela Espanca was a Portuguese poet. Livro de Mágoas (The Book of Sorrows, in English) was first published in 1919.

"To be a poet is to be taller, to be bigger
Than average men!
It is to bite as if you’re kissing!
It is to give alms, although you are a beggar,
Like the king of a realm where only pain is missing!
It is to have inside yourself a flaming star,
To have the condor's mighty claw and wing!
To be hungry and thirsty for the sky!
To condense the world into one lonely cry!"

re-cover nr.57

This is Modern Art - Matthew Collings

This picture is a detail from graffiti and was taken on the streets of Amsterdam in 2009.
 
Matthew Collings is a British art critic, broadcaster and author. This is Modern Art was first published in English in 2000.
This is Modern Art was also a six-part TV series, written and presented by Matthew Collings, broadcast in 1998 on Channel 4.

"The art world is now a slave of mass culture. We have a sound-bite culture and so we have sound-bite art. You look at it, you get it - it's as immediate and as superficial as that."

re-cover nr.56

Women, Art, and Society - Whitney Chadwick

This picture was taken in Amsterdam in 2009.

Whitney Chadwick is an American art historian and author. Women, Art, and Society was first published in 1990.

"The subject of the nude in art brings together discourses of representation, morality, and female sexuality, but the persistent presentation of the nude female body as a sight of male viewing pleasure, a commodified image of exchange, and a fetishized defense against the fear of castration leaves little place for explorations of female subjectivity, knowledge, and experience."

re-cover nr.55

O Búzio de Cós - Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen

This black and white polaroid was taken in the Groninger Museum in 2002.

Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen was a Portuguese poet and writer. O Búzio de Cós was first published in 1997.
In 1969, João César Monteiro made a short documentary, Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen, about the Portuguese poet.

re-cover nr.54

Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov

These pictures were taken in Amsterdam in 2003.

Vladimir Nabokov was a Russian-American novelist, short story writer and entomologist.
Lolita was written in English and first published in 1955.
Lolita was adapted to film in 1962 by Stanley Kubrick.

"The breaking of a wave cannot explain the whole sea."

re-cover nr.53

Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy

This picture was taken in Amsterdam in 2009.

Leo Tolstoy was a Russian writer. Anna Karenina was first published in 1877.
In 1908, Tolstoy was photographed by the pioneer in colour photography Sergey Prokudin-Gorsky.

"He never chooses an opinion; he just wears whatever happens to be in style."

re-cover nr.52

The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde

This picture was taken in Amsterdam in 2009.

Oscar Wilde was an Irish playwright, poet and author.
The Picture of Dorian Gray was first published in 1891.
In the book, Dorian Gray attends a performance of Richard Wagner's opera, Tannhäuser, and is explicitly said to personally identify with the work.
A British biographical film, Wilde, with Stephen Fry in the titular role, was released in 1997.

"Why was I born with such contemporaries?"

re-cover nr.51

De Stijl - Paul Overy

These pictures were taken in Amsterdam in 2009.

Paul Overy was a British art historian and critic. De Stijl was first published in 1969, as a short study of De Stijl (literally "the style"). A larger study of the art movement was published in 1991.

Theo van Doesburg and Piet Mondriaan, among others, were founders of De Stijl in 1917. Gerrit Rietveld became a member of the movement in 1919.

re-cover nr.50

Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo - Christiane F.

This photo was taken in Amsterdam in 2009.

We Children from the ZOO Station (English translation) is an autobiographical book based upon interviews with the German teen drug addict Christiane F. The narrative of the book is in the first person, but was written by two German journalists (Kai Herrmann and Horst Rieck) functioning as ghostwriters. The book was first published in Germany, in 1979.
The story was adapted to film in 1981, directed by Uli Edel, in which Christiane F. worked as an advisor. The soundtrack is by David Bowie, who appears in the film as himself, while giving a concert.

re-cover nr.49

Les chants de Maldoror - Comte de Lautréamont

These pictures were taken in Amsterdam in 2002 (top) and in 2008 (bottom).

Comte de Lautréamont was the pen name of Isidore Lucien Ducasse, an Urugaian-born French poet.
Les chants de Maldoror (Maldoror, in English) was first published in 1869.
An edition of Les chants de Maldoror, published in 1934, was ilustrated by Salvador Dalí. René Magritte also ilustrated the book for a 1946 edition.

re-cover nr.48

Against Interpretation - Susan Sontag

This picture was taken in Amsterdam in 2007.

Susan Sontag was an American philosopher and author.
Against Interpretation was first published in 1966.

"Interpretation is the revenge of the intellect upon art. Even more. It is the revenge of the intellect upon the world. To interpret is to impoverish, to deplete the world - in order to set up a shadow world of 'meanings'."

re-cover nr.47

Thinking About Exhibitions - Edited by Reesa Greenberg, Bruce W. Ferguson, Sandy Nairne

This picture was taken in Amsterdam in 2009.
Reesa Greenberg is a Canadian writer and art critic, Bruce W. Ferguson is a Canadian independent curator and art critic, and Sandy Nairne is a British museum director and writer.
Thinking About Exhibitions was first published in 1996.

"The visitor is a body in movement."

re-cover nr.46

Bonjour Tristesse - Françoise Sagan

This picture of a Dior outdoor was taken in Paris in May 2008.
 
Françoise Sagan was a French writer. Bonjour Tristesse (Hello Sadness, in English) was first published in 1954. The title is derived from a poem by Paul Éluard.
In 1958, Bonjour Tristesse was adapted to film.
The words Bonjour Tristesse were also written on the façade of Siza Vieira's apartment building in Kreuzberg, Berlin.

"The one thing I regret is that I will never have time to read all the books I want to read."

re-cover nr.45

Babyji - Abha Dawesar

This picture was taken in Amsterdam in 2009.

Abha Dawesar is an Indian novelist.
Babyji was first published (in English) in 2005.

"I want to collapse my wave function into you."

re-cover nr.44

Less than zero - Bret Easton Ellis

This picture was taken in Amsterdam in 2009.

Bret Easton Ellis is an American author.
Less than zero, titled after the Elvis Costello song of the same name, was first published in 1985.

Less than zero was adapted into a movie in 1987.

"She laughs and looks out the window and I think for a minute that she's going to start to cry. I'm standing by the door and I look over at the Elvis Costello poster, at his eyes, watching her, watching us, and I try to get her away from it, so I tell her to come over here, sit down, and she thinks I want to hug her or something and she comes over to me and puts her arms around my back and says something like 'I think we've all lost some sort of feeling."

re-cover nr.43

On the Origin of Species - Charles Darwin

These pictures were taken in Paris in 2008.

Charles Darwin was an English biologist and author.
On the Origin of Species was first published in England in 1859.

"It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change."

P.S. Luis, esta é para ti!

re-cover nr.42

Crash - J. G. Ballard

This picture was taken in Paris, in 2008.
 
J. G. Ballard is a British writer. Crash was first published in 1973.
In 1996, the novel was made into a movie of the same name by Canadian film director David Cronenberg.

"After having...been constantly bombarded by road-safety propaganda, it was almost a relief to find myself in a real accident."

re-cover nr.41

Opera Aperta - Umberto Eco

This picture was taken in the installation "Infinity Mirror Room - Phalli's Field" (1965 - Yayoi Kusama), at the "Mirrored Years" exhibition in the Boymans van Beuningen Museum, Rotterdam 2008.

Umberto Eco is an Italian philosopher and novelist.
Opera Aperta was first published in 1962. The book was translated to English in 1989 as The Open Work.

"I would define the poetic effect as the capacity that a text displays for continuing to generate different readings, without ever being completely consumed."

re-cover nr.40

The Interpretation of Dreams - Sigmund Freud

This picture was taken in Amsterdam in 2006.

Sigmund Freud was an Austrian psychiatrist.
The Interpretation of Dreams (Die Traumdeutung - original German title) was first published in German in 1899.

In 1962 was release Freud the Secret Passion, an American film based on the life of Freud. Jean-Paul Sartre was involved in the script writing.
In 1945 Alfred Hitchcock directed Spellbound, a psychological thriller that highlights psychoanalysis merits. Salvador Dali designed the dream sequence.
Edward Bernays, Freud’s nephew, was one of the first to attempt to manipulate public opinion using Freud's psychoanalytical ideas on the subconscious.

"Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar."

re-cover nr.39

Ethica Ordine Geometrico demonstrata - Spinoza

This picture was taken in Amsterdam in 2008.

Benedict de Spinoza was a Dutch Philosopher of Portuguese Jewish origin. Ethica (Ethics demonstrated in geometrical order - English translation) was written in Latin and published posthumously in 1677.

"I do not know how to teach philosophy without becoming a disturber of established religion."

re-cover nr.38

Nana - Emile Zola

This is an i-zone polaroid taken in Amsterdam in 2003.
 
Emile Zola was a French writer. Nana is the ninth installment in the 20-volume series Les Rougons-Macquart, and was first published in book form in 1880.

"In my view you cannot claim to have seen something until you have photographed it."

re-cover nr.37

On the road - Jack Kerouac

This photo was taken in a subway station in Brussels, in 2007.

Jack Kerouac was an American writer. On the road is a largely autobiographical novel written in 1951 and first published in 1957.

re-cover nr.36

On the road - Jack Kerouac

This picture was taken in the Museum Boijmans van Beuningen in Rotterdam, in 2008.

Jack Kerouac was an American writer. On the road is an autobiographical novel written in 1951, and first published in 1957.

re-cover nr.35

The Possibility of an Island - Michel Houellebecq

This picture was taken from a plane, somewhere over Europe, in 2004.

Michel Houellebecq is a French writer.
The Possibility of an Island was originally published in French (La possibilité d'une île) in 2005.

"And love, where all is easy,
Where all is given in the instant;
There exists in the midst of time
The possibility of an island."

P.S. Gui, esta é para ti!

re-cover nr.34

Sex, Art, and American Culture - Camille Paglia

This picture was taken in Amsterdam, in November 2008. The drawing was made in 2004.
 
Camille Paglia is an American author and feminist. Sex, Art, and American Culture was first published in 1992.

re-cover nr.33

Neuromancer - William Gibson

This picture was taken in 2008, in Amsterdam.

William Gibson is an American-Canadian science-fiction writer.
Neuromancer is a cyberpunk novel, first published in 1984. The cover art of the first edition was made by James Warhola, a nephew of Andy Warhol.
Gibson has often collaborated with performance artists such as theatre group La Fura dels Baus.

"Lines of light ranged in the nonspace of the mind, clusters and constellations of data. Like city lights, receding..."

re-cover nr.32

La Maladie de la Mort - Marguerite Duras

This picture was taken in Berlin in 2005.

Marguerite Duras was a French writer and film director.
La Maladie de la Mort (in English: The Malady of Death) was first published in 1982.

"A writer is a foreign country"

re-cover nr.31

The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath

This is a damaged polaroid taken in 1999, in Praia da Barra, Portugal.

Sylvia Plath was an American poet and writer.
The Bell Jar is a semi-autobiographical novel, first published in 1963 under the pseudonym Victoria Lucas. The novel was first published under Plath's name in 1966.
The film Sylvia (2003) tells the story of Plath's relationship with the English poet Ted Hughes.

"I could feel the tears brimming and sloshing in me like water in a glass that is unsteady and too full."

re-cover nr.30

The Metamorphosis - Franz Kafka

This picture was shot in 2006, in Amsterdam.

Franz Kafka was a Czech writer, and The Metamorphosis (Die Verwandlung, original German title) was first published in 1915.

"You do not need to leave your room. Remain sitting at your table and listen. Do not even listen, simply wait, be quiet still and solitary. The world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked, it has no choice, it will roll in ecstasy at your feet."

re-cover nr.29

Der Prozess - Franz Kafka

This photo was taken in 2008, at the Museum Boijmans van Beuningen in Rotterdam.

Franz Kafka was a Czech writer, and Der Prozess (The Trial, in English) was first published in German in 1925.

re-cover nr.28

Casual Sex and other verse - Murray Lachlan Young

This picture was taken in Amsterdam in 2008.

Murray L. Young is a British poet and performance artist.
Casual Sex and other verse was first published in 1997. In that same, M. L. Young also released a CD of music-backed verse, Vice & Verse:

- I'm Being Followed by The Rolling Stones
- MTV Super Model
- The Pros en Cons of Superstardom
- Just Another Night (at the seaside)

re-cover nr.27

Oedipus Rex - Sophocles

This photo was taken in Paris, May 2008.
 
Sophocles was an ancient Greek tragedian. Oedipus the King (English translation) was first performed circa 429 BC.
Among other adaptations of the play, Igor Stravinsky composed an opera-oratorio for which Jean Cocteau wrote the libretto (1927), and Pier Paolo Pasolini made a film, Edipo re, in 1967.
In Freud's psychoanalysis, the Oedipus complex is also named after the Greek mythical character.

re-cover nr.26

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll

This picture was taken in Amsterdam in 2008.

Lewis Carroll (pen name of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson) was an English writer and amateur photographer.
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland was inspired by Alice Pleasance Liddell and was first published in 1865.

re-cover nr.25

Death in Venice - Thomas Mann

This picture was taken in Amsterdam in 2008.

Thomas Mann was a German writer.

Der Tod in Venedig (original German title), was first published in 1912. In 1925, it was translated to English as Death in Venice.

Mann's novella was adapted to film in 1971 by Luchino Visconti. It intruduced Björn Andrésen as Tadzio. In 2003, the feminist writer Germaine Greer used a photograph of him on the cover of her book The Beautiful Boy.

re-cover nr.24

O Medo - Al Berto

This drawing was made in Amsterdam in 2006.

Al Berto was the pseudonym used by the Portuguese poet Alberto Raposo Pidwell Tavares.

O Medo (meaning fear) is a collection of poems written between 1974 and 1997, and published in 1998. The first edition (1987) comprises only the poems until 1986.

"o início da vida esteve, talvez, na harmonia de uma gota de água que fecunda um grão de areia. jamais saberemos como nasceu o desejo do poema."

re-cover nr.23

The Illuminati Papers - Robert Anton Wilson

This photo was taken in Helsinki in May 2008.

Robert Anton Wilson (aka RAW) was an American writer. The Illuminati Papers is a collection of essays, first published in 1980.
In the nineties, RAW starred in two films from the Portuguese film maker Edgar Pêra: Os Túneis da Realidade (aka Who Is the Master Who Makes the Grass Green? - 1996) and Manual de Evasão (1994).

"I don't believe anything I write or say. I regard belief as a form of brain damage, the death of intelligence, the fracture of creativity, the atrophy of imagination. I have opinions but no Belief System (B.S.)"

re-cover nr.22

Point and Line to Plane - Wassily Kandinsky

This picture was taken in Amsterdam, November 2008.

Kandinsky was a Russian artist. He taught at the Bauhaus school of art and architecture from 1922 to 1933. There, the development of his work, particularly on point and different forms of lines, lead to the publication of his second major theoretical book, Point and Line to Plane (Punkt und Linie zu Flashe - original German title), in 1926.

re-cover nr.21

The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald

This is a photo of Casa de Serralves, taken in Porto in 2006.

F. Scott Fitzgerald was an American writer. The Great Gatsby was first published in 1925.
The Great Gatsby was adapted to cinema several times being the 1974 film of the same name the best known version.

"An author ought to write for the youth of his own generation, the critics of the next, and the schoolmaster of ever afterwards."

re-cover nr.20

South of No North - Charles Bukowski

This picture was taken in Amsterdam, November 2008.

Bukowski was a German American writer.
This book is a collection of short stories, first published in 1973 as South of No North: Stories of the Buried Life.
Some of Bukowski's writings were adapted to the cinema. Among those Barfly, from 1987, for which he wrote the screenplay, and Factotum, 2005, adapted from his novel of the same name.

"To do things, to be part of family picnics, Christmas, the 4th of July, Labor Day, Mother's Day . . . was a man born just to endure those things and then die? I would rather be a dishwasher, return alone to a tiny room and drink myself to sleep."

re-cover nr.19

Townscape - Gordon Cullen

This picture was taken in Amsterdam in November 2008. It's a reflection on an H&M outdoor featuring their collaboration with Comme des Garçons.

Gordon Cullen was an English architect and urban designer. Townscape, published in 1971, is a re-edition of The Concise Townscape, originally published in 1961.

"One contribution to modern townscape, startlingly conspicuous everywhere you look, but almost entirely ignored by the town planner, is street publicity. (...). And yet of all things, this is the most characteristic, and, potentially, the most valuable, contribution of the 20th century to urban scenery."

re-cover nr.18

In Cold Blood - Truman Capote

This polaroid was shot in Aveiro in 1997.

Truman Capote was an American writer. In Cold Blood, which Capote labeled a "non-fiction novel", was first published in 1966.
Capote's experiences while writing the story have been adapted into two films: Capote (2005) and Infamous (2006).

"Writing has laws of perspective, of light and shade just as painting does, or music. If you are born knowing them, fine. If not, learn them. Then rearrange the rules to suit yourself."

re-cover nr.17

Absolute Beginners - Colin MacInnes

This photo was taken in Amsterdam in 2006.

Colin MacInnes was an English novelist. Absolute Beginners, written and set in 1958 London, England, was first published in 1959. 
The novel was adapted into a musical film. David Bowie performed the title song and appeared as Vendice Partners.

re-cover nr.16

Das Kapital - Karl Marx

This picture was taken in 2008, at the Jardin des Tuileries in Paris.

Karl Marx was a German philosopher.
Das Kapital (Capital, in the English translation) was first published in 1867 and was partly edited by Friedrich Engels.

"Social progress can be measured by the social position of the female sex."

re-cover nr.15

Twee Vrouwen - Harry Mulisch

These pictures were taken in 2003, in Amsterdam.

Harry Mulisch is a Dutch writer. Two Women (English title) was first published in 1975. The book was adapted to film in 1979, under the title Twice a Woman, directed by George Sluizer.