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This book offers a unique journey into the heart of Gulangyu Island through its most iconic yet overlooked narrators—the banyan trees. More than just botanical features, these trees are the living breath and hidden storytellers of the island, their roots entwined with the very fabric of its urban space, memory, and culture. This book unfolds in four parts: an insightful scientific profile of the banyan tree itself; an exploration of its profound, symbiotic relationship with human life and the city; a detailed presentation of 15 specific banyan sites on Gulangyu, enriched with photographs and drawings; and a compelling oral history section that captures the vibrant, “invisible” life force these trees embody. It is not merely a guide but a cultural map, inviting readers to rediscover the island’s layered narrative and the deep, poetic dialog between nature, architecture, and human history.

Text in English and Mandarin.

More than a drink, matcha is a ritual. Rooted in centuries of Japanese tradition yet embraced by a new generation around the world, it represents mindfulness, craftsmanship, and a slower, more intentional way of living. From tranquil tea houses in Kyoto to contemporary cafés in Tokyo, Copenhagen, London, New York, and beyond, matcha has become a global symbol of taste, wellness, and refined simplicity. Matcha is a beautifully curated journey into the world of finely ground green tea. Through stunning photography, inspiring stories, and visits to remarkable cafés, tea houses, and artisans, the book explores the history, culture, preparation, and modern evolution of one of Japan’s most treasured traditions. Whether enjoyed in its purest ceremonial form or reimagined by today’s most creative cafés, matcha continues to captivate with its unmistakable color, delicate flavor, and timeless appeal. Matcha is an invitation to discover a world where tradition and contemporary culture meet in every carefully prepared bowl.

This book brings together masterpieces from the collections of the Mauritshuis and the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza. Twenty-five paintings from The Hague and twenty-five masterpieces from Madrid enter into dialog, revealing the power and versatility of European painting.

For this publication, twenty Spanish and Dutch writers were invited to respond to the works. From their own backgrounds and perspectives they wrote personal stories and reflections around one universal theme: love. Love between people, love of nature and love of art. Love can connect, move and comfort, but it can also reveal longing, loss and vulnerability. The selected paintings show this richness in a striking way. The result is a book that not only unites artworks, but also stories, emotions and different ways of looking.

Contributors include Karin Amatmoekrim, Hanna Bervoets, Gershwin Bonevacia, Sacha Bronwasser, Radna Fabias, Tobi Lakmaker and Antonio Muñoz Molina.

Ceramic art is one of Uzbekistan’s oldest and most renowned forms of applied art, which in 2023 was inscribed on UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. Through engaging accounts of the work of current ceramists from across the country and beautiful new photography of these artists and their finest work, Born in the Clay introduces this fascinating subject to new audiences across the world. Authors Rolando Montecalvo and Dinara Dultaeva take readers on a cultural tour – beginning in the capital, Tashkent, and ranging across the Fergana Valley, Bukhara, Khorezm, Samarkand and Andijan – and present an enlightening and accessible account of the history and techniques of Uzbek ceramics. Born in the Clay is the definitive guide to this uniquely vibrant and distinctive artistic tradition.

A major figure of photojournalism at AFP, Éric Schwab is best known for having been one of the first to document the liberation of the Nazi concentration camps. But his work is far from limited to that dramatic period of history. After the Liberation, Éric Schwab left France for New York, where his American work took on a lighter, even glamorous tone, particularly in the cabarets, where he enjoyed photographing dancers and jazz musicians… He then joined several United Nations agencies, building a humanist body of photographic work there. Over the 15 years he devoted to this, he traveled the world – Argentina, Bolivia, Costa Rica, India, Indonesia, Brazil, Trinidad, Haiti – producing thousands of striking photographs: schools for UNESCO, clinics for the WHO, factories for the International Labour Office. “All the usual misery that I cannot get used to,” he wrote in one of his rare logbooks.

The result of an exceptional partnership between Agence France-Presse and Cercle d’Art, this book is published on the occasion of the monographic exhibition devoted to the photographer at UNESCO. It aims to shed light on the multifaceted work of a figure who has for too long gone under the radar in the history of photography.

Text in English and French.

Prodigies, revolutionaries, defiers of the patriarchy; drunks, rebels and impassioned immigrants; queer pioneers, paint-spattered punks and proto-feminists: there have always been artists in London. Some were celebrated in their lifetime, others were out-of-step with the spirit of their age: too radical, too subversive, too modest, too female, too foreign.

Art London is more than a guidebook. It will accompany you on a journey through this great city, telling stories, uncovering histories, sharing insights into those who have made, collected and influenced art past and present. Moving neighborhood by neighborhood, Art London travels the streets with you, revealing art in museums, galleries and beyond, from palace to pub to studio.

Anish Kapoor, Grayson Perry, Mona Hatoum, John Akomfra, Rasheed Araeen, Sunil Gupta, Tracey Emin and Yinka Shonibare were among the artists who agreed to have their portraits taken for this book, while at work in their studios. Alex Schneiderman’s exclusive photographs reveal the human element behind contemporary art, while pictures of streetside galleries place London’s art scene within an ever-expanding cosmopolitan world.

Fascinating, entertaining, full of anecdote and insights, Art London reflects the city itself: energetic, diverse, resilient, occasionally outrageous, and never short of fresh ideas.

Also in the series:

Vinyl London ISBN 9781788840156

Rock ‘n’ Roll London ISBN 9781788840163

London Peculiars ISBN 9781851499182

“Any man that loves Bond will love to get this amazing book in their life.” – Men’s Journal

“A great coffee table book filled with amazing photos of everyone’s favourite spy.” – Tom Lorenzo, Men’s Journal

“No fan of 007 will want to miss this coffee-table album…” – Michael Dirda, The Washington Post

“Shy, lascivious, self-confident or sometimes completely private – O’Neill always knows. The photographs are all very aesthetic, somehow magical and an absolute must for all Bond fans.” – Lovely Books Germany

Terry O’Neill was given his first chance to photograph Sean Connery as James Bond in the film Goldfinger. From that moment, O’Neill’s association with Bond was made: an enduring legacy that has carried through to the era of Daniel Craig. It was O’Neill who captured gritty and roguish pictures of Connery on set, and it was O’Neill who framed the super-suave Roger Moore in Live and Let Die. His images of Honor Blackman as Pussy Galore are also important, celebrating the vital role of women in the James Bond world. But it is Terry O’Neill’s casual, on-set photographs of a mischievous Connery walking around the casinos of Las Vegas or Roger Moore dancing on a bed with co-star Madeline Smith that show the other side of the world’s most recognizable spy.

Terry O’Neill opens his archive to give readers – and viewers – the chance to enter the dazzling world of James Bond. Lavish color and black and white images are complemented by insights from O’Neill, alongside a series of original essays on the world of James Bond by BAFTA-longlisted film writer, James Clarke; and newly conducted interviews with a number of actors featured in O’Neill’s photographs.

Step into the world of Cacaform Birds – a world that exists a half-pace to one side of our own, at the confluence of imagination, art and reality.

Within these pages we meet the ‘Glowerspite’ (often dozes in a supine position; converts its tail to a head when startled) and the ‘Mare-away’ (who carries a small black troll on its back and rouses dreamers from night terrors), along with many more: a fantastical aviary brought to life by Zhu Yingchun’s art. The book contains three parts, the first containing doctored photographs that show these birds interacting with sepia cityscapes, alternately goggled at and overlooked by the passers-by. The second introduces us to each individual species through poetic verse, while the third section must be carefully unsealed by the reader in order to reveal how the Cacaform Birds came into being.

A blend of bestiary, spotter’s guide and poetic anthology, this book demonstrates that art and amusement can be found everywhere, if you only care to look.

The Bargue-Gérôme Drawing Course is a complete reprint of a famous, late nineteenth-century drawing course. It contains a set of almost two hundred masterful lithographs of subjects for copying by drawing students before they attempt drawing from life or nature. Consequently it is a book that will interest artists, art students, art historians, and lovers and collectors of drawings. It also introduces us to the work and life of a hitherto neglected master: Charles Bargue.

The Drawing Course consists of three sections. The first comprises of plates drawn after casts, usually of antique examples. Different parts of the body are studied in order of difficulty, until full figures are presented. The second section pays homage to the western school of painting, with lithographs after exemplary drawings by Renaissance and modern masters. The third part contains almost 60 académies, or drawings after nude male models, all original inventions by Bargue, the lithographer. With great care, the student is introduced to continually more difficult problems in the close observing and recording of nature.

Charles Bargue started his career as a lithographer of drawings by hack artists for a popular market in comic, sentimental and soft-porn subjects. By working with Gérôme, and in preparing the plates for the course, Bargue was transformed into a spectacular painter of single figures and intimate scenes; a master of precious details that always remain observation and never became self-conscious virtuosity, and color schemes that unified his composition in exquisite tonal harmonies. The last part of the book is a biography of Bargue, along with a preliminary catalogue of his paintings, accompanied by reproductions of all that have been found and of many of those lost.

David Mellor: Design is an introduction to the designer, his works and his importance within the British design landscape, post 1950. The wider world knows him for his cutlery, which although exquisite and important, is the tip of the iceberg. To see Mellor as ‘just’ a cutlery designer is to miss his depth: his love of public projects, street furniture or Church commissions. But then to see Mellor as ‘just’ a designer is to miss his influence as a patron of architecture, or his passion for retailing and promoting British crafts. He may be the ‘King of cutlery’ but that is just the beginning.

David Mellor (1930-2009) began his career at the RCA, developing sophisticated yet simple aesthetics which he displayed through his silver smithing. His cutlery continued in the Sheffield tradition whilst using some technologically advanced manufacturing methods and radically modern designs. He also designed public street furniture in the 50s and 60s which pulled Britain’s streets into the modern era. During the late 1960s he opened a shop in Sloane Square, London. His work as a retailer helped introduce the highest professional design standards into our equipment for cooking with and eating with. It followed the trail led by Elizabeth David, introducing continental cuisine to the country, a development that today seems so natural. Beautifully and comprehensively illustrated, this book opens up the wonderful work of David Mellor to a wider audience.

Also avaliable:

Claud Lovat Fraser ISBN: 9781851496631 GPO ISBN: 9781851495962 Peter Blake ISBN: 9781851496181 FHK Henrion ISBN: 9781851496327 David Gentleman ISBN: 9781851495955 E.McKnight Kauffer ISBN: 9781851495207 Edward Bawden and Eric Ravilious ISBN: 9781851495009 El Lissitzky ISBN: 9781851496198 Festival of Britain 1951 ISBN: 9781851495337 Harold Curwen & Oliver Simon: Curwen Press ISBN: 9781851495719 Jan Le Witt and George Him ISBN: 9781851495665 Paul Nash and John Nash ISBN: 9781851495191 Rodchenko ISBN: 9781851495917 Abram Games ISBN: 9781851496778

Edward Bawden (1903-1989) was one of twentieth century Britain’s most innovative graphic designers. Book illustrator, wallpaper, textile and poster designer, watercolorist, mural painter, teacher. His designs still resonate strongly with young designers more than a quarter-of-a-century after his death. Bawden’s influence on 20th-century design is beyond measure.

Edward Bawden: Design is the newest title in ACC’s award-winning Design series and an excellent introduction to the work of Edward Bawden. This fascinating book illustrates every aspect of his creativity, and is beautifully illustrated throughout.

Also available:

Edward Bawden and Eric Ravilious: Design ISBN 9781851495009

Eric Ravilious ISBN 9781851498024

Emille Gallé was one of the great names of the Art Nouveau movement in France, and founder of the famous École de Nancy. A polymath and committed social activist, he was best known for his glasswork and faience. Furniture became his third discipline after experimenting with the manufacture of wooden bases on which he could mount his glass vases.

Following the French tradition of furniture decoration known as marqueterie, his work is characterised by its meticulous decorative veneers, stained with subtle organic dyes; and panels inlaid with stunningly intricate country scenes and flowers.

This important book outlines all of Galle’s major works of furniture, from the pieces uniques that were designed for an exclusive clientele, to those displayed between 1889 and 1904 at the annual Paris Salons and two World Expositions. The recent emergence of many of his objets de luxe enables the reader to understand many of his pieces for the first time.

Written by Decorative Arts specialist Alastair Duncan, Gallé Furniture documents the history of Gallé’s furniture production from his favourite motifs to the ways in which he used furniture design to express his social and political ideals. Duncan includes an encyclopedic range of models created in the Gallé Workshops both during and after his lifetime. Beautifully illustrated, and containing translations of Gallé’s ‘Notes to the Juries’ of the World Expositions, this stunning publication will leave the reader captivated by this remarkable expression of the new art that changed the European aesthetic forever.

Forthcoming: Gallé Lamps ISBN: 9781851496716

From the smoky backstage dressing rooms of New York and Chicago’s pioneering jazz clubs to the acclaimed Jazz festivals that flourished to enthral legions of fans, Ted Williams’ camera captured the intimacy and the wizardry of Jazz’s greats as they perfected their art over more than three decades from the 1940s-1970s. From his unique access and perspective, Williams diligently accumulated a unique and largely unseen archive that documented some of the greatest musicians of the 20th century, the jazz and blues musicians who themselves not only inspired the greats such as Frank Sinatra but fired the aspirations and tastes of a new generation; The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan and Eric Clapton among them. Williams caught them in the act of exploring and defining their careers and music – while ensuring impassioned audiences and atmospheric venues remained inseparable from the iconic history he was chronicling. From Miles Davis to Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie to Stan Getz and Sarah Vaughan, Williams’ camera witnessed genius at work, rest and play, with an honesty and clarity that few photographers could replicate. When Williams died in 2009 at the age of 84, he left nearly 100,000 prints and negatives behind – many of which have never been seen before.

Jazz, the first book dedicated to the jazz photography of Ted Williams, will highlight hundreds of these unseen jazz images and will be captioned throughout by his own memories along with commentary from some of the leading jazz historians and journalists working today. Artists include Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Ray Charles, Charlie Parker, Sarah Vaughan, Thelonious Monk, Dinah Washington, Duke Ellington, Count Bassie, Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, Tony Bennett, Mahalia Jackson, Buddy Rich, Julian “Cannonball” Adderly, Art Blakey, Benny Goodman, Charles Mingus, Quincy Jones, Sonny Rollins, Muddy Waters, Max Roach, Woody Herman and Wynton Marsalis

Based on the industrial manufacturing history of Shanghai over the past 100 years, this book introduces the development of Chinese design throughout the different eras of the People’s Republic of China, from the planned economy stage to the later economic reforms and the opening up of the country to trade. We detail industrial-product design, packaging design, poster design, and other related subjects. The characteristics of each era are discussed in the following five sections: daily life, national image, transmission and reception, export trade, and communication and transportation. We approach each design from numerous perspectives, exploring its development as well as how it altered tastes and trends. These products were not just a symptom of change; they also answered social needs and spurred development, keeping China apace with production methods in Europe and giving ordinary citizens access to mass-produced luxuries like TVs, radios and cosmetics. The work of Shanghai designers was fundamental in turning China into the thriving economy we see today.

This new title in the highly successful Design Series features the design work of the acclaimed artist Peter Blake. Best known of the British pop artists, Peter Blake came to fame in the late 1950s and early 1960s with iconic works like On the Balcony and First Real Target both now in the Tate Gallery. Tate held an exhibition of his works in 1983 as well as a more recent retrospective at Tate Liverpool in 2007. His famous works for album covers, such as The Beatles, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band the Band Aid single Do They Know Its Christmas, the Oasis greatest hits album Stop the Clocks and Paul Weller’s Stanley Road brought him to a wider audience. This stunningly designed book celebrates the brilliant creative talent of a unique British artist. Also avaliable: Claud Lovat Fraser ISBN: 9781851496631 GPO ISBN: 9781851495962 FHK Henrion ISBN: 9781851496327 David Gentleman ISBN: 9781851495955 David Mellor ISBN: 9781851496037 E.McKnight Kauffer ISBN: 9781851495207 Edward Bawden and Eric Ravilious ISBN: 9781851495009 El Lissitzky ISBN: 9781851496198 Festival of Britain 1951 ISBN: 9781851495337 Harold Curwen & Oliver Simon: Curwen Press ISBN: 9781851495719 Jan Le Witt and George Him ISBN: 9781851495665 Paul Nash and John Nash ISBN: 9781851495191 Rodchenko ISBN: 9781851495917 Abram Games ISBN: 9781851496778

London teemed with top-rated singers and musicians during the ’60s and ’70s, whether they were squatting, playing gigs or investing in multi-million pound mansions. Follow McCartney and co. to the quiet flat on Green Street that was their refuge before the Beatlemaniacs sought them out. Wind back time to when Loog Oldham locked Mick and Keith in their flat and demanded they compose a song. From the zany to the tragic – it was in St Mary Abbot’s Hospital, Kensington where Jimi Hendrix was pronounced dead – this is a guidebook like no other, a pilgrimage dedicated to the rock ‘n’ roll greats. Also in the series: Vinyl London ISBN 9781788840156, Art London ISBN 9781788840385, and London Peculiars ISBN 9781851499182.

A new title in the Design series and an excellent introduction to the life and work of this versatile Russian artist. Alexander Mikhailovich Rodchenko (1891-1953) was a central figure in the Russian Constructivist art movement; a radical activist, a pioneer of photomontage, a theorist, and a teacher. He was an active force in the organization of the first museums of modern art that arose in Russia in the first years after the Russian Revolution of 1917. Attending art school in 1914 in Kazan was to be a defining influence: that year Russian Futurists performed in the town, and Rodchenko saw their leading figures in action. It transformed his vision and he was still working with Futurist artists and their ideas twenty-five years later. And it was at art school where Rodchenko first met the artist Varvara Stepanova, with whom he collaborated extensively, and who would become his life-long partner. Central in the re-examination of art and its place in society after the Revolution, and in the search for a new culture without the class implications of the past, Rodchenko’s radical approach proposed a new understanding of a constructed, rather than a tastefully composed, culture. This concise, comprehensive and informative work focuses largely on Rodchenko’s graphic work in the form of book jackets, posters and advertising. Also avaliable: Claud Lovat Fraser ISBN: 9781851496631 GPO ISBN: 9781851495962 Peter Blake ISBN: 9781851496181 FHK Henrion ISBN: 9781851496327 David Gentleman ISBN: 9781851495955 David Mellor ISBN: 9781851496037 E.McKnight Kauffer ISBN: 9781851495207 Edward Bawden and Eric Ravilious ISBN: 9781851495009 El Lissitzky ISBN: 9781851496198 Festival of Britain 1951 ISBN: 9781851495337 Harold Curwen & Oliver Simon: Curwen Press ISBN: 9781851495719 Jan Le Witt and George Him ISBN: 9781851495665 Paul Nash and John Nash ISBN: 9781851495191 Abram Games ISBN: 9781851496778

“This historically important tome is a stunner from the off, the resplendent glittery hardback exterior merely teasing at the delights within… ‘The End Is Near’ is an indispensable collection of images from a unique rock ‘n’ roll moment, beautifully presented.” – Phil Singleton. God Save the Sex Pistols.

Christmas Day 1977, a day to be spent with family and loved ones, unless of course you’d decided to spend it with The Sex Pistols.

The punk band, at the center of a tabloid frenzy and banned from just about every venue in the country, had booked themselves into a small club in Huddersfield to perform a benefit in support of striking West Yorkshire fire fighters.

That evening, the band took to the stage to perform what would become their final UK gig. There to capture the chaos was photographer Kevin Cummins. No stranger to The Sex Pistols, he’d been there at that gig at Manchester’s Lesser Free Trade Hall just 18 months previously. Kevin incurred the fury of his own family to forgo Christmas in order to travel across The Pennines to document the event.

Every frame Kevin shot is here, for the first time, in this book of more than 150 color and black and white photographs, each beautifully capturing Johnny Rotten, Sid Vicious, Steve Jones, and Paul Cook as they play together for the last time in their home country. Just weeks later The Pistols would break up and a year later, Sid would be dead.

“You’ve had the Queen’s speech. Now you’re going to get the Sex Pistols at Christmas. Enjoy.” – Johnny Rotten

From traveling 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.

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 traveling 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.

Terry O’Neill (1938-2019) was one of the world’s most celebrated and collected photographers, with work displayed and exhibited at first-class museums and fine-art galleries worldwide. His iconic images of Frank Sinatra, The Beatles, Brigitte Bardot, Faye Dunaway, and David Bowie – to name but a few – are instantly recognizable across the globe.

Now, for the first time, O’Neill selects a range of images from his extensive archive of “vintage prints”, which will surprise and delight collectors and photography lovers alike. Long before the age of digital, photographers would send physical prints to the papers and magazines. These prints were passed around, handled by many, stamped on the back, and often times captioned. After use, the prints were either filed away, thrown out or – for the lucky few – sent back to the photographer or their photo agencies.

At the dawn of the 1960s, when O’Neill’s career began, physical prints were the norm. Terry kept as many as he could that were sent back to him. “I just kept everything,” he says. “I don’t know why. Back then, there wasn’t really a reason to keep them. Photos were used straight away and then I just moved on to the next assignment. No one was thinking these would be worth anything down the line, let alone fifty years later.”

This book collects hundreds of these rare images, a true must for Terry’s fans and photography collectors.

“Terry was everywhere in the 60s – he knew everything and everyone that was happening” Keith Richards

“Terry O’Neill rates rightly as one of the best photographers in the world. He captures something special” Sir Michael Caine

“When it comes to photographic legends there can be few more prolific or revered than Terry O’Neill, the man who shot the greats.” VOGUE

“This sumptuous collection of portraits, taken over six decades, represents the best of his memorable career and should grace every coffee table in the land” The Daily Mail

“I’ve been repeatedly asked to write my autobiography – I have seen an awful lot of famous people at their best and worst – but I’m not interested in making money trading their secrets or mine. I want my pictures to tell a story not sell a story.” Terry O’Neill

Terry O’Neill is one of the world’s most celebrated and collected photographers. No one has captured the frontline of fame so broadly – and for so long. For more than 50 years, he has photographed rock stars and presidents, royals and movie stars, at work, at play, in private. He pioneered backstage reportage photography with the likes of Frank Sinatra, David Bowie, Sir Elton John and Chuck Berry and his work comprises a vital chronicle of rock and roll history.

Now, for the first time, an exhaustive cataloging of his archive conducted over the last three years has revisited more than 2 million negatives and has unearthed unseen images that escaped the eye over a career spanning 53 years. Similarly, his use of 35mm cameras on film sets and the early pop music shows of the 60s opened up a new visual art form using photojournalism, to revolutionise formal portraiture. His work captured the iconic, candid, and unguarded moments of the famous and the notorious – from Ava Gardner to Amy Winehouse, from Churchill to Nelson Mandela, from the earliest photographs of young emerging bands such as the Beatles and the Rolling Stones to her Majesty the Queen at Buckingham Palace. O’ Neill spent more than 30 years photographing Frank Sinatra, amassing a unique archive of more than 3,000 Sinatra negatives.

Add to that the magazine covers, album sleeves, film poster and fashion shoots of 1,000 stars, and Terry O’Neill – comprises the most compelling and epic catalog of the age of celebrity. Terry O’Neill has worked for the most prestigious magazines in the world including Time, Newsweek, Stern, Bunte, Figaro, The Sunday Times, Vanity Fair, People, Parade, Vogue and many others. And his award launched to showcase the work of young emerging photographers is now one of the most highly prized global competitions in art. The Royal Society of Arts has honored him with the rare Centenary Medal for his lifetime achievement. Only a dozen have ever been awarded in recognition of ‘outstanding contributions to the art and science of photography.’

“When one is tired of London, one is tired of life.” – Samuel Johnson London has long been a center of the literary world. From Shakespeare to Amis, Byron to Blake, Plath, Thomas, Christie and Rowling; many of the greatest names in literature have made this metropolis their home. Writers’ London guides the reader through homes, bookshops, pubs and cemeteries, in search of where literary greats loved and lost, drank and died. Discover the Islington building where Joe Orton was murdered by his lover, the Soho pub where Dylan Thomas left his manuscript, the Chelsea hotel where Oscar Wilde was arrested, and the Bank of England where Kenneth Graham was shot at (and missed) three times. Gathering hundreds of famous and less-well-known anecdotes, this meticulously researched volume will entertain any lover of literature. Also in the series: Vinyl London ISBN 9781788840156 Rock ‘n’ Roll London ISBN 9781788840163 Art London ISBN 9781788840385 London Peculiars ISBN 9781851499182

“The written word is the most basic element of human culture. To touch the written word is to touch the essence of culture.” – Xu Bing

Book from the Sky certainly seemed to have fallen from the heavens: the text of this installation piece was written in a new language that resembled traditional Chinese. No matter who scours Xu Bing’s book for ‘meaning’, they will only discover a semblance of it: mutated characters that resist interpretation. Carving out approximately four thousand wood blocks by hand, Xu Bing spent four years, from 1987 to 1991, making (in his own words) “something that said nothing”.

After creating a book no one could read, it only made sense for Xu Bing to develop his next project: a book that transcended barriers of language: Book from the Ground. Composed entirely of pictographs, Book from the Ground is a groundbreaking study into the concept of universal communication.

Whether his goal is total comprehension or confusion, Xu Bing’s masterful exploration of language challenges the way we think about the written word.