Bondi Books News

We are happy to report that our trip to LA for photoLA was a resounding success. We were happy to meet old friends and make new aquaintances. We would like to thank everyone who helped and who bought books from us while we were there. You know who you are. Below are a couple of shots taken with an iphone.

Hong Kong Antiquarian Book Fair

We are very pleased to announce that we will be participating for the second consecutive year at photoLA 2009 held at the Barker Hangar, Santa Monica, Los Angeles from January 9 - 11. We will be showcasing a wide selection of our photographic literature and prints collection. If you happen to be in LA at this time or can make it there, we very much look forward to meeting you. The following images are from photoLA 2008.

Hong Kong Antiquarian Book Fair

We are very happy to announce that we will be exhibiting for the first time at the second Hong Kong antiquarian book fair the following weekend after photoLA. We are quite nervous to be taking part in our first major antiquarian book fair with some of the most well respected bookdealers from around the world. If you are in Hong Kong or can make it there please make the effort to visit the fair.

Held at the Exhibition Centre in Wan Chai, HK. Saturday 17th, Sunday 18th & Monday 19th January 2009.

We are very pleased to announce that we will be participating in the upcoming photoLA 2008 held at the Barker Hangar, Santa Monica, Los Angeles from January 10 - 13. We will be showcasing a wide selection of our photographic literature and prints collection. If you happen to be in LA at this time or can make it there, we very much look forward to meeting you.

We are very happy to announce that we will be representing the Japanese photographer, Koji Onaka, at PhotoLA 2008 with prints from his most recent series of photographs, Dragonfly. These prints will be available for purchase. Koji will be making the trip to LA with us and we have been able to organise for him to sign copies of Dragonfly (and some of his other books) in our booth from 2:30pm on Saturday the 12th. Copies are limited so please come along early.

Bondi Books Kichijoji Closing

After 4 and a half years of doing business in Kichijoji we have decided to close our business here and move to to the book town of Tokyo in Jimbocho. Our sales in our shop in Kichijoji have been slow to say the least and it now makes little to no sense to continue trying to do business here. We would like to thank all of our customers, especially our regulars, who have come and bought books from us over the past years.

Our new space in Jimbocho is much smaller than our current space and thus the shop and shop stock will be very different to what Bondi Books has been until now. We will only be selling rare and antiquarian books with a particular focus on photography, modern literature first editions, the beat generation, art, design, architecture, japan related material published in English, finely bound books and vintage childrens books.

To get an idea of what kind of books we will carry in our next space please take a look at our webshop.

More details as to where the new space is will be posted in January.

Happy New Year!

We had a very pleasant break over the new year period and were able to find more fantastic books to put in our shop and to list online. If you are in Tokyo and haven't visited us for awhile or have never been in, then now is the time. We are full to the brim with some great quality books. Books that are not easily found elsewhere. So come and have a look.

Camera Biyori / Life With Camera

We have a very nice one page write-up with photos in the new issue of Camera Biyori / Life With Camera with a particular focus on the photography related books we have in stock. Thanks must go to Eguchi san of Utrecht for the introduction.

Tokyo Jin

We have a bit of a write-up and a photo in the new December issue of Tokyo Jin which is now on sale. This issue is devoted entirely to the Chuo line which if you don't know (and it seems many of you don't) is the JR orange train that runs west from Tokyo, through Shinjuku and out past Tachikawa in Tokyo's far west. It appears the orange train is destined for replacement with a new sleek line of silver trains with an orange stripe. The Chuo line is notorious for suicides and also some amazing little towns, one of which is Kichijoji where we are located. Just 15 minutes from Shinjuku, although you wouldn't know it with the amount of people that make it to our shop... 15 minutes from Shinjuku, thats it! Get out of the Yamanote line and check out the Chuo Line. It rocks.

Megazines at Visionaire Gallery

We were approached by the Visionaire Gallery in New York back in June to submit some books and magazines for their Megazines Exhibition that was held over the summer. This exhibition has now been extended until December 21, so if you happen to be in the area of Mercer Street, New York, go and check it out!!

Foreign Books Bargain Sale

Happening this Friday and Saturday for two days only.

Japan's Foreign Booksellers and Distributors get together for this one time a year book event. An array of booksellers will be selling a variety of genres - Books on Asia, Visual Arts, Scientific Book, Literature (both classic and modern), Social Science, Learned Books, Mystery, Psychology, History and more, in a variety of languages including but not limited to - Chinese, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and English.

ALL BOOKS WILL BE OFFERED AT HEAVILY DISCOUNTED PRICES.

Held at the Tokyo Antiquarian Booksellers Union Building (Tokyo Kosho Kaikan). B1.

October 20 Friday 10am to 6pm and October 21 Saturday 10am to 5pm.

Tokyo Kosho-Kaikan Building

B1 3-22 Ogawa-cho, Kanda, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo

Tel 03-3264-8791 (Available only on event days).

Underground Book Cafe Event

Running for three days - Sunday October 15, Monday the 16th and Tuesday the 17th. Open from 10am to 6pm everyday.

This bi-yearly event brings together some of Tokyo's best Antiquarian booksellers. You will find an amazing array of antiquarian, rare and fine books of which most are art based. There will also be old Japanese scrolls, maki-mono, old Japanese books, modern lithographs, original paintings and much more.

Book Design Gallery held for one week from the 15th with a talk show from 3pm on the 15th. 2F.

Live musical show of Nostalgic Pop by the Black Ship Ladies and Ginza Quartet on the 16th from 7pm. Admission: 1500 yen.

Talk show featuring Japanese photographer Koji Onaka and others on the 17th from 7pm. Admission: 500 yen.

Held at the Tokyo Antiquarian Booksellers Union Building (Tokyo Kosho Kaikan). B1.

Tokyo Kosho-Kaikan Building

B1 3-22 Ogawa-cho, Kanda, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo

Tel 03-3293-0161

Bondi Books News Update August 17, 2006 at 5:25pm.

Dean Sameshima

We had the pleasure of meeting Dean a couple of weeks ago. I met him in Jimbocho and showed him around a couple of good bookshops after having a yummy lunch with him and my good friend Ryu from Kagerou Bunko. Afterwards Dean came back to Kichijoji to our shop and kindly signed a few of his self titled books published by Hysteric Glamour for us and also purchased a couple of photography books. We then took him to our usual haunts for dinner and a few drinks, yep, ohama izakaya and milk bar. It was certainly a great day and evening spent talking about books, art, photography and so on.

Dean Sameshima

Obsession, Retribution, Appropriation, Obliteration, Depression, Distribution, Confusion, Collaboration, Isolation, Annihilation

August 3 - August 26, 2006

Taka Ishii Gallery and gallery.sora. are pleased to announce a new project by Los Angeles based artist Dean Sameshima. Presently in Japan on a 6 month US / Japan Creative Artist Residency, Sameshima will spend his final two months working on an exhibition within the space of gallery.sora.. From Thursday, August 3, gallery.sora. will be open to the public during regular gallery hours (2-7pm) ; prior to this time, throughout the month of July, Sameshima will utilize the gallery as a space within which to create work. This working process will continue during August and visitors to the gallery may happen upon the artist at work, may find an installation in progress, or, perhaps, view a completed body of work; exhibition content will not be fixed in advance of or during the exhibition itself. There will be no opening reception; artist talk and a closing party to celebrate the conclusion of Sameshima's residency in Tokyo as well as the close of the exhibition, on Saturday, August 26.

Dean Sameshima's work is firmly rooted in a West Coast conceptual photographic tradition. Sameshima utilizes a conceptual vocabulary to mine intimate terrain. The artist's structural / conceptual devices include repetition, seriality and appropriation; a selection of past photographic series includes the documentation of anonymous landscapes and architectural facades (in fact sites of covert sexual activity), the re-photography of images published in fashion magazines (objects of idealized self-identification), as well as the appropriation of "self portraits" from internet websites.

Dean Sameshima's work has been featured in museum exhibitions including "Log Cabin", Artists Space, New York (2005), "Will Boys be Boys?", a traveling exhibition organized by Whitney Museum of Art curator Shamim Momim (2004-present) and "LA on My Mind : Recent Acquisitions," Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (2002). An artist's monograph, "Dean Sameshima" was published in Japan by fashion label Hysteric Glamour (2002).

Saturday, 26 August : closing party 6:00-8:00pm, artist talk : 7:30pm ~

Dean Sameshima blog

Signed copies of Dean Sameshima's book, published in 2002 by Hysteric Glamour are available at Bondi Books for 15,500 yen.