“Most sessions are shockingly harmless. What the people whose stories are shown in my pictures have in common is a meaningful quest for elementary human needs, such as freedom, warmth and comfort, maybe even happiness,” Florian Müller recounts. He photographs fetishists; people who dress up as dogs or let themselves be bound and hung from the ceiling. It is their way of relaxing and achieving fulfilment. At first sight what you see is masquerade, Kafkaesque scenes, danses macabres, transformations into animals, into slaves, into a shrink-wrapped maggot. Behind the masquerade lurks stories of people and their needs. Of desires, wounds and dreams and the pictures tell us these stories. Florian Müller worked on fetishism in Germany for several years. Sometimes it took weeks before the people trusted him and let him in on their sessions. He did not abuse their trust. His pictures are not revolting, but close, almost tender. Contents: “It’s the most intimate embrace that you can imagine”; “What is Jesus to think of you sick people?”; “I do not inflict pain for the sake of it. But to spank someone who really likes it, that’s amazingly liberating.”; “Someone lies in a hammock and imagines he is on Hawaii. One of my guests sits in an iron cage and imagines he is a pig. That happens to be his dream, his film. Like Hawaii, just different, you see?”; “From head to toe in rubber, what can be finer?”; “Lisa is how I have always imagined my dream woman. Long, black hair, large breasts. At some point I realized that I would never get this woman. Then I constructed her myself.”; “I tried not to think of latex. It was torture.”; “I love dressing up as a dog. And Max loves me.”; “As a horse I take a vacation from my own personality.” Text in English and German.

The 25th anniversary of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child is a good reason to put the topic emphatically into the public focus. UNICEF Germany and GEO with the support of the world’s best photographers and Edition Lammerhuber do exactly that in this joint pro-bono project. In 40 photographic reports from 15 years, a selection of particularly striking pictures from the UNICEF Photo of the Year competition forms a fervent appeal to respect the rights of the child and to guarantee every girl and boy in the world a childhood in dignity. The volume is edited by Jürgen Heraeus, the Chairman of the German Committee of UNICEF, and Peter-Matthias Gaede, long-serving Editor-in-Chief of GEO. We the Children draws attention to the suffering and hardships, but also to the wishes and dreams of today’s children. We the Children is a book full of hope for a child-oriented world. Text in English and German.

This book is a unique and comprehensive illustrated dictionary of French Art Nouveau Ceramics.

A census conducted in 1901 indicated the existence of some 209 producers of pottery in France, employing a total of around 5,800 full-time labourers. This great activity stimulated a parallel development in the arts, including the search for new expressions in art pottery, giving birth to l’art nouveau, a great and eclectic synthesis of a number of other art styles. Largely through British arts and crafts, and the work of artists like the Manxman Archibald Knox, it reached far back into the prehistory of Celtic art. To this were added later medieval elements, through the gothic revival championed by William Morris.

The need for renewal, breaking away from the neo-Classical and academia, which was the realm of the upper-class culture, was largely theorised by John Ruskin, who searched elsewhere for inspiration. Thus did British art nouveau also partake of Chinese and Japanese styles, though never in so forceful a manner as did the French aesthetic. France, on the one side, looked back to the swirling and frivolous eighteenth century Rococo, primarily through the influence of the Goncourt brothers, Edmond and Jules, influential aesthetes of the mid-nineteenth century.

The book focuses especially on artists working stoneware or grès, faience, and terracotta. It aims to provide a general survey of the many artists working in these areas, and includes brief accounts of the ceramics work of sculptors and painters whose wider output is already well known.

Pierre-Émile Legrain (1888-1929) was a French bookbinder, framer, landscape designer, furniture designer, and interior architect. This is the first full-length monograph about him, exploring his life and his creations in every genre, and highlighting the formal links between his work as an ensemblier, bookbinder, and draftsman. Pierre Legrain is credited with revolutionising bookbinding in the early 20th century. In 1916 he was commissioned by the French bibliophile, couturier, and collector Jacques Doucet to design bindings for his extensive library. He created nearly 400 unique bindings for him, and numerous frames for Doucet’s exceptional modern art collection – including a steel frame for Les Demoiselles d’Avignon – as well as a series of African-inspired furniture. He was a member of the UAM, whose logo he designed, and he associated with André Breton, Paul Éluard, Jean Cocteau, the sculptors Gustave Miklos and Henri Laurens, the painter Francis Picabia, and the milliner Jeanne Tachard for whom he designed a garden. His rare body of work – a hundred or so pieces of furniture and a few interiors – is dispersed today in museums and private collections throughout the world.

Text in French.

From ‘Cowtown’ to the biggest town in Ohio, Columbus has always been an incubator for new ideas and products. There’s always something to do and something for everyone, whether attending one of the many professional and amateur sporting events; experiencing fine dining or experimenting with exotic cuisine; or participating in the city’s vivid, nonstop arts and cultural scene. A hidden gem that stands on its own, Columbus keeps people coming back for more.

Myanmar is a land of many contrasts. Fascinating discoveries await in the dense crowds of the capital metropolis, as well as in the remoteness of the Chin Mountains. When you go beyond the tourist highlights in Yangon, Mandalay, Bagan and Inle Lake, you can now experience the authentic Myanmar. Many regions have been inaccessible for decades, which is how so many places of breathtaking originality and rare cultural achievements survived. The co-authors offer knowledgeable and entertaining insights into their own favourite places and lead you to the secluded and impressive gems. How do you paint pictures using gemstones? Where do you find white elephants? Why do you dry tea in an old colonial school? And who lives in the last village off the Himalayas? 111 Places in Myanmar That You Shouldn’t Miss gives extensive insights into the history, geography and culture of this magical country. Learn about the special and intriguing places where new worlds open up.

‘Keep Portland Weird’ is just the tip of this delightfully bizarre city’s iceberg. Though the City of Roses has experienced its fair share of changes in recent years, the spirit of ‘Old Portland’ lives in the shadow of gourmet donut shops and farm-to-table restaurants, and that’s where the real adventure begins. Summon spirits at a haunted pizzeria. Let it all hang out at a nude beach on the Columbia River. Get your kicks at the world’s only vegan strip club, and visit the world’s smallest park (blink and you might miss it).

Throughout these pages, you’ll learn about Portland’s (at times sordid) past; relive the pioneers’ grueling trek to Oregon; discover the strangest museums you’ve ever heard of, and get the scoop on the restaurants, bars, and coffee shops that don’t come with an hour-long wait. Whether you’re a frequent visitor or first timer; recent transplant or Portland native, you will discover 111 hidden places that prove Portland is weirder than you could have ever imagined.

Beyond the crowded star-paved boulevards of Hollywood and famously posh boutiques of Rodeo Drive, is another Los Angeles; a hidden shopper’s paradise, brimming with hundreds of charming, eclectic, curious, nostalgic, glamorous and quirky neighbourhood stores, restaurants, and bars that are practically unknown to tourists. From Pasadena to the Pacific Coast Highway, discover the secret haunts and favourite local speciality shops of starlets and mere mortals alike. Wear the hottest designers before they get famous; get your knit on at a yarn-filled emporium; satisfy your sweet tooth at the world’s first “cupcake ATM”; indulge your devotion to handmade American craftsmanship with a pair of custom-designed kicks; score some cast-off celebrity bling at a Beverly Hills pawn shop; navigate a two-block alley crammed with 150 discount shops. It’s all yours for the taking in the City of Angels.

European fashion was profoundly influenced in the early decades of the 20th century by the style, textiles, patterns and colour combinations of Asian clothing. The discovery of the kimono, in particular, with its loose cut, fluid lines and broad range of decorations, captivated the great couturiers of the period. It enabled adventurous women in the Roaring Twenties to cast out their corsets and social straightjackets, while offering a new, daring kind of elegance with exotic overtones. From the meeting of these two sartorial cultures has sprung an exhibition and this catalogue, in which the drawings of Paris fashion designers are compared with examples of contemporary East-Asian textiles from the Baur Foundation in Geneva. The wonderful garments discussed include the collections of kimonos and other Japanese clothes gifted by Sato Mariko (2008) and Sugawara Keiko (2015), as well as Chinese textiles that are the pride of the Foundation.

Carlos Luna, one of the foremost contemporary Cuban award-winning painters is part of a generation of Cuban artists who embrace their strong heritage and traditions but have reinvented themselves along the way. Thrumming with the spirit of Afro-Cuban tradition, Luna’s works range from jacquard tapestries, works on metal sheets, and Talavera ceramic plates to mixed media on wood and largescale oil paintings. This monograph illustrates Luna’s blend of influences from living and working in Cuba until 1991, then in Mexico for thirteen years, and now in Miami, since 2002. This book, lavishly illustrated, will take the reader through the artist’s amazing world of bright colours and will show, by a selection of plates and details, some unpublished works as well as his renowned masterpieces. Carlos makes visible the invisible, conveying messages and lessons from his past to offer to the present and future. His work is not on the surface, it is filled with subtle embedded messages. One must know the issues to decode. Often these messages are hidden in plain sight, lessons to be learned through reflection. His towering centerpiece, El Gran Mambo, a massive six-panel painting, which stood on display at the Museum of Latin American Art in 2008, serves as a focal point for 2015’s Green Machine: The Art of Carlos Luna at The Frost Art Museum in Carlos’s adopted home of Miami. Text in English and French.

Many of Gauguin’s portraits of Breton and Polynesian sitters, as well as his self-portraits, include inanimate objects. Intriguing as these are, the works in Paul Gauguin’s portrait gallery have never really been the subject of a thorough study. This book, first published in English in 2005, fills a gap in the scholarly literature on Gauguin, one of the leading figures in post-Impressionist art, with an in-depth, well-illustrated examination of his portraits. An array of experts on Gauguin’s art reflect on the symbolic attributes his models were endowed with, and the meaning behind the evocative settings he chose for them. The authors explore the many aspects of the artist’s portraits, often in light of the remarks he made about his models, and focus on their importance in relation to his larger oeuvre. This book, which is intended as a standard text in this field, includes essays written by experts in Gauguin’s work, all established scholars and researchers.

Text in French.

Kifwebe masks are ceremonial objects used by the Songye and Luba societies (Democratic Republic of Congo), where they are worn with costumes consisting of a long robe and a long beard made of plant fibres. As in other central African cultures, the same mask can be used in either magical and religious or festive ceremonies. In order to understand Kifwebe masks, it is essential to consider them within the cosmogony of the python rainbow, metalworking in the forge, and other plant and animal signs. Among the Songye, benevolent female masks reveal what is hidden and balance white and red energy associated with two subsequent initiations, the bukishi. Aggressive male masks were originally involved in social control and had a kind of policing role, carried out in accordance with the instructions of village elders. These two male and female forces acted in a balanced way to reinforce harmony within the village. Among the Luba, the masked figures are also benevolent and appear at the new moon, their role being to enhance fertility. Although the male and female masks fulfil functions that do not wholly overlap, they do have features in common: a frontal crest, round and excessively protruding eyes, flaring nostrils, a cube-shaped mouth and lips, stripes, and colours. Art historians and anthropologists have taken increasing interest in Kifwebe masks in recent years.

The theatre is the central theme of this fourth volume in our series titled ‘Art Brut – The Collection’, published to coincide with the fourth Art Brut Biennale. After exploring architecture, vehicles, and bodies, attention turns to the theatre, a theme that is developed in its various aspects. The simplest example is the depiction of theatrical architecture, as in the work of Eugen Gabritschevsky or Victorien Sardou. Other artists create works that are intimately connected to the world of theatre, however without necessarily being a part of it. For example, for Giovanni Battista Podestà or Vahan Poladian, a public stage is a place where they put on a ‘performance’ that responds to a society that consigns them to its margins. Their intrinsically ephemeral approach uses clothing or accessories as a means of communication and to have their voices or protestations heard. Other artists conceive whole cosmogonies that take the form of a gigantic staging of a fanciful, phantasmagoric world, as in the case of Aloïse Corbaz, whose work is to be viewed as a ‘Theatre of the universe’, or in that of Marguerite Burnat-Provins, with her graphic work titled ‘Ma Ville’. The book includes over 100 illustrations, many of which are published for the first time, carefully chosen to enable the reader to explore the theme of the theatre in Outsider Art, or Art Brut. Also available in the series: Vehicles ISBN 9788874396580 Architecture ISBN 9788874397105 Body ISBN 9788874397884

Afro Libio Basaldella (Udine, 1912-Zurich, 1976) was perhaps the most renowned member of the Friuli Avant-garde Movement, which influenced his approach towards a more Expressionist sense of painting that had always been based on traditional Venetian Colourism. In the 1940s, Afro joined the Fronte Nuovo delle Arti, and following a visit to the United States, he joined the Gruppo degli Otto, with whom he exhibited at the Venice Biennale in 1952. Although in certain aspects his style seemed similar to American Action Painting, his harmonious tonal modulation and later research into abstract shapes and forms produced intellectually sophisticated results. This is the catalogue of the first French retrospective of the artist, held at the Tornabuoni Art Gallery in Paris, showing works ranging from the 1930s to the 1970.

Contents:
Preface by Philip Rylands;
Afro, his work by Philip Rylands;
Afro and the New York art scene by Barbara Drudi;
Letters and writings selected by Barbara Drudi;
Critical anthology selected by Philip Rylands;
The exposition of 1949 at the MoMA by Davide Colombo;
The Garden of Hope by Anne Monfort.

This monograph, edited by noted Italian art critic Bruno Corà and published on the occasion of Art Basel 2018, presents the genesis, critical analysis, and exhibition history of the Combustioni Plastiche [Plastic Combustions] cycle by Alberto Burri. These works span a quarter of a century, from 1953 to 1979, and were created using industrial sheets of different kinds of plastic, with different melting points. They are visceral and technically innovative hybrids, part painting and part sculpture, ranging in size from a few centimetres to larger works installed in places of worship and stage designs for theatre performances. They illuminate Burri’s longstanding exploration of the beauty that can be found in mass produced materials, and function as a lens through which we can reassess Burri’s entire creative career. Historical photographs by Claudio Amendola and Ugo Mulas, newspaper articles, and in-depth essays offer a complete analysis of this extraordinary cycle of works. The catalogue will be presented during Art Basel 2018.

This is the catalogue of the exhibition held at the Opera Gallery in Paris, dedicated to the Sardinian artist Pino Manos. Manos is renowned for founding the movement called Rigorismo (Rigourism) in 2010, in the wake of Transpatialism and beyond, with the involvement of Enrico Castellani, Agostino Bonalumi, Giuseppe Amadio, Cesare Berlingeri, Alberto Loro, Pino Manos, Vanna Nicolotti, Turi Simeti, Paolo Scheggi, Paolo Bazzocchi, Umberto Mariani and Pino Pinelli, organised and curated by Flavio Lattuada at the Galleria Lattuada, following the spatial poetics of Lucio Fontana. The group of artists were presented by the philosopher, Massimo Donà. Spatialism is expressed in a more radical way and the canons are made more rigorous with the superseding of the bidimensional limitations, the inclusion of new forms of figuration and its openness to new means of expression. A critical essay by Sergio Risaliti, director of the Museo Novecento in Florence, can be seen as an in-depth iconographic apparatus that narrates the vast and transversal artistic activity of a great protagonist of contemporary Italian art.

Text in English and Italian.

More than seventy tasters have travelled around Italy to source the very best wines. The tastings – all blind – took place in consortiums and local chambers of commerce and were supported by experts in the field, sommeliers and trade buyers. This guide is extraordinarily accessible, organised in a simple, clear and functional way. Sections are arranged by individual winery – name, address, number of hectares of vineyard, and method of cultivation (conventional, organic, biodynamic or natural). Entries are then described as according to their history and geographical region, and the wines are evaluated through the celebrated method of Bicchieri, or ‘glasses’, ranging from one, to a maximum of Tre Bicchieri.
The guide also pays special attention to wineries that are eco-sensitive, awarding Tre Bicchieri Verdi to bottles that come from those with a particular regard for the environment.

Italian Wines is the English-language version of Gambero Rosso’s Vini d’Italia, the world’s best-selling guide to Italian wine, now in its 30th edition. It is the result of a year’s work by over 60 tasters, coordinated by three curators. They travel around the entire country to taste 45,000 wines, only half of which make it into the guide. About 2,400 producers are selected. Each entry brings together useful information about a winery, including a description of its most important labels and price levels in Italian wine shops. Each wine is evaluated according to the Gambero Rosso bicchieri rating, with Tre Bicchieri awarded to the top labels. This guide acts as an essential reference tool for both wine professionals and passionate amateurs around the globe: it provides the instruments for finding one’s way in the complex panorama of Italy’s wine world.

Italian Wines is the English-language version of Gambero Rosso’s Vini d’Italia, the world’s best-selling guide to Italian wine, now in its 31st edition. It is the result of a year’s work by over 60 tasters, coordinated by three curators. They travel around the entire country to taste 45,000 wines, only half of which make it into the guide. About 2,400 producers are selected. Each entry brings together useful information about the winery, including a description of its most important labels, and price levels. Each wine is evaluated according to the Gambero Rosso bicchieri rating, with Tre Bicchieri awarded to the top labels. The guide is an essential tool for both wine professionals and passionate amateurs around the globe: it provides the instruments for finding one’s way in the complex panorama of Italy’s wine world.

Now in its 22nd edition, Italian Wines 2019 is the English-language version of Gambero Rosso’s Vini d’Italia 2019. More complete than ever, the guide reviews 2,530 wineries and a total of 22,100 wines, awarding the classic scores ranging from 0 to 3 Glasses according to the quality of the label. 447 wines received our experts’ highest rating this year. This is a fundamental and essential volume for all those who work in the sector or are interested in quality Italian wines.

Gambero Rosso’s Top Italian Food & Beverage Experience features a selection of the best Italian food and beverage producers. This is the only guide in the sector classified according to product category to bring together over 1200 exceptional entities ready and willing to export a range of quality items. The guide includes a section on the best fresh fruit and vegetables, indicating the relative producer consortia and associations, making it an indispensable tool for foodies, but especially for industry players wanting to promote the best of ‘Made in Italy’, and for the 50,000 buyers who participate annually in Gambero Rosso’s international events. Contents: Introduction; Baked goods; Beer; Charcuterie; Cheese; Chocolate; Coffee, tea, infusions; Condiments, salt, spices, herbs; Dried fruit; Extra virgin olive oil; Flours, pulses, cereals; Honey; Liqueurs, syrups, distillates; Mushrooms, truffles; Natural food; Pasta; Patisserie; Preserved fish; Preserves, jams; Rice; Vinegar; Water, beverages, fruit juices; Leading brands; Fresh fruit and vegetables.

The fourth edition of Gambero Rosso’s Top Italian Food & Beverage Experience features a selection of the best Italian food and beverage producers. This is the only guide in the sector classified according to product category to bring together over 1200 exceptional entities ready and willing to export a range of quality items. The guide includes a section on the best fresh fruit and vegetables, indicating the relative producer consortia and associations, making it an indispensable tool for foodies, but especially for industry players wanting to promote the best of ‘Made in Italy’, and for the 50,000 buyers who participate annually in Gambero Rosso’s international events. Contents: Introduction; Baked goods; Beer; Charcuterie; Cheese; Chocolate; Coffee, tea, infusions; Condiments, salt, spices, herbs; Dried fruit; Extra virgin olive oil; Flours, pulses, cereals; Honey; Liqueurs, syrups, distillates; Mushrooms, truffles; Natural food; Pasta; Patisserie; Preserved fish; Preserves, Jams; Rice; Vinegar; Water, beverages, fruit juices; Leading brands; Fresh fruit and vegetables.

This new title in the Braziller Series of Australian Poets features a poet whose work has been instrumental to the evolution of Australian poetry. By turns philosophical, comic, elegiac and witty, Wallace-Crabbe has forged an utterly unique voice in contemporary poetry. His delight in language is sheer pleasure for the reader, and his wry wisdom indispensable. The Sunday Times called his work “poetry of fine technical resource, precise observation, and sly wit.” Wallace-Crabbe is one of Australia’s most celebrated poets. Also available in the series: First Light ISBN 9780807600023 The Deep North ISBN 9780806716260