Collector’s Guide to Trolls by Pat Peterson (1995)Courtesy of Climax Books
Climax Books’ 2022 Christmas Gift Guide
Ahead of Christmas, Isabella Burley talks us through some of the most covetable items from her online shop Climax Books – from a Heaven by Marc Jacobs T-shirt to a monograph of Somaya Critchlow’s darkly tender paintings
The perfect gift for your favourite pervert. Hardcore Crafts is the cult bible of erotic, playful and eccentric crafts, exploring and exploding taboos in new and exciting ways. Featuring vulva pillows, clitorial jewellery boxes and penis ceramics, it’s a craft connoisseur’s collection of provocative erotica.
For all the Cindy Sherman lovers out there, we have rare advertising campaign postcards from the artist’s dark and subversive series for Comme des Garçons.
DISKO by Andrew Miksys (2015)Courtesy of Climax Books
New Year’s Eve inspiration! Shot over a decade, Disko is the cult photobook documenting teenagers in rural Lithuanian nightclubs, discos, youth halls and former Soviet offices by Andrew Miksys. We have one rare signed copy left on the site, the only one in the world left according to Miksys.
Somaya Critchlow: Paintings by Somaya Critchlow (2021)Courtesy of Climax Books
The best book! A new monograph dedicated to the oil paintings of London-based artist Somaya Critchlow. Drawing upon her expansive knowledge of picture-making traditions ranging from the Renaissance to the Rococo, Critchlow’s mix of miniature and medium-sized portraits of voluptuous, nonchalant Black women raise questions about sexuality, feminism, pornography, beauty and power. “Critchlow urges us to join her in asking the questions that are raised by all that baggage. How do we, as women, honestly feel about our sexuality?” writes art historian Amanda Renshaw in the introductory essay Looking at Women Looking at Me.
Pussy CD by Kathy Acker (1995)Courtesy of Climax Books
The ultimate festive soundtrack and stocking filler! Kathy Acker’s experimental album Pussy, which also featured readings of Pussy, King of the Pirates which was later published in 1995 by Grove Press.
Smart Export stamp by Valie Export (2013)Courtesy of Climax Books
The tiniest present. A Valie Export stamp! Featuring her infamous 1970 work, Valie Export, Smart Export, this original stamp showcases the artist posing defiantly holding a packet of Austrian Smart Export cigarettes with her own face and logo mounted on it. Three years prior, in 1967, in a radical gesture Export shed both her father’s and husband’s names to take on a new identity, simultaneously announcing her presence in the art world.
Weekly Playboy (March, 1980)Courtesy of Climax Books
One of my favourite new finds from a recent trip to Tokyo! Obsessed with this cover. In this special edition of Weekly Playboy, the scandalous yet ever-popular actor, singer and filmmaker Shintaro Katsu cinematically captures his fellow actress, Mieko Harada, as they travel by jet and helicopter across Hawaii’s tropical landscape. Katsu remarks a certain ‘toughness’ needed for shooting in such locations; a toughness that is demonstrated by Harada as she is photographed, under his direction, firing live ammunition from a real machine gun.
Collector’s Guide to Trolls by Pat Peterson (1995)Courtesy of Climax Books
Festive Trolls! The ultimate book for the troll lovers in your life. With a focus on numerous different types of trolls, including Martian Girl, My Little Mermaid Troll, Surfer Troll and Madonna. Trolls were first created in 1959 by Danish fisherman and woodcutter Thomas Dam, and have become a worldwide, beloved phenomenon in the decades since.