Lee Kaplan is the owner of Arcana Books in Culver City, a long-lived institution that specializes in visually-driven material, including modern and contemporary art, photography, music, and fashion.

Before opening Arcana, Kaplan had a career as both a musician and a visual artist. In 1975, he became one of the original three employees at Rhino Records, before it was a record label. At Rhino, he was known as the "jazz guy," "world music guy," and "reggae guy," responsible for scouting and bringing in a celebrated selection of creative improvised music, free jazz, and being one of the first on the West Coast to import reggae records from Jamaica.

Kaplan founded Arcana Books in 1984. The name was inspired by Arcana, a piece by American avant-garde composer Edgar Varèse, and was strategically chosen to secure an early listing in the alphabetical Yellow Pages. He initially opened the store in a one-bedroom apartment in Westwood. Today, Arcana is located in the Helms Bakery complex—a site that was rebuilt on the location of the official bakery for the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics. Kaplan runs the business with his wife and partner, Whitney, and views the store as more than just a retail space, calling it a "confluence and meeting place" that connects artists, photographers, and publishers for various projects.