There are no books that focus on the unique artistic characteristics of the Venetian facade and its potential relevance to contemporary architectural and urban issues, as this book intends. This book is about architecture. It is not about history, although a bit of history is necessary to set the context. It is not about theory, although, again, a bit is necessary to connect the facade with urbanism. It is also not about structure and technology. And, most definitely, it is not about the plan. All of these topics are well-covered elsewhere. This book is about the facade. It explores the art and typology of the Venetian facade, not only as a high point of architectural literacy and achievement, but as a potentially useful contemporary stimulant.
Looking Forward to Monday Morning is a collection of essays that weaves together stories from Daniel Frisch’s thirty-year (plus) residential architecture practice. The essays focus on design and technology, anecdote and philosophy, entrepreneurship and culture, and beyond. Taken together, the essays provide a look into the practice of architecture (with insights applicable to any collaborative field), demystifying the complexities of the profession and challenging the elitism for which architects are so well known.
In his writings, Frisch works both in the dirt and from a mile high in an entertaining and instructive voice, marrying the practical and the theoretical. His essays on technical issues will help all students, practitioners and homeowners understand the underpinnings of design and construction, while his more personal musings touch on universal themes that speak to the very core of running a client service business and fostering a creative culture. In his practice and his personal life, informed by real-world experience, Daniel Frisch maintains a sense of idealism, candor and wit that shines through on every page of Looking Forward to Monday Morning. Throughout the entire volume Frisch inspires by celebrating his great good fortune in his combining avocation and vocation.
Kindred Spirits showcases the remarkable flowering of Chinese style ceramics that took place in Japan after the mid-19th century. For over a thousand years, Chinese ceramics have been admired and emulated in Japan. This book discusses for the first time how this artistic relationship evolved during the Meiji, Taishō, and early Shōwa eras. A selection of 100 works from the acclaimed Shen Zhai Collection demonstrates the range and quality of these ceramics, from elegant celadons to sophisticated underglaze blue porcelains. Detailed descriptions, makers’ marks, and box inscriptions make this a valuable reference resource for collectors and art historians.
Swiss artist Laurence Rasti has immersed herself with the inmates of a prison in the Swiss Canton of Neuchâtel. At La Promenade penitentiary in the town of La Chaux-de-Fonds, she encountered lives largely characterised by precarity and exile. In conversation with prisoners, researchers, and scholars, she questions a concept of imprisonment apparently geared towards poverty rather than crime. Rasti’s artistic research is based on a collaborative approach in which the inmates themselves also take pictures using pinhole cameras and engage in transcribing interviews.
The focus of Rasti’s photographic investigation is on the people deprived of their freedom. It reflects on the correlation of prison, precarity, and migration: topics that, in the case of a prison like La Promenade, are closely linked and of great social significance.
Text in English and French.
What Denis Rouvre admires about Sâdhus is the way they are in the world, the way they respond to the world, and the way they carry the burden of parallel paths. In non-identity toward extinction, they resist the necessity of their birth. They are born to die, to no longer exist. Every day, individuals defy their common destiny. Among the people whose portraits are exhibited by photographers, we are referring to those who, by their own will and courage, place themselves among the gods.
Chus Burés creates miracles. Each piece of jewelry that emerges from his workshop boasts a complex genesis, stemming from an intersection between his genius-level thought processes and his maverick lifestyle. From exploring the versatility of buttons, to accentuating the geometric planes of the human body (Infinity Lines, 1990), and using minerals to emulate and exaggerate human features (seen in the striking ‘Mae Nam’ Collection of 2000), Burés’ work is always perplexing, always stimulating, and always innovative. He refuses to be cowed by convention, and delights in challenging his clients and models. The bodily focus of his work makes every piece a startling, and often uncomfortable, insight into humanity.
Burés may be a maestro of metal – the gauzy chainmail-esque veils in his Crochet collection, 2000, attest to that. Yet he has mastered the emotional dimensions of his jewelry as well as its physical properties. The relationship between his pieces and the people who collect and cherish them is essential to his artistic praxis. In Chus Burés, Portraits & Jewellery (2016), this is realized through a series of intense portraits by Antoine d’Agata, Alberto García-Alix, and Andres Serrano. These pictures reveal a transgressive melding of jewel and subject: man becomes metal and metal becomes man. Watch ideas take on physical form, and immerse yourself in Burés’ world of wearable art.
Text in English, French, and Spanish.
Best known for designing a wide variety of commercial spaces for Marc Jacobs, Stephan Jaklitsch seeks to explore the poetry of architecture through the manipulation of space and light to create rigorously detailed spaces that convey a sense of meaning and purpose to their respective contexts. Organized in a rough chronological sequence, the projects in Jaklitsch’s Habits, Patterns, Algorithms range in scale from small interior-oriented retail constructions and free-standing residential work, which engages the surrounding landscape, to larger urban transformations both built and speculative. The primary focus is on the process of the design and construction of each work as well as the strict limitations presented by programme, site, code, or client conditions. Each project is presented with detailed drawings, sketches, models, and photographs.
John Stezaker’s found images, collages and image fragments are most associated with cinematic imagery, however it is the other found-image sources which he has worked with over the past 30 years which is the focus of this publication; notably the artist’s ‘Bridge’ collages and the anatomical nudes of his ‘Fall’ and ‘Expulsion’ series. This catalogue – published in association with Rosenwald-Wolf Gallery, Philadelphia, which showed the exhibition John Stezaker: Nude and Landscape in October 2011 – centres on Stezaker’s works from the 1980s, when he switched from the cinematic imagery of the 1970s towards ‘an engagement with the culture of the image to the nature of the image’.
The catalogue presents many new works that have not been shown before and, interestingly, also unaltered found images so similar to the Stezaker collages that they are only identifiable when focusing on the absence or presence of the artist’s cut. Over 40 full-colour images are accompanied by texts by curator Sid Sachs, who explores the relationship between the landscape and the nude, and Elizabeth Manchester who looks at the notion and role of ‘The Source’ in Stezaker’s work.
Patrick Vertenten (1964, Sint-Gillis-Waas, Belgium) is an artist who paints from the heart. Marked by the use of diffused light and brushstrokes—reminiscent of shallow focus in cinematography—the atmosphere of the Belgian artist’s oeuvre is one of nostalgia and melancholia.
Inspired by film, literature, poetry, and music, Vertenten recuperates found imagery from various sources before transforming them into a brand new entity, examining the bittersweetness of humanity and life in general; loneliness, weakness, intimacy, desire, and Sehnsucht.
Moved by the beauty of the picture, the viewer is invited to explore the image in its new context, possibly striking a nerve or two, in which the dark tones of the picture resonate with the burden of life, reviving in the contrast of the symbolic and painterly highlights.
Text in English and Dutch.
The thematic focus of this five-volume catalogue is on painting in Berlin. With artists like Franz Ackermann, Martin Eder, Jeanne Mammen, Frank Nitsche, Katrin Plavcak and Thomas Scheibitz, it opens up a wide range of positions and artistic procedures. Traditional concepts meet highly location-specific and installation-like works, providing a comprehensive, multi-perspective view of current practice within this medium. All five volumes of the catalogue have central issues in common. These can be phrased through open-ended questions, which are negotiated here by a number of expert voices.
What possibilities and impulses emanate from painting in Berlin today? What is the role of this medium that is constantly being reformulated, particularly in contemporary art discourse? These volumes attempt to provide an answer.
Oliver Menzi, Philippe Bürgler and Helene Kuithan focus on ecological and economic sustainability, creating buildings with a precise, multifaceted architectural language. The range of services provided by the Zurich-based practice, which was founded in 2003, is reflected in the renewal of Basel SBB Station – from the production of a master plan to the development of specific details such as light fixtures.
Text in English and German.
This book accompanies a major exhibition in the Ashmolean Museum on the early work of internationally acclaimed German artist Anselm Kiefer. It focuses on his paintings, drawings, photographs and artist books created between 1969 and 1982, in the private collections of the Hall Art Foundation. Anselm Kiefer: Early Works is the first institutional show and publication in the UK dedicated to Kiefer’s early practice. The book introduces themes, subjects and styles that have become signature to Kiefer’s work, while providing a more intimate and complementary context for his large-scale installations that he is best known for today. The early works are accompanied by three recent paintings from the artist’s own collections and White Cube, chosen by the artist himself.
Art historians, artists, curators and experts of Kiefer’s art from Germany, Austria, Belgium, Britain and the US have contributed 46 original texts on individual works, organised in a chronological structure. An illustrated chronology at the end of the book compiled by Stephanie Biron from the Hall Art Foundation provides an overview of the artist’s early practice and life, to contextualise the works.
The book begins with Kiefer’s iconic Occupations and Heroische Sinnbilder series, created in 1969 and 1970, which Kiefer views as his first serious works. Kiefer was among the first generation of German post-war artists to directly confront the country’s troubled past and identity. Full of complex references to German socio-political history but also to culture, literature and his personal life, Kiefer’s early works carry a unique iconography, linking classic ideas of great art with a distinctive understanding of concrete artistic materiality. The landscapes in his watercolours are historically charged; hand-written words on paintings are closely linked with poetry well known to most German viewers; motifs and symbols point at Nazi ideologies and a collective feeling of guilt.
In 2015, Dieter Mammel witnessed the arrival of the first Syrian refugees on the Greek island of Kos. In the years that followed, the Berlin-based painter explored the story of his own family’s flight, the sense of displacement that came with it, and the new beginning in another country. The exhibition tour LIFELINE, which traces the course of the family’s life, with the accompanying catalogue shows the pictures created as part of this exploration and examines the themes of origin, flight, and memory as timeless constants of human experience.
Mammel paints with watercolour on unprimed, wet canvas. The focus is always on just one colour, on light and shadow. It almost seems as if the motifs were dissolving — and with them time and memory. Mammel tries to capture them with his brush. His pictures bear witness to the difficulty of this endeavour, but also to the necessity and beauty of the attempt in and of itself.
Text in English and German.
“Rife with main character energy, authenticity and playfulness, here’s where to book on your next American road trip …” — The Gloss
“a love letter to America’s charming motels” — Evening Standard
“dreamily escapist” — Elle Decoration
“The design of the book itself echoes the period without slipping into kitsch – it feels sleek, collectible, and, like its subject matter, built to last.” — Amateur Photographer
“a perfect primer for this year’s summer holiday destinations” — Loupe Magazine
A nostalgic road trip through America’s most charming motels—revived and reimagined. Vintage Motels showcases 40 historic motels across the USA, each transformed into an inviting boutique hotel while honouring its past. Through rich storytelling and stunning photography, this beautifully designed hardcover book captures the spirit of these mid-century roadside gems. Each motel is featured across 4 to 6 pages, with a detailed narrative (500 words) and a mix of archival and contemporary images. Perfect for design lovers, travellers, and history enthusiasts, Vintage Motels is an inspiring tribute to the golden age of American road travel.
Reimagining Environmental Identity by Ping Jiang presents a compelling exploration of architectural practice designed to navigate the dynamic urban landscapes of China and beyond. The book showcases 19 diverse projects from Jiang’s studio, reflecting a novel approach to architecture that engages deeply with social, cultural, technological, and environmental issues. Rather than adhering to conventional architectural norms, Jiang’s practice emphasises the creation of meaningful, context-sensitive designs that foster a profound connection between people and their environment. Through a range of projects, from high-rise buildings to urban interventions and civic structures, the monograph highlights a non-linear design process that blends spatial experience with cultural relevance and environmental sensitivity. It underscores the importance of forging a unique sense of place and identity in architecture, advocating for designs that resonate with both local and global contexts. This collection offers insights into how contemporary architecture can address the complexities of urban life while preserving and enhancing cultural and environmental values.
It could be said that Walter Gropius laid the cornerstone of modern architecture in 1919 by founding the Bauhaus. As a result, modern architecture is now over 100 years old. This first century of modernism has come to a close with a mixed review. Enthusiasm for its achievements goes hand in hand with a discontent about a sizeable portion of its outcome, as well as its effect on the natural and built environments. The most vocal supporters of these modernist ideals crafted epic claims that modernism was bound to deliver progressive and humane environments. Alas, the follow through of those promises was uneven at best.
If the first century of modernism can be considered an architecture of abstraction and ideas, then what might we design if we turn our attention, in this second century of modernism, to an architecture of emotional abundance? Second-Century Modernism creates an architecture of richness and community by placing a higher priority on emotional meaning, through a shift in the design process that balances the rational with the intuitive, and a “Less + More” approach to expanding the range of cultural values we can inclusively balance in our environments.
This book comprises a timely and controversial assertion of beauty as vital to the energy of contemporary art. As such it surveys work by an international group of artists who share an intense and highly individualistic focus on the processes of making, authorship and aesthetic poise. An essay by Michael Bracewell shares with its subjects the return of aesthetics to the science of feelings; to the individual as opposed to ‘identity’; and to a sensibility in visual art that is literary, flees the stereotype and rejects sociopolitical verbiage. It is a concept of beauty in some recent art that is less about representation than it is about memoir, fictional devices, cultural connoisseurship as praxis and the profundity of human relationships.
LO2 is an interior design studio founded in 2004 that covers architectural projects (private residential, corporate and hospitality), interior design and landscape architecture – the latter through Locus Landscape Architecture – both in Spain and abroad.
Luisa Olazábal and Luis Ojeda, as well as their partners, have formed a multidisciplinary team that approaches projects with a holistic approach and fits them optimally into the environment in which they are located, as can be seen in the exquisite selection published in this book.
If Richmond VA represented the historic heart of the Confederacy, then Monument Avenue was meant to memorialise its soul. The avenue was conceived in the 1870s, when the city elected to build a memorial to General Robert E Lee. It was not until 1890, however, that the massive monument was unveiled. Over the succeeding decades, Lee was joined by statues commemorating other leading Confederate military and political figures – JEB Stuart, Jefferson Davis, Stonewall Jackson and Matthew Fontaine Maury.
Almost from the moment they were erected, the Confederate monuments, as symbols of white supremacy, were the focus of controversy and protest. The climax came in the summer of 2020 when Black Lives Matter protesters, outraged by the death of George Floyd, converged on the avenue to vent their fury. On July 10th, Jefferson Davis was dragged from his pedestal. Two days later, Brian Rose packed up his cameras in New York and drove back to his home state to document the last days of the grand boulevard of the Lost Cause. En route, he reflected on his own history and the roles played by his forebears in the Antebellum South.This new edition of a classic book captures a pivotal moment in modern American history.
At the heart of Hoda Tawakol’s work is a profound confrontation with identity, femininity and power. Inspired by the memories of her “three mothers”—her mother, her grandmother, and her nanny—the Egyptian-French artist (b. 1968) spins a narrative web of life and art with loss and recollection intersecting, while the complex interplay of individual and collective identity takes centre stage. The body as an experiential focus is key for Tawakol; and her textile sculptures and installations refer to it both as a protective shield and as a surface for projection; they decipher the balance of power between the extremes of exposure and concealment. Some Ties Linger On is Hoda Tawakol’s first monograph; with numerous images and two accompanying essays, it offers a comprehensive overview of her artistic oeuvre to date.
Text in English and German.
The work of Japanese-Swiss painter Teruko Yokoi (1924–2020) is characterised by unflagging creative energy and constant evolution. This book takes an in-depth look at her painting methods and her own vocabulary of abstraction, which was formulated over the course of a long artistic career. Art historian Kuniko Satonobu Spirig, who is also of Japanese origin, analyses and explains cultural and biographical relations in Yokoi’s art, as well as the influences of abstract expressionism on her painting technique.
Raised in the city of Tsushima on the Japanese island of that name, Yokoi moved to Tokyo in 1949, where she attended the private Joshibi University of Art and Design (Joshibijutsu Daigaku). In 1954, she went to the United States, where she completed her education at the San Francisco Art Institute and with painters Hans Hofmann and Julian E. Levi in New York. There she met artists such as Sam Francis—whom she married in 1959— Mark Rothko, and Kenzo Okada. In this environment, she drew new energy and began to develop her own style of abstraction and to invent her own idiom. In 1962, she moved to Switzerland, where she lived and worked tirelessly in the city of Bern until her death.
Text in English and Japanese.
The villa of physicians Anna and Philipp Rezek, built in 1932/33 in Pötzleinsdorf, in the 18th district of the Austrian capital, is an outstanding monument of Viennese modernism of the interwar period. The residence, also known as the “Glas House”, is a quintessential example of modern architecture and the associated philosophy of living in 1930s Vienna. Yet its architect Hans Glas (1892–1960), a student of Adolf Loos, has largely fallen into oblivion.
This book describes the Villa Rezek in detail, illustrated with numerous historical and newly taken photographs, plans and drawings, and documents. It also sheds light on entirely new aspects of Vienna’s architectural history of the 1930s and tells the of both the architect his clients, who were all forced to emigrate due to their Jewish origins following the unification of Austria with Nazi Germany in 1938. It also highlights the ideas and design principles of the visionary architect Hans Glas, which are more relevant today than ever.
The fascinating connection between the impressive architecture of Stuttgart’s new main train station and the art of the Stuttgart Ballet comes to life in Station Stuttgart. On a grey November afternoon, a unique stage set was created on the construction site: an unfinished track bed and a majestic hall, which, with its chalice columns and skylights, evokes the grandeur of a cathedral.
Renowned photographer Dennis Orel captured the gifted dancers of the Stuttgart Ballet in this extraordinary setting. Their elegant poses and the architectural complexity of the structure merge to create a striking work of art. Station Stuttgart documents not only the creative process but also the tireless dedication of all those involved, who, in harmonious collaboration, created an impressive marriage of dance and architecture. This publication invites the reader to discover the beauty and magic of this one-of-a-kind production.
Text in English and German.
“…The perfect introduction and guide to a region that deserves our attention.” — The Irish Sun
“Hughes has done a truly superb job on this detailed winery by winery guide, that also includes an excellent overview of modern Beaujolais and how it got to where it is today. Her intelligence rings clear on every page.” — Telegraph
“This book has its work cut out if it is to gain for good Beaujolais a reputation commensurate with the quality of the wines being produced today. I am pleased to note that it is up to the task.” — World of Fine Wine
In The Wines of Beaujolais Natasha Hughes MW guides readers expertly to a greater understanding of the diversity of wines made in the region. In the last few years the quality of wines emerging from Beaujolais has risen dramatically, yet many still associate the region with Beaujolais Nouveau. From the 1960s onward the region became best known for these fun, unsophisticated wines, which were released just a few weeks after harvest. Nouveau brought financial security to the region, but the extraordinary level of demand for these wines also led to industrialised methods of farming and wine production. The resulting decline in quality ultimately damaged Beaujolais’s reputation. Most wine lovers were unaware that, in parallel with this, there was a movement in the region to re-establish Beaujolais’s historic reputation as a source of fine wines. The focus was on terroir, respect for the environment and considered winemaking – all things valued by today’s wine lovers. This movement has gained momentum in recent years and Beaujolais is now a region with ambitions to match up to the reputation conferred on its neighbours in Burgundy and the Rhône.