A stunning photographic tour of more than 20 sites — both abandoned and operational — that are emblematic of America’s industrial heritage.

American culture and politics are shot through with nostalgia for the country’s industrial past, a time when we actually made things — physical things, not patterns of bits and bytes. But what did this past actually look like? Photographer Michael L. Horowitz has travelled throughout the Northeast in search of its remnants, both heritage businesses that have survived to the present and the ruins of decommissioned factories and infrastructure. The spaces he takes us inside range from the intimate to the vast — from the last silk flower workshop in New York’s Garment District to Buffalo’s looming grain elevators and the Paterson Great Falls Hydroelectric Plant, in operation since 1914. Horowitz photographs these places with the eye not only of a photographer but of someone who has taken the time to understand their workings in detail — an understanding that is extended to the reader through James Holtje’s lively and carefully researched text. Cathedrals of Industry will appeal to readers with a variety of interests, including history, architecture, engineering, and urban exploration.

These pages tell the story without words of a journey through Spain in which the author, the photographer Fernando Manso, visited unknown and hidden corners and captured them on the plates of his large-format camera. From the remotest parts of Galicia to those of Almería, he passed through coasts, deserts and mountains, stopping at old churches, ghostly castles or majestic cathedrals, in forests and gorges, at natural pools and salt mines, and at cemeteries, Arab baths and hermitages carved out of the rock.

Fernando has made the light of these places into the leading figure of his journey. His is a different light, as he has relinquished blue skies and brilliant sunshine, often the stuff of clichés, to make way for visions of places that appear to us with such intimate truth that even if we know them, we can barely recognise them. This is thanks to his technique, his art and the patience with which he waits for the light.

Fernando’s luxury is being able to use all the time in the world to draw us into an artistic heritage that is sometimes secret and hard to reach, and which the viewer has to know how to see. He reveals these places, often in danger of disappearing, after detailed investigation. Both architecture and landscape – for he knows that natural scenery is also a major patrimony that has to be affectionately preserved and protected from speculation – belong to all of us, and we are responsible for their care. We must be aware of this.

The result of that trip is this publication, with beautiful images in reproductions of exceptional quality that present us with a vision of Spain in a different light.

Magritte, Bacon, Ensor, Moore, Jordaens, Rubens … These were just some of the world-famous names on display at the MAS. The not-to-be-missed exhibition ‘Rare and Indispensable’ brought a unique selection of masterpieces from the Flemish masterpiece list and has been captured here in this accompanying catalogue. Works of art you normally would have to travel all over Flanders to see, or which were never even publicly accessible, could be temporarily admired in one museum hall. All in honour of the 20th anniversary of the ‘Flemish Masterpiece Decree’.

‘Rare and Indispensable‘ was an absolute must-see that took the visitor on an art-historical walk along several masterpieces from Flemish collections. Some 35 large and small museums, as well as churches, libraries and private collectors temporarily lended masterpieces from their collections. All of them works that have been included in the Flemish Masterpiece List since 2003.

Famous paintings by Hugo van der Goes, Rubens, Jordaens, Ensor, Magritte and Bacon, sculptures by Lucas Faydherbe and Henry Moore, as well as precious silver, medieval manuscripts and a rare piece of furniture by Pierre Gole, ébeniste du roi of the French king Louis XIV, were available to be admired in one place at the same time.

Curators Thomas Leysen and Ben Van Beneden, members of the ‘Topstukkenraad’ (Masterpiece council), selected all the masterpieces for this exhibition.

Liverpool’s unique history as an international port and a cultural melting pot has given it a character all its own. The city has produced music that conquered the world and is home to more historic buildings than any other British metropolis outside London. It features two magnificent cathedrals and many world famous museums. But beyond its renowned exterior, is an eclectic assortment of places hidden and unknown.
This deliciously offbeat guidebook will lead you to a different Liverpool: down tunnels, up skyscrapers, and into secret bars, speciality shops, and disused factories. You will see Balenciaga trainers and vintage planes, rolling bridges and disappearing statues, Liver birds and celebrity suitcases, home-baked cakes and cast-iron churches.
Stroll under the palms in a magical glasshouse, explore a 1950s kitchen or a museum of false teeth. Relax in a hip tea bar with over 50 varieties of tea (loose leaf naturally). Marvel at the world’s most expensive book or largest brick building (27 million bricks!). Go underground to explore a network of mysterious tunnels or a perfectly preserved World War II bunker. Drink in a prison cell, picnic in a graveyard, or stay in the hotel where Winston Churchill and Bob Dylan were guests.
Think you know Liverpool? Think again! Whether you’re a long-time local, a first-time tourist, or a repeat visitor, prepare to be charmed and intrigued by 111 eccentric and unusual spots you’d never expect to find in the city best known for football and the Fab Four.

This book of photography is the result of two great loves. A journey through the streets of Florence through a little girl’s eyes, so bright and full of joy.

Windows and shop-windows act as if they were eyes too, capable of reflecting images of buildings and churches, so as to keep them inside, as well as in our memories or in our hearts.

A sort of journey to discover and rediscover aspects, anecdotes and curiosities of this atypical city, where every street, even the narrowest one, tells a story.

Text in English and Italian.

Alejandro Merizalde began photographing in Venice in 2008. In his early visits he found the city stiflingly overcrowded, but during a brief winter trip a few years later, the overcast skies and foggy atmosphere allowed him to draw out Venice’s legendary beauty without the disruptions of mass tourism.
In 2013 he started experimenting with longer exposures to eliminate the distractions of human activity and enable him to concentrate on his architectural compositions. This shift in approach was gradual, but it helped him realise that he was no longer interested in recording iconic features like St Mark’s Basilica, the Bridge of Sighs and the gondola, to name a few. From then on, he dropped the predictable locations and buildings and trained his lens on the Venice lagoon and areas of the city where Venetians actually spend their lives.

Text in English, French and Italian.

In this compelling photographic journey Arthur Becker captures the intensity and power of the ceiling frescoes of the Renaissance and Baroque periods. Vividly presented here in all of their diversity and splendour, these illusionistic ceilings, mainly located in the churches and palaces of 16th to early 18th century Italy but also found in Austria, Germany, and Spain, are revealed as dazzling examples of Italian artistic imagination by some of the major figures of the period, including Mantegna, Melozzo da Forlì, Michelangelo, Correggio, Tintoretto, the Carracci, Caravaggio, Guercino, Guido Reni, Giovanni Battista Gaulli, Andrea Pozzo, Sebastiano Ricci, and the Tiepolo dynasty.

These images, many of which represent turning-points in the history of art, are accompanied by an in-depth introductory essay placing them in context by the art and architectural historian Daniel Sherer, who teaches at the Princeton University School of Architecture, concise descriptions by Brian Kish, a well-known expert on Italian art and design, and a postface by Martin Kemp, the renowned scholar of Renaissance and Baroque art and science of Oxford University. Bringing together in one place these remarkable frescoes for the first time, this book will be indispensable for art historians, connoisseurs of photography, and all those interested in Renaissance and Baroque art.

As a contributor to the esteemed magazine l’architettura, under the discerning eye of Bruno Zevi, Giuliano Chelazzi first encountered the architectural brilliance of Arthur Dyson through a 1995 article on the Jaksha House. Chelazzi’s fascination deepened during a pilgrimage to the United States in 2007, where he met Dyson in person, igniting an insatiable desire for a profound understanding of Dyson’s work. This desire crystallised over the years, ultimately inspiring the writing of this book.

Dyson’s architecture, resplendent and visionary, emerges from a wellspring of fervent creativity and an intimate engagement with the unique qualities of its inhabitants. As an authentic organic architect, he envisions a reality that transcends the present, evolving into forms and narratives that are in perpetual flux. The remarkable Jaksha House serves as a precursor to the emblematic Woods House, which in turn leads to the spatial grace of the Hilton House. These are complemented by urban interventions such as the Webster Elementary School and the Selma Police Station, while the ethereal essence of the Betsuin Buddhist Temple offers a contemplative pause, resonating with spiritual depth.

The best of urban exploration. JONK presents a collection of images showcasing abandoned places reclaimed by nature. Country houses, luxurious mansions, churches, farms, factories, institutions, train stations, planes, cars, tanks, trains, palaces, spaces of work, play, life, and death—all captured in the vivid process of returning to nature. A wide range of architectural styles, from classical to ultra-modern, is depicted under the influence of a wild and resurgent natural world. Poetic, powerful, and fascinating images that provoke reflection.
A leading figure in the world of urban exploration, JONK travels across the globe in search of abandoned places. Over time, his focus has shifted toward what he finds most compelling within this vast theme of abandonment: locations reclaimed by nature. There is something poetic, almost magical, in watching nature take back what was once hers—re-entering through broken windows and cracks into spaces built and then deserted by humans, until they are completely overtaken. This book contains 226 photographs taken in 14 countries.

“David Mellor …was the outstanding British flatware designer of the last century and a remarkable man who … understood, and insisted upon, the essential relationship between making things and designing them” Stephen Bayley, The Guardian

“Britain’s most serious, modest and greatest post-war product designer” Sir Terence Conran David

Mellor: Design is an introduction to the designer, his works and his importance within the British design landscape, post 1950. The wider world knows him for his cutlery, which although exquisite and important, is the tip of the iceberg. To see Mellor as ‘just’ a cutlery designer is to miss his depth: his love of public projects, street furniture or Church commissions. But then to see Mellor as ‘just’ a designer is to miss his influence as a patron of architecture, or his passion for retailing and promoting British crafts. He may be the ‘King of cutlery’ but that is just the beginning.

David Mellor (1930-2009) began his career at the RCA, developing sophisticated yet simple aesthetics which he displayed through his silver smithing. His cutlery continued in the Sheffield tradition whilst using some technologically advanced manufacturing methods and radically modern designs. He also designed public street furniture in the 50s and 60s which pulled Britain’s streets into the modern era. During the late 1960s he opened a shop in Sloane Square, London. His work as a retailer helped introduce the highest professional design standards into our equipment for cooking with and eating with. It followed the trail led by Elizabeth David, introducing continental cuisine to the country, a development that today seems so natural. Beautifully and comprehensively illustrated, this book opens up the wonderful work of David Mellor to a wider audience.

The Design series is the winner of the Brand/Series Identity Category at the British Book Design and Production Awards 2009, judges said: “A series of books about design, they had to be good and these are. The branding is consistent, there is a good use of typography and the covers are superb.”

Also available: Claud Lovat Fraser ISBN: 9781851496631 GPO ISBN: 9781851495962 Peter Blake ISBN: 9781851496181 FHK Henrion ISBN: 9781851496327 David Gentleman ISBN: 9781851495955 E.McKnight Kauffer ISBN: 9781851495207 Edward Bawden and Eric Ravilious ISBN: 9781851495009 El Lissitzky ISBN: 9781851496198 Festival of Britain 1951 ISBN: 9781851495337 Harold Curwen & Oliver Simon: Curwen Press ISBN: 9781851495719 Jan Le Witt and George Him ISBN: 9781851495665 Paul Nash and John Nash ISBN: 9781851495191 Rodchenko ISBN: 9781851495917 Abram Games ISBN: 9781851496778

A multitude of colourful and naïve biblical and other religious pottery figures found their way into 19th century Victorian homes in Britain. They were bought by tradesmen, shop-keepers, clerks, teachers and the more skilled working class people. This book tells the story of these Staffordshire pottery figures, which sold in their thousands to stand on the mantelpieces of Christian families, both Protestant and Catholic.

Three chapters provide a social history context: the religious background, an assessment of who purchased the figures, the Victorian home and how it was furnished. The final four chapters review the pottery figures themselves, which are based on the Old Testament, the New Testament, relevant religious themes and portraits of preachers. A catalogue of well over 200 figures in full colour with an assessment of their dating and rarity completes the book.

This is the first comprehensive record of Victorian religious figures placed in the context of their times.

Is fashion that is out of order and doesn’t seem to follow any obvious rules truly accidental? Or has dissonance in fashion always been a guiding principle? Can coincidence therefore be predictable and controllable?

A publication which defies all boundaries of categorisation has been created out of the workings of fashion that almost inevitably has to be out of order, so as to increase its attractive power and generate attention with its interruptions of the ordinary. The contributions, on the border between art and fashion and residing within the realms of literary theory, design theory, cultural history and technology, demonstrate in manifold ways processes, images and ideas that are striving for innovation and transgressing established parameters. The publication is dedicated to the constructive side of the development of fashion, whereby the theme of Out of Order is combined with the concept of dissonance as a creative formula. If one starts from the premise that fashion is no longer fashion when it can be generalised, categorised, repeated and described, then the process of dissonance constitutes the significant impulse for everything new.

With contributions from: Pamela Church Gibson, Annette Geiger, Judith Gerdsen, Hanna Heilmann on Vibskov & Emenius, Iris Maria vom Hof in conversation with Oliver Sieber, Verena Kuni, Isabell Lizardi & Matt Johnson, Thomas Oláh, Andrea Sick, Bitten Stetter & Daniel Späi, Terre Thaemlitz, Barbara Vinken, Harry Walter and Gundula Wolter.

When Paul Gauguin (1848-1903) painted Vision After the Sermon in the summer of 1888 he was a mature artist who had travelled, exhibited and worked in a variety of media. Today the painting is considered a masterpiece, helping to assure Gauguin’s fame the world over. Few paintings have given rise to more art historical analysis and critique, more speculation, admiration or recrimination. This book illuminates one of the most intriguing and famous images in the history of western art. This re-examination of the painting, Vision After the Sermon: Jacob Wrestling with the Angel brings together works by Gauguin, his mentors such as Paul Cézanne and Edgar Degas, and younger contemporaries including Emile Bernard, Paul Sérusier, Maurice Denis and Henri van de Velde. It explores the biographical, pictorial and cultural circumstances that enabled Gauguin to make such a radical statement in paint in 1888. This beautifully illustrated book is a fascinating introduction to this iconic image.

J.M.W. Turner 1775-1851 was perhaps the most prolific and innovative of all British artists. His outstanding watercolours in the Scottish National Gallery are one of the most popular features of its collection. Bequeathed to the Gallery in 1899 by the distinguished collector Henry Vaughan, they have been exhibited, as he requested, every January for over 100 years. Renowned for their excellent state of preservation, they provide a remarkable overview of many of the most important aspects of Turner’s career.

This richly illustrated book provides a commentary on the watercolours, addressing questions of technique and function, as well as considering some of the numerous contacts Turner had with other artists, collectors and dealers. The introduction concentrates on Henry Vaughan, one of the greatest enthusiasts for British art in the late nineteenth century, whose diverse collections have not previously been fully appreciated.

The projects featured in Close to Home are within a 15-mile radius of where Louisville architect Michael Koch was born, raised, and has practiced for almost forty years. Educated at the University of Kentucky School of Architecture during the Dean Anthony Eardley era, where he was taught by Guillermo Julian de la Fuente, Peter Carl, Stephen Deger, Judith DeMaio, Clyde Carpenter, and Herb Greene, Koch has created a body of work in the Ohio River Valley that is site-specific and expressive, translating Kentucky’s regional idioms into a vibrant modernism. From airy houses that take advantage of Louisville’s Olmstead-designed parks and local materials, to structures that are strikingly adapted to the Ohio River floodplain, to church-inspired metropolitan projects, Koch’s buildings are a memorable part of the city’s landscape. Close to Home presents the award-winning achievements of his firm Michael Koch and Associates Architects, and introduces readers to the simple elegance of his designs and meaningful contributions he has made to the architecture of Kentucky.

“It amazes me that after all these years and countless books, the scope of subject matter on The Beatles is so amazingly large that writers always find a new angle. This book does that in a very unique and clever way. It’s a must for every Beatles fan.” —Billy J. Kramer

“…It’s a magical mystery tour through the band’s life and times.”  —Yahoo Entertainment The It-List
“Part biography and part map to the stars, The Beatles: Fab Four Cities is your “Ticket to Ride” and walk in the footsteps of John, Paul, George and Ringo. It’s the next best thing to actually driving their car…”—Nina Violi, Capitol File. and Gotham magazine

“While the book can be used as a handy tour guide filled with addresses, maps and photos, it also makes for great reading.”  —Steve Matteo, The Vinyl District

“But now comes a “magic carpet volume” for Beatles fans that blends travel guide with historical reference in an expanded study of The Beatles’ homes, schools, pubs, venues, and important historic sites…”  —Jude Southerland Kessler, Culture Sonar

John Lennon said: “We were born in Liverpool, but we grew up in Hamburg.”

To paraphrase Lennon, we could say that: “The Beatles were born in Liverpool, grew up in Hamburg, reached maturity in London, and immortality in New York.”

Four cities. Four stars. The Fab Four – the Beatles – are revered the world over, but it is in these urban centres that their legacy shines brightest. Liverpool: where the band graduated from church halls, leaving their initial line-up as ‘The Quarrymen’ far behind. Hamburg: where their raucous stage act was honed; where arrests earned them a more notorious celebrity reputation, but they became a true emblem of rock ‘n’ roll. London: where The Beatles produced Sgt Pepper, and home to the iconic album cover for Abbey Road. And New York: the city that became John Lennon’s home, where their appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show announced them to 73 million Americans.

The Beatles: Fab Four Cities invites the reader on a cosmopolitan trek across continents, tracing the Beatles’ rise to fame from one metropolis to the next. Flush with timelines, stories, trivia, the numerous links and connections between the cities and both pop cultural and local history, this is a travel guide like no other.

After having finished training in painting, ceramics and sculpture, Moniek Vanden Berghe focused on floral art. Her style is contemporary-modern. One of her main specialities is bridal work. With an eye for stunning detail, she designs, with great accuracy, bridal bouquets, floral purses, corsages, hair claps and tiaras… She also decorates the bridal table, the cars, the church and the bridesmaids in an elegant and harmonious way. This book offers ‘bridal ideas’ to florists and is an inspiration for anyone who’s soon to be married and wants to have a flourishing party. This is an excellent addition to Moniek’s first bestseller on the theme of love and marriage.

Text in English, French and Dutch.

Also available:Flowers in Love ISBN 9789058561619 £22.50 More than 25,000 copies sold! Wedding Emotions ISBN 9789058561756 £42.50Brides in Bloom ISBN 9789058561190 £42.50

Vasari famously wrote that Giotto “recovered the true method of painting, which had been lost for many years before him,” and indeed, he is traditionally considered a founder of the Italian Renaissance. Producing a series of commissioned works for the church and upper classes in his native Tuscany and surrounding regions, Giotto changed the course of European art by breaking away from the rigid, stereotyped figures of the Byzantine and medieval traditions. His innovation was to give his characters natural movement and expression. His great fresco cycles, such as the lives of the Virgin and Christ in the Scrovegni (or Arena) Chapel, Padua, are populated with realistic depictions of three-dimensional figures; secondary characters, both comic and tragic, display the range of the painter’s wit and invention. And Giotto’s treatment of perspective was just as revolutionary as his approach to the human form: the dramatic power of his scenes is heightened by the convincing illusionistic spaces in which he places them.In this authoritative survey of Giotto’s life and work, Francesca Flores d’Arcais draws on an impressive range of sources, from 14th-century documents to the most recent art-historical investigations. Her research leads her to important reattributions of Giottesque paintings and to new conclusions regarding the execution and dating of both famous and lesser-known works. In this second edition of her study, d’Arcais also discusses the earthquake of September 26, 1997, that damaged the frescoes of the Upper Basilica of San Francisco in Assisi, some of which are attributed to the young Giotto; she explains not only the extent of the damage, but also the art-historical insights that emerged from the subsequent restoration effort. 

More than three hundred illustrations, most in full colour and some on double gatefold pages, reproduce all of Giotto’s important frescoes in exquisite detail, as well as his moving crucifixes and jewel-like polyptychs. These splendid images and d’Arcais’s insightful text, now, for the first time, in an affordable paperback edition, make this the definitive monograph on the greatest of trecento masters.

Chasing records through Europe: This book takes you to 111 truly unique and record-setting places in Europe. Dress warmly for the coldest music festival, where instruments are made of ice. Ride on the fastest roller coaster. And come with us to the highest church tower – it’s not in Rome or Cologne, but in … Well, do you know?

This book is your guide to the successful “Europe to the Maxx” series from the lifestyle and culture magazine “Euromaxx” by Deutsche Welle. All videos from the series can be called up using the QR codes in the book. For travel enthusiasts, fans of Europe, and everyone who likes to show off their knowledge of the unusual at parties. Record-breaking good!

This book guides even Mallorca connoisseurs to places that will amaze them. And it tells stories that hardly anyone has ever heard. You think you already know everything and then this picturesque island, and then you find it’s full of big and small surprises – 111 times!

For Thomas Putze, performance is a snapshot of a moment, a play on possibilities, and at the same time a well-planned and sophisticated act to captivate the onlooker. Yet above all, it is thinking, drawing, sculpting, and realising with and through the body, which he treats just as relentlessly as all the other materials in his works. He swings through trees, occupies church facades, and submerges himself in mud; frequently without clothing or scantily wrapped in plastic sheeting, he gauges and challenges the physical and thus social space between us bystanders. Thomas Putze typifies the risk of being human, with all its failings and plenty of humour. He not only holds us to account but rather invites us to do this ourselves: to partake in art and to reflect on the performance we call life.

Text in English and German.