Rare Book Shop Near Me in Culver City: Arcana Books on the Arts

If your idea of a rare book shop near me is a room where a signed photobook sits a few shelves away from a forgotten architecture monograph, Arcana: Books on the Arts is the Los Angeles answer. The shop occupies part of the historic Helms Bakery building at 8675 Washington Boulevard in Culver City, and it sells new, rare and out-of-print books, exhibition catalogues and ephemera across art, photography, design, architecture, fashion, cinema, music and food. It is open to walk-in browsers, not by appointment.

Lee Kaplan founded Arcana in 1984. Before that he spent 1975 to 1981 behind the counter at Rhino Records, the Westwood record store that shaped a generation of Los Angeles collectors, and the shop still carries that record-store habit of knowing the deep cuts. Arcana began in Westwood, moved to the Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica in 1989, and settled in Culver City in 2012. Lee and Whitney Kaplan run it as co-owners, and the Culver City room is roughly twice the size of the Santa Monica shop.

Shelf Awareness reported that the 4,500-square-foot space was designed by the architects Johnston Marklee with Landlocd. You step first into a white, sunlit front room where new arrivals and big monographs lie flat on tables. Behind it the mood turns darker: long rows of black metal bookcases run toward the back, which Kaplan has called a forest of books. It feels closer to a working art library than a boutique, and Time Out once counted more than 100,000 rare, obscure and out-of-print volumes on the floor.

Photography is the section most visitors underestimate. Signed photobooks are a strength, and on the day of writing the shop's website listed Joseph Szabo's American Teen, signed, at $85, and Susan Meiselas's Carnival Strippers Revisited with its Making Of companion, also signed, at $325. A signed and numbered Ed Templeton exhibition poster was listed at $250. Those online listings are only a small sample, since Arcana says about 2 percent of its stock appears on the site, so the browsing room is where the real hunt happens.

After photography, walk the architecture shelves, where Los Angeles modernism, landscape design and out-of-print firm monographs sit together. Fashion and cinema hold their own aisles, with costume histories, film stills books and studio-era material that suits a city built on movies. Music books run from jazz photography to punk zines, an echo of Kaplan's Rhino years. The food shelves are the surprise: chef monographs, restaurant histories and design-minded cookbooks that rarely turn up at a general bookstore.

Arcana asks that no food or drinks come inside the shop, and there are tables by the front door where you can leave a coffee before you browse. Oversized books are heavy, so lift them with two hands and lay them flat on a table to open them rather than fanning pages in the aisle. Ask staff before handling anything sealed or kept behind the counter. Free parking is available in the lot directly outside the door, which is rare luxury for a Los Angeles bookstore.

Arcana's About page lists catalogues and ephemera alongside books, and that paper is where patient browsers find the most personal souvenirs. Exhibition catalogues from galleries and museums often go out of print within a year or two, so a show you missed in Los Angeles or Tokyo can turn up here as a slim softcover. Signed exhibition posters, like the Ed Templeton print listed online, roll up for the flight home. Ask whether a catalogue has a companion poster or invitation card before you pay.

The shop is open Wednesday through Sunday from 11 am to 7 pm and closed on Monday and Tuesday. Weekday afternoons are the calmest time for a long browse, when you can spread three monographs across a table without blocking anyone. Saturday afternoons bring more people from the Helms Bakery District shops and the occasional book signing, which Arcana posts on its blog.

The best way to use Arcana is to talk to the people behind the counter. Describe a photographer, a building, a decade or an exhibition you half remember, and staff can usually walk you to the right bay. Collectors should ask about first editions, signed copies and catalogues from specific gallery shows. If a title is not in the shop, Arcana sells through its website and offers curbside pickup, so a phone order can be waiting when you pull into the lot.

Arcana sits inside the Helms Bakery building, whose bakery trucks once supplied homes across Los Angeles, and the surrounding district now mixes furniture showrooms, design shops and cafes along Washington Boulevard. Culver City station on the Metro E Line is a short walk west, so you can leave the car at home. From the shop, walk south toward downtown Culver City where the wedge-shaped 1920s hotel and the old movie-palace blocks along Culver Boulevard sit a few minutes apart, then circle back past the studio lots that gave the city its nickname as the Heart of Screenland.

Arcana suits designers hunting a reference monograph, photographers studying how a book is sequenced, architecture students on a budget and anyone shopping for a gift that will not end up in a drawer. It is less useful if you want cheap paperback fiction or a general used-book rummage, because almost everything here is about visual culture. Families can visit, but small children and heavy art books are a nervous combination, so plan a shorter stop if you are bringing kids.

The street address for Arcana is 8675 Washington Boulevard, Culver City, CA 90232, inside the Helms Bakery building. Hours are Wednesday to Sunday, 11 am to 7 pm, closed Monday and Tuesday. Free parking is in the lot outside the door, and the Metro E Line stops at Culver City station nearby. Leave food and drinks at the front tables. Ask Karpo in the Karpo APP to plan a Culver City art afternoon that starts with Arcana and ends with dinner downtown.