Never Press Publications

Just after I returned from my Christ­mas vaca­tion, I received an unex­pect­ed pack­age. Upon open­ing it, it was a trove from Nev­er Press.

Nev­er Press is an inde­pen­dent pub­lish­ing house that is based in Pasade­na, Cal­i­for­nia. They boast art books that feed the curios­i­ty of the artists involved with the projects. From the works I saw, that is most def­i­nite­ly the case. 

While the titles and styles of the indi­vid­ual books in Nev­er Press vary, their sto­ries weave around an abstract­ed real­i­ty. Tan­gi­bly, there is an impec­ca­ble crafts­man­ship of their books. 

Nev­er Press has rethought the idea of a book with some spe­cial touch­es. Fold-out cov­ers, DVD accom­pa­ni­ments, and the for­mat of a sto­ry is chal­lenged and produced. 

I real­ly enjoyed the illus­tra­tions and ani­ma­tions with Sae­jean Oh and Anna Top­uriya. Gin­ger­ly drawn, Life Tips From a Man Who is Very Afraid of Life tells a sto­ry of fears and sit­u­a­tions that can debil­i­tate some­one’s exis­tence. From this book, the man who is very afraid of life is scared of many things, smil­ing crowds included. 

It’s a nice con­trast… the idea of being afraid paired with these beau­ti­ful and rather unas­sum­ing drawings. 

Core Sam­ples by Nick Arci­a­ga is a real­ly nice book to look at. The pages are lush, full of col­or and tex­ture with a hand­pulled silkscreen cov­er. As a view­er, you expe­ri­ence the adven­tur­ers’ view of space, oper­a­tions, and tools of the trade. It is a lot of fun. 

I thought Home by James Chong was a unique way to expe­ri­ence a sto­ry and also lent itself to expe­ri­enc­ing it over and over again. The 12 pages are not bound, but prints! You can leaf through or hang them on your wall. If you choose the lat­ter option, you could reread and re-expe­ri­ence every time you pass by. 

A Singer Song­writer by Gabe Gon­za­les con­tains a myr­i­ad of por­traits with a sil­ver holo­graph­ic-esque cov­er that folds out! 

Post Com­post, with con­tri­bu­tions from artists James Chong, Nick Arci­a­ga, Gabe Gon­za­les, Mark Ingram, and Jesse Fill­ing­ham plays on the idea of the title. Despite dif­fer­ent visu­al lan­guages, over­all the book speaks to a future world and how it has shift­ed and deals with things left behind. Some of it is pret­ty grotesque, in which I would not expect any­thing less. 

Thanks to Nev­er Press for send­ing me so much great stuff to look and read!