LA SUBVERSION DES IMAGES: Surrealiosme, Photographie, Film. Centre Pompidou. (60 pages) In the words of Salvador Dali, "Surrealism found its most ardent ally in photography" and there's ample evidence in this catalog from the exhibition at the Centre Pompidou. Not only did the medium serve to chronicle the movement's formal gatherings, but as a subversive instrument of Surrealist exploration. In the hands of masters such as Henri Cartier-Bresson, Brassai, Eugene Atget, Man Ray, Lee Miller, Claude Cahun, Dora Maar, and others, the camera became a scalpel for dissecting reality's underbelly. Photographs revealed the "marvelous" strangeness of life. This book includes many provocative examples, from Brassai's haunting image of La Tour Saint-Jacques to Dora Maar's nightmarish Le Simulateur. Buy Now

DADA'S WOMEN. Ruth Hemus. Yale University Press. (250 pages) In the words of Salvador Dali, "Surrealism found its most ardent ally in photography" and there's ample evidence in this catalog from the exhibition at the Centre Pompidou. Not only did the medium serve to chronicle the movement's formal gatherings, but as a subversive instrument of Surrealist exploration. In the hands of masters such as Henri Cartier-Bresson, Brassai, Eugene Atget, Man Ray, Lee Miller, Claude Cahun, Dora Maar, and others, the camera became a scalpel for dissecting reality's underbelly. Photographs revealed the "marvelous" strangeness of life. This book includes many provocative examples, from Brassai's haunting image of La Tour Saint-Jacques to Dora Maar's nightmarish Le Simulateur. Buy Now

THE POSTHUMAN DADA GUIDE: Tristan & Lenin Play Chess. Andrei Codrescu. Princeton University Press (248 pages) In the words of Salvador Dali, "Surrealism found its most ardent ally in photography" and there's ample evidence in this catalog from the exhibition at the Centre Pompidou. Not only did the medium serve to chronicle the movement's formal gatherings, but as a subversive instrument of Surrealist exploration. In the hands of masters such as Henri Cartier-Bresson, Brassai, Eugene Atget, Man Ray, Lee Miller, Claude Cahun, Dora Maar, and others, the camera became a scalpel for dissecting reality's underbelly. Photographs revealed the "marvelous" strangeness of life. This book includes many provocative examples, from Brassai's haunting image of La Tour Saint-Jacques to Dora Maar's nightmarish Le Simulateur. Buy Now

DADA & SURREALISM FOR BEGINNERS. Elsa & Peter Bethanis. Illustrations by Joseph Lee. For Beginners Books (128 pages) In the words of Salvador Dali, "Surrealism found its most ardent ally in photography" and there's ample evidence in this catalog from the exhibition at the Centre Pompidou. Not only did the medium serve to chronicle the movement's formal gatherings, but as a subversive instrument of Surrealist exploration. In the hands of masters such as Henri Cartier-Bresson, Brassai, Eugene Atget, Man Ray, Lee Miller, Claude Cahun, Dora Maar, and others, the camera became a scalpel for dissecting reality's underbelly. Photographs revealed the "marvelous" strangeness of life. This book includes many provocative examples, from Brassai's haunting image of La Tour Saint-Jacques to Dora Maar's nightmarish Le Simulateur. Buy Now

MARCEL DUCHAMP: The Bachelor Stripped Bare: A Biography. By Alice Goldfarb Marquis. MFA Publications. (360 pages; $37.50) Ahh, Marcel.... M.D. Doctor of Dada & Surrealism. Joker, punster, prankster, art saboteur. Father/Mother/ Brother/Sister / Bride of Rrose Sélavy. Godfather of the Readymade, master of chess moves and movements. So many myths, so little time. Unlike the authors of previous Duchamp biographies, Alice Goldfarb Marquis aims at bringing to life the man and not the myths. Indeed, she gives dimension to the human figure who drew a moustache on the Mona Lisa. Duchamp's family, relationships, his works, his motivations are all explored in this richly detailed and fascinating portrait. This is the sur-REAL Duchamp. It's as close to the artist as we're likely to get. A brilliant bio. MFA Publications / Buy Now

ANGELS OF ANARCHY: Women Artists and Surrealism. Edited by Patricia Allmer. Prestel. (256 pages; $49.95) here is an extensive survey of women Surrealists, covering the early twentieth century to the present. It’s packed with 100 color images by thirty artists, along with illuminating essays. It was always ironic that a radical movement that attacked hierarchies was “blind to its own gender politics.” Indeed, no women artists were officially listed as members, and were often relegated to the role of muse. Of course, women artists contributed important Surrealist works, such as Meret Oppenheim’s fur-covered cup and saucer, the paintings of Leonora Carrington, Frida Kahlo, and others. They are all here, of course, but what makes this edition truly special is the inclusion of many lesser known, yet significant practitioners. For example, the American photographer Francesca Woodman, whose haunting self-portrait appears on the cover. Angels of Anarchy is an important work that sets the historical record straight, and introduces artists who have for too long been unknown. This collection plants the seeds for future books and explorations. In these pages, anarchistic angels rise up to make mischief. The art they’ve left behind is powerful, confrontational, and (to use Breton’s term) “marvelous.”
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WOMEN IN DADA: Essays on Sex, Gender, and Identity. Edited by Naomi Sawelson-Gorse. The MIT Press. (686 pages; $34.00) The cover art detail taken from New York Dada (April 1921) suggests a visual pun since women in Dada were relegated to a footnote in art history. This collection of provocative essays goes a long way toward correcting the record, as well as enriching it. It brings gifted women artists out from behind the mask of the muse and places them center stage, sans pedestal. The boys of Dada were certainly rebels, ahead of their time, yet not wholly "liberated." That's a polite way of saying they sometimes starred in their own misogynist dramas. Indeed, Dada often kept Mama in the kitchen (and closet), subservient to the male Papa-figure. This book shines new light on the accomplishments, struggles, and contributions of female dadaists such as Baroness Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven, Hannah Höch, Juliette Roche, Suzanne Duchamp, Sophie Taeuber Arp, Mina Loy, and others.
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DADA. Rudolf Kuenzli. Phaidon Press. Themes and Movements series. (304 pages; $75.00) If anyone doubts that Dada was absurdist at its core, s/he should eat these words written by Tristan Tzara and published in the Dada Manifesto (1918): “I am writing a manifesto and there’s nothing I want, and yet I’m saying certain things, and in principle I am against manifestos, as I am against principles.” (Not quite Oxymoronic, but close enough to tickle fancy dandies to death.) That surrounding the aforementioned core is a steel shell composed of anarchy and revolt is evident and on display in this most definitive book from Phaidon Press. Wasn’t it Freud who asked, what does Dada want? Well, Tzara answered "nothing," which means everything in Dada-speak. In short, Dada wants a world without Art. Isn't it ironic (if not a cliché) to note that we worship and covet Dada creations—and beautiful books such as this—when we should be out there burning down museums and galleries. Tossing Molotovs through the windows of publishers. Why are we passive worshippers and not Dada storm troopers marching on MOMA? Because Tzara's army lost its brave battles. It was swallowed by the great, wide-mouth bass of Surrealism, which was itself—ultimately—consumed by Advertising. Thus, today, we stand amid the ideological ruins, clutching the documents and trinkets of ancient Dada. All is not lost, however, for reading this might spark the realization that the war never ended and is awaiting resurrection. Dada-scholar, Rudolf Kuenzli offers up this comprehensive collection of documents and visual works, and delves into Dada territories rarely covered like Central and Eastern Europe, and Japan. Neo-Dada, too, including Okada Tatsuo who, in 1925 collaborated on a moveable assemblage, "Gate and Moving Ticket-Selling Machine." The book is filled with so many memorable wonders you'll wish you had two heads to store them in. www.phaidon.com / Buy Now

DADA: The Revolt of Art. Marc Dachy. Abrams / Discoveries Series. (244 pages; $12.95) Good things really do come in small packages. This slender little book measures a mere 6.9 x 4.9 x 0.3 inches, weighs less than 8 ounces, and is wham-packed with tantalizing text and illustrations. As far as introductory guides go, it's one of the best we’ve seen. It doesn’t tip its hat and suck its thumb. It doesn’t lecture. It doesn’t treat the reader like an idiot—even if s/he never heard of DADA (or MOMA for that matter). It pulls one in via an undertow. The surface of the sea appears deceptively calm. A clean, collage-like layout beckons... until—too late—you're in over your head, bombarded with shrieking DADA posters and rare, razor-sharp photos. A color swarm triggers eye-vibes—DADA is served! The book’s piercing overview is sprinkled with glistening gumdrops. Dachy delves into crevasses one might expect to find in pricey tomes thrice its size. You might say it’s a coffee table book for one's back pocket. You begin browsing, pause and lock in on, say, a robo-erotic photograph of Sophie Taeuber dancing at the Cabaret Voltaire. Oh Dada! You zoom in for a closer look and find Hugo Ball’s description: “…a dance full of splinters and bones, full of sparkling light, of penetrating intensity. The lines of her body were broken, ever gesture decomposed into a hundred precise, angular, incisive movements.” The next thing you know you’re lusting after Arps! The author knows which tidbits will hook his readers, and sends us down the rabbit hole, head-first. DADA: The Revolt of Art is one of those rare guides that both neophytes and junkies will cling to. Cunningly designed to “combat speed prayer tranquility,” DADA spreads the good word—revolt—like butter. Welcome to Dadaland! www.abramsbooks.com / Buy Now

SURREALISM AND PAINTING. André Breton. Introduction by Mark Polizzotti. MFA Publications. Distributed by D.A.P. (244 pages; $29.95) Originally published in 1928, this seminal work is credited with putting Surrealist art at the forefront of the movement. This was not necessarily the author’s intention, for Breton saw Surrealism as primarily literary and philosophical—an attempt to replace all "psychic mechanisms" and solve “the principle problems of life.” A tall, not to mention impossible, order. Yet he surpassed his immense talent as a theorist with his extraordinary capacity for promotion in this visionary work of criticism. Translated by the great Simon Watson Taylor, SURREALISM AND PAINTING features a provocative introduction by Mark Polizzotti which points out that Breton never actually defined a surrealist painting. The author’s approach to the plastic arts transcends the canvas. “It is impossible for me to envisage a picture as being other than a window, and my first concern is then to know what it looks out on.” That line is a seductive entrance into these essays on Picasso, Duchamp, Dali, Ernst, Masson, Miró, and others. This edition from MFA Publications is a must-have for everyone devoted to art history. Enter, but watch your step.www.artbook.com / Buy Now

L'AMOUR FOU: PHOTOGRAPHY AND SURREALISM. Rosalind Krauss and Jane Livingston. With an essay by Dawn Ades. The Corcoran Gallery of Art / Abbeville Press. (244 pages; $65.00) Ahh, mad love. It’s not just for springtime anymore. At first blush this coupling may seem a bit odd since photography was invented to record reality, not the unconscious. But from Surrealism’s earliest manifestations the camera was there; as both voyeur and mad lover. André Breton’s seminal surrealist novel, Nadja (1928) rose to delirious heights beyond its text thanks to the accompanying photographs by Jacques-André Boiffard. Photography did not simply give face to the movement’s practitioners and catalogue their artifacts and exhibitions, but actively participated in the creation of surrealist works. Recall the "Rayograms" by American photographer Man Ray. There were many others; André Kertész, Hans Bellmer, Claude Cahun, Raoul Ubac, Roger Parry, Lee Miller, to name a few. Even writers and poets such as Marcel Mariën took up the camera and went hunting for “the marvelous.” This gorgeous volume sheds light on the symbiotic relationship between photography and surrealism—technology and flesh—and chronicles the inspired orgy that resulted. www.abbeville.com / Buy Now

DADA: Zurich, Berlin, Hannover, Cologne, New York, Paris. Dorothea Dietrich, Brigid Doherty, Sabine Kriebel, and Janine Mileaf. The National Gallery of Art, Washington/D.A.P. (536 pages; $29.95) Whoa MOMA, look out… this is a mighty meaty paperback, stuffed with juicy morsels of dripping DADA; incendiary, flame-broiled in full color and spiced with rare photos, documents, posters and ephemera. Sandwiched with revealing essays exposing the renegade heart of DADA art. The whole book is lit from within, doused in hot oil—from Mona’s moustache on the cover to monstrous puppets hidden inside. It's a box of Crackerjacks with macabre prizes inside. The book features every Dada artist and writer from Z to A, Tzara to Arp, they all slept here. Ernst, Schwitters, Duchamp, and everyone in between. It's not simply a collage education, it's a Ph.D. in revolt. Dada was a gifted child, a bastard, a brat, born between the loins of anarchy. And this book is mother's milk for fanatics. Too dangerous for the coffee table, keep it away from the kids. DADA: Zurich, Berlin, Hannover, Cologne, New York, Paris is pure combustion. www.artbook.com / Buy Now

ANTHOLOGY OF BLACK HUMOR. André Breton and Mark Polizzotti. City Lights Books. (356 pages; $18.95) Praise City Lights for making this book available in English (and keeping it in print). Praise Mark Polizzotti for his superb translation. Praise André Breton for dreaming up this infamous anthology—a hand-picked menagerie of poets and writers who evidenced what he called "a superior revolt of the mind." They include obscure figures like Alphonse Allais and Christian Dietrich Grabbe to well-known (full-blown) surrealists like Leonora Carrington, Duchamp, and Dali. Young readers will (perhaps) be forgiven for thinking the term l'humour noir signifies jokes told by black stand-up comics, but here it refers to "gallows humor," dark irony, and macabre absurdist visions. Upon this anthology's original publication in 1939, some were surprised by the editor's choices (Nietzsche, the Marquis de Sade, Poe) but, in retrospect, Breton had his fingers on the pulse of black humor's amputated arm. The book comprises an all-star team of the avant-garde (Apollinaire, Baudelaire, Rimbaud, Jarry, Roussel—45 in all). Breton kicks off each selection with a brief, incisive preface and, frankly, his intros are half the fun.

Keep the Anthology of Black Humor on the table by your deathbed and prepare to die laughing. www.citylights.com / Buy Now

UNDERCOVER SURREALISM: Georges Bataille and DOCUMENTS. Dawn Ades and Simon Baker. The MIT Press. (272 pages; $38.00) I knew there was something different about this book when I first saw its cover. It features a photograph by Jacques-André Boiffard which I'd seen before. Only here it has been turned upside down, no longer depicting a seemingly lifeless nude woman lying on a bed, but a somnambulistic mermaid rising up from a limpid pool. But wait! Surrealism: desire unbound (reviewed below) reprints the photo in the same fashion! Perhaps Bouffard intended his image to embody both life and death? I leave it to readers to decide for themselves. One thing is certain: turning things on their head was exactly what Georges Bataille liked to do. Nobody understands this better than Dawn Ades—the Director of the Arts and Humanities Research Board Centre for the Study of Surrealism and Its Legacies at the University of Essex. In collaboration with Simon Baker, she has compiled a rich collection of essays, new translations, and incendiary visual gems. UNDERCOVER SURREALISM offers us a plate piled high with ready-to-eat surreal, fresh from the pages of Bataille’s incendiary journal, DOCUMENTS, which served as subversive ombudsman to the movement. Call it, radical-sneak (or literary terrorism), the magazine stirred violent debates. Its editor was a visionary/anarchist. He even did the unthinkable... attacked and satirized André Breton in a pamphlet called “Un Cadavre.” The cover portrayed the founder of Surrealism wearing a crown of thorns, while the text decried his "Papal" tendencies. Breton, for his part, liked nothing better than to find himself in the middle of a chaotic battle, the more outrage the better. DOCUMENTS was a worthy opponent, born to brawl and puncture icons. It also published some of the greatest artists, poets, and writers of the time (Picasso, MirÓ, Desnos, Masson, et. al.). This profusely illustrated paperback captures the cultural wars that swirled around Paris in the 1920s and brings Bataille’s ideas to life. www.mitpress.mit.edu / Buy Now

I AM A BEAUTIFUL MONSTER: Poetry, Prose, and Provocation. Francis Picabia and Marc Lowenthal. The MIT Press. (560 pages; $39.95) Here’s a book you can really sink your platonic false teeth into. Maybe a book only a DADA could love, or truly understand, but a book nonetheless that is ripe with words, exploding by chance and then regrouping… returning to eat their own definitions. Paragraphs populated with malnourished cannibals, words and sketches joined at the thigh bone and plastered with poems pulled out of a hat. Autobiographical tatters: “I don’t need to know who I am since all of you know.” And in a way we do, and so we peek behind the lines with voyeuristic eyeballs throbbing and imagine that “…Your charming little hand / Queen of pleasures / Was weeping like a dagger…” and discover heavy metal dreams wrapped in tissue. Insults and aphorisms, loathing Cézanne, glistening whims and riffs that cast off their typographic tux and gloves and get down in the gutter. “DADA is a magic lantern” lit from within and colorfully illuminated by Marc Lowenthal’s translation. As Arp said, “Picabia is a desperate case” and he was right on the revolver. The man was a collage at conception, born into a mix and match maelstrom. Destined to build word-bombs packed with nails. Watch the words as they race toward the exits. It’s as if the pages are on fire. And in I AM A BEAUTIFUL MONSTER they are. www.mitpress.mit.edu / Buy Now

SURREALISM: DESIRE UNBOUND. Vincent Gille, Jennifer Mundy, and Dawn Ades. Princeton University Press. (352 pages; $45.00) This delectable collection of essays and images delves deeply into the nature of surrealist desire. Radical, taboo, absurd, the veins of eros branch out in many directions. It focuses on seminal works by artists such as Duchamp, Magritte, Ernst, Dali, Bellmer de Chirico, Giacometti, Oppenheim, et. al. Beyond its provocative texts are many rare reproductions of surrealist manuscripts, letters, and books. Just try skimming through the pages and you'll soon find yourself seduced. Once immersed, the rewards are many, including illuminating transcripts of the surrealist's formal investigations of sexuality, at turns comic and visionary. As evidence of the latter, here's Louis Aragon (in 1928) on sexual equality: "For myself, nothing can be said about physical love if one doesn't start from the fact that men and women have equal rights in it." As for humor, the great Raymond Queneau responds in the negative to Max Ernst's question "Are you monogamous?", declaring that "No woman could satisfy me or make me monogamous. And I don't give a shit!"

From within these pages you can hear the tick-tock of an erotic clock.

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DISPLAYING THE MARVELOUS: Marcel Duchamp, Salvador Dali, and Surrealist Exhibition. Lewis Kachur. The MIT Press. (281 pages; $22.00) Of all the books reviewed on this page, this one is perhaps the most fetishistic... in the sense that it focuses obsessively on surrealist exhibition spaces. In the movement's later stages, artists abandoned the confinement of the traditional gallery space for what would later develop into "installations." The parallels between these exhibitions (the late 30s/early 40s) and the Fluxus installations of the 1960s are startling, although not covered by the author. Instead, Lewis Kachur provides a fascinating (and fixated) reconstruction and analysis of three events: the Exposition Internationale du Surréalism (1938), the Dream of Venus pavilion at the New York World's Fair (1939), and First Papers of Surrealism (1942). This is the closest we will ever get to actually walking through those art-historic environments. Displaying the Marvelous provides free passage back in time, and it's a trip you won't forget. www.mitpress.mit.edu / Buy Now

“Surrealist Movement.” Illustration by N. Conquest