Last weekend, ARTBOOK unveiled its latest bookstore at Hauser Wirth & Schimmel’s new Downtown Los Angeles space. The store offers around 3,000 titles on contemporary art and culture – including 500 monographs on women artists, and 200 critical texts related to Hauser Wirth & Schimmel’s current exhibition, 'Revolution in the Making: Abstract Sculpture by Women, 1947–2016'.
The emphasis on female-focused titles is something the ARTBOOK team feel particularly proud of: ‘It's been nearly ten years since MoCA’s seminal 2007 exhibition, 'WACK!', which traveled to MoMA PS1, where we opened our first bookstore. I have to tell you, when the show was at MoMA PS1, it was difficult to find books on most of the artists in the exhibition. This is truly the first moment in history when a bookstore can stock a wall of shelves solely with women artists. I want to celebrate these books and encourage our visitors to discover them,’ says Skuta Helgason, the mastermind of ARTBOOK, as he set up shop in preparation for the grand opening.
At four times the size than their PS1 store, ARTBOOK @ Hauser Wirth & Schimmel will continue to switch out a portion of its retail space to focus on a theme, updating their displays with new releases and essential backlist titles, overlooked and out-of-print catalogues and rare volumes from a range of publishers, in addition to the gallery's own exhibition editions.
ARTBOOK’s new location brings in some standout features from their existing Walker Art Centre and MoMA PS1 stores to Los Angeles. A wide range of magazines from around the world remains a core component of their thinking, as well as section of contemporary literature and highly relevant books on visual studies and critical theory, alongside stationery items and children’s books. Among the forthcoming spring releases is Alexander Girard: A Designer's Universe (published to coincide with the current exhibit at the Vitra Design Museum) and a limited collector’s edition of Joel Meyerowitz: Morandi’s Objects, which includes an archival digital photograph, signed and numbered by the artist.
Helgason says, ‘We’ve become accustomed to creating book selections that are both tapped into what’s happening nationally and internationally at all the major museums and galleries, as well as locally.’
The store’s flexible design – complete with mobile interior fixtures and bookcases, and moveable sales desks and display tables – has been led by Helgason, who has been developing book retail space for more than 40 years. ‘I ran my first concept bookstore, devoted to artists' books, in Washington DC in the 1980s at Washington Project for the Arts. After that, I spent seven years working as an artist and publisher in Berlin,’ he says. ‘I moved to New York in the 1990s, kept making books myself and working in book design, and then, in 2004, at the invitation of Klaus Biesenbach, who wanted a really deep, European-style art bookstore, I opened ARTBOOK @ MoMA PS1, which has evolved over the last decade from a small kiosk to a deeply stocked contemporary art bookstore with a separate international magazine store.’
When Hauser Wirth & Schimmel invited ARTBOOK to create the in-house store, Helgason drew on those four decades of experience to determine the essential elements needed to meet the changing requirements of their rich inventory. He continues, ‘The size and malleability of the space will allow us a great, really challenging flexibility for presenting books that we’ve never been able to work with before.’
At four times the size of their MoMA PS1 store in New York, ARTBOOK at Hauser Wirth & Schimmel will continue to switch out a portion of its retail space to focus on different themes
'We’ve become accustomed to creating book selections that are both tapped into what’s happening nationally and internationally at all the major museums and galleries, as well as locally,' says Skuta Helgason, the mastermind behind ARTBOOK
In Los Angeles, a wide range of magazines from around the world stays a core component of their thinking, as well as section of contemporary literature and highly relevant books on visual studies and critical theory, alongside stationery items and children’s books
The store’s flexible design – complete with mobile interior fixtures and bookcases, and moveable sales desks and display tables – has been led by Helgason, who has been developing book retail space for more than 40 years
INFORMATION
Saturday–Wednesday, 11am–6pm; Thursdays and Fridays, 11am–8pm. For more information, visit ARTBOOK's website
ADDRESS
Hauser, Wirth & Schimmel
901 E. 3rd Street
Los Angeles, CA 90013
-
Omar Degan to curate first Pan-African architecture biennaleThe first Pan-African architecture biennale has been announced, taking place in Nairobi in 2026; we caught up with its inaugural curator, architect Omar Degan, to discuss the festival's mission, vision and scope
-
Slate is an ultra-simple EV truck intended as an affordable and customisable workhorseSlate designer Tisha Johnson discusses her role at the US electric truck start-up, a company that wants its customers to have complete freedom of expression
-
Teenage Engineering switches to the dark side with the Field System Black seriesNone more black: TE’s studio in a pocket is reissued in a new matte black finish to match the cult audio company’s OP-XY sequencer
-
See the fruits of Niki de Saint Phalle and Jean Tinguely's creative and romantic union at Hauser & Wirth SomersetAn intimate exhibition at Hauser & Wirth Somerset explores three decades of a creative partnership
-
The glory years of the Cannes Film Festival are captured in a new photo book‘Cannes’ by Derek Ridgers looks back on the photographer's time at the Cannes Film Festival between 1984 and 1996
-
Taschen’s sexy record covers are hitting all the right notesTaschen has been through 50 years of album art for its latest tome, ‘Sexy Record Covers’
-
‘Dressed to Impress’ captures the vivid world of everyday fashion in the 1950s and 1960sA new photography book from The Anonymous Project showcases its subjects when they’re dressed for best, posing for events and celebrations unknown
-
Daniel Arsham’s new monograph collates the works of the auto-obsessed American artist‘Arsham Motorsport’ is two volumes of inspiration, process and work, charting artist Daniel Arsham’s oeuvre inspired by the icons and forms of the automotive industry
-
Era-defining photographer David Bailey guides us through the 1980s in a new tome not short of shoulder pads and lycraFrom Yves Saint Laurent to Princess Diana, London photographer David Bailey dives into his 1980s archive in a new book by Taschen
-
Inside Joan Didion’s unseen diary of personal relationships and post-therapy notesA newly discovered diary by Joan Didion is soon to be published. Titled 'Notes to John', the journal documents her relationship with her daughter, husband, alcoholism, and depression
-
Carsten Höller’s new Book of Games: 336 playful pastimes for the bold and the boredArtist Carsten Höller invites readers to step out of their comfort zone with a series of subversive games
