Taboo and sacrifice, transgression and language, death and sensuality—Georges Bataille pursues these themes with an original, often startling perspective. He challenges any single discourse on the erotic. The scope of his inquiry ranges from Emily Bronte to Sade, from St. Therese to Claude Levi-Strauss and Dr. Kinsey; and the subjects he covers include prostitution, mythical ecstasy, cruelty, and organized war. Investigating desire prior to and extending beyond the realm of sexuality, he argues that eroticism is "a psychological quest not alien to death.

Since its invention, photography has always been inextricably tied up with remembrance: photographers recall family, beloved friends, special moments, trips and other events, speaking across time and place to create an emotional bond between subject and viewer.

Forget Me Not focuses on this relationship between photography and memory, and explores the curious and centuries-old practice of strengthening the emotional appeal of photographs by embellishing them — with text, paint, frames, embroidery, fabric, string, hair, flowers, bullets, cigar wrappers, butterfly wings, and more — to create strange and often beautiful hybrid objects. This spellbinding book features color photographs of eighty such objects, extraordinary works of art — part memento, part Joseph Cornell — created by ordinary people from the mid-19th century to mid-20th century.

In addition, Forget Me Not offers an alternative way to look at the history of photography, a history that effectively excludes most of the photographs — candid views, family snapshots, and the like — taken since the invention of the camera. Noted photography historian Geoffrey Batchen adopts a different tone in this original and engaging book — a personal and speculative voice that speaks to the objects rather than about them while offering a visual treasure chest of both mysterious and beautiful images.

Forget Me Not is published with the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam and accompanies an exhibition of the same name that opens at the Museum in March 2004.

The magic of photography is its unique power to capture a moment in the past to be viewed in the present, to capture a subject suspended between life and death. This evocative, beautifully written catalog from Japan's Izu Photo Museum documents an inspired exhibition that looks into photography's mystical way of suspending time—with an innovative mix of photos from Japan and the West.

Even with the relatively recent inclusion of vernacular photos in ''serious'' photography collections, the study of the art form has remained almost entirely Euro-centric. Yet in Suspending Time, curator Geoffrey Batchen (a professor at City University New York) opens the door to using Japanese vernacular photos—and what a treasure-trove he's found!

Among the sections is one of memorial ''cabinet cards'' and funerary photos, from Mexico, France, the United States and Japan. A delightful collection of snapshots shows the shadow of the photographer; ''group portraits in which both subject and object are figured in eternal union,'' writes Batchen. He includes photos by professionals Lee Friedlander and Daido Moriyama to make his point.

With over 100 beautiful plates of cabinet cards, Daguerreotypes, photography jewelry, tintypes, Japanese ambrotypes, and Mexican sculptures. Includes essays by Batchen, Yoshiaki Kai and Masashi Kohara. In English and Japanese.

Contents:

Introduction; 1 Truth Under the Veil; 2 Resembling Sins: Monstrous Births as Moralising Emblems; 3 The Divine Works of God; 4 A Farrago of Medical Curiosities; 5 Finding Fault with Nature: Some Causes of Monstrous Births; 6 From the Womb to the Tomb; 7 Retrospective Diagnosis; Conclusion; Appendix: Human Monstrous Births 1500-1700; Bibliography; Index

Before publishing the sensuous and scandalous poems of "Les Fleurs du Mal", Charles Baudelaire (1821-67) had already earned respect as a forthright and witty critic of art and literature. This stimulating selection of criticism reveals him as a worshipper at the altar of beauty, illuminating his belief that the pursuit of this ideal must be paramount in artistic expression. Reviews of exhibitions discuss works by great painters such as Delacroix and Ingres in fascinating detail, and "Of Virtuous Plays and Novels" sees Baudelaire as an avenging angel in defence of true art. Writings on Poe, Flaubert and Gautier evoke a profound understanding of fellow artists, while his single excursion into musical criticism, "Richard Wagner and Tannhauser in Paris", displays an incisive awareness of the magical power of suggestion in music.

Bridging the worlds of high art and true crime, Exquisite Corpse presents a unique perspective on the most notorious unsolved murder case of the twentieth century—the bizarre 1947 killing of Elizabeth Short, better known as the Black Dahlia murder.

Unlike previous books on the Black Dahlia, Exquisite Corpse provides a detailed and compelling explanation for the unusual nature of this gruesome killing. Exquisite Corpse reveals, through visual comparisons and historical research, what seem to be profound connections between surrealist art and the Black Dahlia caseÑ-both before and after the murder. The evidence includes startling crime-scene and autopsy photographs of Elizabeth Short, rarely seen photographs by Man Ray, and surprising comparisons with a wide range of surrealist artworks. A Òweb of connectionsÓ indicates a direct link or one degree of separation between the alleged killer and a host of influential people in the arts and film industry in Los Angeles in the 1930s and 40s. A timeline provides a revealing chronology of events surrounding the murder.

Exquisite Corpse is a must-read for anyone interested in true crime, art history, Hollywood noir, and the infamous Black Dahlia case.

A collection of vintage Christmas cards for very bad little girls and boys.The Devil in Design is a fascinating, full-color compendium of extremely rare, late 19th and early 20th-century Krampus postcards culled from key postcard collections from around the world. Lavishly illustrated with over a 150 striking and stylized full-page examples, the book also includes a short introduction tracing the character's origin and its overwhelming popularity throughout Europe. In the Christmas traditions of Europe, the Krampus is Saint Nicholas's dark servant—a hairy, horned, supernatural beast whose pointed ears and long slithering tongue gave misbehavers the creeps! Whereas Saint Nicholas would reward children who had been good all year with treats, those that had been disobedient were paid a visit by the Krampus. The Krampus terrorized the bad until they promised to be good. Some he'd spank; others he'd whip, while others he'd shackle, stuff into his large wooden basket, and then hurl into the flames of Hell! Such scenarios were delineated by skilled and imaginative Old World craftsmen, printed on penny postcards and disseminated throughout Europe. The Devil in Design is the first English-language book to offer this breathtaking collection of the finest, rarest, and most visually-stunning Krampus cards history has left to offer. Full color throughout

This sequel to 2004's hugely popular (in multiple printings) The Devil in Design (featuring 18th- and 19th-century Krampus postcards) is a fascinating, full-color compendium of extremely rare devil postcards culled from key postcard collections from around the world and spanning approximately 1898 through the 1950s. Lavishly illustrated with over 150 striking and stylized full-page examples, the book is edited and designed by Monte Beauchamp, editor and designer of the popular graphic arts anthology, Blab!

Beginning in the late 19th century, images of the devil began popping up on postcards in Austria and Germany, and by 1902 became so popular they proliferated across all of Europe. American postcard manufacturers took note and jumped on the bandwagon, producing their own versions. These penny "dreadfuls" were used to promote a vast array of occasions and products—from festive holiday celebrations, such as Halloween and Christmas (in Europe), to popular household products such as furnaces, chili peppers, and insecticides. More than just modest mail pieces, devil postcards were often composed by skilled graphic designers, illustrators, and renowned artists. Devilish Greetings presents over 150 full-color examples of these exquisite cards, culled from the finest postcard collections throughout the world. 150+ full-color illustrations

Consumers embrace the skull: Nike, Calvin Klein, Zippo, and Crystal Head Vodka feature them as product lines. Skulls adorn artwork, sneakers, candy, skateboards, jewelry, and even wallpaper. The skull is everywhere in pop culture! Never before has a book addressed the skull as a cover motif during the Golden Age of American publishing. Countless skull-themed comic book, pulp, and paperback covers appeared from the 1930s through the mid-50s. Popular Skullture assembles over 160 of the creepiest, oddest, and downright weirdest skull covers, edited and designed by award-winning art director Monte Beauchamp—with an introduction by graphic design luminary Steven Heller.

This epic cultural and historical odyssey unearths the full influence of occult traditions on rock and roll — from the Beatles to Black Sabbath — and shows how the marriage between mysticism and music changed our world.

From the hoodoo-inspired sounds of Elvis Presley to the Eastern odysseys of George Harrison, from the dark dalliances of Led Zeppelin to the Masonic imagery of today’s hip-hop scene, the occult has long breathed life into rock and hip-hop—and, indeed, esoteric and supernatural traditions are a key ingredient behind the emergence and development of rock and roll. 

With vivid storytelling and laser-sharp analysis, writer and critic Peter Bebergal illuminates this web of influences to produce the definitive work on how the occult shaped — and saved — popular music.

As Bebergal explains, occult and mystical ideals gave rock and roll its heart and purpose, making rock into more than just backbeat music, but into a cultural revolution of political, spiritual, sexual, and social liberation.