Hot book alert! 'Rashid Johnson: A Poem for Deep Thinkers'

Featured spreads are from the catalog to Rashid Johnson’s critically acclaimed, three-decade-spanning retrospective on view now at the Guggenheim Museum, en route to Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth and MCA Chicago, 2026–2027. Spanning from Johnson’s early self-portraits to his site-specific installations, this beautifully produced volume, printed with gold block edges, takes its title from a poem by Amiri Baraka and features writings by curators Naomi Beckwith and Andrea Karnes, Guggenheim Director Mariët Westermann and a host of luminaries including Nana Adusei-Poku, Hendrik Folkerts, Tiona Nekkia McClodden and Kevin Quashie, in addition to an interview with Odili Donald Odita. Beckwith quotes the artist: “The subject of my work is freedom.” But she distinguishes this statement from the work’s purpose. “He has learned … that the instrumentalization of Black artists’ work toward the purpose of freedom rarely ends well. The purpose of his work is to help him walk the razor’s edge between dichotomies—being and nonbeing, community and individualism, past and future, particularities and capaciousness—and to give form and format to a way of both seeing the world and being in a world of infinite, intertwining possibilities. For Johnson, freedom means an autonomous zone of uninhibited creativity, a tapping into an unconscious flow and getting ‘lost’ in that; of being removed from instrumentalization. … As a scholar of Black cultural history, from slave narratives to Afrofuturism, from Beat poetry to hip-hop, Rashid Johnson is familiar with the neutering effects of Black resistance and brilliance when it is absorbed and packaged by a dominant culture: to be captured is a fate far worse than death.”

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Published by Guggenheim Museum, 2025

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Located in the heart of Chelsea, 192 Books is a general interest bookstore featuring key works of literature and history, art and criticism, the social and natural sciences, travel and children's books, and more. 192's selection includes a wide range of recent titles and past best-sellers, as well as selected rare and out of print books. 192 Books hosts an extremely extensive series of readings, signings, group readings and discussions by important writers from the U.S. and abroad. >>visit bookstore website

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In 1928, Albert Skira laid the foundations of his publishing house. During these early years, his determination and passion led him to work with the greatest artists, from Picasso and Matisse to the surrealists. His aim was to create, akin to a Parisian Salon, a space for conversations, encounters and exchanges. The creation of these early editorial successes was the natural outcome of a shared desire to explore the mystery of art.
After nearly a hundred years, Skira remains an open house to artists, free to express themselves and to discover new ways to narrate their stories. This unique creative atmosphere leads to editorial projects of the highest quality, marked by academic rigour, interpretative audacity, impeccable standards of production and printing and originality in both imagery and text.
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Shop By Color	Black Art & Culture	Women Artists	Illustrated Literary Classics
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