“The most exciting travel guide I’ve read in years.” – Huffington Post
This classic guidebook, full of the little-known treasures of the Île de France, is now fully updated and revised, with two new chapters.
Discover half-hidden chateaux and artists’ country houses; walk, boat or dance by the river; explore old towns and country footpaths; and eat in small family-run cafés and restaurants with 1950s décor. Based on 30 years’ experience of exploring the Paris countryside by train, each visit includes the essential historical context and practical information to help you discover places unknown to many Parisians.
Written with humor and a flair for the unusual and authentic, the text is illustrated with original photos and local maps. It includes a unique guide to using the excellent local train network.
Kawase Hasui (1883–1957) was one of the most important and prolific Japanese printmakers of the 20th century. He was one of the main creators of the shin hanga (‘new prints’) movement, whose artists depicted traditional subjects in a style influenced by Western painting. Shin hanga prints are harmoniously balanced designs, printed on the highest quality paper using the finest pigments, and in small editions. They are the fruit of a traditional yet successful collaboration between artist, publisher, block cutter and printer and have become increasingly popular among collectors of Japanese prints in the last decade. Hasui began his artistic career studying Japanese painting. However, soon after seeing Shinsui’s Eight Views of Lake Biwa series, Hasui turned to woodblock printing in 1919. Shozaburo Watanabe was the first to recognize his artistic genius, and Hasui Kawase soon became the most popular artist working for this prestigious publisher. He produced nearly a thousand woodcuts in a career that spanned almost forty years. Towards the end of his life, the Japanese government recognized him as a ‘Living National Treasure’ for his contribution to Japanese culture.
“…it should be noted that the outstanding quality of Wautier’s paintings is well served not only by the exhibition itself but also by the design of the catalogue, in particular the superb quality of its numerous colour illustrations and the many well-chosen details.” — Burlington Magazine
Michaelina Wautier (1604–1689) is a name unfamiliar even to connoisseurs of Old Master painting. This handsome book seeks to correct that, by exploring the surviving portraits, history paintings, genre scenes and still-lifes that can be identified as hers. Born at Mons, Wautier pursued a successful career in Brussels, which was then ruled by Archduke Leopold Wilhelm, Governor of the Habsburg Netherlands, whose collection ended up at the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna. This handsome book, produced by the Kunsthistorisches Museum in collaboration with the Royal Academy, brings together all the latest scholarship on the artist, alongside several exciting new attributions.
TV personality and Antiques Roadshow expert John Benjamin brings his best-selling guide to becoming a collector completely up to date. Collecting Jewellery is a guide to jewelry through the ages and includes new chapters on the ‘Modern Style’ of the 1940s and ’50s, the ‘Designer Jewel’ of the 1960s and ’70s, right up to and beyond the Millennium. Through his expertise as lecturer, valuer and jewelry historian, Benjamin provides fundamental information to enable the collector, student and enthusiast to recognize and identify jewels and designs through the centuries. From natural to cultured diamonds, unique ‘one off’ pieces to popular prevailing fashions, Collecting Jewellery is an accessible companion that will teach the reader about availability, value and fashion, while gaining the knowledge needed to create their own fabulous (and affordable) jewelry collection.
Simon Schama explores our enduring fascination with birds in a visually stunning art book
‘No other creatures have fixed themselves so obsessively and ubiquitously in our restless, earth-stuck imagination as birds… the fixation painted, imprinted, sculpted, filmed in our art.’ – Simon Schama
From Icarus to Peter Pan, who hasn’t dreamt of flying? Birds are the embodiment of our desires, fears and fantasies. In this publication internationally renowned (art) historian Simon Schama and Mauritshuis director Martine Gosselink explore the fascinating relationship between humans and birds through art, literature and cultural history.
Carel Fabritius’s world-famous Goldfinch, Picasso’s Dove, Brancusi’s Bird in Space, an Egyptian falcon mummy, a feather dress by Iris van Herpen: this book is a visual and literary journey through centuries of bird imagery. The icing on the cake is a wonderful anthology of bird stories from, among other works, The Epic of Gilgameshand One Thousand and One Nights, as well as bird poems by such writers as Rabindranath Tagore, Ted Hughes, Bob Marley and Rūmī.
With contributions by Simon Schama, Martine Gosselink, Laura Cumming, Stefan Hertmans, Philip Hoare, Eva Meijer and Adrienne Quarles van Ufford.
This book is published on the occasion of the exhibition BIRDS – Curated by The Goldfinch & Simon Schamain Mauritshuis, The Hague from 12 February to 7 June 2026.
This richly illustrated publication accompanies the first comprehensive retrospective of Amrita Sher-Gil (1913–1941) in the Netherlands, one of the most celebrated figures in modern Indian art. Often called the “Frida Kahlo of India”, Sher-Gil combined elements of Western modernism with the aesthetics and subjects of traditional Indian art, forging a distinctive style that profoundly influenced later generations of artists. The book offers new insights into Sher-Gil’s life and artistic journey, from her Hungarian-Indian heritage and training in Paris to her groundbreaking work in India during the 1930s. Essays by experts from India and the Netherlands explore her cultural context, artistic development, and enduring legacy.
Featuring rarely seen works from India’s national collections, this publication provides an unprecedented opportunity to rediscover an artist whose vision bridged continents and redefined modern art in the 20th century.
From the bay of Saint-Tropez to the remote waters of Antarctica, a new generation of superyachts is reshaping the culture of contemporary seafaring. Whether maritime retreat or architectural statement, these incredible yachts are extending the frontiers of design, luxury and engineering.
Superyacht takes you on a rare, immersive journey inside the most exceptional vessels on the water today – boats that embody the highest expression of form, materiality and innovation. Through sculptural exteriors and meticulously conceived interiors, Superyacht reveals the extraordinary skill and artisanship elevating every element of these floating residences: the cabins and salons, spas and beach clubs, staterooms and terraces.
Unfolding through sumptuous photography, the story is told through in-depth interviews with the world’s leading design studios, including Nuvolari Lenard, Winch Design, Sinot, Liaigre and Reymond Langton; interior designers such as Bryan O’Sullivan and M2atelier; and master shipyards including the Ferretti Group, Feadship, Tankoa, Sanlorenzo, Damen, Admiral and Lürssen.
A beautifully produced edition with over 300 large-format images, Superyacht is the definitive survey of the aesthetics and ambitions driving the new era of luxury yacht design.
The Mediterranean coast of France witnessed the rise and development of modern art over a century, from Cézanne in the 1860s to Matisse, Picasso and Klein in the 1950s and 1960s. These artists and the many more featured here discovered an inexhaustible source of inspiration in this storied region, whose glittering, languid sea stretches out towards the far horizon beneath brilliant azure skies. Indelibly associated with the classical past, this magical land of eternal spring and spiritual renewal came to signify a state of mind, and avant-garde artists sought to convey the vitality and élan it inspired in them through new paradigms of modernist invention.
The Francis Bacon Collection is the result of an extraordinarily lengthy discovery and authentication process of previously unpublished works by Francis Bacon. This stunning volume includes the nearly 700 drawings, pastels, and collages in possession of Italian journalist Cristiano Lovatelli Ravarino. All the works have been photographed in ultra-high gigapixel, captured exclusively for the book. Commentaries and essays especially written for this edition are by noted art historians Edward Lucie-Smith and Fernando Casto Florez, together with an authentication report by Ambra Draghetti, the graphological consultant to the Court of Bologna for the authentication process. This elegantly produced edition presents new scholarship by Professor Umberto Guarini, who defended the legal authentication of the works at the Court of Bologna; Dino Cura, the President of The Francis Bacon Collection; and by Professor Maurizio Saracini, who pioneered the use of multi-spectrum diagnostic imaging and applied his technique to the drawings providing fascinating new details for the first time.
Text in English and Italian.
This book offers a structured exploration of the work of American artist Daniel Brush (1947–2022), a polymath who was simultaneously a painter, sculptor, poet-goldsmith, and jeweler. His lifelong quest to transmit light through line was deeply inspired by Claude Monet’s painterly depictions of light. Carly Lapidus’s exclusive photographs of Brush’s New York studio document how his life and creations were intimately intertwined. Finally, photographs by Benjamin Chelly bring us even closer to his art, alternating between macroscopic and microscopic perspectives.
This unique visual journey is a tribute to one of the most fascinating artists of the twentieth century.
Handpicked: Painting Flowers From 1900 to Today celebrates the beauty and vitality of flower paintings of the 20th and 21st centuries. Beautifully illustrated, this anthology features essays on paintings by significant figures of the 20th century, as well as contemporary artists working with the genre of flower painting in new and often experimental ways today.
Artists: Hurvin Anderson, Vanessa Bell, David Bomberg, Louise Bourgeois, Jai Chuhan, Andrew Cranston, Kaye Donachie, Gigi Ettedgui, Anna Freeman Bentley, Marjory Garnett, Tirzah Garwood, Gluck, Lubaina Himid, Howard Hodgkin, Isak of Igdlorpait, Nerys Johnson, David Jones, Poppy Jones, Joy Labinjo, Doron Langberg, Aubrey Levinthal, Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Rory McEwen, Cedric Morris, Cassi Namoda, Mary Newcomb, William Nicholson, Winifred Nicholson, Chris Ofili, Jennifer Packer, Celia Paul, Bryan Pearce, Emma Prempeh, Bianca Raffaella, Eric Ravilious, Anne Redpath, Henri Rousseau, William Scott, Judith Tucker, Euan Uglow, Charlotte Verity, Édouard Vuillard, Caroline Walker, Alison Watt, Christopher Wood, Clare Woods.
This elegantly designed book features works by pioneering British photographer Garry Fabian Miller (b. 1957, Bristol) in dialog with one of his key artistic influences, Samuel Palmer (1805-81). Since the mid-1980s, Miller has created photographs without a camera to explore the possibilities of light as both medium and subject. Experimenting with photographic materials and exposure time, his photographs feature intensely saturated colors, not seen before in conventional photography. For this book, which accompanies an exhibition at the Ashmolean Museum Oxford, Miller has chosen works on paper by Palmer from the Ashmolean’s rarely displayed collections to juxtapose them with his own images. Miller compares Palmer’s pioneering use of materials with his own practice, pushing the limits of photography in the dark room. Edited by Dr Lena Fritsch, this book features high quality images and new texts by Sean Borodale, Fritsch, Alexandra Harris, Colin Harrison, Lydia Heeley, and Marina Warner.
“Do come in as often as you like – the place is only alive when used” – Jim Ede
Take a room-by-room journey through the Kettle’s Yard house in Cambridge (UK), former residence of curator and ‘friend to artists’ Jim Ede and his wife Helen. Home to their substantial collection of 20th century art, furniture, ceramics, glass and natural objects, the house remains open for visitors to experience as the Ede’s intended: art as a way of life.
The carefully curated interior spaces in the original converted cottages (1957) and Leslie Martin-designed extension (1970) are a masterclass in balance and restraint, appealing to aesthetes across the spectrum of art and design from fine art to fashion; interior designers, architects and art historians.
Richly illustrated with new photography by Gilbert McCarragher and inspired by classic mid-century guidebooks, this book will catch the eye of long-time fans of Kettle’s Yard as much as those discovering the house for the very first time. A companion publication Kettle’s Yard Art & Artists ISBN 9781904561620 is also available.
In the 1910s and 1920s the unique landscape of the chalk downs of southern England began to exert a new fascination on writers, historians, archaeologists and artists. Modernists such as Paul and John Nash, Eric Ravilious and William Nicholson immersed themselves in exploring these enigmatic, ancient places. The stark, rolling forms of the downs suited the modern aesthetic, offering a place where prehistory and modernity could converge.
With the growing political tensions of the 1930s, this modern engagement with ancient landscape took on a symbolism that still resonates. Images of Britain evolved as the downs became both symbols of wartime vulnerability and resilience and the site of machine gun emplacements and crashed aeroplanes.
Art of the Chalk Downs investigates this extraordinary collision of ancient and modern, idea and place, and the network of artists who worked and lived there. Seventy-five plates of paintings, watercolors, prints and photographs are accompanied by texts written by leading art historians James Russell and Stephens.
In this unique project, Ai Weiwei pays tribute to two poets who shaped a remarkable cultural bridge: his father, the Chinese poet Ai Qing, and the Belgian poet Émile Verhaeren. Ai Qing was the first to translate Verhaeren’s poetry into Chinese, introducing the Belgian writer to readers in China. Out of deep admiration for his father’s legacy, Ai Weiwei accepted the invitation to create an exhibition and catalogue exploring the bond between these two literary figures. This book is a moving homage that connects poetry, memory, and artistic heritage across cultures.
With text contributions by John Tancock, Chris Dercon, Edouard Derom, Lieven Van Den Abeele and Rik Hemmerijckx.
Real Life is introduced and curated by Wells Fray-Smith. It is published in collaboration with Gallery Sofie Van de Velde on the occasion of the group exhibition Real Life. The publication gathers works by Ilse D’Hollander, Lois Dodd, Christopher Colm Morrin, Jesse Murry, Heidrun Rathgeb, Peter Shear, Trevor Shimizu, and Frank Walter, presenting a dialog across generations and geographies around painting’s enduring engagement with lived experience. The book explores how these artists, much like Ilse D’Hollander herself, use paint to address reality in its most porous, poetic, and capacious sense. Whether working through figuration or abstraction, their practices blur the boundaries between pigment and picture, illusion and observation, the tangible and the transcendental. At its heart Ilse D’Hollander’s quiet yet profound vision. Through sketchbooks and paintings from 1988 onward, she offered intimate glimpses of her daily surroundings — a window frame, a stairway, a cat — each rendered with the same precision and restraint that define her painting. These drawings were not preparatory studies but complete reflections on perception itself, acts of seeing that transformed the ordinary into the contemplative.
Spanning continents and cultures, this book highlights an extraordinary diversity of approaches – from the refined elegance of Parisian apartments and London townhouses to the sun-drenched villas of the Mallorca and the Côte d’Azur. Coastal retreats in California and Australia, serene residences in Belgium and the Netherlands, and sophisticated urban homes in cities such as New York, Paris, Dublin, Singapore, and São Paolo all contribute to a rich and truly global narrative of contemporary living.
Whether nestled along the shores of Lake Geneva, set within the landscapes of Norway, overlooking the Mediterranean, or situated in vibrant metropolitan centers such as Dubai, Bangkok, and Moscow, these homes demonstrate how design can respond to both place and lifestyle.
New places, new faces who make the best of Marrakech: from the Palais Rhoul to the princely refuges, Moroccan gastronomy, parties in the desert, and the emblematic treasures that define the magic of the red city. Also admire the Palace of Adriana Karembeu and the princely riads hidden in the medina, true jewels of elegance and mystery. As for flavors, let yourself be seduced by the Moroccan cuisine of chef Moha Fedal.
Admire the hobby horses at Sahbi Sahbi. Live unique experiences: hot air balloon flight at sunrise or magical parties under the stars in the Agafay desert. This book reveals the new places and emblematic figures of Marrakech, such as Don Diego and his festive evenings.
Relive the splendor of the legendary Palais Rhoul Marrakech, a timeless institution where magic and a change of scenery meet. A tribute to the Marrakech art of living, between tradition and modernity, which makes this city an iconic destination. Best of Marrakech is an invitation to explore a city in perpetual reinvention, where each corner reveals a unique story and emotion.
Text in English and French.
With this new guide in your bag, you’re set to go out and discover the best and most fun places in hotspot Miami: 500 addresses that many tourists don’t know, a bit off the beaten track, but always loved by the locals and worth a visit. The 500 Hidden Secrets of Miami will take you to all the places that make Miami the lively and unique city it is, also known as the ‘Gateway to the Caribbean’, such as: the 5 nicest water views, 5 stunning Mediterranean revival buildings, 5 renowned Miami-based fashion designers, the 5 coolest hotel pools, and 5 wonderful parks, playgrounds, and museums to visit with your kids. It even includes some unusual experiences, such as swimming in a freshwater Venetian pool, or day trips to the Everglades and the Keys.
Where are the best places in Copenhagen to experience New Nordic cuisine? What are the best places to shop for Scandinavian furniture, fashion, and design? What are the best spots for natural wine? Where can you find the best nature trails and waterfront walks? Where are the city’s small, independent cinemas? Which museums are best to visit on a rainy Danish day? What is smørrebrød and where can I try it? What is Copenhagen’s best artisanal coffee? The 500 Hidden Secrets of Copenhagen reveals the answers to these (and many other) questions. Discover a diverse range of under-the-radar, yet outstanding addresses that will allow you to explore the best of the city away from the typical tourist crowds. This is a book for visitors who want to avoid the usual tourist spots and for residents who are keen to track down the city’s best-kept secrets.
Also available: The 500 Hidden Secrets of Stockholm, The 500 Hidden Secrets of Hamburg, The 500 Hidden Secrets of Munich, The 500 Hidden Secrets of New York, The 500 Hidden Secrets of Berlin, The 500 Hidden Secrets of London and many more. Discover the series at the500hiddensecrets.com
“If you really want to get under the skin of a city, the 500 Hidden Secrets series, which covers a number of cities from Chicago to Ghent, all written by people who know the cities inside out, is ideal. It’s an innovative and refreshing take on the traditional travel guide.”- The Independent
What are the 5 restaurants for new Flemish cooking? Where would you find the 5 best antique shops? Where can you find the most unexpected view of Ghent? Where are the cool coffee bars that play the best music? And if you wanted to find the most mysterious places in the Citadelpark, where are they? The 500 Hidden Secrets of Ghent is a wonderfully eclectic guide to this multifaceted city. An insider’s view of Ghent featuring little known facts and snippets of useful information, presenting the quirky and the off-beat, and sharing the whereabouts of some of the city’s wonderful hidden gems like the Hotel d’Hane-Steenhuyse and the Gruut City Brewery.
The 500 Hidden Secrets of Ghent offers a practical guide to Ghent’s finest places, and Derek Blyth covers all bases to ensure no visitor to the city is ever anything short of captivated. Packed with accessible, easy-to-read information summarised in handy lists, maps, itineraries, sections on food & drink, accommodation, green spaces, museums, galleries and shops; this guide is an essential resource for the inquisitive traveler.
Also available: The 500 Hidden Secrets of London, The 500 Hidden Secrets of Dublin, The 500 Hidden Secrets of Paris, The 500 Hidden Secrets of Lisbon, and many more. Discover the series at the500hiddensecrets.com
“If you really want to get under the skin of a city, the 500 Hidden Secrets series, which covers a number of cities from Havana to Ghent, all written by people who know the cities inside out, is ideal. It’s an innovative and refreshing take on the traditional travel guide.”– The Independent
For tourists who want to avoid the well-known tourist spots and discover the locals’ favorite addresses, and for residents who want to get to know their city even better. Written by born and bred Amsterdammers, the book includes lists such as the 5 best secondhand markets, the 5 most inspiring museums and the 5 best places to listen to live music, with a total 500 addresses and facts that few people know. Includes extensive maps and a comprehensive index.
A new travel guide to Japan, illustrated by extraordinary photos, that avoids clichés while exploring the country’s mythical places. Admire Tokyo in all of its tranquility, Kyoto under the charm of the geishas, Osaka full of tumult, but also Mount Fuji and many other must-see destinations. Going beneath the surface, Nicolas Wauters describes the Japanese way of life, their traditions and their festivals. The images are accompanied by a QR code that allows access to constantly updated data. No need to search in the pages of your book, you are geolocated and nearby places of interest are immediately displayed.
In a follow-up to Design for Kids (Images Publishing, 2007), in Architecture Is Fun Sharon Exley and Peter Exley demonstrate their ethos that architecture is one of the gateways to a more empathetic and equitable future. They believe making accessible places of learning, living, working, and playing are indispensable for human growth and development. This beautifully presented second monograph illustrates a nexus of architecture, education, community, and experience from the practice of Architecture Is Fun.