From the publisher: "In 2023, Swedish photographer Gerry Johansson roamed the state of Maine with a Rolleiflex, curious to make new pictures in a region of America he first encountered in the work of Paul Strand five decades ago — he found Strand’s views of New England 'boring' at the time — and also wondering, 'Why is American photography so focused on the west?' Johansson’s Maine echoes the formal restraint of his earlier books, notably American Winter, Spanish Summer, Meloni Meloni, and Pontiac, sequencing nearly 200 black-and-white duotone photographs alphabetically by their oddly poetic northeastern town names (Bath, Friendship, Purgatory, etc). Somehow, as in all Johansson’s work, none of the Maine pictures draws more attention than any other, and the flawless and playful compositions never seem to repeat — Johansson’s endlessly inventive arrangements of architecture and landscape orient the viewer in a specific geographic and cultural place while generously sharing his way of seeing, ambling, and thinking with a camera.

Gerry Johansson, (b 1945) lives in Höganäs, Sweden. He started photographing in the late 1950s and was a member of the Village Camera Club in New York from 1962-63. Since 1970 he has worked as graphic designer, publisher and photographer. His numerous photobooks include Amerika (Byggförgalet, 1998), Pontiac (Mack, 2011), Antarktis (Libraryman, 2014), American Winter (Mack, 2018), and Meloni Meloni (Self-published, 2020). His work is held in the collection of Moderna Museet in Stockholm, where he has had solo exhibitions. He has been awarded the Region Skånes Kulturpris and the Lars Tunbjörk Prize." Book of the day!

From the distributor: "Gran Fury (1988–95) was a New York–based activist artist collective that emerged from ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power), an organization founded in 1987 to raise awareness about the HIV/AIDS crisis in the United States through political activism. Named for the vehicle favored by the New York City police, Gran Fury formed to summon a sense of collective indignation. The collective’s innovative graphic design campaigns were mobilized in ACT UP demonstrations to awaken the public to the disdain, neglect and silence of Ronald Reagan’s administration during the epidemic. The group produced posters, newspapers, stickers, photographs, videos and billboards that were circulated to transform perceptions about HIV/AIDS, interrogate ineffective public policies and underreported government data, interrupt misconceptions disseminated by the media, confront the morality of religious institutions, and alleviate the stigma and discrimination faced by people living with HIV/AIDS. They worked closely with other activist groups, including the Silence=Death Project, whose posters featuring a pink triangle came to be a defining visual of the AIDS crisis. This richly illustrated catalog is a comprehensive survey of the collective’s body of work. It includes unpublished essays, historical interviews, rare pamphlets, photographs and ephemera that altogether chart the development of a new visual language for effecting social change. Gran Fury: Art Is Not Enough is an indispensable reference for the study of the intersection of activism and the arts in the late 20th century." Book of the day!