Nives Widauer: Villa Nix features a retrospective of Nives Widauer’s oeuvre of three decades. The book documents the the Vienna-based Swiss artist’s two-part exhibition at Centre Culturel Suisse in Paris and at Kunstmuseum Olten in summer and autumn 2020. The Paris show, titled Antichambre, was a prelude and subsequently integrated entirely into the larger presentation Villa Nix at Kunstmuseum Olten, the latter’s architecture allowing the actual experience of seven different rooms at Widauer’s imaginary house. As the title suggests, Widauer created for her art a home that is accessible for visitors, who can delve into and explore her imaginary mental spaces and her physical installations and works. Both the villa’s and the artist’s names are variations of the latin term for snow. The rooms at Villa Nix are intimate, historic and dense spaces in which she arranges a closely selected constellation of her work, thus creating resonating environments as an antichambre, an archive, a garden, or the unknown room. They work as mnemonic spaces and are at the same time rich in historic and cultural connotations while structuring the book like chapters. Introductory texts and conversations reflect the character of these spaces and the artworks they house. Text in English, French and German. Published to accompany an exhibition Nives Widauer: VILLA NIX, at the Kunstmuseum Olten, Switzerland between 21 September and 17 November 2019.

Marco Graber and Thomas Pulver founded their architectural studio in 1992 after graduating from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH Zurich) and working with Cruz Ortiz Architects in Seville and Torres & Martinez-Lapeña in Barcelona respectively in 1990-91. Since then Graber Pulver Architects, located in Zurich and Berne, have realised many projects for private and public clients in Switzerland and gained recognition nationally and internationally. Their work has been published in numerous books and magazines in Switzerland and abroad. Marco Graber and Thomas Pulver have been lecturing as visiting professors in the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich’s M.A.-program in architecture in 2006-08, maintaining a close interaction between their method of teaching and design research and the practical work in the studio. Spatial Sequences and Urban Infrastructure gives an insight into Graber Pulver’s working methods, focusing on their search for the contextual roots and for the specific space and form. The leading idea is that, besides of its natural properties, the infrastructural reservations and links of a territory are crucial for the physical development of our urban landscape. At the same time the form, which has to meet a multitude of demands, is determined by the fact that the quality of a space can be judged and developed only by moving within that space. A second, lavishly illustrated part of the book presents work by students of Graber Pulver’s course at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich. The topics for the four terms determined concrete architectural tasks and resulted in a vast variety of inspiring and radical solutions. Accompanying essays further investigate the topics of the course and provide additional background information on the student’s tasks. Text in English & German.

For some forty years, Susi and Ueli Berger’s work has been guided by the credo that ‘only a new idea justifies a new piece of furniture’. Contrasts between product design and object art, and suitability for everyday use characterise their designs. A playful provocativeness and the combination of rationality and sensuality are additional hallmarks of the Bergers. In 2010, they were awarded Switzerland’s most prestigious national design prize, the Grand Prix Design for their joint lifetime achievements at the interface of art, architecture, and design.

Susi Berger-Wyss, born 1938 in Lucerne, trained as a graphic designer and worked with an advertising agency in Berne before she met and married Ueli Berger in 1962. Apart from their close collaboration in furniture and interior design, Susi continued to work as a freelance graphic designer and also collaborated with architects, developing colour and material concepts for interiors.

Ueli Berger, born 1937 in Berne, trained as a painter and decorator and also attended classes at the city’s school of art and design. 1959-61, he completed his artistic education during extended stays in Paris and Copenhagen and worked with renowned Swiss interior designer Hans Eichenberger. Until his passing in 2008, Ueli worked as an artist – creating a much recognised oeuvre in painting, drawing, and sculpture – and designer, and also held a number of teaching appointments at universities and art schools in Switzerland.

Featuring a wealth of previously unpublished original drawings, plans, photographs, and promotion materials, as well as a catalogue raisonné of Susi and Ueli Berger’s collaborative work and an illustrated biography, this groundbreaking book offers the first-ever survey of their life and oeuvre. It is published in conjunction with a retrospective exhibition at Zurich’s Museum für Gestaltung in summer 2018.

Text in English and German.

Knife in the Flesh (Navalha na Carne) is the title of a play by Brazilian writer Plínio Marcos, particularly active during the years of the Brazilian military regime. Thus, from its very title, this project declares itself to be in conflict. By means of installations, photographs, videos and performances, several of the artists invited to the PAC make reference to this conflict – which has no beginning, much less an end, is hard to sum up in words and rarely translates into physical fights or battles. A social – and above all symbolic – conflict, then, rather than a military one. Gathering together a series of works created in Brazil over the past forty years, this book shatters conventions and stereotypes without, however, setting out to draw a portrait of the country or its artistic scene, reflecting instead on their inherent conflict: the fights and violence, the political, social, racial, ecological and cultural abuse. A direct language that appears naïve, whilst actually pregnant with meaning as it tells of broken dreams and disappointed hopes, but also of a people capable of keeping their incredible optimism and trust in the future.

The Bonnard Museum has the privilege of unveiling, in the summer of 2019, a selection of remarkable works from the late nineteenth century to the early twentieth, preserved by an exceptional private collection. Privilege in more than one way since such an ensemble also highlights the fruitful relations between museums and private collectors. Text in English and French.

On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of independence for seventeen African countries, the Museum for Fine Arts in Brussels in partnership with the Royal Museum of Central Africa presents during Summer 2010 the festival L’AFRIQUE VISIONNAIRE (VISIONARY AFRICA). This catalogue is published to accompany an exhibition celebrating fifty years of African photography, illustrating how collective identities of postcolonial Africa were built. Panafricanism has become something concrete in the exchange between artists, above all in connection with the elaboration of common aesthetic and research. Photography, in the process of emancipation and the writing of an endogenous history, is undoubtedly the best support: African photographers’ innovative role will therefore be highlighted in the process of understanding generational and social changes. The catalogue will include an introduction by Simon Njami and a text by Jean-Loup Pivin.

After the success of Ikebana Today (9789058562081) and Contemporary Ikebana (9789058562692), Ikebana Through all Seasons completes the trilogy dedicated to this ancient art form. Ikebana Through all Seasons goes back to the very heart of Ikebana and focusses on the diversity of the arrangements through the seasons. Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter give rise to a great variety of Ikebana expressions. The book illustrates the essence of Ikebana: its seasonal diversity, the growth process of the plants and the interaction between the arrangement and its natural surroundings. For the compilation of this book and the selection of works, an international team of Ikebana specialists, representing all major Ikebana schools, worked together to create an invaluable source of inspiration, not only for Ikebana aficionados, but got anyone with a passion for floral beauty.

The studio of an architect is perhaps the most singular project in one’s oeuvre complete. After their own house, it is the second most inward-looking space an architect designs. They are no longer just crafting ideas to meet the requirements proposed by others, but now face their own desires, both as architect and as client. What are the spatial qualities that one needs? How does the space conform to one’s working method? How does the space best stimulate ideas and inspirations? Considering it is the place where those ideas and inspiration are born, how could it be shaped by and speak for them? With essays, projects, and interviews, Architects’ Studios, the 2019 summer volume of Architecture China, offers a look into the studios of 14 outstanding Chinese architects: Atelier FCJZ, ZAO/standardarchitecture, MAD Architects, OPEN Architecture, Atelier Deshaus, Vector Architects, Neri&Hu Design and Research Office, AZL Architects, Archi-Union Architects, Atelier AZ+, People s Architecture Office, Atelier ArchMixing, Original Design Studio, and Naturalbuild. Additionally, Pritzker Prize winner Wang Shu reveals his desk in the cover imagery.

Architectural exhibition is an important aspect in the study and transmission of architectural culture. The academic thoughts and design styles that influence the trends of global architecture are all established through one or a series of important architectural exhibitions. This book is produced based on the GSD (Harvard Graduate School of Design) autumn exhibition: ‘Towards a Critical Pragmatism: Contemporary Chinese Architecture’. It reveals a unique perspective of contemporary Chinese architecture by showcasing 60 works from 60 contemporary architects within five thematic categories: cultural, residential, regeneration, rural, and digital.

The selected architects attempt to maintain, from the earliest moments of the design process to its finished outcome, a certain level of critical thinking and quality. It is a record of the continuous evolution and growth of contemporary Chinese architecture and hopes to open up a new avenue from which to encourage further conversation regarding both the present and future state of China’s architecture culture.

Robin Grierson’s photography book, Steam Rally is published by Lost Press and has an introduction by the esteemed journalist and author, Ian Jack. It consists of 72 high quality colour photographs that explore steam rallies in England over the past 30 years. The images record the engine men, their restored traction engines, and the lively steam heritage scene, which draws thousands to its events around the country every summer.

Having grown up around his father’s bus garage in County Durham and spent much of his formative years tinkering with engines, Grierson found himself instinctively drawn to the steam people and their beloved vintage machines. This collection of thoughtfully composed images, include respectful portraits, close up details of people and their machines, and wider views of the steam rally within the rural landscape. Grierson pays particular attention to the work-worn textures, stained surfaces, and subtle colours of the working steam environment.
“The genuine tone of this work derives undoubtedly from the photographer’s long acquaintance with tough working men and the tools and sounds of busy engineering yard’s” – Ag magazine  

With its bright, stylised illustrations and distinctive Native voice, this appealing book gives a vivid sense of stepping into another culture. It chronicles one important day seen through the eyes of a young Hopi girl named Sihumana, or “Flower Maiden,” who is a member of the Rabbit Clan and winningly portrayed as a rabbit. After going with her grandfather to greet the sun and bless the day, Sihumana travels with family to another village to take part in the traditional Butterfly Dance, performed late each summer in order to bring rain to the dry lands of the Southwest. The tale ends happily with the sound of rain on the roof and the promise of butterflies in the days to come. Created with the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI), Tales of the People is a series of children’s books celebrating Native American culture with illustrations and stories by Indian artists and writers. In addition to the tales themselves, each book also offers four pages filled with information and photographs exploring various aspects of Native culture, including a glossary of words in different Indian languages.

A girl wakes up and tidies her braids before just another ordinary summer day, but some surprises lie ahead! Here is one of Norman Rockwell’s most popular works, paired with a rhyming text that’s perfect for reading aloud or sharing with a grown-up. In classic Rockwell fashion, the almost two dozen pictures will elicit wry smiles of recognition, from young and old, at childhood’s everyday pleasures. At the back of the book is a short biography of Rockwell, as well as a note by Mary Whalen Leonard, who, as a young girl more than sixty-five years ago, posed for the charming series of pictures.

For the second edition of the Dulwich Pavilion in 2019, the commission was awarded to London-based architects Dingle Price and Alex Gore in collaboration with British artist Yinka Ilori. This elegant, large-size book documents this piece of built poetry in a series of striking, atmospheric photographs by Sophie Roycroft. The concise essays by Job Floris and Sumayya Vally situate the project within a social, political, and cultural context, complemented by technical details and selected plans and drawings on and inside the book’s cover.

In summer 2017, celebrated Swiss architect Peter Zumthor curated the exhibition Dear to Me at the Kunsthaus Bregenz, marking the 20th anniversary of one of his most famous designs. Part of the program were conversations with philosophers, curators, historians, composers, writers, photographers, collectors, and craftsmen that Zumthor had invited to contribute to the exhibition. His dialogues with them offer insights into the thoughts and practice of fascinating personalities. Together with his counterparts, he explores artistic preferences and practices, reasonings, as well as practical knowledge from artisanal experience. Always charming and affectionate, he follows-up persistently, and takes his guests with gentle determination on mutual intellectual strolls.

The equally serious and serene conversations with Anita Albus, Aleida Assmann, Marcel Beyer, Hélène Binet, Hannes Böhringer, Renate Breuss, Claudia Comte, Bice Curiger, Esther Kinsky, Ralf Konersmann, Walter Lietha, Olga Neuwirth, Rebecca Saunders, Karl Schlögel, Martin Seel, Ruedi Walli, and Wim Wenders are collected in 17 booklets held together in an exquisitely manufactured box. An 18th complementary booklet documents the Dear to Me exhibition in Bregenz through concise texts, images, drawings and plans.

This book offers the first-ever survey of Swiss artist Nicolas Party’s entire body of work. Born in 1980 in Lausanne, Party now lives and works in New York and has established himself as one of the most important figures of international contemporary art.

Nicolas Party—Rovine (Italian for ruins) features pastels and sculptures that Party has created since 2013. The book focuses on the core genres of painting: still life, landscape, and portrait. Party’s works stand out in these genres due to his use of wild, anti-naturalistic colours, as well as through his extremely precise rendering of the subjects. The artist explains his fascination for each of these genres in accompanying texts. The book also shows a large-format wall painting and a sculpture created especially for Party’s major solo exhibition at MASI Lugano in the summer 2021. Contributions by the art critic and curator Michele Robecchi and by MASI Lugano’s director Tobia Bezzola supplement this beautiful volume.

Text in English, German and Italian.