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The architectural structuring principle of the cellular compartment floor plan is as simple as it is economical, yet it allows for spatial and combinatorial freedom that can be interpreted in ever-new, ever-different ways. The resulting self-contained units or spatial sequences are suited for residential purposes as much as for office buildings, museums or schools, with the floor plans providing highly dynamic and surprising traffic patterns and views.

The cellular compartment floor plan is the generating principle in many buildings, projects, and competition entries by Basel-based office Luca Selva Architects, who have been continually developing this typology in their many years of practice, modifying it and adapting it for new applications in different projects. It is therefore at the centre of this new book on the work of the prolific office. The numerous plans and photographs are supplemented by a theoretical essay by Christoph Wieser and a conversation between Luca Selva and Patrick Gmür. The book for the first time sheds light on this surprisingly sparsely researched topic, and thus its wider significance for the discourse reaches beyond the exemplary designs by Luca Selva Architects.

Text in English and German.

“This book celebrates teamwork and collaboration over the individual, a refreshing take on a practice which is given to celebrating starchitects.” —Peter H. Miller, Traditional Building
In 1897, Frank Lloyd Wright, Robert Spencer, Dwight Perkins, and Myron Hunt, all young architects just starting out in practice, shared office space in Chicago. This book is both a history of that brief period and an attempt to assess the extent to which they collaborated on their architectural designs and on the creation of architectural theory which would impact a half century of architectural design. While there is little firsthand documentation of the time spent in their shared loft office in Steinway Hall, this study engages in a side by side comparison of projects they each designed while working there. Overlapping ideas, design similarities, and an analysis of their subsequent work, all suggest that these men formed a creative “collaborative circle” of friends, who jointly developed ideas later claimed as the work of Frank Lloyd Wright. This is a book about artistic collaboration at a time when discussions of art and architectural history are still largely dominated by the belief that significant works are created by the lone artistic genius.
At the turn of the last century Spencer, Perkins, Hunt, and Wright were part of a community of architects who were all active members of the Chicago Architectural. Steinway Hall, an office building designed by Dwight Perkins, became a home to Chicago’s architectural community with as many as 50 different architects renting space in that building at the turn of the last century. Based on Real Estate Directories from 1897 through 1910 the book includes a listing of the architects that worked and interacted there. Also included are brief biographies of Spencer, Perkins, and Hunt. Excepting Hunt, none of these men have been the subject of individual publications. While Frank Lloyd Wright’s life and work have been extensively chronicled, this book reexamines the period between Wright’s arrival in Chicago in 1887 and his move into the loft office in Steinway Hall in 1897.

In Dark & Dystopian Post-Mortem Fairy Tales, Mothmeister pays homage to the muses who have sparked their alienating dream world. From artists worldwide, legendary figures, their collection of taxidermy to lurid places where their figures were born, such as the catacombs of Palermo, Pyramiden or the disaster area around Chernobyl. A special fairy tale world that flirts with the morbid, religious and grotesque and in which stuffed animals are brought back to life in an extraordinary way.

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.

First published as an oversized clothbound volume in 2009, Botanica Magnifica has received widespread acclaim from the scientific and artistic communities.  In the words of an ARTnews critic, Singer’s flowers and plants, photographed “in large scale and exquisite detail, emerge from the shadows in a manner evocative of Old Master paintings.”
Now Abbeville is to offer this masterwork of botanical photography as a pocket-sized hardcover book, in their trademarked Tiny Folio format.  Mirroring the design of the larger edition, this little volume is organised into five alphabetically arranged sections:  (I) Orchidaceae, presenting the full diversity of orchids;  (II) Florilegium, portraying the complexity and beauty of flowers;  (III) Proteus, illustrating plant forms perfectly adapted for survival;  (IV) Zingiberaceae, a tribute to the fascinating ginger family and  (V) Botanicus, a selection of beautiful and bizarre specimens from the Smithsonian’s research collection.  Each pictured plant is accompanied by a clear and accessible description of its botany, geography, history, and conservation.
With its marvellous reproductions and fascinating text, the Tiny Folio of Botanica Magnifica is a charming miniature version of one of the most impressive volumes of natural history ever published.
Crusaders for art and design were men and women who were prepared to give their energy, talents, and oftimes money, to encourage young artists and designers to adventure in their chosen fields and generally to raise the status of the ‘fine’ and ‘applied’ arts and their creators.
Many of these crusaders have largely been forgotten, such as John Gloag, who was here, there, and everywhere in support of the cause. Other Crusaders are remembered but for other reasons, such as Pevsner, the surveyor of British architectural heritage who for some years had been seen as the guru of industrial design. Gordon Russell, celebrated as the Cotswold furniture designer is altogether less known as a Director of the Council of Industrial Design. Whilst in the ‘fine’ arts Anton Zwemmer, whose Covent Garden shop is now a hairdressers, has largely been erased from memory as when he had been the king bee of a beehive frequented by artists and designers alike coming to find out the latest cultural news from the Continent to be gleaned from his magazines and books.
Crusaders of Art and Design aims to restore a number of reputations by recording their contributions to the cause.

As one of the Tiny Folio Great Museum series, this book is designed as a tour of the National Gallery’s collection of Impressionist and post-Impressionist paintings, drawings, prints and sculpture. Visitors to the National Gallery in Washington usually make straight for the rooms holding the museum’s works by the greatest Impressionist artists, including Degas, Renoir, Van Gogh, Gauguin, Cezanne and many others. This miniature compendium includes all the favourites, along with many less-familiar works photographed especially for this volume.

Oxford has a special place in the history of Pre-Raphaelitism. Thomas Combe (superintendent of the Clarendon Press) encouraged John Everett Millais and William Holman Hunt at a crucial early stage of their careers, and his collection became the nucleus of the Ashmolean collection of works by the Brotherhood and their associates. Two young undergraduates, William Morris and Edward Burne-Jones, saw the Combe collection and became enthusiastic converts to the movement. With Dante Gabriel Rossetti, in 1857 they undertook the decoration of the debating chamber (now the Old Library) of the Oxford Union. The group’s champion John Ruskin also studied in Oxford, where he oversaw the design of the University Museum of Natural History and established the Ruskin School of Drawing. Jane Burden, future wife of Morris and muse (probably also lover) of Rossetti, was a local girl, first spotted at the theatre in Oxford.   
Oxford’s key role in the movement has made it a magnet for important bequests and acquisitions, most recently of Burne-Jones’s illustrated letters and paintbrushes. The collection of watercolours and drawings includes a wide variety of appealing works, from Hunt’s first drawing on the back of a tiny envelope for The Light of the World (Keble College), to large, elaborate chalk drawings of Jane Morris by Rossetti. It is especially rich in portraits, which throw an intimate light on the friendships and love affairs of the artists, and in landscapes which reflect Ruskin’s advice to ‘go to nature’.
More than just an exhibition catalogue, this book is a showcase of the Ashmolean’s incredible collection, and demonstrates the enormous range of Pre-Raphaelite drawing techniques and media, including pencil, pen and ink, chalk, watercolour, bodycolour and metallic paints. It will include designs for stained glass and furniture, as well as preparatory drawings for some of the well-known paintings in the collection.

This catalogue for an exhibition at the Bonnefanten Museum in Maastricht features paintings by Pieter Bruegel the Younger and his contemporaries that depict the popular religious subject “Christ Carrying the Cross,” and examines these works for covert critiques of power and politics in Flanders during the 16th and 17th centuries. The show explores how artists incorporated both direct and indirect social and political criticisms into paintings on this theme, and brings together a selection of works from Bruegel the Younger, his predecessors, contemporaries, and followers.

The review of this book in Apollo Magazine speaks for itself: it describes it as ‘essential’ and ‘hard to put down’, declaring that ‘the reader will be given an education in how to look at and write about works of art’.

The Ashmolean’s collection of European sculpture is among the finest of its kind in the world. The collection accumulated over four centuries, from the dawn of English Art Collecting through to the Victorian period, which saw the arrival of one of the world’s great collections of Renaissance bronzes and other sculpture assembled by the scholar-connoisseur C.D.E. Fortnum, as well as further gifts and occassional purchases leading up to the present day. The catalogue covers the Ashmolean’s collection dating from 1200 to around 1540. From Romanesque bronzes and Gothic ivories to High Renaissance sculpture, this three-volume set is a meticulous and comprehensive record of over 500 pieces, each one fully illustrated.

Michele De Lucchi and AMDL Circle Connettome details the connections activated in the design work of Michele De Lucchi’s studio, named AMDL CIRCLE since 2019.

Through a suggestive photographic sequence, the book traces the most significant creations of the studio, combined in order to make visible what the designer calls the “synapses of architecture”, meaning the associations of emotions, memories and thoughts that stimulate new creativity. Covering over 20 years of activity, the images reveal a way of thinking about architecture and design in the light of a multidisciplinary, visionary, future-oriented – in a word, humanistic – approach. At the end of the book, which includes a text by De Lucchi, is a chronologically arranged selection of projects carried out in the new millennium, in the fields of architecture, interiors, installations, product design, graphics and research.

Text in English and Italian.

The dedicated art dealer Rudolf Zwirner and the artist Jakob Mattner meet to look back at his over 40-year-long career. They discuss the fascination with perspective, the poetic means of light, the change of position, and procedure of reversal through which the essence of art can be achieved without withholding information from the viewer: the secret of transcendence, its cause and effect.

Text in English and German.

Swiss artist Silvie Defraoui realised a significant part of her work beginning in 1975 together with her husband Chérif (1932–1994). Silvie and Chérif Defraoui compiled their photo and video works, installations, sculptures, and performances under the title Archives du Futur. They taught together at Geneva’s École supérieure des Beaux- Arts (today HEAD–Genève), where they founded the legendary studio Média Mixte and counted a number of renowned artists among their students. 

The Archives du Futur, to which Silvie Defraoui has continued adding works since Chérif’s premature death, has been made available as a digital catalogue raisonné to browse online. This book accompanies, supplements, and expands on the digital documentation. It gathers 14 commentaries on individual works of the two artists by distinguished art theorists and curators, originally published from 1984 onwards, in various art journals and exhibition catalogues or newly written for this book.

They reflect on the artists’ joint oeuvre as well as on work created independently by Silvie Defraoui. Interviews with her and selected lecture texts from the couple’s shared teaching activities shed light on their artistic stance and thematic focuses.

The volume invites an exploration of an artistic body of work that is highly topical through its merging of dualities – memory and the present, Orient and Occident, man and woman, tradition and invention.

Text in English, French and German.

Once, nutmeg was worth its weight in gold. For much of human history, the tiny Banda Islands in Indonesia were the only source of this esteemed spice. From the age of the Silk Roads through to the mid-19th century partial shift of production to the Caribbean, covering battles between the Honourable East India Company and the Dutch Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie, this book traces the story of nutmeg, revealing its extensive and often surprising influence over conflict, politics, social mores, and Western society.

Beautiful antique silver, gold, enamel, bone, ivory, treen and Tunbridgeware graters and rasps demonstrate how much nutmeg was valued throughout history. This book gathers pictures of some of the finest examples world-wide, alongside mechanical and base metal graters and spice containers. It illustrates, and provides useful information on, the history of pomanders which were associated with nutmeg, as this spice was once thought to ward off pestilence and plague.

Combining the social history of nutmeg with explanations of the spice production and transportation process, and illustrating in detail examples in international nutmeg grater collections and museums, this book is the essential reference work for collectors, antique dealers and auctioneers.

As soon as Bill Wyman was given a camera as a young boy, he quickly developed a passion for photography. After joining what would become the world’s greatest rock ‘n’ roll band, Wyman continued his hobby. When he didn’t have his bass, he had his camera. The result is an arresting, insightful and often poignant collection of photographs, showing his exclusive inside view of the band. From travelling to relaxing, backstage and on, Stones From the Inside is a unique view captured by a man who was there, every step of the way. Along with the images of the band at work and play, Wyman includes remarkable images of those along for the ride, from John Lennon, Eric Clapton, David Bowie and Iggy Pop to John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd. To accompany his photographs, Wyman offers up wonderful insights, anecdotes and behind-the-photo stories, giving all us a front-row seat and backstage pass to what it was like to be there, as music history was made as a member of The Rolling Stones. Limited to just 300 copies, this slipcased edition is accompanied by a print.

Milton H. Greene (1922-1985), famous for his fashion photography and celebrity portraits from the golden age of Hollywood, met Marilyn Monroe on a photo shoot for Look magazine in 1953. The pair developed an instant rapport, quickly becoming close friends and ultimately business partners. In 1954, after helping her get out of her studio contract with 20th Century Fox, they created Marilyn Monroe Productions, Inc. Milton and Marilyn were much more then business partners, Marilyn became a part of the Greene family. By the time their relationship had ended in 1957, the pair had produced two feature films, in addition to more than 5,000 photographs of the iconic beauty. There was magic in Milton and Marilyn’s working relationship. The trust and confidence they had in each other’s capabilities was on full display in each photo.
Greene passed in 1985, thinking his life’s work was succumbing to the ravages of time. His eldest son, Joshua, began a journey to meticulously restore his father’s legacy. A photographer himself, Joshua spent years researching ways to restore his father’s photographs as well as cataloging and promoting Milton’s vast body of work all over the world. After spending nearly two decades restoring his father’s archive, Joshua Greene and his company are widely regarded as one of the leaders in photographic restoration and have been at the forefront of the digital imaging and large-format printing revolution.
Now Joshua Greene, in conjunction with Iconic Images, presents The Essential Marilyn Monroe: Milton H. Greene, 50 Sessions. With 280 photographs, including many never-before published and unseen images, newly scanned and restored classics, as well as images that have appeared only once in publication, Greene’s Marilyn Monroe archive can finally be viewed as it was originally intended when these pictures were first produced more than 60 years ago. These classic sessions – 50 in all – cover Monroe at the height of her astonishing beauty and meteoric fame. From film-sets to the bedroom, at home and at play, Joshua has curated a lasting tribute to the work of a great photographer and his greatest muse. Poignant and powerful, joyful and stunning – these breathtaking images of an icon stand above all the rest. The Essential Marilyn Monroe: Milton H. Greene, 50 Sessions is sure to be a book that will become the platinum standard in photography monographs.
Numbered to only 250 copies, this deluxe edition will be produced with the highest quality paper and cloth binding, packaged in a stunning cloth clamshell presentation case. Each book will come with a limited edition estate-stamped print, measuring 355 x 279mm, from Marilyn’s ‘Bed Sitting’, which will be hand numbered, and a letter of authenticity from the Milton Greene estate.
Milton H. Greene (1922-1985), famous for his fashion photography and celebrity portraits from the golden age of Hollywood, met Marilyn Monroe on a photo shoot for Look magazine in 1953. The pair developed an instant rapport, quickly becoming close friends and ultimately business partners. In 1954, after helping her get out of her studio contract with 20th Century Fox, they created Marilyn Monroe Productions, Inc. Milton and Marilyn were much more then business partners, Marilyn became a part of the Greene family. By the time their relationship had ended in 1957, the pair had produced two feature films, in addition to more than 5,000 photographs of the iconic beauty. There was magic in Milton and Marilyn’s working relationship. The trust and confidence they had in each other’s capabilities was on full display in each photo.
Greene passed in 1985, thinking his life’s work was succumbing to the ravages of time. His eldest son, Joshua, began a journey to meticulously restore his father’s legacy. A photographer himself, Joshua spent years researching ways to restore his father’s photographs as well as cataloging and promoting Milton’s vast body of work all over the world. After spending nearly two decades restoring his father’s archive, Joshua Greene and his company are widely regarded as one of the leaders in photographic restoration and have been at the forefront of the digital imaging and large-format printing revolution.
Now Joshua Greene, in conjunction with Iconic Images, presents The Essential Marilyn Monroe: Milton H. Greene, 50 Sessions. With 280 photographs, including many never-before published and unseen images, newly scanned and restored classics, as well as images that have appeared only once in publication, Greene’s Marilyn Monroe archive can finally be viewed as it was originally intended when these pictures were first produced more than 60 years ago. These classic sessions – 50 in all – cover Monroe at the height of her astonishing beauty and meteoric fame. From film-sets to the bedroom, at home and at play, Joshua has curated a lasting tribute to the work of a great photographer and his greatest muse. Poignant and powerful, joyful and stunning – these breathtaking images of an icon stand above all the rest. The Essential Marilyn Monroe: Milton H. Greene, 50 Sessions is sure to be a book that will become the platinum standard in photography monographs.
Numbered to only 250 copies, this deluxe edition will be produced with the highest quality paper and cloth binding, packaged in a stunning cloth clamshell presentation case. Each book will come with a limited edition estate-stamped print, measuring 355 x 279mm, from Marilyn’s ‘Negligee Sitting’, which will be hand numbered, and a letter of authenticity from the Milton Greene estate.

This catalogue describes what is probably the most encyclopaedic collection of early coloured Worcester porcelain in existence. Henry Marshall assembled the collection between the two World Wars. In the years that followed, he sought to represent as comprehensive a range of patterns as possible, with minimal duplication, so that his collection would become a true reference work in itself. Every piece was acquired for specific purpose, many of them either to further his knowledge or because they were so rare. He was one of a small group of ceramic collectors who sought to document sources and influences, creating comprehensive hypotheses for the objects’ histories.

In this case specifically, Marshall’s records reveal the Far Eastern influence on Worcester porcelain, alongside the many other prototypes used by decorators of these fine ceramics. This catalogue, like the collection itself, seeks to present early Worcester porcelain to collectors and a wider public in a systematic way. It describes, classifies, and reproduces every item in the Marshall Collection. It does not seek to present detailed new research, but to record the state of knowledge about the subject at the time of writing.

This book of photographs by Swedish photographer Christer Löfgren explores the diverse and multifaceted world in which we live, from north to south. In comparing photographs of various cultures, diversity is more noticeable: the colours, clothes, and food point to the identity of each place. The further north or south of the equator you travel, colours are paler, and the food is milder and less spicy. The more extreme nature is, the more difficult the lifestyle. These vibrant photographs ask us to broaden our vision and grasp the complexity and beauty of the world as a global whole. This deluxe edition consists of three hardcover books in a slipcase.

This book examines the various figures and interests involved in the design and construction of the Canada Pavilion and explores how it was used over the past sixty years to exhibit the work of Canadian artists and architects. This publication intends not only to underline the pavilion’s importance in the broader context of modern architecture, but also to highlight its role as an early example of cultural diplomacy.
The book is fully endowed with archive material, such as photographs, drawings, and maps, along with a portfolio created by contemporary photographers (Francesco Barasciutti and Andrea Pertoldeo), showing the building before, during, and after the restoration.
The essays of the various contributors to the book analyse the cultural and political context in which the Canada Pavilion committee worked (Cammie McAtee); the concept and construction of the building and the links with the architect Enrico Peressutti and the BBPR partnership (Réjean Legault); the pavilion’s role in the postwar Italian cultural context (Serena Maffioletti) and its fortunes from its inauguration in 1958 to the restoration in 2018 (Josée Drouin-Brisebois); the restoration project itself (Susanna Caccia Gherardine), and, lastly, the relationship between the Canada Pavilion and the Biennale Gardens (Franco Panzini).

Maria Lai (Ulassai, September 27, 1919 – Cardedu, April 16, 2013) is without doubt one of the leading figures in the history of contemporary Italian art. Not only on account of the content of her works, but also thanks to the diversity of her artistic approach, ranging as it does across many media – public art, embroidery, weaving, sculpture, drawing, and writing: all are grist for her poetics. The book is published to coincide with the exhibition at the MAXXI Museum in Rome, which is presenting to the general public over one hundred works by the Sardinian artist, from the early 1960s to her very last works, and explores the various themes dear to the artist with the contributions of experts in their fields: the locations, the creation, and publication of art books, her public art events and her relationship with the written word and her own writing. Her entire oeuvre is distinguished by its powerful visual impact, revealing a ‘way of doing art’ that is nothing other than an instrument of thought. The book’s structure reflects the exhibition’s own sections, arranged by theme, whose titles are paradigmatic of Lai’s oeuvre as a whole: Essere è tessere. Cucire e ricucire; L’arte è il gioco degli adulti. Giocare e raccontare; Disseminare e condividere; Il viaggiatore astrale. Immaginare l’altrove; L’arte ci prende per mano. Incontrare e partecipare.

Published to accompany an exhibition at the MAXXI Museum, Rome, 19 June 2019-12 January 2020.

Text in English and Italian.

One hundred and twenty metres long, the Gallery of Maps was completed in 1580. It was commissioned by Pope Gregory XIII and its walls are decorated with thirty-two large maps and eight smaller ones. It is the largest geographical representation ever made, with an incredible abundance of place names, and is adorned with cityscapes and with grandiose battle-scenes. A cycle of fifty-one “miracle scenes” decorates the magnificent ceiling. This is a really extraordinary decorative ensemble, shown here in all its detail for the first time.
Texts by A. Chiggiato, R. Ferri, C. Franzoni, L. Gambi, P. Liverani, M. Milanesi, A. Pinelli, F. Prontera, P. Sereno. Photographs by A. Angeli e D. Pivato.
Text in English and Italian.

Mirabilia Italiæ is a unique series. It owes its existence to an innovative and ambitious project: an atlas of the great monuments of Italy that will display them in all their details, from the best known to the least. This series represents a completely new way of documenting art. Mirabilia Italiæ provides a guided tour of each monument, fully and accurately explained. Each atlas contains hundreds of colour photographs, arranged in a precise topographical sequence and accompanied by diagrams showing the exact location of each detail. The atlas is complemented by a volume of texts edited by the premier scholars in the field, consisting of critical essays and descriptive notes. Essays examine the monument from the art-historical point of view, and record the alterations it has undergone over time. Descriptive notes analyse the content and significance of the images. Extensive cross-references link the essays and notes to the images, facilitating consultation of the work. The General Editor of Mirabilia Italiæ is Salvatore Settis, Director of the Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa.

In The Power of the Avant-Garde, contemporary artists from different art disciplines enter into dialogue with their colleagues from the historical avant-garde movement. Luc Tuymans talks about ‘Le Grand Cheval’ of Raymond Duchamp-Villon; Marlène Dumas describes her passion for Edvard Munch; John Baldessari discusses the genius Marcel Broodthaers,… This book makes surprising links, shedding new light on the power and influence of art before, during and after World War I. Text in English, French, and Dutch.

Scotland has produced an astonishingly high number of men and women whose lives have inspired and changed the world. This book, illustrating just over forty portraits, represents only a few of them, but with Robert Burns and Walter Scott, Eric Liddell and Alex Ferguson, Bonnie Prince Charlie and Queen Victoria, it represents the flavour of the collection at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery.