Named after a comic-book-inspired Ed Ruscha work, OOF Books is a small bookseller in Cypress Park dedicated to rare and limited-edition art titles, artist-made books, local press books, and revolving visual-art exhibitions. Founder Christie Hayden, who studied at the Maryland Institute College of Art and once worked for Hauser & Wirth’s Book & Printed Matter Lab, found the property for the store while searching for an apartment online, and thought its small size and simplicity would be ideal for contextualizing art books and works under one roof. She hired local designers Jonathan Olivares, Paul Matevosyan, and Raffy Mardirossian to create no-frills shelving in the golden yellow of Ruscha’s OOF, then began buying books (new and vintage) and inviting emerging L.A. artists for exhibitions and talks. Current book-related inventory includes Damien Hirst: Beautiful Inside my Head Forever ($135), a complete retrospective of the artist’s works sold at auction, and Sculpture Since the Sixties ($15), an overview of the sculpture sourced for the Whitney’s permanent collection from the ‘60s to the end of the ‘80s.
