Two floors of an Upper East Side townhouse, just off Park Avenue at 64^th Street, is an unlikely place for a show commemorating the 40^th anniversary of the Velvet Underground and Nico album.  It’s an even unlikelier haven for artists such as Matthew Barney, Richard Prince, Terry Richardson and Ryan McGinness to show works and publish one-off catalogues outside the radar of the Chelsea art scene.  But John McWhinnie @ Glenn Horowitz Booksellers does exactly that. 

For the Velvet Underground exhibit, which opens tomorrow, rare book dealer McWhinnie and co-curator Johan Kugelberg have gathered rare, never-before-seen materials, creating an overdue ode to the Velvet.  “The love we feel for the Velvet Underground is the love we feel for the arched hallways of Grand Central, or the love we feel for a Gem Spa egg cream.  The guitars glisten like the moisture on a slice of pastrami at Katz’s delicatessen.  The rhythm sections rumble like the audio backdrop of a transfer to the local at Union Square.  The Velvet Underground, c/o New York, NY, or New York, NY, c/o The Velvet Underground… works either way,” states Kugelberg in the show’s catalog.

The exhibit includes rare posters, books, and never before shown photographs of the band by Adam Richie, Paul Morrisey and Doug Yule.  In addition, Andy Warhol’s design for the albums Up-Tight and Exploding Plastic Inevitable will be on display, as well as the famous 1966 acetate demo of the Velvet Underground and Nico (which The London Observer cited as number one in a list of 50 albums that changed music).  Also on view are original Warhol screen tests, film stills and photo booth pictures of band members.  “I looked for everything I could find… it’s gathered material that you may not have seen in one place,” says McWhinnie.

The year-old John McWhinnie @ Glenn Horowitz Booksellers NYC location (the original flagship shop is in East Hampton) is a space where artists can do more than just show their work.  “It’s an escape valve in some way - an antidote to the hype of the art world.  And I find that people look at art differently when they’re in a book shop,” says McWhinnie.

Most recently, Matthew Barney exhibited and published a book with the gallery.  “He created the most ambitious book (Drawing Restraint Vol. IV) that we’ve published.  And it was one of the most interesting uses of the space architecturally,” adds McWhinnie.

For starting-out collectors of rare books and catalogues, McWhinnie recommends: “Get acclimated to what it’s like to collect books -- what you like and what you respond to.”  If an artist signs a book, or, better yet, does a drawing in the book, then it becomes more valuable and desirable to a collector.  “You transcend the book and it becomes artwork.”  He further advises, “Avoid collecting things just because they are collectible.  It always should be done out of passion.”

In the limited-edition, deluxe version of the Velvet Underground catalog, Richard Prince recounts his love for the band, writing, “this was West Side Story on steroids.  ‘Heroin’ gangbanged my ear.  I did twenty more sit-ups listening to ‘All Tomorrows Parties.’  I tried to smoke the banana my mother put in my cereal.  Wow, I gotta get to New York.”  Good thing he did.