In celebration of the 200th anniversary of the birth of one of Victorian Britain’s greatest thinkers, the art critic and social reformer John Ruskin, the distinguished Ruskinian Robert Hewison introduces Ruskin’s ideas and values through revelatory studies of the people and issues that shaped his thought, and the ideas and values that in turn were shaped by his writings and personality. Beginning with an exploration of the rich tradition of European art that stimulated his imagination, and to which he responded in his own skilful drawings, Ruskin and his Contemporaries follows the uniquely visual dimension of his thinking from the aesthetic, religious and political foundations laid by his parents to his difficult personal and critical relationship with Turner, and his encounters with the art and architecture of Venice. Victor Hugo makes a surprising appearance as Ruskin develops his ideas on the relationship between art and society. Ruskin’s role as a contemporary art critic is explored in two chapters on Holman Hunt, one focussing on the Pre-Raphaelite’s The Awakening Conscience, one examining his later Triumph of the Innocents. The development of Ruskin’s role as a social critic is traced through his teaching at the London Workingmen’s College and his foundation of the Guild of St George, a reforming society that continues to this day. Oscar Wilde came under his personal influence, as did Octavia Hill, a founder of the National Trust. The evolutionary theories of Charles Darwin are shown to have been deeply unsettling to Ruskin’s worldview. The book concludes with a demonstration of the profound influence of the Paradise Myth on all of Ruskin’s writings, followed by an exploration of the concept of cultural value that shows why Ruskin’s ruling principle: ‘There is no wealth but Life’ is as relevant to the 21st century as it was to the 19th.
In celebration of the 200th anniversary of the birth of one of Victorian Britain’s greatest thinkers, the art critic and social reformer John Ruskin, the distinguished Ruskinian Robert Hewison introduces Ruskin’s ideas and values through revelatory studies of the people and issues that shaped his thought, and the ideas and values that in turn were shaped by his writings and personality. Beginning with an exploration of the rich tradition of European art that stimulated his imagination, and to which he responded in his own skilful drawings, Ruskin and his Contemporaries follows the uniquely visual dimension of his thinking from the aesthetic, religious and political foundations laid by his parents to his difficult personal and critical relationship with Turner, and his encounters with the art and architecture of Venice. Victor Hugo makes a surprising appearance as Ruskin develops his ideas on the relationship between art and society. Ruskin’s role as a contemporary art critic is explored in two chapters on Holman Hunt, one focussing on the Pre-Raphaelite’s The Awakening Conscience, one examining his later Triumph of the Innocents. The development of Ruskin’s role as a social critic is traced through his teaching at the London Workingmen’s College and his foundation of the Guild of St George, a reforming society that continues to this day. Oscar Wilde came under his personal influence, as did Octavia Hill, a founder of the National Trust. The evolutionary theories of Charles Darwin are shown to have been deeply unsettling to Ruskin’s worldview. The book concludes with a demonstration of the profound influence of the Paradise Myth on all of Ruskin’s writings, followed by an exploration of the concept of cultural value that shows why Ruskin’s ruling principle: `There is no wealth but Life’ is as relevant to the 21st century as it was to the 19th.
Longquan wares were made mainly in Zhejiang province over a period of over sixteen hundred years, from the 3rd to the 19th centuries. There are two outstanding features of the beautiful Longquan ceramics, one is that the body is made of porcelain, and the other, that the glaze contains kaolin in its composition. This gives Longquan ware unique colour and quality. The body is smooth and dense, the glaze either unctuous or shiny, the colour a myriad shades of kingfisher blue and jade green. The result of development of porcelain technology at Longquan was a tough, attractive, and versatile celadon material that was ideally suited for export. Longquan vessels found their way to a variety of markets around the world, from royal palaces to common dwellings. During the Yuan dynasty a peak in quantity was reached, with more than 150 kiln sites overall. Many new decoration techniques and forms of mass production for global exports emerged, until production almost expired entirely during the late Ming dynasty, due to a range of still-debated reasons. It is readily apparent that the Longquan kilns in Zhejiang province produced a wide range of wares, in vast quantities, over a period of more than 500 years. During the Southern Song period premier kinuta ceramics glazed with shimmering pale bluish-green colours attracted the highest approbation. During the early Ming dynasty the Daoyao kiln manufactured superlative imperial ceramics for the imperial household. However, despite their great beauty and perceived worth, Longquan ceramics have never been regarded as one of the “Five Great Wares”. This book combined some of the rarest and most exquisite Longquan wares of over 270 pieces from museums and Art Institutes around the world.
George Byrne’s photography depicts the gritty urbanism of Los Angeles in sublime otherworldliness. Arriving a decade ago, the Australian artist was immediately enthralled by the sprawling cityscape of L.A., mesmerised by the way the sunlight transformed it, into two-dimensional, almost painterly abstractions. In his Post Truth series (2015–22), Byrne reassembles his photos of the urban landscape into striking, ascetic collages of colour and geometric fragments, creating a postmodernist oasis in the metropolis. By masterfully harnessing the malleability of the photographic medium, the photographer situates his work in the space between real and imagined. Byrne’s compositions evoke associations with Miami Beach’s Art Deco, the Memphis Group’s designs, as well as the painting of David Hockney or Ed Ruscha, and at the same time tap into the aesthetics of today’s visual culture played out on Instagram.
With his last book, Travels with Van Gogh and The Impressionists, Neil Folberg–already well known as a photographer of landscape and architecture–took his work in a surprising, and successful, new direction, using costumed actors and carefully arranged settings to reconstruct the milieux of some of the world’s most beloved artists. Serpent’s Chronicle represents a further evolution of Folberg’s interest in staged photography: here, the images form a continuous narrative, namely, the story of Adam and Eve, as seen through the eyes of the Serpent. For this ambitious exercise in pictorial storytelling, acted by modern dancers and set in a wild Mediterranean valley, Folberg draws upon the full range of his artistic resources as a photographer in colour and black and white, and of the landscape, the human figure, and even the night sky; the result, according to ARTnews, is a series of “lush depictions” that use “subtle anachronism, metaphor, and theatricality to memorable effect.”
To memorable effect and, one might add, in a spirit of serious spiritual inquiry; Folberg’s imaginative retelling of the story, based on an ancient oral tradition and accompanied by a poetic text, addresses the profound questions inherent in the biblical account. For instance, how could there be a state of paradise with only one human inhabitant? And how could conflict be avoided if there were two? Presenting Adam and Eve as Everyman and Everywoman, in a time and place at once archetypal and contemporary, Folberg shows us that the story of Eden is the true prototype of every human relationship and endeavour.
“We were a band before we could play”, Bono tells us, and from the beginning U2 have been distinguished by their shared passion. What began in 1976 with Larry Mullen posting a “Musicians Wanted” ad on his school bulletin board led to an epic journey from Dublin clubs to stadiums around the world. This expressive coffee table book traces the great career of U2, who sold more than 130 million albums, revolutionised live performance, led political campaigns, and made music that defined our age. Discover insights in many personal accounts, photographs and recordings.
Born in Milan and trained at the Ecole Polytechnique in Lausanne, Nanda Vigo (1936-2020) made a name for herself in the 1960s with her cross-disciplinary approach to art, architecture and design. An important figure in the Italian avant-garde art scene, she has always favoured experimentation and exploration. From 1959, she frequented Lucio Fontana’s studio, before becoming close to the artists Piero Manzoni and Enrico Castellani, who founded the Azimuth gallery in Milan. It was during this period that she discovered the artists and venues of the ZERO movement in Germany, the Netherlands and France. Between 1964 and 1966, she took part in numerous ZERO exhibitions in Europe; in 1965, she organised the legendary Zero Avantgarde exhibition in Lucio Fontana’s studio in Milan. In 1971, she received the New York Award for Industrial Design for the Golden Gate lamp produced by Arredoluce, and completed one of her most emblematic projects for the Casa Museo Remo Brindisi in Lido di Spina. In 1976 she won the first Saint-Gobain prize for glass design, and in 1982 she took part in the 40th Venice Biennale. This book accompanies the exhibition Nanda Vigo, l’espace intérieur at Madd Bordeaux, which presents the artist’s work through immersive installations. It looks at architecture, art and design as fields of total creation, to give us the opportunity to see, perceive and feel all the dimensions of space.
Text in English and French.
New York’s evolution through time, devoid of glitz and glamour, is masterfully captured by the renowned photographer Thomas Hoepker in his revised and extended edition of New York. The artist, a resident of the mega metropolis himself, has been passionately photographing his hometown since the 1960s. His insights into this unique city are far removed from the image entrenched in people’s minds about the big city. Hoepker portrays the people, their way of life, their homes, and their leisure activities, unfiltered and directly.
The book not only portrays the metropolis and its inhabitants but also traces the artistic development of Hoepker himself. The photographs are sourced from the photographer’s extensive New York archive and shine with stylistic diversity. Black-and-white formats alternate with colour photos, and impressive architectural shots are juxtaposed with lively street-style snapshots.
Undoubtedly, one of the standout aspects of this work is the multitude of images dealing with September 11th. Here, Thomas Hoepker was one of the few professional photographers on-site, documenting contemporary history with his captures, which still send shivers down the viewer’s spine today. He not only depicts the event itself but also the city’s later handling of the catastrophe.
For those seeking an unapologetically honest and unpretentious book about New York and its inhabitants, New York is the answer. An impressive testament of its time, one that you’ll eagerly pick up time and time again to relive the atmosphere of this unique metropolis.
Text in English and German.
Blue Ice is a stunning book from photographer Alex Bernasconi whose unique approach to wildlife photography has been honoured with multiple prestigious awards. Bernasconi’s breathtaking panoramas reveal the spectacular beauty of the Antarctic landscape shaped by its extreme climate, while his wildlife portraits depict the surprising diversity of species, highly adapted to the challenging conditions in which they live. The foreword by British glaciologist Professor Julian Dowdeswell, Director of the Scott Polar Research Institute, explains the dynamics of the geography and ice masses, and the effects of climate change, while Dr Peter Clarkson’s Introduction draws on his personal experiences as a member of the British Antarctic Survey to recount the history of the discovery of the Antarctic and the challenges of working and living in the harshest of environments. Blue Ice provides a remarkable record of an eco-system at risk, revealing the extraordinary, unexpected beauty of the Antarctic, the most remote and endangered place on Earth.
A unique compendium of Indian crafts, this informative source-book maps the handicrafts of the subcontinent and captures the traditions that have enriched the day-to-day lives, and incomes, of Indian craftspeople.
Handmade in India examines all aspects of Indian handicrafts ― historical, social, and cultural influences on crafts, design and craft processes, traditional and new markets, products, and tools ― unravelling a wealth of knowledge. Based on extensive fieldwork and research, this work maps out the regional crafts identified across the country on the basis of prevailing craftwork patterns. It is closely woven with images to reveal the array of crafts in India, enabling the reader to discern subtle, sometimes unusual, differences in the same craft practiced by distinct regions or communities. Some of these are well known, like the woodwork of Kashmir, blue pottery of Jaipur, and the bamboo craft of Assam. The authors also describe lesser-known crafts like stitched boots from Ladakh, paintings from Jharkhand, and tinsel printing in Ahmedabad.
With its extensive photography, this unique volume will be a tremendous resource for product and textile designers, artists, architects, interior designers, collectors, development professionals, and connoisseurs alike.
Jaime Fernandes was born in 1899, in a small village, near one of the most unspoiled and rebellious rivers of Portugal, the River Zêzere. He grew up in an idyllic rural landscape, a crossing site with a geography of fertile lands, where gold, wolfram, and tin were extracted from its entrails. A small rural landowner, he married and watched over his five children up to 38 years of age, when he entered Miguel Bombarda Lunatic Asylum in Lisbon, 300 km from his village.
He is the most important Portuguese author of art invented in a psychiatric asylum context. About ninety drawings in ink, lead pencil, and ballpoint pen on paper, of varied sizes and quality, are known.
His artistic activity, entirely lacking the supervision of any visual art atelier, was encouraged by his hospital psychiatrist, who collected most drawings by Jaime. The crudeness of these drawings impresses the unwitting observer: they are anthropomorphic and zoomorphic representations — cattle, goats, elephants, fish, and birds. The human figures burst through as bodies are placed on hold, arms in the air, eyes wide open that observe, others, sometimes, appear merged with animals. Jaime practiced drawing and wrote lengthy semantically indecipherable texts, in a singular calligraphy, where time is set in long numbers.
He did this solely motivated by the pure pleasure gained from this slow exercise of revisiting his memories. In that pleasure, he would have acquired a taste for the imaginary, the world of dreams and fantasies of creation, of being cherished by all who participated in the portraits that he gave us to observe. Jaime died in Lisbon in 1969.
Text in English and French.
Spanish architect Luis Vidal is renowned as one of the world’s leading airport designers. But airports are just one typology of Vidal’s broad range of large-scale architectural projects. Expect the Unexpected: Luis Vidal + Architects provides extraordinary insight into the work of Vidal and his studio and showcases fourteen projects that have become a world reference in architecture, design, and construction.
This beautifully presented monograph features stunning photographs and detailed plans and diagrams. Renowned writer and international architecture expert Philip Jodidio eloquently narrates the story of each project, which includes airports, urban buildings, hospitals, and educational and cultural centres. Among the selected works are the award-winning Terminal 2 (The Queen’s Terminal) at Heathrow Airport in London, Matta Sur Community Center in Santiago de Chile, and Loyola University Campus in Seville. The volume provides insight into Vidal’s careful selection of materials and interest in signature colours, such as prismatic red for the Boston Logan International Airport, and demonstrates his commitment to energy-efficient solutions and design.
Expect the Unexpected also features an intensely personal endeavor for Vidal—a private residence that encapsulates much of the thinking that has made his work so successful across the world.
Accompanying the artist’s exhibition John Stezaker: One on One at Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Tel Aviv (18 January–18 May 2013), this publication presents a new set of previously unseen collages produced by the artist between 2011–13.
Working with a range of imagery from the mass media and popular culture, Stezaker uses collage, excision, reconfiguration and adjustment to create profoundly unique works that challenge image and perception alike.
Over 40 full-colour illustrations, including ten images from ‘The 3rd Person Archive’ series (1976–present), alongside texts from the curator Irith Hadar, Dalit Matatyahu and a conversation between the artist, Christopher Gallois and Daniel F. Herrmann.
David Batchelor’s latest series of drawings (2012–13) disrupts October’s orderly monochromatic universe with circles, triangles and rectangles of brilliant transparent colour and planes of opaque black. Drawn over every page of October No. 1 (summer 1976), his varied abstract compositions interrupt the intended ‘textual clarity’ of the journal with a carnivalesque play of form and colour.
Drawing upon Batchelor’s unique visual language and the colours found in the modern city, the works in this artist project are reprinted to actual size and collected in full for the first time in this volume.
This series of works formed a major part of the exhibition Adventures of the Black Square: Abstract Art and Society 1915–2015 at Whitechapel Gallery, London (15 January–6 April 2015).
Archigram comprised Warren Chalk (1927-88), Peter Cook (1936-), Dennis Crompton (1935-), David Greene (1937-), Ron Herron (1930-94), and Michael Webb (1937-). Together they envisioned the future of architecture in ways that enthralled a generation. In an era defined by the space race, they developed a ‘high-tech’, lightweight, infra-structural approach that stretched far beyond known technologies or contemporary realities. They devised autonomous dwellings and focused on survival technology; they experimented with megastructures and modular construction systems; they explored mobility through the environment, and the use of portable living capsules: all through the medium of an incredible series of drawings and models. Archigram’s influence has been profound and enduring. They gave the high-tech movement its impetus; they inspired architects such as Renzo Piano and Norman Foster; and they laid the ground for the design of buildings such as the Pompidou Centre. Edited and designed by Archigram member Dennis Crompton, this book catalogues Archigram’s activities over fourteen years, together with commentaries by the architects and critics writing then and now.
“This is a kind of poetics where precision of lyricism attains a meaning that crosses the boundary of language. And for that, I am grateful.” — Ilya Kaminsky, contemporary poet and author of Deaf Republic and Dancing in Odessa
Petr Hruška is widely considered one of the most important Czech poets.
Based on ‘The First Voyage around the World’, written exactly 500 years earlier by Antonio Pigafetta, Hruška’s I Caught Sight of my Face turns the glorious saga of Magellan’s voyage of discovery into an unsettling exploration of human behaviour, showing how man remains an anxious, insecure, sometimes cowardly, evil, xenophobic and violent being.
It is an uncomplicated, yet at the same time, deeply profound book, brought to life through illustrations by Jakub Špaňhel (1976), an acclaimed contemporary Czech visual artist, who creates an interesting dialogue between the text and its visual accompaniment.
Brussels is a multi-faceted city, where each neighbourhood tells its own unique story. In 12 chapters, you will discover the essence of each district, from Art Nouveau must-sees to charming little-known streets and emblematic landmarks (Marolles, Châtelain, Grand-Place, Cinquantenaire, Atomium, Royal Palace, etc.). Local anecdotes, original perspectives and unusual viewpoints reveal a vibrant, contrasting city, both historic and contemporary. This book offers a unique aesthetic and architectural view of Brussels, offering curious visitors and passionate residents alike a new way to appreciate the city.
Text in English, French and Dutch.
One of the leading social documentary photographers of the 1960s, Steve Schapiro’s images stand among the most important of the 20th century, covering Muhammad Ali, Martin Luther King, Jr., James Baldwin and many others. These largely unknown jazz photos – shot just before his career breakthrough – showcase his early mastery and his empathy for his subjects, making Jazz: Best of the Apollo, Village Vanguard, and Riverside Sessions an essential archive.
In the early ’60s, when Schapiro arrived on the scene, New York jazz was enjoying a golden age. A young freelance photographer who had grown up in the Bronx and somehow snagged a gig with Riverside Records, he began voraciously documenting shows, players, venues, recording sessions and gatherings both in his native New York and later in Chicago. Whether it’s Sonny Rollins lifting weights backstage, or Bobby Timmons lost in an instant of discovery at the piano, Schapiro was on their wavelength.
Written by US jazz journalist Richard Scheinin Jazz: Best of the Apollo, Village Vanguard, and Riverside Sessions features dozens of never-before-seen photos of jazz legends like Cannonball Adderley, Melba Liston, Bill Evans, Wayne Shorter, Freddie Hubbard, Sonny Rollins, Count Basie and more.
Everythingflows is a book of photographs by Laura Veschi in which the image forms the narrative and emotional core of the work.
Guided by the author’s black-and-white photographs, we explore the world of marble in Carrara, beginning in the mountains – the Apuan Alps – which, for Fosco Maraini – orientalist, writer, mountaineer, and anthropologist – evoke ‘the creation of the world’.
In these places, in these mountains, if you say marble, you immediately think of water: marble was in fact formed from water millions of years ago, from deposits of shells and coral; it is water that smooths and shapes it, and water remains the key element in the working of this stone.
Water, a symbol of perpetual movement, runs through Laura Veschi’s photographs as a subtle, underlying presence, accompanying the creative process and the transformation of matter. This reference to the element is an integral part of Veschi’s poetics. For the Carrara-based photographer, the ‘sound’ of water becomes the very voice of photography, an echo that follows the processes of creation and transformation of marble.
Structured like a symphony in four movements, the book guides the reader along a path that moves from the mountain to the studio, from the raw block to the finished form, restoring the sacred, physical, and temporal dimension of marble. Along this journey, Laura introduces us to the sculptor Filippo Tincolini, following the continuous flow of his thought and gesture from the original idea to the completed sculpture.
Laura, a deep connoisseur of the world of marble, captures the tension between what has settled over time and what is still being shaped, between the memory of the stone and the creative impulse that transforms it. Her images do not fix marble in a static idea, but reveal it in its flow, as though sculpture itself were part of an uninterrupted process in which the past is never entirely past and the future is already in the making.
Art, like the river of Heraclitus, passes and at the same time remains; it changes form but does not lose its essence. And so, in marble, in its working, and in the photography that tells its story – everything flows.
Text in English, French and Italian.
With her project Like we could almost live forever, Carlotta Guerra (*1976) invites us on a visual and emotional journey. The photographs, taken in Italy and North America, draw on her family heritage and create a tapestry of personal memories, experiences, impressions, and emotions. Aware that our limited time in life makes our encounters precious and unique, Guerra collects photographic moments, which she arranges like tiny pieces of a vast puzzle into a narrative full of expressive and associative power. This collection encourages us to explore the magic and the sorrows of life, from the simplest to the most significant moments of everyday existence.
2025 marks the centenary of Kazuo Shinohara (1925–2006), one of the most distinguished and influential Japanese architects of the 20th century. In homage, this stunning book, first published by Quart Verlag in 2019 and winner of one of the 2020 Most Beautiful Swiss Books awards, becomes available again in a new edition.
Kazuo Shinohara—3 Houses analyses three of the architect’s key designs: the House in White (1966), the House in Uehara (1976), and the House in Yokohama (1984). The large-sized volume features floor plans, sections, and elevations, all newly redrawn in true scale from Shinohara’s originals, as well as reproductions of his hand drawings and archival photographs. Contributions by architects David B. Stewart (1928–2015), who taught alongside Shinohara as professor at the Tokyo Institute of Technology, and Shin-ichi Okuyama (born 1961) place the three private homes within his oeuvre and offer insights into his particular working methods. A foreword by Ryue Nishizawa, cofounder of SANAA and 2010 Pritzker Prize laureate, highlights Shinohara’s lasting significance and influence on contemporary architecture in Japan.
Text in English and Japanese.
Since 2010, the studio Atelier Abraha Achermann has been designing buildings and projects that are characterised by their spatial wealth and surprising autonomy. Structured in different layers of content, this volume is a comprehensive workshop report, offering diverse insight into earlier and later works and processes. The book is a monographic experimental arrangement with which to compile, consider, research and experiment.
Text in English and German.
Swiss Art Brut 1945–2026 is being published to coincide with an exhibition celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Collection de l’Art Brut (Swiss). It brings together a wide range of works from the Lausanne museum’s collection that were created by Swiss artists or artists who worked in Switzerland. With Switzerland as the common thread, this publication and the accompanying exhibition highlight the close and lasting ties between the originator of the concept of art brut Jean Dubuffet and this country. Indeed, it was this close bond that led him to donate his collection of outsider art to the City of Lausanne in order to ensure its preservation and the public’s access to it.
The book includes a foreword by writer Metin Arditi and a presentation by Sarah Lombardi, director of the museum and curator of the exhibition, followed by Jean Dubuffet’s own handwritten notes recounting his trip to Switzerland in search of extra-cultural works in the summer of 1945. This previously unpublished document is reproduced here in facsimile. Other authors provide further analyses of the works: Michel Thévoz, the museum’s first director; Lucienne Peiry, who succeeded him until 2011; Andreas Steck, president of the Aloïse Corbaz Association; and Astrid Berglund and Eleanor Philippoz, respectively curator and outreach coordinator at the Collection de l’Art Brut.
Since the 1960s, Berlin-born artist Dieter Appelt (b. 1935) has traced the losses of modern society through his camera lens. The trained musician and opera singer discovered photography as a means of reconnecting with nature, mythology, and mortality. In countless activities that he documented with his camera, Appelt incorporates his own body into the images with a poetic approach, exploring its fragility and relationship with nature. Time and again, he circles around existential questions of life and death, memory and recurrence.
The Lindenau Museum in Altenburg is honouring Dieter Appelt with the 2025 Gerhard Altenbourg Prize for his life’s work and has dedicated an exhibition to him. This publication provides an extensive and profound insight into Appelt’s artistic development and, in addition to important projects and large-scale series of photographs, also documents drawings, objects, and films from the artist’s oeuvre.
Text in English and German.