Manhattan is home to a host of independent booksellers who offer illustrated books sure to stimulate the eye and the spirit – especially as the Holidays loom large. Today, DART tags some of the best places to get that special gift for the bibliophile in your life. Leading the list are a few books signings by noted artists and photographers.

Illustration, left, by Istvan Banyai, courtesy the artist.

BOOK SIGNING AND DISCUSSION

Louise Lawler

Twice Untitled and Other Pictures  (MIT Press 2006)

Tuesday, December 12, 7 p.m.

192 Books

192 Tenth Avenue at 21st Street, New York

Louise Lawler and Helen Molesworth (curator of Lawler’s solo exhibition at the Wexner Center for the Arts, host a discussion about Twice Untitled and Other Pictures. The book Lawler’s relationship to sculpture, her long history of collaborative projects, her production of such ephemera as napkins, matchbooks and announcement cards, and the steady political dimension of her work—which culminated most recently in works that are deeply critical of the American invasion of Iraq.

Please call 212.255.4022 for reservations.

RECEPTION AND BOOK SIGNING

Thomas Woodruff

Freak Parade (Hardy Marks, 2006)

Wednesday, December 13, 6-9 p.m.

The New York Academy of Art

111 Franklin Street, New York

This collection of paintings by the chair of the BFA Illustration and Cartooning Department at School of Visual Arts is best summed up by Woodruff in the Introduction: “This book is dedicated to all those irregulars in shape or spirit – you know who you are.”

Please RSVP 212-592-2160 or twoodruff@sva.edu

BROOKLYN MEGA-SIGNING

Wednesday, December 13, 6:00–9:00 p.m.

powerHouse Arena

37 Main Street, Brooklyn

To celebrate the launch of the powerHouse Arena, all are invited to the annual holiday book signing extravaganza, featuring personal appearances by authors and artists.

Please RSVP 212-604-9074, x308 or laura@powerHouseBooks.com

BOOK SIGNING AND FASHION SPOTTING

Dashwood Books

33 Bond Street (between Broadway and Lafayette), New York

Tuesday, December 19, 5-8 p.m.

The Catwalk Cats, by Grace Coddington (Creative Director of American Vogue) and power hairstylist Didier Malige (Steidl, Edition 7L, 2006). This book records the authors’ 20-year relationship through photographs (Malige's) and drawings (Coddington's) that entertainingly document their private lives and their work in fashion through the eyes of their cats.

For information: 212-387-8520

FOR KIDS WHO LOVE DOGS

William Wegman

Alphabet Soup (DVD)

Tuesday, December 19, 7:00 p.m.

Barnes & Noble Chelsea, 675 Sixth Avenue at 21st Street, New York [definitely not an indy, but read on]

The author of books featuring his Weimaraner dogs in costume will be signing a DVD in which Fay Ray and her offspring teach pre-schoolers the alphabet. It has been reported elsewhere that Mr. Wegman, who lives nearby, often brings a couple of his models to his signings.

For information: 212-727-1227

MANHATTAN’S BEST SHOPS FOR ILLUSTRATED BOOKS AND GIFTS

Dashwood Books

33 Bond Street (between Broadway and Lafayette)

When David Strettell (formerly Cultural Director at Magnum Photos) opened this photography-only bookstore in September 2005, he made one of Nolita’s best streets a little better. Since then, a good third of the north side of the block has been replaced by Ian Shrager’s 40 Bond Street condominiums. But if you pick your way through scaffolding and construction vehicles, you’ll find a bookstore that carries contemporary titles from Japan, the Netherlands, Australia, and the USA. In this warm, minimalist-designed shop, books are displayed as objects, face forward on shelves. It’s a place for booklovers who respond to the touch and feel of paper and bindings as well as the design and content. There are limited editions going for thousands of dollars, but you’ll find new books from $16 to $250. And you can get hard-to-find periodicals such as End of Rainbow, the influential Japanese arts magazine. A few of David’s recommendations for holiday shoppers include: Come Again! by Robert Frank (Steidl); Manimal by Terry Richardson (Hysteric Glamour); 5 x 7 by William Eggleston (Twin Palms); and Domestic Scandals by Takashi Yasumura (Osiris).

For information: 212-387-8520

St. Mark’s Bookshop

31 Third Avenue

New York, NY 10003

If you get hung up at the towering display of illustrated books in the front of the shop, you might miss some of the features that make this a haven for book freaks. First, the art and architecture magazines to the right of that display. As well as Colors and European Painters, you’ll find Monitor, Pin-Up and many other unusual arts periodicals. Journals and zines occupy a separate alley in the back, with a wall of mainstream and offbeat periodicals. Smack in the middle of the store is a podium with a stool, and very good lighting, where a visitor can heft up and peruse a 20-lb. art book or a stack of slim poetry books. From mainstream (Francesca Woodman, Phaidon) to modestly subversive (David Wojnarowica: A Definitive History of Five or Six Years on the Lower East Side, Semiotext[e]) to your reporter’s fave, which appealed to her better nerd genes (Overlook: Exploring the Internal Fringes of America With the Center for Land Use Interpretation, Metropolis, 2006), this going-on 40 mainstay of the LES is as eclectic as it is timely.

Just arrived:

Stylepedia: A Guide to Graphic Design Mannerisms, Quirks, and Conceits (Chronicle Books, 2006) by Steven Heller and Louise Fili

Cry for Help: 36 Scam E-Mails from Africa (Ginko Press. 2006) by Henning Wagenbreth

For information: 212-260-7853

Giant Robot

437 East 9th Street 

A few blocks away, but worlds apart, this bookstore-gallery is the place to satisfy your inner child. An offshoot of the West Coast original, founded in the mid-‘90s by Eric Nakamura and Martin Wong, Giant Robot helped usher in an era of fascination with Asian pop ephemera and cool stuff. Illustration and photography books that you won’t see anywhere else are stacked alongside colorful and often tiny stationery products and action toys. It’s also a great place to pick up artist-designed T-shirts and canvas tote bags. The gallery is currently showing folk-art inspired paintings on wood by Korean-born Jeana Sohn that depict adolescents frozen in time among birds, insects, and flowers.

For information: 212-674-GRNY

New York Central Art Supply

62 Third Avenue, at 11th Street, New York

If you’re looking for unusual artist’s sketchbooks, make New York Central Art Supply your destination. On the main floor of this family-owned store is an array of blank books for every medium, with covers and bindings of all kinds. The shop is known for its custom made products for artists; they still stock a brush fabricated to meet Willem de Kooning’s painting style. Browse through the hundreds of artist’s sketchbooks on display and your imagination will take flight. The plainest, with chipboard covers held in place with metal rings, contains super-deluxe watercolor paper. The smallest, 1-3/4” x 3”, has Japanese art paper covers would be ideal for a little flip book. Small, medium, large, and colossal, there’s one for every artist or journal-ist.

For information: 212-473-7705

Aperture Book Center and Gallery

547 West 27th Street, 4th floor

When Aperture Foundation to its new headquarters in Chelsea, the formerly funky bookstore, with backlist titles jumbled in alphabetical order among shiny new examples, went ultra-contemporary. Meaning: the only books you’ll find on it’s sparely arranged shelves are frontlist. But if you want something else, you can order online from one of the laptops conveniently located in the lounge-like setting. If a limited-edition print or portfolio is what you’re there for, the helpful staff will show you what’s available in a serene gallery area devoted to prints. And unless there’s an installation underway, there’s always an exhibition on view. Aperture continues its long-standing holiday sale, with books 30% off, and magazine subscriptions 50% off.

For information: 212-505-5555

Printed Matter

195 Tenth Avenue, New York, NY 10011

In conjunction with the exhibition at Printed Matter, the artist/duo Ligorano/Reese will launch their hyper-correct gift wrap paper. Entitled The Party’s Over, this silver and gold currency foil gift wrap paper highlights the scandals of the Bush administration. The paper uses reproductions of Exhibit A evidence from the administration's heaviest hitters, including facsimiles of Jack Abramoff’s American Express expense records and E-mails; indictments of reporter Judith Miller and Vice President chief of staff Lewis Scooter; email correspondence from Michael “Brownie” Brown; and checks from Jeffrey Skilling and Ken Lay, among others. The paper sells for $4 [or $25 when signed by the artists].

For information: 212-925-0325

International Center of Photography Museum Store

1133 Ave of the Americas at 43rd Street

This well-stocked photography bookstore is increasingly crowded with gift-y items – not necessarily a bad thing at this time of year. Its minuscule confines are stacked high with monographs by photographers A to Z; anthologies like The Photobook: A History Vol. 2 by Gerry Badger and Martin Parr; collaborations like Chicago: Everything That Happened, Happened Here First by Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin; and ICP exhibition catalogs, including Ecotopia: The Second ICP Triennial of Photography and Video. There are DVDS on everything from how William Eggleston works to Michael Lesy’s Wisconsin Death Trip. You’ll also find some uncommon titles, including Farwell Photography (Power Shovel), a reinterpretation of Daido Moriyama’s seminal 1972 publication, Bye, Bye Photography, Dear. The ways in which photographs and the subject itself can be made into gift items is mind-boggling. But this reporter’s favorite gift book has to be Faces by François Robert. Forget the man in the moon; twenty years ago, the Swiss photographer discovered a face in a padlock, and the rest, as they say…

For information: 212-857-9725

THE USUAL SUSPECTS

Whitney Museum of American Art

945 Madison Avenue at 75th Street, New York

Bookstore in lobby; downstairs gift shop available with museum admission

Metropolitan Museum of Art

1000 Fifth Avenue at 82nd Street, New York

Lobby gift shop

MoMA

11 West 53 Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues, New York

Bookstore is located on second floor of museum, available with museum admission

MoMA Design Store

44 West 53 Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues, New York

MoMA Design Store, Soho81 Spring Street, New York