What a fantastic evening! Good food, good drink, good friends, and a great cause. Bookmeat was a success on many levels. We’re so grateful for everyone that came out and showed their love for Side Street. For those who were “there in spirit,” here’s a little 2 minute video of what went down @ Bookmeat. Enjoy.

Martin Kersels gave us his 1996 McMaster-Carr catalog! Oh my god, I’m literally trembling. This is a piece of art history, folks. This is THE catalog Martin used & consulted whilst constructing most of his early contraptions, sculptures, and installations. It also includes a (partial) list of the things he’s ordered from this catalog… many of which are immediately identifiable to fans of Martin’s work. Thanks Martin, this is amazing!

Michael Dee contributed a copy of “Fortunate Son,” the unauthorized and unflattering bio of George W. Bush (remember him?). Tucked inside is a beautiful pencil drawing by Michael of a supersonic F-102 Delta Dagger Interceptor — George’s training aircraft from his Air National Guard days.

Artist Jean Lowe contributed a copy of “Diet for a Small Planet,” a book that she read as a child which had a huge influence on her art career. But wait! When we say “copy” of the book, It’s not the kind of “copy” you’re thinking about… it’s a papier-mache copy of the book!

Did you know that Mark has the most beautiful handwriting we’ve ever seen? You’ve got to see it to believe it… it’s like 18th century penmanship. Crazy. Mark contributed a copy of “Black Like You,” a history of blackface & whiteface in American history. Included is a hand-written note by Mark with beautiful doodle drawings in the margins. We love you, Mark… thanks!

Andrea Bowers donated an enhanced version of the “Earth First Direct Action Manual.” Andrea’s work for the past 5 years of so has investigated the strategic use of both violence & non-violence in civil disobedience. This could be yours if you come to Bookmeat.

We’re blown away by Carmen’s amazing & hand-made book: full of portraits she did of characters whilst watching the Lord of the Rings trilogy! Holy fan art, Batman! Life and art intertwined — a day of watching movies beautifully recorded by Carmen for Bookmeat. This could be yours… if you come to Bookmeat!

Artist Kim MacConnel gave us a treasured copy of Mythologies by Roland Barthes that he kept in the trunk of his first car: a 1967 Citroen. Or, is it a replica of a long-lost favorite book that (you guessed it) was kept in the trunk of MacConnel’s car? When you read his explanatory note tucked inside, it actually makes a whole lot of sense. Includes simulated grease stains, hand-written notes, a photo of MacConnel’s first car, and a Citroen rubber gasket in original packaging.

Kim MacConnel is a San Diego based painter and seminal member of the Pattern & Decoration movement. His work is trademarked with brightly colored, loosely rendered patterns borrowed from other cultures or invented, as well as cartoonish clip-art images of contemporary American life and technology. Since the mid 70s, he has been educating students at University of California in San Diego where he has recently retired. He is represented by Rosamund Felsen Gallery in Santa Monica.

The books for Bookmeat are steadily coming in. We’re speechless by the outpouring of support from the artworld’s best and brightest. We asked artist for their favorite book. What we’ve been getting (in many cases) are original artworks made out of their favorite books.

Case in point: Christopher Russell. 2009 was a pretty darn incredible year for Christopher, starting off with his first ever solo museum show at The Hammer. Artillery Mag summed things up nicely, “Christopher Russell is everywhere these days. In order to catch up with him, you may have to stalk him.”

For Bookmeat, Christopher donated a dog-eared and heavily-annotated copy of Les Chants de Maldoror by Comte de Lautréamont — the vivid and violent 19th century poetic novel that Salvador Dalí, André Breton, Antonin Artaud, Marcel Duchamp, Man Ray, and Max Ernst each cited as a major influence on their development.

Christopher altered several pages with this shark motif… half way thru the book, the pages appear to have been eaten. Without giving too much away, Christopher’s “secret inscription” speaks of discovering and devouring this seminal proto-surrealist book during his formative years in Sacramento.

Written in 1869, one year before Lautréamont’s tragic and mysterious death at age 24, Maldoror’s lead character is a figure of absolute evil who is opposed to God and humanity, and has renounced conventional morality and decency. The book combines a violent narrative with vivid and often surrealistic imagery, and begins with a warning to readers:

“God grant that the reader, emboldened and having become at present as fierce as what he is reading, find, without loss of bearings, his way, his wild and treacherous passage through the desolate swamps of these sombre, poison-soaked pages; for, unless he should bring to his reading a rigorous logic and a sustained mental effort at least as strong as his distrust, the lethal fumes of this book shall dissolve his soul as water does sugar.”