Immaterial Books

06/29/2025

Thank you, Ann Mitchell, for this wonderful overview of what we’re building at Immaterial Books.

Immaterial Books is dedicated to publishing photo-media-based works that challenge the boundaries between image, text, and theory. We see a growing need for books that resist classification—projects that inhabit the space between visual culture, social theory, and experimental documentary. We publ...

05/30/2025

Inspired by conversations with architect Jeffrey Poss, Phillip Kalantzis Cope’s new book captures the legacy of mid-century architecture in Champaign-Urbana.

05/27/2025

“A Desert Transect” found its way into

“A Desert Transect” is the second installment in O’Neill’s visual ethnographic Transects series, examining the intersections between social dynamics, urban life, and nature. This project is augmented by a sonic album, a music video created in collaboration with composer Wyoming Toad, and an extended dialogue and contextual essay. “A Desert Transect” offers an alternative approach to conducting and presenting social and visual research.

05/23/2025

Fresh from a sold-out week at the LA Art Book Fair, we’re now shipping the second—and final—printing of Mid-Continent Modern. The first edition disappeared in under a year, so don’t miss your chance to own this instant classic. The first 100 copies are hand-signed and hand-numbered—and they’re moving fast.

05/16/2025

Get your hands on the first copies of the second edition of “Mid-Continent Modern: The Champaign School of Architecture.”

05/16/2025

See our latest titles at the LA Art Book Fair—we’ll be here through Sunday! (Table F10)

ArtCenter College of Design - South Campus
950 S. Raymond Ave
Pasadena, CA 91105

Friday, May 16
11am - 7pm

Saturday, May 17
11am - 7pm

Sunday, May 18
11am - 7pm

05/15/2025

Countdown to the LA Art Book Fair at

Find us at F10.

New work from

Fair hours:
Thursday, 5/15 • 6-9pm opening night*
Friday 5/16 • 11am-1pm preview + 1-7pm public hours* Saturday 5/17 • 11am-7pm public hours*
Sunday 5/18 • 11am-1pm mask required hours + 1-5pm free public hours

Opening night is $30; public hours are $5. Advanced registration is highly encouraged due to limited capacity in the buildings and crowdflow throughout the different spaces. Tix at the door are subject to availability.
Location:

ArtCenter College of Design, South Campus
950 S. Raymond Ave
870 S. Raymond Ave
Pasadena, CA 91105

Design by

05/08/2025

“Machine Learning” probes the interface between human perception and artificial intelligence by applying post‑industrial image‑making techniques to industrial and rural landscapes.

Instead of relying on textual prompts, the project fed photographs into DALL·E’s first‑generation deep‑learning model—trained on some 400 million image‑text pairs— and challenged it to hallucinate entirely new interpretations of those scenes. These algorithm‑generated visions prompt critical reflection on emerging visual economies and the shifting locus of authorship: to what extent will creative agency reside with the human operator versus computational processes? What unforeseen visual realities might such synthetic re-imaginings disclose—realities beyond the reach of unaided human observation?

“Machine Learning” stages this inquiry, unsettling traditional notions of artistic production in an era increasingly defined by algorithmic vision.

Hand-numbered, edition of 100. Order online or pick one up at the LA Art Book Fair next month before they disappear.

https://www.immaterialbooks.com/store/p/machine-learning

05/02/2025

Rounding out our trio of new zines for LAABF, Immaterial Books presents Ryan Searl’s Primary Wires.

Raised on the endless plains, Searl follows the top wires from pole to pole, turning everyday infrastructure into moving horizons of connection and quiet power.

Hand‑numbered run of 100. Order today, or grab yours at the LA Art Book Fair next month.

05/01/2025

Untitled, Sylvain Biard (2018)

From: “BETWEEN US: THE DIALOGUES OF HUMAN REPRESENTATION”

Take the link in our profile for more information and to order.

   

05/01/2025

Using the notion of transect as a methodological heuristic, O’Neill has crafted a unique image-text-sound book that takes the reader through the phenomenal, multi-sensory experience of daily rides, through the profound intensity of summer heat waves to the height of snow-bird tourist season, from experiences of casual, normalized inequality and violence to the tranquility of post-modern urban mobility. Throughout, the reader experiences desert urbanism alongside the author through handwritten notes, sound recordings, and images.

Cities in the American Southwest uniquely function without a center, yet also contain tenuous sinews of infrastructure struggling to sustain a specific urban modality amid sprawling expansions resistant to traditional urban “densification.” O’Neill takes us on an autoethnographic journey, integrating images, reflective writing, and sound recordings to illustrate daily life along Phoenix’s transit routes. His work highlights the distinctive challenges and complexities inherent in desert urban environments, and more broadly in crafting unique socio-cultural documents of our times.

https://www.immaterialbooks.com/store/p/a-desert-transect

04/28/2025

🔔 ZINE DROP #2 FOR LAABF 🔔

You Don’t Need to Hurry Home borrows its title—and its mood—from a 1919 postcard mailed between two small Illinois towns. This century-old card shows a frost-lined road, crooked telegraph poles, and faint wheel ruts, all slightly askew. Jeff Smudde follows those tracks into the present, photographing the same kinds of rural backroads where wooden slats sag, signs carry bullet scars, and half-fallen fences still insist on marking boundaries. Every frame traps the scene in a quiet standoff between survival and collapse.

Hand-numbered, edition of 100. Order online or pick one up at the LA Art Book Fair next month before they disappear.

https://www.immaterialbooks.com/store/p/you-dont-need-to-hurry-home