This book details how copies of Indonesian batik, manufactured in Europe and initially intended for the South-East Asian market, enjoyed unexpected success on the west coast of Africa at the end of the 19th century. The Scottish merchant Brown Fleming introduced the first wax-printed batik imitations made by Prévinaire and produced in the Netherlands, and adapted them to the tastes of African customers.

New research based on Dutch, English and Swiss archives has enabled us not only to reconstruct the earliest collections, but also to provide an overview of the development of Dutch wax in Europe from its beginnings to the last surviving company, Vlisco, in Helmond (Netherlands), which still prints these classics today.

This book will be the first to focus on the history of wax for West Africa in the various European countries from its beginnings to the present day, drawing of course on existing literature, but above all on primary sources.

This step-by-step Pocket Guide will teach you how to draw stunningly beautiful perspectives, complete with reflections and shadows.

The Pocket Guide to Perspective uses a simple, step-by-step method to help readers understand the basic concepts of perspective construction. Readers will learn to build one-point, two-point, and multi-point perspectives as well as reflections and shadows in perspective. This small pocket guide is compact and focused. Whether you’re at your desk or out and about, it is useful reference to bring along for both students and professionals alike.

Pieter Brugel the Elder – Fall of the Rebel Angels argues that many of the hybrid falling angels are carefully composed of naturalia and artificialia, as they were collected in art and curiosity cabinets of the time. Bruegel’s much noted emulation of Hieronymus Bosch was thus only part of his wider interest in collecting, inspecting, and imitating the artistic and natural world around him. This prompts an examination of the world at the time that Bruegel painted the Fall of the Rebel Angels, locally, in the urban and courtly centres of Antwerp and Brussels on the eve of the Dutch revolt, and globally, as the discovery of the New World irreversibly transformed the European perception of art and nature. Painted as a tale of hubris and pride, Bruegel’s masterpiece becomes a meditation on the potential and danger of man’s pursuit of art, knowledge and politics, a universal theme that has lost nothing of its power today.

Despite its consistent presence in architectural practice throughout the 20th and 21st centuries, collage has never been considered a standard form of architectural representation like drafting, model making, or sketching. The work of Marshall Brown, an architect and artist, demonstrates the power of collage as an architectural medium. In Brown’s view, collage changes the terms of architectural authorship and challenges outdated definitions of originality.
Published in conjunction with the exhibition The Architecture of Collage: Marshall Brown at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, the book features some forty collages by Marshall Brown. These works come from four of his collage series, including Chimera, Je est un autre, as well as the previously unpublished Prisons of Invention and Piranesian Maps of Berlin. Additionally, there are photographs of Ziggurat, an outdoor sculpture with a design based on a collage from Chimera. The full-color plates are supplemented with essays by critic and curator Aaron Betsky, scholar of art history and archaeology Anna Arabindan-Kesson, Santa Barbara Museum of Art’s curator James Glisson, and Marshall Brown that outline the conceptual foundations of Brown’s intriguing exploration of an intersection of architecture and art.

The 500 Hidden Secrets of Rome helps you set out to discover the most attractive, fun and unique places in Italy’s capital. Luisa Grigoletto and Christopher Livesay share 500 addresses and facts that many tourists don’t know, sometimes off the beaten track, but always loved by the locals and worth a visit.

This book lists, among other things, the 5 best gelaterías, the 5 most beautiful historic shops, 5 breathtaking palazzi which played an important role in art history and 5 sites where major Italian films were shot. It is the perfect book for those who wish to discover the city, but avoid all the usual tourist haunts, as well as for residents who are keen to track down the city’s best-kept secrets.

In the late decades of the 19th century a textile manufacturer sent his teenage son to Leeds to develop the business. Little did Mr. Holme senior know what that move would lead to. The young man, Charles Holme, happened to attend a lecture given by a business man just returned from the Far East. In very little time the inspired youth was travelling across Far Eastern countries developing his own business. On his travels he came to the conclusion that countries didn’t get along together because of the barrier of language. He thought that if they could be exposed to each others cultures visually all would be peace and light. It was that notion that led Charles Holme on his retirement from trading, without any relevant training or experience, to become a publisher, his business entitled The Studio Ltd., its first publication, The Studio. For over 50 years, involving three generations, The Studio Ltd. grew to be Britain’s biggest publisher of magazines and books on art and design in the first half of the 20th century. Its story is told here.

With vivid memories of his first visit to the Scottish National Gallery in the 1970s and his initial encounter with Hugo van der Goes’ The Trinity Altarpiece, Rembrandt’s A Woman in Bed, Velázquez’s An Old Woman Cooking Eggs and Degas’ Diego Martelli, Robert Storr discusses the shifting balance of museum collections from historically ‘certified’ classics to art whose status and significance remains in active contention and from singular ‘treasures’ to ensembles that speak to the larger scope of an artist’s endeavour. Also available: Unfinished Paintings: Narratives of the Non-Finito Watson Gordon Lecture 2014 ISBN 9781906270919 ‘The Hardest Kind of Archetype’: Reflections on Roy Lichtenstein The Watson Gordon Lecture 2010 ISBN 9781906270384 Picasso’s ‘Toys for Adults’ Cubism as Surrealism: The Watson Gordon Lecture 2008 ISBN 9781906270261 Sound, Silence, and Modernity in Dutch Pictures of Manners The Watson Gordon Lecture 2007 ISBN 9781906270254 Roger Fry’s Journey From the Primitives to the Post-Impressionists: Watson Gordon Lecture 2006 ISBN 9781906270117

For 10 years, Mathias Bertram has sought out surreal looking images and structures by the side of the road in Berlin and on his travels, capturing them in at-times puzzling photographs. He finds romantic landscapes in worn building facades, strange mythical creatures in faded street markings, maps of unknown continents on construction site containers, or virtuoso dancers in shattered steps. At first glance, his photographs could be mistaken for illustrations or paintings, but these motifs and shapes were created by time alone, gradually wearing away at things. Moisture, wind, and air cause them to age, while corrosion and collision slowly destroy them. However, as these things fall apart, something new is created that can lend dignity and beauty to the process of ageing—a “becoming through decaying”. Bertram’s photographs extract these trivial everyday items from their natural context, encouraging us to see them from an aesthetic perspective; a school of seeing that sharpens the gaze for the sensations of everyday life.

The magazine for classic and contemporary nude photography returns with a vibrant compilation of the most beautiful works from the field of the most intimate form of portrait photography. In selecting the works, it was important to the editor Matthias Straub to curate a bridge between the traditional approach to the human body and new, unusual perspectives. In the current edition, there are therefore both abstract works and also very classical nude studies. The familiar structuring of the magazine into the five acts of the opera, according to Gustav Freytag, guides viewers through the photos selected as a content-related leitmotiv.

All-round artist Kamagurka started his career as a cartoonist for the Belgian magazine HUMO. Soon after, his multi-talented, discernable style, razor-sharp pen and absurdist humour attracted the attention of other media, resulting in worldwide exposure in newspapers and magazines including NRC Handelsblad, Playboy, Esquire| (the Netherlands); Charlie Hebdo, Hara Kiri (France); Squibb, The Spectator, Deadpan (UK); Titanic, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Zitty, Eulenspiegel (Germany); Die Presse (Austria); The New Yorker, National Lampoon, RAW (USA) and many more. Kamagurka wrote and acted in several radio, television and theatre shows, often performing alongside Herr Seele, his lifelong partner in crime. Next to that Kamagurka released more than 25 comic books, from Bert and Bobje to Cowboy Henk. The Holy Kama is a best of, compiling over 1000 cartoons from this master of absurdity. The Holy Kama is an unholy bible, an indispensable on every Kama devotee’s bedside table. Also available: Kamarama ISBN: 9789058564078

In 2005, to mark the first anniversary of the Tsunami in the Indian Ocean that took so many lives, the BBC commissioned Tew Bunnag, along with other authors from the affected countries, to write a short story to be broadcast on Radio 4. Tew wrote the moving Lek and Mrs. Miller. Exceptionally well-received he decided to write a collection of stories surrounding the Tsunami. These were inspired by his experiences working in the South of Thailand for an NGO helping and talking to those who were suffering from the aftermath, and who suffered the devastation at first hand and dealing with the loss of their families and friends, as well as, in some cases, their livelihoods. Though their themes are tied to the tragedy that took place the stories touch on universal issues that go beyond the actual event such as loss, recovery and continuation after a tragedy. The collection, published to commemorate the tsunami in 2004, is a deeply moving and poignant read for all contemporary fiction readers.

With this new guide in your bag, you’re set to go out and discover the best and most fun places in hotspot Miami: 500 addresses that many tourists don’t know, a bit off the beaten track, but always loved by the locals and worth a visit. The 500 Hidden Secrets of Miami will take you to all the places that make Miami the lively and unique city it is, also known as the ‘Gateway to the Caribbean’, such as: the 5 nicest water views, 5 stunning Mediterranean revival buildings, 5 renowned Miami-based fashion designers, the 5 coolest hotel pools, and 5 wonderful parks, playgrounds, and museums to visit with your kids. It even includes some unusual experiences, such as swimming in a freshwater Venetian pool, or day trips to the Everglades and the Keys.

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.

The Labyrinth of Rooms is a story with one character, Human, who is an allegorical representation of us all. Human suddenly awakes in a square room with no memory of a prior life. A corridor leads them from that room to the next, then another, and so on until they reach the end of a 63-room labyrinth. As the journey progresses, Human contemplates their surroundings, studying the unique shape of each room and how it affects their thoughts, feelings, and actions. To understand the significance of the rooms’ architecture, Human engages in different types of thinking: questioning why the rooms were designed as such, imagining situations the rooms can host, praising what they find geometrically pleasing, speculating about the nature of the labyrinth, and even complaining about their forced existence within it. This variety is reflected in the writing of the book, which intentionally juxtaposes different genres, including storytelling, philosophical reasoning, dialogues, and prose poetry. In The Labyrinth of Rooms, the human life is conceived as a series of settings, or stated otherwise: a coevolution of our mental space and physical space.

This book guides young readers on a quest for fascinating and unforgettable fantasy creatures through the diary of a young apprentice who studies information, legends and details. Two sections dedicated to the Creatures for Beginner Keepers (the most docile and sweet) and the Creatures for Expert Keepers (the most dangerous). Short, fun, approachable stories that describe each creature and explain how to catch sight of it, how to tame it and what makes it angry at the end of the story, the readers will find a short test, similar to the one the book’s narrator must take, so that they’ll get their Certificate of Fantastic Creatures Keeper, that children can detach from the book and fill. Ages: 7 plus

Discover the magic of beloved the classic fairy tale Pinocchio with The Storyteller sound books. This innovative collection offers young children a new way to experience these timeless tales: designed for those who are not yet able to read independently, each book allows children to explore the stories by turning the pages while listening to the corresponding text read aloud at the touch of a button. The book becomes a modern storyteller, presenting the fairy tales with beautiful illustrations and engaging narration that brings the stories to life.

Other titles in the collection include:

9788854421707   The Storyteller: Peter Pan

9788854421691   The Storyteller: Little Red Riding Hood

9788854421721   The Storyteller: Snow White

Ages 4 plus.

The Never-Taken Images documents a unique long-term project that Swiss photographers Françoise and Daniel Cartier have been pursuing since 1998. They have put together a vast collection of unfixed photographic papers, glass negatives, and films, mostly dating from 1880 to 1990. Samples of these are mounted and displayed, and, exposed to light over the course of several exhibitions, evolve towards colour saturation. Instead of looking at still images, the Cartiers’ installations, titled Wait and See, allow the viewers to perceive a kind of reality for themselves.

The book features on around 100 pages the entire test catalogue that the Cartiers have put together to date, showing some 900 different papers and photosensitive supports. These facsimiles offer an almost real impression of their formats, colours, and materiality. Essays by Kathrin Schönegg, photo historian and curator, Thilo Koenig, scholar of art history and critic, and Christophe Brandt, former director of the Institute for the Conservation of Photographs at the University of Neuchâtel, supplement the images and place the Wait and See project in the art historical and technological context of abstract media art.

The Never-Taken Images also celebrates the industrially manufactured photo-sensitive support, representing the long central pre-digital period in the history of photography.

Text in English, French and German.

The Gentle Author assembles a choice selection of ‘Cries of London’, telling the stories of the artists and celebrated traders, and revealing the unexpected social realities contained within these cheap colourful prints produced for the mass market. For centuries, these lively images of familiar hawkers and peddlers have been treasured by Londoners. In the capital, those who had no other means of income could always sell wares in the street and, by turning their presence into performance through song, they won the hearts of generations and came to embody the spirit of London itself.

15 Gameboards, Booklet and Poster. 15 boards containing cards and puzzles so that the child can carry out the suggested activities. A manual that provides explanations of the activities and offers some useful hints and also how to learn more about Montessori education and apply it in everyday life. Ages: 6 plus

Van Overstraeten is one of the oldest and most exclusive interior design companies in Belgium, started in 1891 and now with a worldwide reputation working with the best architects, interior designers and decorators for private and public projects. In this stunning debut monograph, beautifully presented with all new photography is a selection of more than 40 projects from recent years.

Text in English, French and Dutch.