How did the Honorable Miss E. St. Leger become a Freemason? Did Lord Byron meet a hippopotamus, or was it only a tapir? Whence the popular prejudice against redheads?
These were among the topics discussed in the pages of Notes and Queries, a weekly magazine founded in London in 1849 as “a medium of inter-communication for literary men, artists, antiquaries, genealogists, etc.” Its motto was “When found, make a note of”—a saying of Captain Cuttle, the hook-handed old salt of Dickens’s Dombey and Son. Some subscribers to Notes and Queries contributed brief notes on curious facts they had uncovered; other sent in arcane queries to be answered. The result was rather like an erudite Internet discussion board, complete with its flame wars and trolls.
This book anthologises the most interesting exchanges from the First Series of Notes and Queries (1849–55). Here, ordered by subject—with judicious footnotes, of course—are delightfully pedantic remarks on the daily life and amusements of olden times, the doings of faeries, revolting folk remedies, strange forgotten, poetry good and bad, and oddities of natural history, among many other things. Also included is a selection of advertisements from the magazine, for such products as Grosjean’s Celebrated Trowsers, Rimmel’s Toilet Vinegar (good for several purposes), and the Rev. Edmund Saul Dixon’s treatise on Ornamental and Domestic Poultry: Their History and Management.
Original drawings add an extra touch of humour throughout, and a lively introduction describes the history and workings of Notes and Queries. Full of useless information and Victorian fustiness, Captain Cuttle’s Mailbag will fascinate trivia buffs and time travellers alike.
This first ever monograph in English on Olga Jevrić offers a unique opportunity to discover the work of a remarkable Serbian artist whose long and distinguished career established her as the most significant modernist sculptor from the former Yugoslavia.
Despite gaining widespread acclaim from her contemporaries both in Europe and the USA, economic, social and geopolitical upheavals meant that her work has been little seen outside Serbia in the past four decades.
As a witness to the Second World War and its aftermath, Jevrić sought to give voice to the spiritual roots, cultural foundation and social conditions of the war-torn environment in which her work developed.
Through her materials – primarily a mixture of cement, iron oxide, rods and nails – she created distinctive forms that communicate the relationship between matter and void; weight and weightlessness; containment and release. Though many of her works are modest in scale, they have an immensely powerful presence.
This collection of texts and images provides a range of perspectives on, and a thorough contextual overview of, Jevrić’s work from some of the UK’s most influential sculptors, alongside prominent art historians from the former Yugoslavia. It was produced in celebration of Jevrić’s exhibitions at London art platforms PEER (28 June–14 September 2019) and Handel Street Projects (28 June–13 December 2019), along with the acquisition of nine of her sculptures by Tate Modern.
In mythology, art history and religious iconography, the apple has been imbued with every imaginable human desire. It has been a symbol of love and beauty, of temptation, of immortality, peace, death and poison, of sin and redemption. From Adam and Eve to the trials of Heracles, to the art of Cézanne and Magritte, to Newton’s theory of gravity, the death of Alan Turing and the growth of Steve Jobs, the apple resonates throughout western culture. It is Snow White, William Tell, it is The Beatles and the Viking gods, it is even the American frontier.
Now, Barnaby Barford offers a celebration of this fruit, exploring its impact on the history of humankind. Apples have become a recent feature of Barford’s eye-catching installations, whether ripe and healthy or in a state of decay. The Apple is Everything guides the reader through Barford’s work and ideology.
For the second edition of the Dulwich Pavilion in 2019, the commission was awarded to London-based architects Dingle Price and Alex Gore in collaboration with British artist Yinka Ilori. This elegant, large-size book documents this piece of built poetry in a series of striking, atmospheric photographs by Sophie Roycroft. The concise essays by Job Floris and Sumayya Vally situate the project within a social, political, and cultural context, complemented by technical details and selected plans and drawings on and inside the book’s cover.
“I was impressed by The Stones. They were dressed casually, had mischief in them and were different to other bands.” Terry O Neill
In July 1962, a group of young men played a gig at The Marquee Club on Oxford Street, London. They called themselves ‘The Rollin’ Stones’ and little did they know they would soon be making music history.
This evocative new book captures the youth, the times and the spirit of The Stones’ formative early years. And documenting 1963-1965 were two young photographers just starting out in their careers. Terry O’Neill, aged just 25, had a few years’ experience photographing musicians and knew that this group had the same magic as another British phenomenon that just recently started to chart, The Beatles. As the band was starting to record and tour, Gered Mankowitz came along. His first shoot, the now famous Mason’s Yard session, was so fruitful, Gered was asked to tag along on tour to America. Gered was a mere 19 when he picked up his camera and joined the band on stage in 1965. Between these two legendary photographers, they chronicle the band’s beginnings and these indelible images are forever placed in music’s consciousness. The photography throughout this book is embellished with various memories and interviews, celebrating the early days and giving an insight into what it must have felt like to go from a small club in Soho with no record deal to touring the world a few years later with a number one record. Terry O’Neill and Gered Mankowitz, two of the most respected, collected and exhibited photographers in the world were sitting in the front-row.
In 2016, London’s Saatchi Gallery hosted the first ever major exhibition dedicated to the band: Exhibitionism, a career-spanning, museum-style display of Stones artefacts and memorabilia. The publication of this book coincided with the opening of this ground-breaking exhibition.
This artist’s book features a selection of Çağla Ulusoy’s abstract paintings distinguished by her unique visual language and colour palette, accompanied by collages that reflect the processes behind her practice. In her paintings, Ulusoy reshapes lived experiences from various cultures and traditions through an abstract visual language, infusing them with subconscious memories and imagery. Her collages, on the other hand, re-imagine her works within a hybrid narrative and fantastical universe, incorporating adorned figures and scenes. Comprising 83 selected paintings — which Ulusoy creates with materials such as acrylic, oil paint, sand, and wax and in which harmony and friction coexist on the same surface and the balance between colour and form is constantly challenged — and the collages accompanying them, the book deciphers the artist’s multilayered and uncanny visual language.
The London Press Exchange (LPE), founded in 1892, grew out of an agency set up by two young reporters in London to supply news items to provincial papers. It was to grow to become the biggest and most profitable advertising agency in Britain. Yet it never was to attract the publicity as did lesser fry as Crawford’s or Colman, Prentis, Varley. It’s policy was actually declared to be one of reticence, which is not what advertising is all about. Yet some of the characters it conceived were to become household familiars as Mr.Therm for the gas industry and ‘the little man’ for Double Diamond. And in carrying out the first major readership survey in Britain, under the aegis of Mark Abrams, LPE kick-started market research here, The Market Research Society being founded in its offices. This tribute is to establish LPE as ‘leader of the field’.
This publication brings together over 60 works on paper created from 2005 to the present day by London-based artist Neil Gall (born 1967, Aberdeen), whose works balance the profound with the absurd.
In works that buzz with art historical reference, Gall has consistently explored matters of perception and mimesis through the visual language of household detritus. He translates the visceral and psychological interactions between materials and their surfaces – corrugated cardboard and pressed tinfoil, ping-pong balls enshrouded in black tape – to an unsettling, surreal and sometimes erotic effect.
Essays by art historian Lexi Lee Sullivan and artist Alexander Ross are augmented by thoughtful insights from gallerist George Newall and an introduction from Gall’s dealers David Nolan and Aurel Scheibler.
Renovation continues to be an important and fundamental part of modern architecture, whether it be through a desire to preserve history, or resurrect an old family home. This book provides a useful overview of nearly 30 case studies from across the globe, providing inspiring examples of how to refresh an old structure through sensitive modifications without changing the original architectural type. An inspiring guide to the daunting task of renovation, this book covers the whole process of renovating an old house, and provides fitting examples of work from around the world. Covering the entire process of renovation, the book includes “before” and “after” photos to clearly illustrate the skillful work involved in adapting an older residence. The decision to renovate rather than rebuild brings its own set of complications, but this book reminds us that this is not a hopeless endeavour but rather one that refreshes the architecture and provides a revamped home, perfect for the modern world.
“A little gem of a book chronicling that most gullible of all species, the human being” – Craig Brown, Books of the Year 2019, Mail on Sunday “Dafydd Jones has focused on one of the most dominant elements of the social life of our times – how the smartphone has taken us all over. It is a timely and rather sobering look at this phenomenon, done with his usual eloquence as a photographer.” – Martin Parr.
Almost everyone uses a smartphone, and most of us are addicted. In this book, photographer Dafydd Jones shows us just how pervasive our screen addiction has become. In almost every social situation, he shows how the smartphone has killed conversation and changed the way we look at the world. ‘In the eighties and nineties’, says Jones, ‘when I photographed young people at parties or balls, I’d find them chatting each other up, or smooching in corners. Now I see them sneaking looks on their iPhones, checking on their Instagram feeds, or whatever it is they’re hooked on. They hardly talk to each other, or make eye contact at all. And it’s not just a generational thing – it afflicts the oldies too. Who knows what impact it’s having in the bedroom. It’s probably a race to see what will wipe out humanity first – global climate change or screen-induced sexual indifference.’
In October 2018 Cornelia Parker’s Transitional Object (PsychoBarn) lands in the courtyard of the Royal Academy of Arts, London. This meticulous and unsettling installation – first shown on the roof of The Metropolitan Museum of Art against the skyline of New York’s Central Park – is half stage set, half sculpture. The work, which draws on archetypal images of American culture such as the red barn and the infamous Bates motel from Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho, will now be seen against a backdrop of Burlington House’s neoclassical buildings. Cornelia Parker was elected a Royal Academician in 2009. She has since had solo shows at the Whitworth Gallery, Manchester, and the Frith Street Gallery, London. She is well known for her installations, including Cold Dark Matter: An Exploded View (1991), a reconstruction of an exploded shed, which now forms part of Tate’s collection. Generously illustrated with supporting imagery and installation shots, this book comprises a conversation with the artist and a text on the work’s installation in London. Transitional Object (PsychoBarn) will be on display in the courtyard of the Royal Academy of Arts, London, from October 2018 to March 2019.
“Neighbours and Rivals, more than a travelogue, is a tract: one that calls for more pragmatism in the running of a modern city and out of which our policymakers would do well to take a leaf.” — Country Life
The first work of great French journalist Louis-Sébastien Mercier, this seminal work of travel writing remained unpublished for over 200 years.
Mercier first travelled to London, and began recording his impressions, in 1780. An exemplar of a new form of journalistic, reflective literature, he presented emotive representations of the city as collections of experiences, habits and personalities. And differently from Dickens’s London or Baudelaire’s Paris, with their contrasts of opulence and misery, Mercier describes a less familiar urban environment – more optimistic, perhaps even utopian. His version of London is, in fact, a projection of his philosophical imagination – not simply a rounded portrait but also a reflection of what he hoped Paris could become.
For this first publication in English, Laurent Turcot and Jonathan Conlin’s translation preserves the life and humour of Mercier’s text. It is illustrated with contemporary images, with an emphasis on Thomas Rowlandson and Gabriel-Jacques de Saint-Aubin, the first Parisian flâneur-artist.
Issam Kourbaj was born and grew up in Syria before settling in Cambridge in 1990. Following the uprising in Syria in 2011, Kourbaj has been a constant creative witness to the continuing conflict in his home country, his art increasingly addressing the endemic pain and suffering that accompanies displacement and forced migration everywhere. Published to accompany two substantial solo exhibitions at Kettle’s Yard, University of Cambridge and The Heong Gallery, Downing College, Cambridge, Issam Kourbaj explores the life and work of an artist characterised by collaboration and endless curiosity. Kourbaj’s art is expressive and alive, suggesting even in the darkest hours the potential for change and renewal.
“How can we grasp the remarkable artistic breadth of Issam Kourbaj? Here is an art so full of invention and purpose that its images and ideas reverberate well beyond the walls of any gallery. Kourbaj’s achievement is to make us look, pause and imagine. Engaging with his acute and powerful work makes us consider our responsibility for the conditions of others on our shared planet” – Andrew Nairne, Director of Kettle’s Yard
A humorous analysis of facadism in London – why it is happening and what it means – accompanied by a gallery of the most notorious examples guaranteed to induce laughter and horror in equal degree.
Defying traditional portraiture, Wolfgang Strassl (*1956) has made a series of photographs which encapsulates the rich, varied, eclectic and diverse population of London as seen in the democratising space of a carriage on the London Underground. By omitting the face in these portraits, Strassl allows us an undistracted and genuine perusal of these passengers and the stories, which their visual appearances are telling. This also challenges our ability to see, recognise and understand these stories. It is a gentle yet pervasive look at the great sea of humanity travelling in subterranean London and the rich diversity in this contemporary metropolis.
Text in English and German.
In What I See, Wolfgang Strassl presents a diverse collection of photographic works created over the course of ten years, through which he seeks to further understand and reflect upon what it means to be a photographer today. Strassl spent more than 20 years working as an insurance executive before he embraced his true passion and embarked on an artistic career in photography. Throughout his decade-long intensive exploration of the medium, he has learnt to abandon the rational and structural thinking that he had cultivated and instead to invite emotion, instinct, mystery, curiosity, reflection, and uncertainty into his creative work. He is concerned with themes such as youth, memory, beauty, nature, the environment and how our lives play out within it. However, instead of providing clear answers, his work raises new questions while conveying a sense of the photographer’s personality.
Recounting an art dealer’s recuperation from major surgery in the famous Claridge’s Hotel in London, this idiosyncratic (and semi-autobiographical) novel interweaves reality with fantasy. Room 225–6 follows the author-character ‘The Protagonist’ – accompanied by his beloved terrier ‘The Bitch’ – around London’s Mayfair as he hosts endless art world gatherings and tea parties for twenty, and visits a multitude of local galleries and shops.
Incorporating multi-layered voices and devices, the distinctive narrative introduces the reader to a memorable host of characters – from the ‘The Political Prisoner’ to ‘The Little Mondrian’ – in a tale filled with humour of observation and incident. Bringing to life this frightening yet extraordinary period in one man’s life, it is at once honest, satirical, idiotic and bold. Room 225-6 is sold to benefit the Oracle Cancer Trust (oraclecancertrust.org), the UK’s leading national charity dedicated to funding head and neck cancer research.
“One of the most important books in botanical history” – The Botanist’s Library, Carolyn Fry
“Amazing” – New Scientist
“A book that vividly illustrates why plants remain so endlessly fascinating” – Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland
Seeds are tiny parcels of life, poised to give rise to anything from ephemeral herbs to giant trees that can live for thousands of years. A close look at these tiny miracles of nature through a scanning electron microscope opens up a view into a fascinating and breathtakingly beautiful microcosm few people, even scientists, have ever seen before. The range of sizes, shapes, and patterns plants have evolved over 360 million years to perfect their one and only chance in life to travel is beyond our wildest imagination.
In this astonishing book, artist Rob Kesseler and world-renowned botanist Wolfgang Stuppy, previously of Kew’s Millennium Seed Bank, present a unique and highly unusual natural history of seeds. The story of how seeds evolved to ensure the survival of their species and how they adapted to their natural environments including the animals they share them with is stunningly illustrated, combining close-up photography with digitally enhanced scanning electron micrographs.
This book not only captivates and enlightens those interested in the natural world, but also will appeal to artists, designers, architects, and everyone else drawing inspiration from the wonderful and endlessly fascinating world in which we live.
Meet 50 women, from queens and politicians to explorers and sports figures, who changed the world. These 50 women pursued their ambitions and achieved their dreams – even when the world tried to tell them they shouldn’t. They enjoyed successes and triumphs, dealt with tragedies and ordeals, and lived lives as thrilling and moving as a great novel. Ranging from artists, designers, and actresses to entrepreneurs, scientists, and activists, the women include Maria Montessori, Amelia Earhart, Coco Chanel, Simone de Beauvoir, Rosa Parks, Eva Peron, Josephine Baker, Jane Goodall, and Malala Yousafzai.
“I was part of Fleur’s British Interior Design Exhibition in London in the 1980s. The strength of Fleur’s vision defined the event and made participation a real pleasure for me.” – John Pawson, Renowned International Minimalist Architect, London
The International Interior Design Exhibition (IIDE) came to Brussels in 2019 with heritage. First launched in London by Fleur Rossdale as The British Interior Design Exhibition (BIDE) during the 1980s and ’90s, the event was highly acclaimed as a ground-breaking showcase for the design industry. With 30,000 international visitors to each, the exhibition helped propel interior design into the limelight, receiving worldwide press coverage and an insatiable demographic of private clients, hoteliers, designers and developers. Organiser Fleur commented, “Good design has a vital role to play in our everyday lives. It can improve how we live and function, be it at home, in the workplace, in education or on holiday. Interiors set a mood, portraying an identity that should feel enhancing and harmonious”. Fleur, an active interior designer herself, chose Brussels for the re-launch due to the cultural heritage, not least as founders of the Art Nouveau movement. Fleur continues, “Decoration is all about bringing together skilled workmanship, colour, texture and fine art to create a melodious interior to enhance our everyday lives”.
The IIDE followed the ethos of past experience and showcased ten international designers, presenting their interior design vision to inspire private and trade visitors.
This luxury coffee table book is a tribute to these new exhibitions, which is complemented by a short history of all previous exhibitions in London.
“A stunning collection of photographs by Alex Saberi, which illustrate the rich diversity of wildlife in Richmond Park throughout the seasons.” – Discover Wildlife.com
“Alex’s ethereal, fairy-tale-like images are a real wonder. His grasp of light, location and atmosphere make these photographs ones that border on the unique.” – Amateur Photographer
Sir David Attenborough has described Richmond Park as “A very special place” – and with good reason. This vast oasis of green, just eight miles from the centre of London, is an ecological pearl in the midst of sprawling urbanisation.
The park, most famous for its herd of 630 Fallow and Red Deer, is not only Europe’s largest park, but is as big as the seven other royal parks combined. Since King Charles I enclosed the park in 1637, it has provided a haven of tranquillity and diversion for all its visitors. Today, some 77 million people pass through its gates each year.
In this beautiful book, Alex Saberi captures Richmond Park’s unique blend of rare and diverse wildlife, plant life and rolling landscapes. From a crow perching on a bench in the morning haze to a foolhardy Labrador, breaking impatiently away from its owner, the photographs capture its inherent beauty as well as those rare moments of wildlife action and majesty that only yield themselves to the most patient and knowledgeable of observers.
Nineteenth-Century European Painting: From Barbizon to Belle Époque represents a comprehensive guide to the range of stylistically diverse genres of nineteenth-century European painting. Accessible and insightful, this exquisitely illustrated volume presents the historical context behind the century’s essential artistic movements including Romantic Painting, The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, Realist Painting, Academic Painting, and Impressionist Painting. Influenced by an overwhelming wave of political, military and social change, nineteenth-century Europe represented an era more diverse in painterly subjects and styles than any before it. Indeed, it was a period that saw many European painters moving away from the strictures of the academy system, choosing instead to use their training to develop new techniques and traditions. A collection of independent stories, this book also outlines the unique progression between the different movements, exciting and enlightening the reader about the most magnificent period of art the world has ever known. Contents: Foreword; Dr. Vern G. Swanson; Introduction; Author’s Note; STYLES: The Barbizon School; Romantic Painting; Orientalist Painting; The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood; Realist Painting; Academic Painting; Impressionist Painting; The Newlyn School; Post-Impressionist Painting; SUBJECTS: Landscape Painting; Venetian View Painting; Maritime Painting; Sporting Painting; Animal Painting; Genre Painting; Cardinal Painting; Costume Painting; British Neoclassical Revival Painting; Belle Époque Painting; Conclusion; Endnotes; Bibliography. Featured works from museums and collections including: Louvre, Paris, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Wallace Collection, London, Fine Art Museum of San Francisco, The Tate Gallery, London, The Schaeffer Collection, New South Wales, The Royal Collection, The Royal Academy of Arts, England, The Musée D Orsay Paris, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (Catherine Lorillard Wolfe Collection), The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, The Hermitage, Saint Petersburg, Russia, Russell-Cotes Art Gallery and Museum, Bournemouth, England, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, Plymouth City Museum and Art Gallery, Stanhope Forbes, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pennsylvania, PA, USA, Paisnel Gallery, London, National Gallery, London, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Museo e Gallerie Nazionale di Capodimonte, Naples, Italy, Museo de Arte, Ponte, Puerto Rico, Musée Marmottan, Paris, Musée D Orsay, Paris, Auguste Renoir, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, among many others.
“Wow! Just wow! … It’s a really stunning thing. A love letter that is itself a work of art about a work of art that is Grayson. Both playful and deadly serious … these photos are not simply about ‘serving looks’ but about restlessness and identity and transience…. Ansett’s work is mind-blowing … not cosy at all. Just brilliant photography.” – Suzanne Moore
“Great to see Grayson in his various guises. He must have more women’s clothes than the average woman!” — Martin Parr
“Some are artists, some are muses — Sir Grayson Perry is both, according to a new coffee table book.” — The Standard
“Muse documents Perry’s Bowie-like range of personae, from his alter-ego Claire, to Madonna and child, to a Dolly Parton-style American country girl.” — Yahoo News UK
Grayson Perry is an award-winning artist best known in the art world for his ceramic works. To the wider public, he is perhaps equally famous for his cross-dressing alter ego. This book reveals a unique relationship between Perry and renowned portrait photographer Richard Ansett through a previously unseen archive from photoshoots spanning over 10 years.
Ansett astutely captures the wit, style and irreverence of Perry’s many complex personas. Beyond the snazzy outfits and cheeky poses, these thematic portrait collections offer wry social commentaries on current and popular phenomena, including the EU referendum, American pop culture and the existential questions of life and death.
At once glossy, fabulous and cutting-edge, Muse: A Portrait of Grayson Perry offers a complex, fascinating and ultimately affectionate insight into our recently knighted national treasure with anecdotes and narration from Ansett himself, this is a masterpiece of rhetorical observations and quick-thinking camerawork. Perfect for art geeks, style freaks and Perry’s long-devoted following.