Amatoria Fine Art Books

RARE SHARE: Aleister Crowley Thoth Tarot Cards, 1st edition, 1967. Designed by Lady Frieda Harris, Crowley’s lifelong friend and fellow mystic, this tarot deck took five years to complete. Based on Crowley’s 1944 Book of Thoth, he incorporated elements of science and philosophy into the traditional pictorial symbolism. For various practitioners and studies of the occult, this is find of a lifetime. For info, click the shop icon.

We have more Crowley collectibles in store, come see for yourself, you will not believe your eyes.
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DON'T MISS OUT.

We were on GoodDay Sacramento yesterday to promote our End of the Summer Sale this Saturday. 30% OFF storewide (except blue tags) and massive tables of $5 Books. Get here early if you've had your eye on something because that book will make a whistling sounds as it flies out the door. We love you, Sacramento, and thank you so much to for youre enthusiasm and great questions.

A local bookstore offers everything from rare books to contemporary titles! This bookstore is a women-artist-owned fine art establishment with a 40-year legacy in Sacramento. In 2020, during the height of the pandemic, they took over an existing bookshop at risk of closing. The store offers a diverse selection of books on creative pursuits from around the globe and hosts re...

Harry Crews lived hard, just like this SIGNED and inscribed 1st edition of Gypsy’s Curse, 1974. Clearly someone (ahem, Burt?!) was reading this book in the bathtub, at the dock, or during a because it’s got extensive water damage, but no mold. The king of Deep South grotesquery is oddly personified in this drunken, battered, but still somehow handsome copy. For those who love him, but can’t swing the $600 for a pristine copy, this is the deal for you: 20 whopping bucks and it’s yours. “If you love something, set it free, if it loves you, it’ll come back to you, if it doesn’t, hunt it down and kill it.”
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Kitty customer! Didn’t buy anything tho, didn’t bring her wallet.

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OUT OF THE BOX: Shepard Fairey’s Covert to Overt, Rizzoli, 2015. We Sactonians are suckers for Fairey, probably because of the gynormous Johnny Cash pasteup commenting on the for-profit prison system. How do you get away w stickin it to the Man? You get reeeeally good at it anonymously first. This book tracks some of Fairey’s work from 2011-2015, including the first major museum exhibit on street art at the Geffen, a mural in London for the 2012 Olympics, his sculptures, and his series of posters on the Standing Rock face-off between the Sioux and the Dakota Access Pipeline. Wherever there is injustice, Fairey is there in black, white, and red. $40. DM or drop in.
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🦍🦍🦍Guerrilla Girls: The Art of Behaving Badly, 2020. Is there anyone more badass and less acknowledged than the Guerrilla Girls?? This book presents the full history of the feminist vigilantes who have been calling bu****it on the art world since the 80s. Bonus: you get your own pop out guerrilla mask! $36, as new. DM or pop in.
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Vintage pulp Jack Kerouac & Tennessee Williams with expected melodramatic cover design. $15-25.
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DANCE! More Ballet Laughs by Alex Gard, 1946. The follow up to Ballet Laughs, a love song to famous dancers and their cohort by wartime caricature artist, Alex Gard. A Very Good First edition, $32.
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SOLD. 2-VOL SET of Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking Glass, Random House 1946, with the original illustrations by John Tenniel, Near Fine books in a Very Good slipcase. Do you remember the conversation with the Unicorn and the Lion? No one does! That’s why you need to reread. $80, DM or pop in quick, Alice never hangs around for long.
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Hey Pervert Friends! You’ve been asking “so where is this exceedingly hot beautiful collection of s**t you supposedly wrote & illustrated?” It’s here: The Canon of Aphrodisia limited edition box set has finally arrived at Amatoria and is indeed available for purchase. 12 naughty tales woven from the fabric of great stories, Miranda Culp & Jef Delman spent a few years exploring famous female characters with the question “how would these women misbehave if they had the chance?” Illustrated by and published by this set isn’t for the faint of ♥️ You have to come in and see it for yourself.
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Our two favorite Wills arrived in the store at the same time! A confluence of Wills is a portent of good things to come. Namely: our book, paper, and zine fair fast approacheth! Mark your calendars for August 3rd, and psst...wish our co-captain Miranda a happy birthday TODAY 👇🏽👇🏽👇🏽

  

PAPERF**K 2024!! AUG 3, 10-6p, Three downtown locations loaded up with zines, posters, vintage prints, ephemera, local press. Screaming deals on all things paper- come hang out with the cool kids. (Please share this post with your collager, collector, graphic designer friends!)
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Prep for Wed night film screening +artist talk w Unity Lewis. Pulling some deep cuts from the archive, gorgeous offset unlimited prints by Dr. Lewis (one SIGNED!), Raymond Saunders, H. Kofi Bailey, Elizabeth Catlett, and Bettye Saar. Inexpensive for art with a story behind it.

AC will be cranked, sangria will be poured, one book minimum to attend (posters count).
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Did you just scroll through a heap of heartbreaking, infuriating nail-biting posts to get to us? It doesn't feel terribly inspiring but this is precisely the time that artist, thinkers, activists, writers, and organizers go to work. If you're feeling at the edge of fatigue or paralysis, go sit at the knee of your elders. We're not the first to live through uncertain times.

Join us this Wednesday, July 10 from 6-8pm for an evening with the Godmother of African American art, Dr. Samella Lewis via her grandson, Unity Lewis. Unity will be offering an art talk on the life work of his grandmother and screening Eric Minh Swenson's 2016 short film, "Samella Lewis: Pioneering Visual Artist and Educator." Q&A with Unity to follow the film.

Dr. Lewis, an artist herself, worked tirelessly to promote and preserve the work of African American artists, including building the first press to offer offset prints of living African American artists' work, Handcraft Studios. As a special addition to this screening, Unity Lewis will be offering for sale limited offset prints from Dr. Lewis's print shop by artists including Bettye Saar, Elizabeth Catlett, and Raymond Saunders.

We will have AC, popsicles, cold bubbly drinks, and deep art medicine for your soul.

One-book minimum purchase to attend. Posters, cards, candles, tees, and bookmarks count, but please shop to support Amatoria in this very lean time. RSVP here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/samella-lewis-film-screening-with-unity-lewis-tickets-943049194527

COCKETTES PAPER DOLLS! Long out of print, a single box of these jewels materialized in the warehouse. The COCKETTES were professional debauchers, avant garde spontaneous performers, and fabulous dressers. Tap the shop icon to learn more, but don’t hesitate if it belongs in your library.

In an effort to retain some open hours over the next few days with Dante, we're implementing an early bird schedule! Heading to the lake or the river? Grab your beach read here first. Farmer's market? They've got your fresh ingredients, and we've got your exotic cookbook. Waiting it out in front of the air conditioner watching winter movies and knitting holiday sweaters? If you think we don't have your film, fashion and textiles books, you better ask somebody. Come early, come often, stay hydrated.

  

If you know, you know, but for those seeking...from the personal library of Psychic TV and Throbbing Gristle's own Genesis P-Orridge, available exclusively at the Mystique in Midsummer Solstice at the Cemetery event happening this Saturday, June 22, behold: The Spirit of Solitude: An Autohagiography Subsequently re-Antichristened The Confessions of Aleister Crowley (2 volume set)

First edition, first printing, 1929, London: Mandrake Press. Very Good, Hardcover, 4to. Original Japanese vellum and white buckram cloth binding, black titling and Crowley's self-portrait as "the Beast" to covers of both volumes. Gilt titling, volume numbers, and seven-pointed star design to spines. Covers toned and yellowed, more deeply on second volume and spines, corners bumped. Gilt top edge still bright.

Originally printed in an edition of 800 copies, this set is now so scarce as to be mythological.

V.1 : 284 pp, V.2: 307 pp. Illustrated with full-page black and white photographs plus several diagrams. Includes facsimile notes in Crowley's hand at the beginning of each chapter (stanza). Crowley intended this work be published in six volumes but the Mandrake Press eventually folded, and the project ended after the first two volumes. The material excised from later volumes was mostly related to Crowley’s travel adventures and is available nowhere else but the 1st edition.

Aleister Crowley, prophet or profaner, was an occultist, philosopher, ceremonial magician, poet, artist, author, and mountaineer. He cast so wide a shadow over western esotericism, you can't know the field without knowing him. The writings of Aleister Crowley became guiding principals for Genesis P-Orridge in their quest for true freedom of will, and here you, like Genesis, can meet Crowley as primary source and in his own words. From Aleister's pen to Genesis' ear, and now to you. But you know, do what though wilt.

$5500.

Saturday, June 12, 4-8pm

 

We were on TV talking about how small venues need funding. And they got Laurelin's name wrong. But hey, there's no such thing as bad press, right?

Up to $25,000 grants for cultural arts venues in Sacramento Grants of $5,000, $10,000, and $25,000 will be given to businesses such as music venues, art galleries, and bookstores

Short stories are ideal for summertime; it’s a rich dollop of literature you can devour in an hour. Peep these two Faulkner collections,
THE BEST OF FAULKNER: $23,
SELECTED SHORT STORIES BY WILLIAM FAULKNER, $20
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It’s a Kafka Bonanza!
AMERIKA: 1946, New Directions with cover design by Alvin Lustig, $132
SELECTED STORIES, Modern Library 1952, $20
THE TRIAL: Modern Library, 1956, $18
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Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, 1904, illustrated by John Tenniel & Maria Louise Kirk, published by Frederick A. Stokes Company. A Good/Fair copy of Lewis Carrol’s masterpiece. Contains 12 full-color plates, considerable wear, splitting to front gutter, a few pages starting at foot but holding. $80 to the first lucky DM.
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We have a luminescent, incandescent, enlightening selection of books on glass. Stained glass, Steuben, Venini, Gallé, Tiffany. Light + Color = Life.
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AMATORIA PRESENTS: WOMEN IN SURREALISM MAY 29, 5:30-7 local art historian and librarian extraordinaire Kathryn Hunt will be treating us to a revelrous romp with the Dada and Surrealism movements’ most brilliant, weird, and glamorous women. Join us as Kathryn takes us on a bizarro journey through the lives and work of artists like Remedios Varo, Leonor Fini, and Leonora Carrington. Admission is free w/a one-book minimum to attend, no reservations required. We will have snacks and of course, fabulous books on women artists. Share with your friends!
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COSMOLOGY OF KYOTO: A Visual Mindscape of Ancient Japan. How did this rare gem of early single-player edutainment gold cross our path? That tale remains a mystery, but we will tell you that this retro Japanese videogame is a stunning, historically accurate journey that immerses the player in ancient folklore, philosophy, and medieval architecture. As one of the earliest examples of videogame edutainment, Cosmology of Kyoto is lauded for its creepy beauty and its next-level graphics (for 1993). It's exceedingly rare to the point where those who have touched it vibrate with its energy (no really, we saw this with our own eyes). This is the post you want to share with your deep-cut videogame nerd friends, because just knowing about it makes you cooler. Click on the shop icon to read the full description. If you dare.

Just rewatching this awesome segment when we were featured on Rob on the Road. Please share this link with all your art-and-book-loving friends.

Amatoria Fine Art Books | Rob on the Road Dive into Amatoria Fine Art Books, a Midtown Sacramento treasure trove.ABOUT ROB ON THE ROAD---------------------------------------------------------PBS KVIE...

https://getmansvirtual.com/amatoria-fine-art-books/the-mighty-mongrel-mob-nation-of-aotearoa-new-zealand

LIVE NOW at the Getman's Virtual Book and Ephemera Fair:

The Mighty Mongrel Mob Nation of Aotearoa New Zealand, Jono Rotman, SIGNED.

A stunning photo essay on the biker gangs of the Maori indigenous New Zealanders, signed by the photographer to photorealist Robert Bechtle and author Whitney Chadwick. Click on the link to learn more.