The Tekkieh Moaven is a significant religious monument in Kermanshah and one of the most important national memorials in Iran. Following the building’s destruction in the early 20th century, it was rebuilt and furnished with exclusive tiles, the focal point of this publication. Since 1975, it has also been a popular museum visited by hundreds of thousands of people every year. The tiles illustrate the fascinating world of art in the Persian empire and Islamic era and are distinguished by colourful illustrations featuring floral, calligraphic, and also figurative motifs. Author Hadi Seif weaves the recollections of the ancient guardian Sojdehpur into his narratives, contributing valuable insights into the evolutionary history of these impressive tiles. This is the first major English-language publication dedicated to this outstanding cultural monument.

The global porcelain scene is celebrating the 40th anniversary of the International Ceramics Fair and Seminar, which was founded by Brian Haughton and his wife, Anna, in London in 1982. That was just the beginning: further fairs and accompanying symposia on design, jewellery, and antiques in New York and Dubai were to follow, becoming important venues of exchange, not just for trade but for the academic world too.
To mark this anniversary, more than 40 renowned scholars were asked to write about selected European ceramics that had been traded in Brian Haughton’s gallery and that he had been particularly passionate about.
This publication is a wonderful kaleidoscope of unique ceramics from the 18th and 19th centuries, released as a homage to Brian Haughton, The Man with the Butterfly Tie.

There are many reasons to plan a visit to The Hague. It is the international city of peace and justice, the only large Dutch city by the sea, one of the greenest cities of the Netherlands, and it boasts a long and rich history.
For this book, Tal Maes listed her 500 favourite places and tips, presenting them in original and interesting lists such as 5 historic houses of famous Dutchmen, 5 fun boat trips, the 5 best spots for Dutch “maatjes” herring, 5 museums around the Binnenhof, the 5 best lifestyle and concept stores, and much more. This guide encourages you to look further than the usual hotspots. Walk to the far end of the beach to find peace and quiet, try a beer from a hidden monastery, discover cutting-edge art in a former power plant. Of the highlights included, lesser-known aspects are revealed.

From the 2nd century CE to the 19th century, the people of the fertile estuary of the great Mekong River created treasures of sacred art, architecture and accomplished feats of water engineering that are coming to light in Vietnam’s vigorous new archaeological research programmes. The large stilted wooden houses of Oc Eo, the early Venice of the maritime routes of the East in the earliest centuries of the first millennium, drew in ships with precious cargoes from Rome, India and China to trade while waiting for the change of the monsoon wind to continue their voyages.

Chinese annals record that the early polity they called ‘Funan’ ruled 1,000 km of coastline along the shipping route. Among the earliest Mekong Delta Buddhist icons are a breathtakingly elegant 2.7m tall Buddha carved in hardwood that has survived more than 1000 years in the delta mud and a 29cm bronze Buddha that arrived on a trading ship from the 6th century Chinese Northern Qi dynasty. Very early Vishnu statues wear high, floral mitres and clasp war conch-trumpets on their left hip, and Shiva’s face stares out from stone lingas.

The Ho Chi Minh Museum collection conserves diverse masterpieces of the art from Vietnam, from the prehistoric Dong Son drums of the Red River Delta in the north to the vibrant Hindu and Buddhist statuary of the former kingdoms of Champa in Central Vietnam. In addition, there is an immense array of art and imperial furnishings of the last Vietnamese dynasty, the Nguyen, which was founded in the Mekong Delta at the beginning of the 19th century. There are refined inlaid wooden cabinets, sets of the finest blue and white ceramics and embroidered silken court costumes worn by the royal family, as well as huge wooden and ceramic Buddha statues which played crucial social and political roles in establishing the dynasty and quelling its foes.

Reproduced from the finest surviving edition of a rare manuscript, The Sixty-Nine Stations of the Kisokaido brings Hiroshige and Eisen’s portrait of daily life in nineteenth century Japan to Western audiences for the first time. Each of the seventy-one images teems with unique characters, from beggars and brawling men to boaters and finely clothed women. Behind these travellers loom castles, cities, powerful waterfalls and many other sites familiar to lovers of Japanese history. Comments by Sebastian Izzard, Ph.D., accompany each image, not only providing insight into their subject matter, but also discussing their survival during the dramatic social shifts and economic hardship of Hiroshige and Eisen’s time. This book tells the story of a landmark, two immortal artists, and an enduring masterpiece.

The research in the field of vision conducted from 1919 by the Laboratory of Experimental Psychology, founded by Vittorio Benussi at the University of Padua, had a remarkable and innovative impact. This research went beyond the academic and disciplinary sphere and, starting in the 1960s, helped to stimulate a ground-breaking cultural and artistic scene, launching the city of Padua and its artists internationally.

This volume explores the relationship between the works, milieux and exhibitions of the Gruppo N – Alberto Biasi, Ennio L. Chiggio, Toni Costa, Edoardo Landi, Manfredo Massironi – active in Padua from 1960 to 1964, and the studies of Vittorio Benussi and the first scholars of his School: Cesare Musatti, Fabio Metelli and Gaetano Kanizsa, who was born in Trieste but graduated in Padua. Marina Apollonio’s art and research occupy a special place in this dialogue between science and art.

Texts by: Rossana Actis-Grosso, Elisa Baldini, Guido Bartorelli, Paolo Bernardis, Marco Bertamini, Giovanni Bianchi, Ivana Bianchi, Andrea Bobbio, Nicola Bruno, Elisa Caldarola, Marnie Campagnaro, Barbara Luciana Cenere, Alberto Cibin, Elena Clara, Osvaldo da Pos, Andrea Dissegna, Carlo Fantoni, Giovanni Galfano, Walter Gerbino, Enrico Giora , Massimo Grassi, Laura Messina-Argenton, Giulia Parovel Tamara Prest, Marta Previti, Lucia Regolin, Sergio Roncato e Baingio Pinna, Federica Stevanin, Giorgio Vallortigara, Ian Verstegen, Giuseppe Virelli, Daniele Zavagno.

Text in Italian with English translations in the appendix.

Climate change is here. We are in the middle of it and cannot turn a deaf ear to the alarm bells that are sounding ever more compellingly. The impact of unbridled greenhouse gas emissions is incontrovertibly proven and clearly measurable: the warming of the atmosphere and oceans, a change in the frequency and intensity of precipitation, a change in storm activity, a faster acidification of the oceans… There is no more time to close our eyes and think the problem away. No, if we don’t want to burden future generations with insurmountable problems, we need to take action… and right away.
Cathy Macharis, professor of Sustainable Mobility and Logistics at the VUB, puts her finger on the problem and translates meeting the climate goals – which for greenhouse gas emissions implies a reduction by a factor of 8 – into a concrete and sustainable mobility plan to which everyone can and will have to do their bit. The challenge is huge, and despite the fact that technology can help us do this, technology alone cannot solve the problem. In 8 A’s a (Awareness, Avoidance, Act and Shift, Anticipation, Acceleration, Actor involvement, Alteration and All in love!), a plan of action is comprehensively proposed, starting with a change in mentality. This discourse advocates urgent but achievable change, without finger-pointing, hysteria or the pessimism so often inherent in the climate debate. 

The last work of Burne-Jones: a series of woodcut illustrations to the first chapters of Genesis, making a perfect epitome of his art. Reprinted from the original edition of 1902.

The jewellery department at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris comprises some 3,500 pieces and is the only national collection of its kind in France. This book presents bijouterie and joaillerie masterpieces from this high-profile collection which ranges from the Middle Ages to the contemporary period and shines a particular spotlight on the 18th century and the age of Art Nouveau.

Daytime or evening jewellery and art jewellery pieces in the form of tiaras, necklaces, bracelets, earrings, pendants, hair or tie pins, rings and stomacher brooches illustrate the boundless creativity of designers.

The greatest artists are represented: Sandoz, Vever, Falize, Boucheron, Lalique, Fouquet and Gaillard for Art Nouveau, Raymond Templier and Jean Després for Art Deco, Georges Braque, Jean Lurçat, Line Vautrin, Jean Schlumberger, Torun, Dinh Van, Jonemann and Claude Lalanne for the post-war period, and a number of contemporary designers. The collection also features pieces by the great jewellery houses: Cartier, Boucheron, Chanel, Van Cleef & Arpels and, more recently, JAR.

This richly illustrated book accompanies the display in the Galerie des Bijoux at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, which features the collection’s highlights.

Italian artist Ugo Rondinone was invited by the Musee d’Art et d’Histoire (MAH) in Geneva to curate a show that invites a dialogue between his work and the works in the permanent collection. The show he created centres around two emblematic figures of 19th and 20th century Swiss art – Felix Vallotton and Ferdinand Hodler – and considers the importance of love and desire in our relationship with art and creation. This book documents the museum’s halls and the exhibition, which includes works by Rondinone and art from the MAH Collection.

Text in English and French.

The Royal Museum for Central Africa, in Tervuren, Belgium, was founded in 1898, but its current building was inaugurated in 1910 and is characterised by many symbols reflecting the colonial propaganda of the time. The grand rotunda, designed to serve as the museum entrance, plays host to a series of statues that are strong examples of such imagery, reflecting fundamentally racist stereotypes.

Between 2013 and 2018, the RMCA underwent a major renovation that saw a substantial redesign of the permanent exhibition, with the involvement of members of the African diaspora in Belgium. A major challenge of the renovation was to demonstrate the will to decolonise a listed building that is legally protected against changes. As removal of the colonial statues was not allowed, the museum was forced to find innovative solutions, notably by inviting contemporary African artists to create installations to dialogue, contrast, and discuss with colonial messages.

Congolese artist Aimé Mpané was chosen to make such an installation in the rotunda in 2018 with New breath, or Burgeoning Congo. Public reaction helped the AfricaMuseum realise that it needed to go further. Along with the creation of a second sculpture, Aimé Mpané, in co-creation with Belgian artist Jean Pierre Müller, proposed the RE/STORE project: a permanent installation of transparent veils, each bearing a contemporary message, hung in front of every statue in the rotunda. The themes addressed in this collection of veils interact with the viewer in a powerful and eloquent manner.

This richly illustrated book is a compilation of texts written by renowned experts about the history of the rotunda and its statues, as well as the semantic and artistic analysis of RE/STORE, providing a full catalogue of the installations, sculptures, and veils.

The idea of this book is to shed light on the various stages in the construction of the buildings along with their use in the Cinquantenaire in Brussels from 1880 until today.

Besides statues and monuments, the history of the major institutions that are housed here are brought to life in text and image. The story of the World Fairs is linked to the history of Belgium as well as daily life in the park today with the help of the many unpublished documents.

A young, enthusiastic student of marine life takes the readers on a quest to discover the fantasy creatures that live in the sea. The children will read her diary, filled with information, legends and details. Tips are also intended for all sea life lovers to do their part and keep the ocean clean and defend the kingdom of its creatures that today, more than ever, is threatened by dangerous, irresponsible behaviour. Two sections dedicated to the underwater creatures: those who live on the surface and those who live in the abysses. 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 in. Ages: 7 plus

From Peter Pan’s Neverland to Alice’s Wonderland. From the Wizard’s Oz to King Author’s Camelot. Finally, an atlas where children can dive-in and explore all of their favorite imaginary worlds. The Atlas of the Imaginary Places includes 80 pages with captivating illustrations of over 10 fictional lands, accompanied by an experienced and charming guide highlighting the main sights and facts about each. Not to be missed: a final and original map! Ages 7 +

Take a spectacular armchair voyage to one of earth’s most magnificent and ancient sites: Egypt’s Valley of the Kings. This exquisitely produced guide is lavishly illustrated with more than 800 pictures (including archeological reconstruction drawings); six gatefolds; and the finest paper. Conducted by a team of world-acknowledged experts who provide the most up-to-date information, this virtual guidebook to Egypt’s greatest treasures is the perfect mix of artistic brilliance and scholarly research. The Valley of the Kings and the tombs of the nobles are, with the pyramids of Giza, among the world’s best-known sites. Yet a significant portion of this remarkable place remains unseen by most who visit – but this illuminating and spectacularly produced volume fully maps both the artistic and the architectural features of the tombs. Renowned photographer Araldo De Luca was granted full access to these ancient wonders, and he provides unrivalled colour images of the funerary temples and private necropolises. An exploration of their structures and embellishments features plans, photos, drawings of motifs, and hieroglyphs. To complete the presentation: walking itineraries in the Theban mountains are shown from many unusual vantage points, making this book a visual treat, and an extraordinary adventure, for real and armchair travellers alike.

‘This is me, Hee-haw. I’m going to tell you a story. Not just any old story – a Christmas story. You’re going to see the most beautiful paintings and drawings in the world too. You’ll probably be surprised to see how many pictures I’m in. Hundreds – no, thousands! And that’s because I, Hee-haw, play a very important part in this story. As you will see.’ Martine Gosselink, director of the Mauritshuis museum, tells the Christmas story through the eyes of Hee-haw the donkey, drawn by Thé Tjong-Khing. ‘How come? Because I was always there!’

Chablis has a distinct identity amongst the wines of Burgundy. The gently sloping vineyards of this small, scenic region produce a remarkably diverse range of wines, even though all are made from just one variety – Chardonnay.

As in other parts of France, it was the Romans who introduced vines and the medieval Church which expanded the vineyard. By the twelfth century the wines of Chablis, were already being celebrated in poetry. However, over the centuries a considerable amount of everyday wine also found its way via the river Yonne to the cafés of Paris. In its heyday of production towards the end of the nineteenth century the region encompassed 40,000 hectares of vines. But that was before phylloxera and oidium ravaged the vineyards and the railways brought competition from further south to the capital’s wine drinkers.

From a low point of 500 hectares just after the Second World War, the vineyard has now expanded more than tenfold, and quality has increased too. Wines in the appellation’s four categories – grand cru, premier cru, Chablis and Petit Chablis – are created by vignerons keen to work with the terroir to produce the elegant, mineral, long-lived wines for which the region earned its reputation. To this end, ever greater care is being taken in the vineyards and the routine use of chemicals is becoming increasingly uncommon.

The region’s history, unique soil, geography and climate are all covered in detail, but it is Rosemary George’s lively and insightful profiles of those who make the region’s wines that form the body of The wines of Chablis and the Grand Auxerrois. Through the lives of these vignerons – from the lows of disastrous weather to their love of the land – she paints a unique picture of a much-admired region.

More than other painters, the Impressionists wanted to shake off the dust of the studio, and swarmed the noisy streets of Paris, filling the cafés and living in garrets and humble little dwellings on the hill of Montmartre, which still seemed like the countryside at the time, its slopes covered with vineyards and vegetable gardens. Nor did they limit themselves to the city, planting their easels in the clearings of the forest of Fontainebleau, on the coast of Normandy, in the rustic villages in the Oise Valley and in Bougival and Argenteuil on the banks of the Seine. Like their Naturalist friends Zola and Maupassant, they liked to mix with the locals so they could experience the places directly, painting everywhere, even on a boat, like the one where Monet had his floating studio.

Dismissed by contemporaries as the ravings of a deluded enemy of modernity, The Storm Cloud of the Nineteenth Century is an eerily prescient denunciation of capitalism’s assault on the atmosphere – and the profound danger for the earth but also the spiritual well-being of humanity. It is one of Ruskin’s final writings, conducted with both rigorous scientific observation and a sense of Biblical prophecy.

Ruskin’s call to action is even more urgently needed today. His rallying cry, There is no Wealth but Life, is implicit throughout the Storm Cloud. How his thought developed through a conflicted relationship with the professional science of his day, and what we can take from his writings, are examined by Peter Brimblecombe, Professor of Atmospheric Pollution at the University of Essex, in his Introduction. A foreword by the Master of the Guild of St George, Ruskin’s association for social and spiritual reform, sets out what Ruskinians today can do and are doing.

The London Press Exchange (LPE), founded in 1892, grew out of an agency set up by two young reporters in London to supply news items to provincial papers. It was to grow to become the biggest and most profitable advertising agency in Britain. Yet it never was to attract the publicity as did lesser fry as Crawford’s or Colman, Prentis, Varley. It’s policy was actually declared to be one of reticence, which is not what advertising is all about. Yet some of the characters it conceived were to become household familiars as Mr.Therm for the gas industry and ‘the little man’ for Double Diamond. And in carrying out the first major readership survey in Britain, under the aegis of Mark Abrams, LPE kick-started market research here, The Market Research Society being founded in its offices. This tribute is to establish LPE as ‘leader of the field’.

Albert Dros has a passion for landscape photography. Although he travels the world in search of the most beautiful images, the Netherlands is still his favourite subject. After all these years, Albert has created extremely atmospheric, colourful and almost romantic photographs of the Netherlands. His dream images in this book show everything that makes the Netherlands the Netherlands: from tulips to windmills, from purple moors to vast river landscapes and from picturesque towns to animals in meadows and in the wild. The Beauty of the Netherlands is the result of ten years of craftsmanship by an internationally renowned photographer who captures a Netherlands that few people will ever see with their own eyes.

Maria Lai always had a special relationship with fairy tales. She considered them a metaphor for art and a way of communicating with the public in a simple, straightforward way. Starting in the 1980s, fairy tales became central to her art. Tenendo per mano il sole, Tenendo per mano l’ombra, Curiosape and Maria Pietra, are her most famous “sewn fairy tales” – books created by the artist using castoff textiles.

Maria Lai’s fairy tales are not merely children’s stories, but profound reflections on life and what it means to be a human being. They are often inspired by Sardinian myths and legends, to which the artist gives a personal twist, adding autobiographical details and philosophical reflections.
This edition of Tenendo per mano l’ombra is a printed version of Maria Lai’s 1987 tale. The original consists of fabric pages sewn together and collages of dyed textiles, on which the artist has embroidered geometric figures, yarn and other materials. The fairy tale tells the story of a human being (and his double) who must learn to accept shadows, the dark part of the world and of himself. The figure’s shadow, in Maria Lai’s fairy tale, is not a negative element to be rejected, but an integral part of his personality. To live an untroubled and complete life, one must learn to accept and live with it.

Elena Pontiggia’s concluding essay accompanies the reader in a fascinating page by page interpretation of the fable, and discusses Lai’s artistic and stylistic approach in the context of an extensive network of philosophical, literary and artistic references: from Kant and Manzoni to Klee and Malevič.

Text in English and Italian.

Male nudes have always been an expression of strength, beauty, and desire. Today, the naked male body is often viewed as a symbol of homosexual desire and is subject to a similar objectification within the community as the heterosexual female body — despite the social narrative of diversity and body positivity.

This raises important questions: which bodies are worthy of representation, which poses stimulate desire — and whose desire is being aroused? We are exposed to a non-stop, endlessly repetitive production of images in everyday life. This has long since led to a standardisation of the masculine body image, but only few people can identify with the ideal of a slim, muscular, and angular figure.

In his work the beauty & the boys, Martin de Crignis displays his own photographs of the bare male body in the context of historical nude depictions. He sets his own visual language against these archive photos: while it imitates the aesthetics of a reality format in which the portrayed persons seem to openly present themselves in a domestic setting, the staged poses contradict both the genre and the masculine body ideal.

With this special juxtaposition of images and their conflicting aesthetics, de Crignis subtly touches on issues of body cult, naturalness, and masculinity in his exceptional artist’s book.

During the German occupation, a Jewish Dutch couple had to sell a painting to go into hiding. Their daughters were placed in a children’s home, but were rounded up in early 1944 and deported to Auschwitz, where they died. The parents survived the war and did not discover their children’s fate until 1946. The search for the painting also remained fruitless for a long time, until Origins Unknown Agency discovered that it had ended up in a German museum. The museum had previously tried unsuccessfully to trace its provenance. Thanks to the Origins Unknown Agency, the heirs of the original owner were found. The German museum and the heirs agreed that the painting, an 1882 work by Camille Pissarro, would remain at the museum. As part of the compensation, the painting will be kept on display from November 2024 to February 2025 at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.