In 2023 Soma Surovi Jannat (b.1990), one of the most exciting emerging artists working in South Asia, became the Ashmolean’s first artist-in-residence from Bangladesh. Jannat’s art practice arises from a profound connection with nature. Inspired by the Ashmolean collection, her recent works weave together motifs to create new imaginary worlds of forests, bodies of water, animal and human forms. The exhibition will capture the ways in which Jannat explores the climate crisis, natural disasters, and the disproportionate impact on marginalized communities and ecosystems. An artist of exceptional talent and versatility, this would be Jannat’s first solo exhibition in the UK focusing on her engagement with the Ashmolean collections and the works created between 2023 and 2026. The exhibition and book provide the Museum an opportunity to engage wider diverse audiences, while also presenting the works of a contemporary multidisciplinary artist who reflects and draws strength from our collections.

Becoming a parent is not only about joy, happiness, and fulfillment. It can also trigger anger, despair, exhaustion, fear, and pain, as photographer Janine Bächle demonstrates in her long-term, autobiographical project, Becoming Parents. Bächle documented her pregnancy with an unvarnished lens, breaking taboos by showing unfiltered bodily details and functions. Through her sensitive yet shockingly honest photographs, Bächle documents her everyday family life, the changes in her body, and the emotional spectrum of becoming a parent. She deliberately sees her project as a realistic counterpoint to the romanticized images in relevant guidebooks and the perfect portrayals on social media. In addition to making care work visible, the book shows the struggle with feelings such as aggression, sadness, and fundamental doubts about parenthood. By juxtaposing her photographs with diary entries, lab results, and birth records, the narrative oscillates between control and collapse. The result is an indissoluble tension between image, word, and document that captivates viewers and allows them to experience the intensity and vulnerability of becoming a parent.

Text in English and German.

Ovando: Wild and Refined, Organic and Crafted is a portrait of Sandra de Ovando and her vibrant floral design studio, Ovando. More than a portfolio, the book tells the story of her journey—from her upbringing in Mexico, where bold colors, rich traditions, and early experiences in nature shaped her artistic sensibility, to the opening of her first flower shops in New York City. Ovando, now a celebrated brand with locations in New York City, Southampton, West Palm Beach and Miami, Florida, blossoms on every page. 

At the heart of the book is her design philosophy: a balance of contrasts—wild and refined, organic and crafted, hard and soft. Through striking photography, readers experience her immersive arrangements, each a world of its own. Featuring signature cacti, succulents, and orchids, seasonal collections, and grand-scale events, the book expresses Ovando as both an artistic vision and a luxury brand.

“This exhaustive study will be an invaluable tool in identifying not only where a piece was made and when, but in understanding the processes of its manufacture” The Regional Furniture Society
“Cataloguers now have an impressive volume of new information to draw on when describing anything from a simple tea tray to those suites of papier mâché furniture which remain as impressive today as when they dazzled visitors at the great international exhibitions of the 19th century” Antiques Trade Gazette
As one of the few decorative arts about which little has been written, japanning is today fraught with misunderstandings. And yet, in its heyday, the japanning industry attracted important commissions from prestigious designers such as Robert Adam, and orders from fashionable society across Europe and beyond. This book is a long overdue history of the industry which centered on three towns in the English midlands: Birmingham, Wolverhampton and Bilston. It is as much about the workers, their skills, and the factories and workshops in which they labored, as it is about the goods they made. It tells of matters of taste and criticism, and of how an industry which continued to rely so heavily upon hand labor in the machine age reached its natural end in the 1880s with a few factories lingering into the late 1930s. Richly illustrated, it includes photographs of mostly marked, or well-documented, examples of japanned tin and papier mâché against which readers may compare – and perhaps identify – unmarked specimens. Japanned Papier Mâché and Tinware draws predominantly upon contemporary sources: printed, manuscript and typescript documents, and, for the period leading up to the closure of the last factories in the 1930s, the author was able to draw on verbal accounts of eyewitnesses. With a chapter on japanners in London, other European centers, and in the United States, together with a directory of japan artists and decorators, this closely researched and comprehensive book is the reference work for collectors, dealers and enthusiasts alike. Contents: From Imitation to Innovation; Enter the Dragon!; The Lion of the District; Japanning & Decorating; Not a Bed of Roses!; Clever Accidents?; Decline of the Midlands Japanning Industry; The Birmingham Japanners; The Wolverhampton Japanners; The Bilston Japanners; Japanners in London and Oxford; Products; Other Western Japanning Centres; Appendices.

With his residential buildings, office blocks, schools and factories, Boris Velikovsky (1878-1937) made a definitive contribution to Russian avant-garde architecture. His early constructions, such as Gribov House in Moscow, are still very much bound to Russian Neoclassicism, yet since the Revolution of 1917, he increasingly designed Constructivist architecture. One example is his Gostorg Management Building, distinguished by glass facades, the functional division of space and use of state-of-the-art materials. Furthermore in the garden city of Druzhba for instance, Velikovsky intensively engaged with new ideas in town planning. With mostly hitherto unpublished technical plans as well as numerous historical and new colour photographs of his most famous projects, Boris Velikowsky’s contribution to Russian avant-garde architecture is appreciated for the first time in book form.

Custodians brings together for the first time, in this beautifully compiled collection, images of many of Oxford’s most prestigious buildings along with some rarely seen, but wonderful venues and their ‘Custodians’. Photographer Joanna Vestey set out to explore the extraordinary colleges and buildings of Oxford, behind the closed doors, often beyond the reach of the 9.5 million visitors a year who come here, and to meet the ‘Custodians’ playing a pivotal role in perpetuating these world renowned institutions. Rarely do we get to catch a glimpse behind the closed facades of these iconic structures and to see the spaces that lie within. All the images have been captured in the University City of Oxford, known as the “City of Dreaming Spires” and show its extraordinary breadth of architecture since the arrival of the Saxons. It includes venues such as the 17th Century Divinity School, the mid-18th century Radcliffe Camera continuing through to the most recent award winning RIBA nominated chapel at Ripon College completed last year. Venues such as the Sheldonian Theatre and Christchurch College sit alongside perhaps lesser known venues such as The Real Tennis Courts or the John Martyr Pawsons cricket pavilion portraying the breadth and diversity constituting the city. The ‘Custodians’ and their surroundings enjoy equal status in Joanna’s formal compositions; they seem to belong together, yet do not fuse into one, thereby asking us to question how we are all largely shaped and influenced by the structures around us – how defined we are by them and how much they form us. Full of unexpected venues beautifully photographed, this book will appeal to the his-torian, city visitor, people interested in architecture and interiors as well as to the extensive alumni network of the colleges themselves. It will also appeal to an audience interested in contemporary photography.

architekturbild, the European Architectural Photography Prize, has been awarded on a two-yearly basis since 1995. This time the contestants’ subject is “Borders”. A polarized subject, borders can be understood in the sense of opening or closing, of including or excluding, or as definitions of geographical or (urban) spatial areas. They can be clearly recognizable or subtly noticeable, but are always perceived as either protecting or deterring. In the context of the European Architectural Photography Prize 2017, this book by no means focuses on the negative interpretations of this term, but rather on how the concept of ‘borders’ influences and stimulates photographic-artistic involvement with our built environment. This book accompanies an international traveling exhibition, starting in the German Architecture Museum (DAM) on May 5th, 2017. Text in English and German.

Dominique Perrault is recognized as one of the outstanding architects of the 21st century. In 2015 he was awarded the prestigious Praemium Imperiale prize. He s world-known as the architect of the BnF François Mitterrand. He has designed major projects around the world, such as the Ewha Womans University in Seoul, Velodrome in Berlin, the Court of Justice of the European Union in Luxembourg (2008), and the Albi Grand Theater. Recently, the DPA office was selected to create a new hippodrome for Longchamp and to transform the former central office of La Poste rue du Louvre, in Paris. In 2016, his transformation of the Dufour Pavilion in the Château of Versailles where the new ticket office, restaurant, conference rooms and bookstore will be located will be unveiled. Metal mesh tapestries and light fixtures here will evoke the majesty of the “Grand Siècle” in a modern language of design.

For over twenty years now, Gaëlle Lauriot-Prévost, in her role as architect-designer associate of Dominique Perrault’s, has been designing the interiors for his architectural projects: seating, light fixtures, partitions composed of metal mesh, etc. The work of these two designers creates environments in which architecture and furniture blend together. The objects designed by Gaëlle Lauriot-Prévost are edited by manufacturers around the globe: Fontana Arte, DCW, Silvera, Poltrona Frau, Alessi, Baccarrat, Chevalier, Sawaya & Moroni, Galerie Kréo, FSB, etc.

The book offers an analysis of the design influences of these furniture pieces and light fixtures, enabling the reader to understand their conception. It also presents possible variations in the paths they are likely to take from one project to the next. With over 600 illustrations, plans, models and photographs of pieces Gaëlle Lauriot-Prévost has created, some of which, such as the seats for the BnF, have already become iconic.

Text in English and French.

“Building in Lebanon is my way of taking a position with regard to the war.” This statement by the French-Lebanese architect Youssef Tohme is key to getting into and grasping Intensive Beirut.

This illustrated essay blends reflections on the urban development of the Lebanese capital with the experience gained on the projects of this architect-contractor, engaged in the effort to reopen the debate on architecture in his country. In a place where every situation is never more than a temporary state, the analysis of space is fundamental. The first part of the book examines Youssef Tohme’s ideas, illustrated with 25 photos by Ziad Antar, a Lebanese visual artist-photographer. Equipped with a Holga and a Rollefleix, Antar has captured the architect’s key projects – St. Joseph University in Beirut (designed with the office of 109 architects), the Villa T and the Villa M in Kornet Chehouane, and the Villa SC in Akoura. The second part, authored by Karine Dana, facilitated exchanges of ideas between Youssef Tohme and important figures of the Lebanese cultural scene such as the architect Tony Chakar, the artist Ziad Abilama and the singer Ahmed de Maschrou.

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.

The modifier b+b Auto, founded in Frankfurt, 1973 by Rainer Buchmann and his brother Dieter, caused a stir in the European and international car scene of the ’80s. Their technical innovations and spectacular design made them stand apart from the crowd.

Initially focussed on Porsche cars, b+b established themselves as a name to be remembered when they presented their Porsche Turbo Targa with prismatic coloured varnish at the Polaroid stand on Fotokina 1976 Cologne. At IAA Frankfurt 1979 they launched b+b CW 311, a contemporary modification of the legendary Mercedes 300 SL. Mercedes-Benz was so enthusiastic about the car that they allowed Buchmann to continue using the Mercedes star as a brand logo. During the 1980s, b+b was one of the most successful modifiers of production cars. They transformed off-the-line automobiles into individualized luxury vehicles for those who could afford it – customers from the Arab world, celebrities from the Jet-Set, and many more…

However Buchmann’s real passion belonged to the area of electronic innovations. The money he earned with his tuning activities was invested into research in this field. He was the first to think about centralized door locking by means of remote control as well as park distance control and he invented the first car computers. In 1983 his multi-function steering wheel was protected by patent. This comprehensive book, produced in close cooperation with Merck Group, one of the world’s leading chemical companies for whom Buchmann popularized a new and special kind of bright enamel varnish, presents the complete history of Rainer Buchmann’s technical and entrepreneurial achievements.

“Offers readers a chance to look again at modern British architecture through the eyes of all sorts of experts.” – Architectural Digest
“Very sophisticated and thoroughly researched.” – Bevis Hillier
“An eclectic selection with an unsurprising bias towards Modernism.” – Design Insider

This is a compact guide to Britain’s best buildings of the last 100 years, with an intriguing twist: the choices come from a wide range of experts with strong and sometimes unexpected opinions. The contributors include architects Norman Foster, Piers Gough, Charles Holland and Richard Rogers; critics and historians such as Elain Harwood, Bevis Hillier, Jonathan Meades, Alan Powers, Alice Rawsthorn and Peter York. Everyone involved contributed their ten choices, and all these lists are reproduced at the end of the book. In the main section featuring 75 key buildings, everything selected more than once is illustrated and examined in more detail.

The result is a fascinating cocktail of undisputed greats and genuinely surprising entries. Alongside the work of Wells Coates, Denys Lasdun, James Stirling and John Outram, you’ll find post-War prefabs, Preston Bus Station and the ruins of St Peter’s Seminary in Cardross. Whether you’re after a slightly unorthodox selection of Britain’s finest modern buildings, or just curious about what major architects and critics consider as their favorites, this book is your ideal guide.

All the following contributed a list of their favorite buildings: John Allan, Stephen Bates, Keith Bradley, Peter Clegg, Nigel Coates, Richard Hywel Evans, Kathryn Ferry, Jenny Fleming, Norman Foster, Piers Gough, John Grindrod, Ivan Harbour, Claire Harper, Elain Harwood, Birkin Haward, Simon Henley, Bevis Hillier, Charles Holland, Owen Hopkins, David Jenkins, Owen Luder, Jonathan Meades, David Nixon, Stefi Orazi, James Perry, Alan Powers, Alice Rawsthorn, Richard Rogers, Jonathan Sergison, Anne Ward, Peter York, Paul Zara.

“The most important portraits to me are the ones of people who have enriched my own thinking or awareness. Areas of philosophy, religion, psychological perspectives, poetry, music, art history, women’s roles and the inner life are important issues for me – and all have been nurtured by these people whom I have met through portraiture.” – Victoria Crowe. Victoria Crowe is one of Britain’s most vital and original figurative painters. Here, Duncan Macmillan explores the exceptional skill of this remarkable artist’s portraits and Victoria Crowe, herself, contributes many insightful accounts of her own thoughts and perceptions as each work developed. This book also tells Crowe’s own story – both professional and personal – through her art. She has developed an approach to portraiture that seeks to do more than record the outward appearance of a person: she aims to represent something of the inner life. With 80 illustrations, the portraits include the artist’s family, composer Ronald Stevenson, pioneer medical scientist Dame Janet Vaughan, poet Kathleen Raine, actor Graham Crowden, psychiatrist Professor Sir Peter Higgs and many others.

Since 2006, the four Nyon-based architects Laurent Gaille, Cyril Lecoultre, Julien Grisel and Philipe Gloor have produced a number of impressive public and residential buildings. These include a multipurpose building for the Gland commune, which is integrated into the heterogeneous industrial zone of the city, while still boasting a striking and unique structure. This book presents the highlights of their ouevre.

Text in English and German.

Over five decades, the painter Humphrey Ocean RA’s work has filtered into our national culture. This includes his series of portraits entitled A handbook of modern life displayed at the National Portrait Gallery in 2013; his portrait of Christopher Le Brun, President of the Royal Academy of Arts; and the cover of Sir Paul McCartney’s 2007 album Memory Almost Full, which featured one of the Chair series. Ocean’s practice encompasses painting, printmaking, sculpture, book-making and drawing. Of the last, he has said: ‘Paper is lovely, immediate and personal. I draw as an end in itself.’ In 2019 his exhibition ‘Birds, Cars and Chairs’ was on display at the Royal Academy of Arts. Of these subjects, he says: ‘Birds, cars and chairs are, in that order, ancient, modern and intimate. Without them life would be a lot less bearable.’ These works are reproduced alongside others in the book to provide a fascinating overview of Ocean’s career, with an essay by Ben Thomas, which sets out to discover exactly what it is that makes Ocean’s art so appealing and universal.

K.C. Korfmann, using photography as a medium of exploration and expression, brings to light the ephemeral moments we are surrounded with. The book is a photographic representation of the fleeting nature of reality. What Korfmann attempts to capture in a photograph is significantly distinct from what the viewer sees in the same image. And this is what he examines in contemporary articles from all over and makes them symbols of his philosophy. In addition to this, Korfmann challenges his readers to reexamine their seemingly regular aspects, beliefs of their world through the secular medium of photography.

The wholesome yet exotic home-cooking of the Khan Family is famous in the film circles, and the crème de la crème of Bollywood wax eloquent about the famous biryani served at the Khan’s annual Eid party. In this book, we bring you some of the most special recipes from the most famous kitchen in the film industry, with recipes handed-down over the generations. Compellingly photographed and featuring casual pictures of the family, the author shares intimate details of what might be on the table when the star-family gets together for their Sunday meal.

Big-Game consists of the Belgian Elric Petit, the Swiss Grégoire Jeanmonod and the Frenchman Augustin Scott de Martinville. Having met up at the ECAL (Cantonal School of Art of Lausanne) and given their shared passion for the aesthetics of industrial design, in 2004 they decided to join forces and found a design studio, based in Brussels as well as Lausanne. In this relatively short time they have collaborated with, amongst others, Ligne Roset, Galérie Kréo, Vlaemsch and Inout Designers. Their work is minimalist, with a humourous, sometimes slightly subversive touch. In October 2008, Grand Hornu Images (attached to the MAC) brings an exhibition about the work of the threesome, on the occasion of which this book is published. With texts by Lise Coirier and Pierre Keller, it sneaks behind the scenes and offers a visual exploration of the journey of a design object from the conception and drawings to the finalised product. Text in English and French.

The history of the Bugatti really begins with the development of the successful 16-valve Type 13 model dubbed ‘Brescia’ after its triumph in the 1921 Voiturette race in Brescia, Italy, leading to Bugatti’s incredible racing success throughout that decade and the next. The Brescia Bugatti, written by renowned Bugatti enthusiast Bob King, provides an in-depth account of the origins, evolution and success of what is arguably the most revered car in early motor racing history. Including previously unpublished Bugatti factory data, this definitive, superbly illustrated book documents all surviving vehicles with current details and photographs. This deluxe cloth-bound limited edition is printed on high-quality art paper and comes with an imitation 1966 racing competitor’s bookmark listing individual edition number.

Titled After Morandi, the book presents a real encounter, a dialogue, from which sprang this grouping of photographs that interpret rather than describe Morandi’s artistic legacy. In notes at the end of the book, Green tells us the project was intended as a conversation with the work of Morandi and that, while some of the photographs present a direct response to that, Green hopes that most of them connect more tangentially through materials, objects, and geography.

This catalog presents masterpieces of calligraphy, painting, sculpture, ceramics, lacquers, and textiles from two of America’s greatest Japanese art collections, which are featured in a landmark exhibition at the Asia Society in New York. Impermanence is a pervasive subject in Japanese philosophy and art, and recognizing the role of ephemerality is key to appreciating much of Japan’s artistic production. The dazzling range of art and objects in this beautifully photographed exhibition catalog show the broad, yet nuanced, ways that the notion of the ephemeral manifests itself in the arts of Japan throughout history. Insightful contributions from noted scholars explore the aesthetics of impermanence in religion, literature, artifacts, the tea ceremony, and popular culture in objects dating from the late Jomon period (ca. 1000-300 B.C.E.) to the 20th century.

Contents:
The Art of the Ephemeral;
Works in the Exhibition:
I. Retrieving Lost Worlds; II. Buddhism: Perpetual Impermanence; III. Tea: Choreographed Ephemerality; IV. Transforming Impermanence into Art.

Published to accompany an exhibition at the Asia Society Museum, New York, between 11 February and 26 April 2020.

Collage is one of the most popular and pervasive of all art-forms, yet this is the first historical survey book ever published on the subject. Featuring over 200 works, ranging from the 1500s to the present day, it offers an entirely new approach. Hitherto, collage has been presented as a twentieth-century phenomenon, linked in particular to Pablo Picasso and Cubism in the years just before the First World War. In Cut and Paste: 400 Years of Collage, we trace its origins back to books and prints of the 1500s, through to the boom in popularity of scrapbooks and do-it-yourself collage during the Victorian period, and then through Cubism, Futurism, Dada and Surrealism. Collage became the technique of choice in the 1960s and 1970s for anti-establishment protest, and in the present day is used by millions of us through digital devices. The definition of collage employed here is a broad one, encompassing cut-and-pasted paper, photography, patchwork, film and digital technology and ranging from work by professionals to unknown makers, amateurs and children.

Contents:

Collage Over the Centuries, an introductory essay by Patrick Elliott; Collage Before Modernism by Freya Gowrley; On Edge: Exploring Collage Tactics and Terminology by Yuval Etgar; catalogue of exhibition works; a Chronology of Collage.