If you’ve spent any time perusing the art sections of bookstores, chain or independent, you’ve noticed the explosive growth in recent years of books on street, graffiti and stencil art and artists from around the world. This includes new editions of classic 1980s stalwarts like “Subway Art.” Fans and practitioners having trouble keeping up with the dizzying whirlwind of full-color NYC graffiti books and their far-flung ilk—a post-Banksy publishing cottage industry, from reputable art houses to DIY vanity jobs—might want to visit Powell’s Bookstore Hyde Park, which always has more than a couple dozen new, used and remaindered titles in stock. While you can’t underestimate publishers’ preoccupation with outlaw mystique to help fuel profits—”exit through the gift shop” indeed—most books can be found here at discount prices. Along with recent standards like Nicholas Ganz’s huge, protean “Graffiti World“ series, they include “Concrete Messages: Street Art on the Israeli-Palestinian Separation Barrier,” “Icepick: Icelandic Street Art,” “Stay High 149: Voice of the Ghetto” and “Street Art and the War on Terror.” Excepting local Josh MacPhee’s pioneering “Stencil Pirates” (if you can find it), Chicago’s barely represented on the shelves. Get working, Elisa Harkins!
Hyde Park, 1501 East 57th (773)955-7780 2850 North Lincoln (773)248-1444 powellschicago.com
