

THERE’S NO PLACE
TANYA POLL
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JEFF BARRETT, ROBIN TURNER, ANDREW WALSH
OCTOPUS
Having just returned from an idyllic weekend in Northern Wales, I can vouch for the calming and fascinating nature of rivers and streams. North Wales is about 67 per cent streams, and most of the bits in between are mud. It is definitely worth the effort of thrashing through animal shit and nettles, while being slowly eaten by prehistoric insects, just to lounge by a river and watch it flow. This collection of essays, anecdotes and memories of Britain’s waterways conveys this sentiment, but with far more grace. With writing from Irvine Welsh, Roger Deakin, Edwyn Collins and Jarvis Cocker, this is a real catch for fans of inland water.
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DOKUMENT
I know it was kind of annoying when every one of your friends had a Polaroid camera and would take photos at parties, then everyone would crowd around and wait for it to develop, but there was a good reason for it. And that reason is that Polaroids look amazing, and make everything look like a strange magical photo you found in a skip. So if you collect Polaroids from thirteen graffiti writers across the world, not only do you get a collection of beautiful photos, you also get a graffiti book that isn’t really about graffiti, but the lives and work of people who, for the most part, try to stay anonymous.

DOKUMENT
Again, this is not a traditional graffiti book (thank God!), but is instead an academic investigation into the nature of urban spaces, outlooks, perspectives and motivations. It's graffiti as only the Germans could do it. Through 230 pages of interviews, essays, diagrams, notes and transcripts you get an insight into the motivations of Berlin’s most infamous writers. Maybe I was wrong to assume that most graf kids were bored, half-arsed, petty criminals who just got a kick out seeing their handy work on the way to school, or maybe it just took this long for the Germans to hunt down fifteen of them who aren't dweebs.

ALAN MOORE
ABRAMS
Alan Moore, comic supremo and well-known fan of pornography/erotica/whatever you want to call it, has made this handy pocket history of pornography. It turns out that us humans have been interested in depicting sex and sexuality for a while now – which is not necessarily a great surprise to anyone, but nonetheless this brief analysis of historical jazz is well explained and illustrated. From the rather unalluring carvings of the Venus of Willendorf in 22,000 B.C., to the scary erotic woodblock prints of women having sex with octopuses from 1800s-era Japan, right up to the comparatively dull fetishism of today – this is a lovely journey through humanity’s spank bank.VICE STAFF
