Discover the fascinating world of taxidermy in Packshots, the second book by Darwin, Sinke & Van Tongeren. This breathtaking work introduces you to animals like never before, captured in masterful compositions that blur the line between nature and art, between life and death. The stunning images, showcasing the animals in all their beauty and strength, are complemented by exclusive interviews and in-depth insights into the authors’ craft. Packshots is a work of art in itself, bringing the beauty of the wild to life in a truly unique way.
A major figure well known to the French public, Vincent van Gogh is today one of the most famous, most reproduced, and most studied artists. This monograph offers a rich and vivid reading of his work, placing his paintings and self-portraits at the heart of a journey marked by the tension between light and inner turmoil. From The Potato Eaters to Sunflowers, from The Bedroom in Arles to The Starry Night, the book highlights the work and the decisive moments in the life of an artist who profoundly transformed modern painting, and provides readers with the keys to understand its full depth.
Between Paris, Amsterdam, and New York, this volume sheds light on the artist’s masterpieces and offers a clear, elegant, and accessible interpretation of his art.
Since the nineties, Walter Van Beirendonck has been fascinated with masks. They change your identity, invoke a certain atmosphere and have an instant impact. Many artists, among whom are André Breton, Pablo Picasso and even Brueghel, have been influenced by them. Power Mask – The Power of Masks elaborates on the many different aspects of masks: the link between Western art and African masks, the supernatural aspect, rituals about masks, masks in fashion or as a fetish… Walter Van Beirendonck is “a truly engaged visionary and a passionate designer, artist and teacher.” – Jurgi Persoons, fashion designer. “Walter Van Beirendonck succeeded where I have failed; he turned me into a muscle-man instantly. He is a true artist and there’s not many of them around.” – Bono, lead singer of U2 “Come along and take a ride into the crazy helter-skelter, inside-out, upside-down world of Walter Van Beirendonck. Colours and shapes reach psychedelic dimensions to charm and astound you.” – Stephen Jones, milliner. This book accompanies an expo in the Wereldmuseum (World Museum) Rotterdam, from 1 September 2017 until 7 January 2018. Facebook @waltervanbeirendonckfanpage, @wereldmuseum Twitter @wereldmuseum Instagram @waltervanbeirendonck, @wereldmuseum www.waltervanbeirendonck.com, www.wereldmuseum.nl
This beautifully illustrated book explores the artistic roots of Flemish identity during the last decades of the 19th century and the first decades of the 20th century. Through art, essays, poems, and reflections by artists, academics and collectors, it revives the cultural context of the Flemish Belle Eqoque. Featured here are works by Emile Claus, Valerius De Saedeleer, George Minne and Gustave Van de Woestyne, James Ensor, Rik Wouters and Léon Spilliaert, Constant Permeke, Gust De Smedt, Frits Van den Berghe and Edgard Tytgat.
Dick van Gameren, a partner with the renowned Dutch architecture firm Mecanoo, has been engaging in housing design for the past 25 years as part of his work as designing architect as well as his research and teaching at TU Delft’s Global Housing Study Center. In this book, he presents some 40 of his own projects in this field through concise texts and photographs with explanatory captions as well as through plans and drawings. They’re grouped to illustrate seven specific aspects of housing design: Streets and Squares, Courtyards and Patios, Gardens, Halls, the Fireplace, Walls, and Roofs. Together they constitute a multi-faceted catalogue of housing typologies.
In four supplementing essays, van Gameren explores evolutions in residential architecture in the Netherlands. He places his own concepts in context of these developments and expands on what he considers the key factors of good housing design. A particular focus he puts on affordable housing, a pressing issue in so many countries and metropolitan areas around the world.
Dutch Dwellings is an inspiring read for anyone involved in housing design today.
Experience the serene world of renowned Belgian interior architect Rooted Spaces. Known for her masterful minimalism and a sophisticated eye for authentic materials, Van Reeth captures the soul of space in this stunning new monograph.This book offers an exclusive journey through seven high-end residences spanning the rugged landscapes of Scotland, the sun-drenched shores of Spain, and the refined heritage of Belgium. Each project is a testament to timeless design, where every texture and line serves a purpose, creating a harmonious balance between architecture and emotion.
Captured through the lens of acclaimed photographer Alexander d’Hiet, this volume is more than a portfolio; it is an intimate look into a creative mind. Alongside breathtaking architectural photography, the book features Van Reeth’s personal sources of inspiration and evocative lifestyle imagery, offering a rare glimpse into the philosophy behind her work. Designed as a high-end, tactile object, the production of this book reflects the very quality it showcases. It is a must-have for connoisseurs of design, architecture, and the art of living well.
Phantasmagoria presents the imaginative and subversive world of Belgian artist Raymond Minnen, whose sculptural practice has, for over five decades, transformed everyday objects into uncanny, humorous, and poetic assemblages. Working at the intersection of pop culture, surrealism, and contemporary sculpture, Minnen reconfigures familiar materials into new visual narratives that question consumption, desire, and identity. His works blur the boundaries between the artificial and the organic, the absurd and the profound, inviting viewers into a world where objects gain unexpected life and meaning. Through richly illustrated pages and critical texts by historian Rik Van Braband and Karel Van Beeck, this monograph offers a comprehensive insight into Minnen’s visual language and the evolution of his sculptural imagination. Spanning a career of more than fifty years, Phantasmagoria celebrates an artist who challenges our perception of the everyday and turns the banal into something extraordinary.
Text in English and Dutch.
“Haunting photographs” – The Wall Street Journal. “Henk van Rensbergen is a hero for urban explorers around the world” – Flanders Today. “As an airline pilot, Belgian-born Henk Van Rensbergen was used to travelling the world. But he found a great way to supersize that passion: hunting for the most wonderful, secret, haunting abandoned places” – CNN. While his crew is resting at the pool, pilot and photographer Henk van Rensbergen explores deserted city palaces, overgrown factories or desolate areas of nature, finding beauty in the decay. This engaging book of photographs, a revised edition with new material, lets us wander through abandoned places, including Abkhazia, a break-away region bordering Georgia and Russia and the newest must-visit for every urban explorer.
In this ode to the charms of Paris and Parisian style, Belgian photographer Henk van Cauwenbergh captures the essence of the city’s most iconic venues and its perennially chic denizens. He seeks out the culinary hotspots of Paris and turns his camera on the places to see and be seen. Inspired by the microcosm of Saint-Germain, his Paris is imbued with the spirit of the places where people gather: the casual efficiency of waiters at Les Deux Magots and the Café de Flore, the boisterous atmosphere of Brasserie Lipp. Long influenced by urban and innate style of Serge Gainsbourg, Charles Aznavour, Catherine Deneuve, and Jeanne Moreau, van Cauwenbergh’s Paris is one of seduction and nonchalance, of beautiful women, and the heady emotions of first love.
‘SONG’, a legendary fashion, art, and interiors concept store in Vienna was founded in the 1990s by Myung-il Song. As an early outpost of edgy design and emerging artists, it quickly became the city’s most popular platform for avant-garde fashion. This book presents a retrospective of the ‘SONG’ fashion archives, with clothing by Dirk Van Saene, Martin Margiela, Walter Van Beirendonck, Dries Van Noten, Bernhard Willhelm, Stephen Jones, Kei Ninomiya, Paul Harnden Shoemakers, and Balenciaga. These unique and timeless pieces in Myung-il Song’s personal collection have been re-photographed and are published here together for the first time
The Belgian architectural firm Van Damme – Vandeputte was founded 5 years ago but their portfolio is impressive, featuring a wide range of architectural projects: new residential constructions tailored to the client’s needs, sustainable and high-quality renovations, interior design with special detailing, offices and corporate sites built with, among other things, great attention to the integration into the surroundings, and restorations of (protected) heritage sites. In this coffee-table book, compiled and designed with the greatest care, the architects present a selection of projects and shed light on the process and philosophy behind their oeuvre. The book is like an extension of their work and exemplifies the firm’s passion and dedication, captured in the amazing photos by Thomas De Bruyne (Cafeine). He specialises in architecture and interior design photography and works for renowned clients and firms in Belgium and abroad.
“This is the very best of Antwerp and the best from here in Oxford.” — The Oxford Times Weekend
“This entertaining exhibition of the 16th- and 17th-century drawings from the Low Countries has energy to spare.” — The Telegraph
This catalogue will accompany the Bruegel to Rubens exhibition held at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford between 23 March and 23 June 2024.
Through a selection of over 100 world-class drawings created by Flemish artists in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, an insightful and comprehensive overview will be given into how these drawn sheets were used as part of artistic practice, within or beyond the artist’s studio. By revealing the drawings’ function, rather than on their attribution or iconography, these sheets will become more fully understood through the eyes of contemporary readers. Identifying how and why these sheets were created will render these artworks more accessible to a wider audience. The three main essays will each deal with one of the principal functions of drawings at the time: studies (copies and sketches), designs for other artworks (paintings, prints, tapestries, metalwork, stained glass, sculpture and architecture), and finally the independent drawings. Each essay will discuss the relevant works within their functional context and compared with other related objects. Introductory chapters will focus on what precisely can be considered a drawing, including its materials, media and techniques, in addition to an attempt to explain the notion of Flanders and Flemish art. Emphasis will be placed throughout the catalogue on how Flemish artists collaborated in creating the most astonishing artworks of their time, unveiling their networks and friendships, as well as their travels across Europe, revealing their international importance.
The exhibition is a partnership with the Museum Plantin-Moretus in Antwerp and will bring together for the first time the most stunning drawings from both the Ashmolean and the Plantin-Moretus collections, in addition to further loans from renowned Antwerp and Oxford institutions like the Rubenshuis and Christ Church Picture Gallery. Many of the sheets coming from Antwerp are registered on the Flemish Government’s Masterpieces List and will not be shown again for the next five to ten years to protect them from fading. Prominent artists featured in this catalogue include Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Peter Paul Rubens, Anthony van Dyck, and Jacques Jordaens, among many others. Highlights will include a sketchbook in which a young Rubens has copied Holbein’s Dance of Death woodcuts, intricate pen and ink drawings by Pieter Bruegel, meticulously drawn miniatures by Joris Hoefnagel, portrait studies by Anthony van Dyck, and a rare survival of a friendship album containing numerous drawings and poems dedicated to its owner. Two recently discovered sheets by Rubens will also be included, a design for a book-illustration on optics and an anatomical study of three legs.
Introducing Karel Fonteyne, one of Belgium’s foremost contemporary and fashion photographers. Since 1968 the artist has created an extensive oeuvre that has its place in the history of photography. His timeless visual storytelling relates to nature, darkness and loneliness, the inner world, and esotericism, while touching uncovered dimensions. For more than 15 years Fonteyne was active as a fashion photographer, breaking boundaries by introducing his narrative approach as a contemporary artist in the traditional fashion world. He had early collaborations with Martin Margiela, Dries Van Noten, Walter Van Beirendonck and Dirk Bikkembergs, and internationally he collaborated with Vogue, Interview, Bazaar, Marie-Claire and Brutus Magazine in Japan.
Text in English and French.
‘What if Vincent van Gogh suddenly realises that he is… himself a sunflower? Or thinks he is?
This book recounts the story of this well-known Dutch artist who, standing in the midst of his overwhelming sensory world, becomes aware just how thin the line between reality and dream world is. Did he live and work on a narrow borderline between truth and fantasy? Did he enter a different, perhaps higher frequency? How did all the images and observations come into him so intensely, and then spill out again onto his canvases? And how did the artist, but also beloved son, brother,… and therefore perhaps sunflower, relate to the world and his immediate environment?
In this richly illustrated, poetic book, author Paul de Moor creates, in words and images, an immersive experience for children aged 10 and over into the world of Van Gogh. As a celebrated children’s author, De Moor has already introduced children and young people to the artistic universes of Roger Raveel, Francis Alÿs, Michaël Borremans, Luc Tuymans and Raoul De Keyser. And now also Van Gogh.
Ages 10 plus.
“Van Hulle is not an interior designer but an interior artist. He understands the art of transforming the soul of the occupants into the soul of a house.” – Elle Deco
Grand Interiors is an immersive ‘grand tour’ of Geoffroy Van Hulle’s grandiose interiors. The Belgian decorator gives us a look inside exuberant private homes, from Knokke to New York. In his unpretentious interiors, he sprinkles generously with colours, patterns and exoticism. ‘Nowhere in my interiors is the distance to a bookcase, fireplace or bar cabinet more than five steps,’ he says. With the bravura of his teachers Cecil Beaton and David Hicks, he designs dazzling sets for everyday theatre.
Please welcome on stage, mister Geoffroy Van Hulle and his Grand Interiors!
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1886-1969) is undoubtedly one of the most significant and influential architects ever. To the present day, his designs and realised buildings, as well as his thinking and writings, continue to initiate many controversial debates on the achievements and failures of modern architecture. Yet not only architects and urban designers have been inspired or appalled by Mies. This new book demonstrates that his influence reaches far beyond the boundaries of professional architecture. Almost Nothing collects work by 100 painters, sculptors, photographers, film directors, designers, cartoonists, and architects who comment on the buildings, designs, and statements by, or images of, the legendary architect. The works also form a 100-fold re-interpretation of Mies van der Rohe’s life and oeuvre. New York-based architect and writer Christian Bjone in his accompanying text provides rich background information on the individual artists and the depicted art works. The book’s title refers to a statement by Mies himself on one of his celebrated masterpieces, Crown Hall on IIT campus in Chicago, which ingeniously combines simplicity with complexity.
Melle Smets and Joost van Onna took only twelve weeks to assemble Turtle 1, a car built entirely from recycled parts. Made in Africa, Turtle 1 is entirely suited to the local context, sufficiently sturdy to resist the climate and the road conditions, and easy to operate.This book is part of an extensive documentation of the project; this documentation spans several years and has used exhibitions, films and apps to tell the story of this great idea. The automobile industry is monopolised by multinational companies who care only for profit, and constantly seek to outbid each other by developing ever more sophisticated technology. The majority of people outside of the Western world have little access to this market. However, Turtle 1: Building a Car in Africa proves how people’s ingenuity can tackle any challenge. Dutch artist Melle Smets and sociologist Joost van Onna went to Suame Magazine in Ghana, one of the largest industrial areas in sub-Saharan Africa where some 200,000 people dismantle and repair cars and sell used spare parts. Their aim was not only to develop a totally new type of car but, more importantly, to boost autonomy and self-reliance in an attempt to be free from global economic interests. Within two years, the vehicle attracted much attention from the public and the media both in Africa and the Netherlands, prompting Smets and van Onna to create the conditions for producing the car on a small, local scale. The production, however, never took off as their Ghanaian partners had other intentions in spite of all success. While Smets and van Onna promoted their recycling model, the Africans had tragically begun to work on a luxury version of the car. A homage to a project that was never fully realised, this book is a succinct demonstration of humanity’s ability to overcome odds. Exhibition runs until 28 August 2016, Project Rotterdam, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, Netherlands.
Making cheese is an art, tasting cheese is a delight. Respect for craft, raw materials and animals are how quality raw milk cheeses obtain their full bodied flavours, rich in depth and complexity. For this book, cheese refiner Van Tricht and cheesemaker De Snijder went looking for the best raw milk cheeses. The result is a selection of sustainable top products that are entirely handmade and prepared the traditional way. Here, the authors talk about the people and the stories behind 20 international raw milk cheeses, while demonstrating their love for both the profession and the product.
“The new book features a ton of never-before-seen photos that expose the sheer variety, wonder, and beauty of these organisms that inhabit all the waters around us.” — Deeper Blue
Planktonium is a photo project and a short film by Dutch photographer/cinematographer Jan van Ijken about the unseen world of living microscopic plankton. It is a voyage into a secret universe inhabited by alien-like creatures. These stunningly beautiful, extremely diverse, and numerous organisms are unknown to most of us because they are invisible to the naked eye. However, they are wandering beneath the surface in waters all around us and are of vital importance for all life on earth. Phytoplankton (small plant-like cells) produce half of all the oxygen on earth by photosynthesis, like plants and trees do on land. Zooplankton form the base of the food chain of aquatic life. Plankton also play an important part in the global carbon cycle. They are currently threatened by climate change, global warming and the acidification of the oceans. Jan van Ijken photographed the plankton through microscopes, revealing the beauty and delicate structures of these minute organisms in the finest detail.
How do you portray sin, evil and foolishness in humans? Religious and political tensions and even the weather – we are talking about the depths of the Little Ice Age – contributed to a boom in representations of the Seven Deadly Sins in the Low Countries and immediate surroundings in the long sixteenth century. In this publication, four accessibly written essays highlight different sides of the pictorial tradition of the Seven Deadly Sins, with the renowned print series of the same name designed by Pieter Bruegel the Elder at its centre. A fifth, literary essay describes the feverish visions of one of the victims of a true 16th-century series of murders permeated by the deadly sins.
The work Ratio consists of 117 images featuring the same number of naked men and women photographed from behind. Bram Van Stappen made the series as part of the exhibition Back, organised in Antwerp, Belgium, in 2021. Over six weeks, the photographer set up a field studio and invited visitors to undress and take a place in front of the camera, yet face the opposite direction. Set in a generic surrounding and central composition, evenly lit and tightly cropped, the resultant black-and-white images display a form of (anti)portraiture that seems above all to be a study in paradox.
Leafing through the book, we are confronted with an accumulation of nude backs in different shapes and sizes: male and female, young and old, inked and blank, slender and plump, (a)symmetric, straight, or with hunched shoulders. The head, neck, pelvis, and lower extremities are cut from the image with surgical precision, leaving only the back of the torso, arms, and sometimes part of the hands in view. What remains are pieces of an unidentified body frame, covered by a layer of skin.
Very few people know what it feels like to drive the Mercedes-Benz 300SL Coupé – aptly nicknamed ‘Gullwing’ – that graces the cover of Iconic Classic Cars. Photographer Kevin van Campenhout has access to some of the rarest classic cars in the world and travels to every corner of the globe to photograph them in carefully selected settings, both natural and urban. Discover a super sleek 1974 Lamborghini Countach Periscope, a Porsche 550 Spyder – the first sports car the brand ever built; a 1965 Aston Martin DB5 – widely believed to be one of the most beautiful cars in the world; and many more. Photographed ‘up close and personal’ in Kevin Van Campenhout’s signature style and expertly described by journalist/car specialist Yan Alexandre Damasiewicz, these rare and classic cars unveil their secrets in this stunning new book.
There are few places on earth where the complexity and enormous scale of the global energy transition to sustainable energy sources is as visible as on and around the North Sea. The North Sea region is a leader in the development of renewable energy technologies, such as wind farms, hydrogen production and tidal energy, but this also causes tensions with the traditional fossil fuel industries that are also present there. Award-winning photographer Kadir van Lohuizen searches for stories behind the progress and dilemmas in countries around the North Sea region: the Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, the United Kingdom and Germany. Each of these countries faces major challenges, such as citizens who do not want wind turbines in their backyards, farmers who do want them because of the generous compensation, or an inventor testing a tidal current robot at sea. New Energy contains an essay by Jean-Baptise Fressoz, science historian and author of More and more and more, a lot of maps and infographics and the striking images by Van Lohuizen, divided per ‘case study’. The latter will also be exhibited in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam in the Autumn of 2026 and a namesake documentary was launched on Dutch television in 2027.
the bear and the butterfly by Ruth van Haren Noman presents a captivating series of watercolour paintings that explore transformation, intuition, and the interplay between strength and fragility. Drawing inspiration from nature and human emotion, Noman creates fluid, expressive compositions where bears and butterflies serve as central motifs, symbolising resilience, change, and the delicate balance of opposing forces. Each painting invites viewers into a meditative dialogue, offering space for reflection and introspection.
The book includes insights from interviews and texts by the artist herself. With high-quality reproductions, the bear and the butterfly highlights Noman’s mastery of watercolour techniques, her sensitivity to colour and form, and her ability to convey narrative through abstraction. The book is an essential volume for collectors, curators, and enthusiasts of contemporary painting and visual storytelling, emphasising the transformative power of art to explore emotion, intuition, and the natural world.