“… With enticing descriptions and exquisite photography, the book is perfect for travelers to leaf through for destination inspiration. Here is a preview of six of the most tempting tea houses you should put on your 2026 bucket list.” — Forbes

Discover the most enchanting tea houses around the world in 150 Tea Houses You Need to Visit Before You Die. This book takes you on a fascinating journey through 150 unique tea houses across all continents. Whether you are a seasoned tea enthusiast or seeking new travel destinations, this richly illustrated book serves as an inspiring travel guide. From traditional Japanese tea houses to modern, trendy hot spots in global cities, each tea house has its own story, ambiance, and unique tea experience. Immerse yourself in the art of tea drinking and uncover must-visit locations.

“… Use it for inspiration before ~booking~ your next trip.”— Buzzfeed

Discover the most enchanting libraries around the world in 150 Libraries You Need to Visit Before You Die. This book will take you on a fascinating journey through 150 unique libraries across all continents. Whether you are an avid reader or architecture lover, this richly illustrated book serves as an inspiring travel guide and is the perfect reference for those in search of quiet yet endlessly interesting spaces. From opulent Baroque monasteries to sleek contemporary cultural hubs, each library has its own story – and an engrossing selection of books and media to browse through, of course.

The newest addition to the elegant 150 series of themed travel guides, this book will submerge you in coffee culture. Discover the most exquisite coffee shops around the world in 150 Coffee shops You Need to Visit Before You Die. This book will take you on a fascinating journey through 150 unique coffee shops across all continents. This richly illustrated book serves as an inspiring travel guide and is the perfect reference for those in search of the ultimate sip of coffee. From opulent century-old coffee houses to artisan coffee roasteries, each coffee shop has its own story – one of passion, craft and exceptional taste.

Discover the grandest opera houses around the world in 150 Opera Houses You Need to Visit Before You Die. This book will take you on a fascinating journey through 150 unique opera houses across all continents. Whether you are an opera-goer or architecture lover, this richly illustrated book serves as an inspiring travel guide and is the perfect reference for those passionate about the performing arts. From opulent Baroque theaters in Germany to sleek contemporary performing arts centers in China, each opera house has its own story – full of drama of course, and worth exploring both on stage and backstage.

Giant Willow Oak by Amanda Sauer is an intimate meditation on time, nature, and our relationship with the living world. Through a series of deeply contemplative photographs, Sauer documents her years-long engagement with a single majestic willow oak in Washington, D.C. This tree, a towering presence in the U.S. National Arboretum, becomes a silent witness to the passing of seasons and shifting light. Sauer’s approach is both scientific and poetic—she circles the tree counterclockwise, mirroring the Earth’s rotation, creating an orbit of reverence and discovery. The resulting images capture the subtle transformations of bark, leaves, and shadow, revealing the quiet power of patient observation. Handcrafted with exquisite attention to detail, Giant Willow Oak is not just a photographic study but a lyrical homage to endurance, change, and the profound presence of trees in our collective memory. A testament to the interplay between nature and artistic vision.

In a series of color-saturated, dream-like, hallucinatory images taken at night, this second book in a trilogy by Kolkata-based photographer Arko Datto explores the shifting world of nature, society, and politics in Malaysia and Indonesia. Over the course of 4 years, he has captured both people and animals in confrontation with the changing urban environments they live in, with the subtext of the politics that made this change possible. In a place that used to be considered a tropical paradise, over- development and property speculation have forced residents out and have created deserts of empty real estate where neither locals nor animal life can thrive. SNAKEFIRE is dedicated to this paradise that has been lost to unmediated human greed and ponders the costs of untrammeled consumption. 

They Must Fall: Muhammad Ali and the Men He Fought features powerful and often moving images and stories of Muhammad Ali and the men he fought in the ring, by award-winning photographer Michael Brennan.

“Around 1978, I had been in Houston, Texas photographing former Ali opponent George Foreman who had then reinvented himself as a roadside preacher. On the plane back to NYC, I thought, ‘If that’s what George is doing, I wonder what the rest of his opponents are up to?’ I set out to track down as many of the old guys as I could find.”

Brennan spent decades locating Ali’s former opponents to discover what had become of them. This unique book is a look through Brennan’s remarkable archive, containing numerous never-before- seen photos plus poignant stories illuminating the images and contextualizing Ali’s powerful role in the world of sport. Includes a special introductory essay by the late, great Jimmy Breslin.

“Michael Brennan’s iconic 1977 portrait photograph of Muhammad Ali captures something far bigger and deeper than just the beautiful face of a beautiful man. It is a detailed map of the personal journey of one whose incomparable talents and audacity caused literati to swoon, taught a generation to question authority, and ultimately altered the path of a society which had never before seen a man exactly like him. To look at him the way he was then is to remember, with joy and sorrow, who we all once were.” – Jim Lampley, discussing the cover image (Boxing commentator, HBO Sports)

Helena Calmfors is a New York-based artist and performer whose work is inspired by the archetype of the dominant woman. It is a role with which she identifies and yet gently subverts by introducing ‘soft’ elements such as flowers into the typically ‘hard’ aesthetic vocabulary of domination. Central to her work is the feminist belief in the right to own one’s body; she also explores the theme of reclaiming identity through hierarchical power play. The act of creating intimate scenes and experiences is present in all aspects of her art, ranging from performance to watercolor paintings, and digital and Polaroid photography. She uses instant photography as a way of representing the ephemerality of performance and the fleeting intimacy of the dominant/submissive relationship. With an introduction by the Indian-American artist, Ankita Mishra, Forget Me Not is Calmfors’ debut monograph.

This study of the wooden Serpent figures/headdresses of the Baga people of Guinea is a collaboration by the author, as an art historian, with many contributions from diverse perspectives, including scientists preeminent in their fields, Robert J. Koestler, Roy Sieber, Dennis William Stevenson, Mark T. Wypyski, and Peter J. Zanzucchi.

The text begins with a thorough exploration of the ethnological and art historical evidence for the Serpent masquerade among the Baga of Guinea, bearing an immense wooden serpent figure on top of the head representing a python. Never witnessed or photographed by an outsider, it disappeared in the 1950s along with most ritual performance after an Islamic jihad instated strict prohibitions against indigenous religions. The ritual context is followed by an in-depth analysis of the Serpent masquerade figures now extant in collections in Europe, the Americas, and Africa, as well as other representations of the python in the ritual art of the region. The final sections present the arguments, as a debate, between interested persons in the arts, including art historians, dealers, appraisers, collectors, and curators, and the scientific examinations by specialists in botany, chemistry, physics, entomology, and conservation concerning one particular Serpent figure in question.

“Iconographic images from Berlin are well known and in different tonalities: Sarah Eick now succeeds in the great feat that still demands admiration even from Urberliner:innen who have seen a great many photographs of their hometown: her photos undoubtedly reproduce Berlin motifs, but at the same time they are works of a great, translocal, abstract-poetic quality.

Peculiarly contextless, almost like UFOs, the familiar buildings and city views appear. Without any form of historicizing or nostalgic pathos, Eick gives them great dignity. “Even a snack booth looks sublime in her work.” – Tanja Dückers, writer, publicist and art historian.

Well-known places, whether Fehrbelliner Platz, Kino International, the water circulation tank at the zoo, the Charité high-rise, the Old Congress Hall or Teufelsberg, are always unpopulated in her work. One has hardly ever seen Berlin like this. This bare representation makes the city appear different.

Text in English and German.

The Homes that Shaped Us is the first monograph on the work by Park + Associates, showcasing a selection of the renowned Singaporean firm’s award-winning houses. Singapore’s residential architectural scene is notable for blending futuristic design with sustainable practices and cultural influences. For over 25 years, Park + Associates has been quietly earning praise and plaudits for designing houses that stand out for their architectural innovation, yet which are very much designed as family homes. The studio’s bespoke designs respond to context, lifestyle, and the client’s own ideas. The firm is noted for designing for the tropical climate of Singapore, with emphasis on natural light, cooling effects of water and including beautiful green spaces. The houses showcased in this stunning monograph document the evolution of the firm since its inception in 1999, provide valuable insight into its work, and reflect the joy the Park + Associates team finds in designing homes. Each project is illustrated with beautiful photography and detailed floor plans and elevations. This book is a valuable and inspirational resource for anyone interested in architecture and design, with particular reference to tropical climates and modern contemporary comfort.

Published on the occasion of an important international loan exhibition at The Azerbaijan National Museum in Baku, this multi-author book is much more than a mere catalogue. Containing previously unpublished research and a wealth of previously hidden material from museums and private collections around the world, and written by a team of international museum professionals and independent scholars, it is the first co-ordinated and detailed study of the West Caspian region’s characteristic silk embroideries. The book traces the history of embroidery in the Caucasus, the multi-cultural sources of domestic embroidery, iconography and designs in which the textile traditions of the Iranian and Turkic worlds meet, materials and needlework techniques, as well as the relationship between embroidery and the pile carpet weaving tradition in the region.

Contents:
1 Silk Treasures of Azerbaijan, Alberto Boralevi & Asli Samadova
2 Historical Azerbaijan, Murray L. Eiland III
3 Caucasian Embroideries in Context, Penny Oakley
4 Safavid-style Domestic Embroideries from Historical Azerbaijan, 1550-1800, Michael Franses
5 Silk Culture in the Caucasus, Irina Koshoridze
6 Azerbaijan Embroidery Techniques, Jennifer Wearden
7 What Went Before to Make It as It Was? Caucasian Embroidered Textiles from The Textile Museum Collection, Sumru Belger Krody
8 Busily Engaged on Embroidery : Collecting and Curatorship for the V&A, Moya Carey
9 An Early Museum Collection: Azerbaijan Embroideries in the V&A, Penny Oakley
10 A Shared Design Lexicon: Azerbaijan Embroideries and Rugs, Brian Morehouse

This is the exceptionally rich story of Rembrandt’s fame and influence in Britain. No other nation has witnessed such a passionate – and sometimes eccentric – enthusiam for Rembrandt’s works. His imagery has become ubiquitous, making him one of the most recognised artists in history. In this book, some of the world’s leading experts reveal how the taste for Rembrandt’s paintings, drawings and prints evolved, growing into a mania that gripped collectors and art lovers across the country. This reached a fever pitch in the late 1700s, before the dawn of a new century ushered in a re-evaluation of Rembrandt’s reputation and opportunities for the wider public to see his masterpieces for themselves.

The story of Rembrandt’s profound and inspirational impact on the British imagination is illustrated by over 130 sumptuous works by the master himself, as well as by some of Britain’s best-loved artists, including William Hogarth, James Abbott McNeill Whistler, Eduardo Paolozzi and John Bellany.

Foreword; Introduction; 1 Rembrandt’s Fame in Britain, 1630 1900: An Overview- Christian Tico Seifert; 2 Rembrandt and Britain: The Modern Era – Patrick Elliott; 3 ‘The Finest Possible State’: Cataloguing and Collecting Rembrandt’s Prints, c.1700 1840 – Stephanie S. Dickey; 4 From Studio to Academy: Copying Rembrandt in Eighteenth-century Britain – Jonathan Yarker; 5 Regarding Rembrandt: Reynolds and Rembrandt – Donato Esposito; 6 Rembrandt: Paragon of the Etching Revival – Peter Black; 7 Rembrandt and Britain: A ‘Picture Flight’ in Three Stages, 1850 1930 – M.J. Ripps; Catalogue; Bibliography.

Washington, DC-area architect Robert M. Gurney, FAIA, designs ecologically aware modern homes using natural materials and varied construction methods. This latest volume in IMAGES’ Master Architect Series features photography and drawings of more than a dozen of Gurney’s most recent projects. Gurney is dedicated to design of modern, meticulously detailed, thoughtfully ordered residential and commercial projects sensitive to site, program and budget. Materials are employed with honesty, integrity and ecological awareness. Whether working in complex historical districts or on a vacant site, the design process involves an understanding of site-specific issues of location, landscape, history, availability of materials and construction methods.

Italian and American Art focuses on the period between 1930 and 1980 in particular. By comparing artworks and examining exhibition and gallery policies, political meddling, and figures linking Italy to the United States, a common thread emerges which held two worlds that were literally an ocean apart but in constant touch as they explored each other’s movements contributing to art, from Futurism, Concrete art, and Abstract Expressionism, to Nuclear art, Pop art and Spatialism.

From cars made of carrot to tea-smuggling spies; Popeye’s spinach to the hallucinogenic effects of lettuce, renowned garden expert Chris Beardshaw takes us on a journey though history’s most fascinating plants, flowers, vegetables and herbs: the ones that changed the world, the ones that almost did, and the ones that certainly didn’t! Ranging from Roman times to present day and even covering future plant-inventions, 100 Plants that (almost) changed the World is a fascinating compendium of stories about the plants and vegetables we see, nurture and consume every day. If you have ever wondered why carrots are supposed to help you see in the dark or why we hang fairy lights and decorations on our Christmas trees then this is the book for you a fun and quirky new volume that offers unique exploration of our planets most fascinating plants.

India, Jewels that Enchanted the World presents for the first time the remarkable history and unique legacy of 500 years of Indian jewelry, from the 17th century to the present. The essays, all written by leading international scholars, explore the rich, distinctive, and unique heritage of Indian jewelry; the striking boldness of South Indian ornaments; the delicate refinement of the Mughal period; the dazzling jewels of the post-Mughal maharajas; the cross-cultural influences between Europe and India in the 19th and early 20th centuries; and the creations of leading contemporary designers whose jewels display the enduring beauty of Indian design and craftsmanship.

Published to accompany a major exhibition at the State Museums of the Moscow Kremlin organized jointly with the Indo-Russian Jewellery Foundation, this lavishly illustrated catalog brings together royal, ceremonial, and personal Indian jewels to showcase the entire range and variety of the jeweler’s art in India.

Maps that Made History is like a 1000-year-long journey around the world; every one of the carefully selected maps featured here has influenced the course of history in some way. This beautifully illustrated book gathers 100 marvelous old maps, each with a fascinating story to tell, from a 12th century Persian world atlas to a Soviet spy map. These maps were used to resolve conflicts, situate battles, construct a road or a canal, establish important shipping routes, even as propaganda tools. All the maps are reproduced in an oversized format, while accompanying text from an experienced team of historians explains the importance of each one.

In times of global crises, architecture must also seek new sustainable approaches to climatic and social challenges. Designed by Kashef Chowdhury / Urbana, the Friendship Hospital in southern Bangladesh can be regarded as pioneering in this respect. The hospital, which was awarded the 2022 RIBA International Prize, provides life-saving healthcare, as well as enhancing the identity of a coastal region that has been devastated by cyclones and soil salinisation as a result of rising sea levels.
Constructed in local brickwork, the architecture collects the valuable rainwater and uses the wind for natural cooling, while subtly interacting with specific characteristics of the world’s largest river delta. It also applies universal architectural means such as space, light and proportions to ensure the well-being of patients and the people close to them.
A profound architectural stance developed out of the geography and history of the local context makes this work globally relevant. This book, which includes a photo essay by Hélène Binet, presents plans, diagrams and model photos that offer insight into the design and construction process in one of the world’s most climate-affected regions.

Things That Cannot Be Put Into Words is an artist’s book written by Marie-Sophie Beinke and published by M-S B Verlag and HOPPER&FUCHS (originally published in German in 2021 by M-S B Verlag) and five translations of the same book as paperback editions. This publishing project consists of a mainly blank book, open to every possible idea and image. Things, that cannot be put into words: What has disappeared, the snatched away, the absent, the nothingness, the void are made present. Space for the thinkable, where words fail. An artist’s book that openly invites readers to critical thinking, dialogue and debate.

Working from his Urbana practice in Bangladesh, Kashef Chowdhury designs architecture that is rooted in the history and nature of its location – whereby the latter also relates to a spiritual and cultural level. This explains his fascination for Kahn’s parliamentary building in Dhaka, which inspired this volume of photo essays.

Kahn’s design is characterized by an innovative architectural language that combines western and eastern traditions, forms and materials. For instance, in view of the great importance of water in Bengali tradition, he placed the building complex by an artificial lake. Furthermore, although it is defined by strict geometrical forms, the parliamentary building reflects the transcendental nature of the National Assembly, defining the hopeful founding years of the independent state of Bangladesh.

A Red that Sings brings together three great colorists (James Ensor, Rik Wouters, and Jules Schmalzigaug) in a dazzling celebration of color. At the Royal Museum of Fine Arts in Antwerp, which houses the largest collection of their works, vermilion reds, intense blues, and vivid yellows shine, revealing the vibrant visual language they created. Ensor composed “unbelievable chords of color,” Wouters let bright red accents dictate the rhythm of his compositions, and Schmalzigaug reintroduced the ‘singing red,’ inspired by the Baroque emotion of Rubens. The book shows how these artists transcended the soft palette of Impressionism, turning color into a symphony of rhythm, emotion, and sound. Complemented by masterpieces from contemporaries like Adolphe Monticelli, A Red that Sings invites readers to experience these modern masters as they themselves painted the world: at a pitch that sings, vibrates, and resonates.