All-round artist Kamagurka started his career as a cartoonist for the Belgian magazine HUMO. Soon after, his multi-talented, discernable style, razor-sharp pen and absurdist humour attracted the attention of other media, resulting in worldwide exposure in newspapers and magazines including NRC Handelsblad, Playboy, Esquire| (the Netherlands); Charlie Hebdo, Hara Kiri (France); Squibb, The Spectator, Deadpan (UK); Titanic, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Zitty, Eulenspiegel (Germany); Die Presse (Austria); The New Yorker, National Lampoon, RAW (USA) and many more. Kamagurka wrote and acted in several radio, television and theatre shows, often performing alongside Herr Seele, his lifelong partner in crime. Next to that Kamagurka released more than 25 comic books, from Bert and Bobje to Cowboy Henk. The Holy Kama is a best of, compiling over 1000 cartoons from this master of absurdity. The Holy Kama is an unholy bible, an indispensable on every Kama devotee’s bedside table.

No shit: Poetry is so yesterday. The only thing that’s cool nowadays: Pooetry. Thoughts as deep as a beer bottle, sketches as beautiful as a long night out. And true wisdom as ugly as the morning after. Holy Shit is a compilation of the only nonsense that makes sense:  wisdom on toilet walls. Shot all around Berlin, including thought and comments by famous German authors who know what they are drinking about.

Known for its soaring towers that mark the skylines of the world’s great cities, Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects is also a leading designer of performing arts centers, including critically acclaimed venues for opera, dance, plays, and concerts. The firm’s award-winning work in this highly demanding field is vast, with examples ranging from one of largest performing arts centers in the United States to intimate theaters on college campuses. Highlighting the firm’s technically rigorous and aesthetically inspiring designs, Perform features a selection of concert halls and theaters, and cultural centers, including such prominent and distinctive works as the Overture Center for the Arts in Madison, Wisconsin, and the Adrienne Arsht Center in Miami. Designed with renowned acousticians and theatre planners, these performance halls are both architecturally exciting and technically advanced. This book explores the design of beautiful and uplifting spaces that allow the performing arts to shine while adding life to their surroundings.

Selected Projects: – Hancher, University of Iowa – The George S. and Dolores Doré Eccles Theater – Wintrust Arena – Multi-purpose Auditorium, Hong Kong University – Science and Technology – The Theatre School, DePaul University – St. Katherine Drexel Chapel, Xavier University of Louisiana – BOK Center – Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall and Samueli Theater – The Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County – Overture Center for the Arts – South Coast Repertory Theater – Schuster Performing Arts Center – Dewan Filharmonik at Petronas Towers – Aronoff Center for the Arts – North Carolina Blumenthal Performing Arts Center

On Easter, 2014, Britain’s best-loved vicar, the Rev. Richard Coles, led a pilgrimage to all the major historic sites of the Holy Land: from Nazareth and the Sea of Galilee in the North, via Jericho and the Jordan River, to Bethlehem and, finally, Jerusalem. All of the pilgrims in his care were practising Christians, except one: the writer Kevin Jackson, a diffident and sympathetic atheist intrigued by the chance to take part in this modern-day version of an ancient act of piety, and to learn some more about his old friend, the media clergyman.

Coles to Jerusalem is Kevin Jackson’s light-hearted diary of that pilgrimage, and a close-up portrait of Richard Coles both as priest and as man. As the journey proceeds, Coles reminisces at length about his past life as a rock star and radical gay agitator, his new life as a spiritual leader and a popular broadcaster on BBC radio and television, and the strange, unpredictable path that led him from self-destructive debauchery to faith and vocation.

With a lively supporting cast of fellow pilgrims, Coles to Jerusalem ranges among the magnificence of ancient monuments and the banalities of the guided tour, the grim political background of contemporary Israel and the comedy of a group of idiosyncratic English folk abroad, the intensity of worship and the lightness of banter. It will be irresistible to all admirers of Richard Coles, who has contributed a foreword; and a revelation to those who have never encountered his wisdom and warmth.

From May 1st until August 2012, Brugge Plus vzw and Musea Brugge have organized ‘Kamarama’, an international art project in the city of Bruges. The curator of the exposition is Belgian artist Kamagurka. This multidisciplinary art project will spread throughout the entire city center and will show both works of Kamagurka and other artists he feels related to. It’ll be a true journey jam-packed with exceptional art, intriguing movies, music, comedy, cartoons and, without a doubt, a large dose of humor. The main part of the project is an exhibition of paintings, sculptures and drawings in the Garemynzaal, one of the historical halls of the Bruges belfry, of contemporary artists that have been inspirational to Kamagurka: David Bade, Fred Bervoets, George Condo, René Daniëls, J.J. Grandville, George Grosz, Jeroen Henneman, Capitaine Lonchamps, Lucebert, Yves Obyn, Emile Salkin, Captain Beefheart, Wim T. Schippers, Herr Seele, Roland Topor among others. Artists featured include: David Bade, Fred Bervoets, Capitaine Lonchamps, George Condo, Rene Daniels, Wim Delvoye, Otto Dix, Marcel Duchamp, James Ensor, Max Ernst, Jan Fabre, J.J. Grandville, George Grosz, Kati Heck, Jeroen Henneman, Herr Seele, Paul Joostens, Kamagurka, Lucebert, Markus Lupertz, Rene Magritte, Werner Mannaers, Muzo, Yves Obyn, Jeff Olsson, Francis Picabia, Pablo Picasso, Georges Ribemont-Dessaignes, Emile Salkin, Wim T. Schippers, Roland Topor, Stephen Tunney, Luc Tuymans, Rinus Van De Velde, Don Van Vliet. Also available: The Holy Kama ISBN: 9789058563996

To rid the world of the evil, ten-headed Ravana, the Hindu god Vishnu appears on earth as a heroic prince, Rama. The devotion of his brother Lakshman, his marriage to the beautiful Sita, and encounters with demons, giants, sages, and holy men form favorite episodes familiar to any Hindu child. Taken from the holy text, the Ramayana, these stories conclude with Rama’s efforts to rescue the kidnapped Sita, aided by Hanuman, leader of an army of monkeys. These incidents have been retold and lavishly illustrated using original paintings from a 16th-century Mughal manuscript.

How can industrial buildings with long histories and spatial uniqueness be integrated into urban life more actively? How can newly built industrial plots with large-scale industrial and commercial buildings be situated and integrated into urban planning and design?

This book features nearly 40 cases of redevelopment and industrial design by the German architectural firm gmp Architects von Gerkan, Marg and Partners in Shanghai, Beijing, Tianjin, Shenzhen (mainland China), and some German cities. These designs are for commercial and industrial buildings, cultural and convention centers, exhibition halls and data centres. They apply gmp’s design concept to industrial buildings within the context of the metropolis, work that is characterized by conciseness, diversity, unity, uniqueness, and orderliness. This book provides examples of, and references to, urban industrial building areas and industrial architecture design, and can be used as a reference by teachers and students of urban planning studies, architectural history, architectural heritage conservation, and architectural design.

Text in English and Chinese.

This lavishly presented coffee table book features 60 new residential projects with a focus on the beautiful use of natural stone. The Beauty of Natural Stone in Private Residences includes over 200 photographs of houses and apartments where the use of this timeless organic material has been used to create unique and stunning entrance halls, kitchens, bathrooms, and wellbeing rooms. Packed full of inspiration this is a must buy for those looking to recreate similar spaces in their own homes.

This volume compiles the buildings and projects produced by Atelier Scheidegger Keller since 2009. The collection is not a traditional architectural monograph, but is instead comparable to the logbook of a ship’s voyage: it records all the particulars and actions on the journey. Models, diagrams, codes, texts, maps, plans, sketches, mock-ups, building and detail plans, engineering and workshop drawings, building-site images and photo series all document the process, as well as the spatial, typological and constructive research involved. The result is direct insight into the multifaceted working methods and conceptual world of Atelier Scheidegger Keller.
The four constructed buildings include the highly-acclaimed House with two Columns in Wilen (2014) and the Rosengarten student accommodation in Zurich-Wipkingen (2020), with its raw materialisation and double-storey halls and loggias. Text contributions by: Christian Scheidegger, Jürg Keller
With articles from various sources by: Tibor Joanelly, Christian Kerez, Mario Monotti, Christoph Ramisch, Christoph Wieser, Raphael Zuber et al.

Text in English and German.

The City of London is a special place; presently associated with business and high-level finance in particular. It is a frenetic, changing cityscape but despite the bluster it retains evidence of a fascinating history and a wealth of sumptuous architectural detail. The Vernacular of Money: Classical Architecture in the City of London documents and illustrates this wealth of institutional and commercial buildings that draw inspiration from Classical architectural canon, reinterpreting and adapting it to coeval requirements.

From graceful livery halls like the Goldsmiths’, to palatial Edwardian insurance offices to decorous official buildings like the Mansion House and Royal Exchange, the buildings documented here are unified not only geographically and culturally but also by the use of a common ‘vocabulary’ — the Classical architectural language that has influenced Western architectural discourse for the better part of two and a half millennia.

The volume is aimed both at as a reference work of architectural history and as a general interest book for the large community of present and past City of London workers and residents.

Italian artist Ugo Rondinone was invited by the Musee d’Art et d’Histoire (MAH) in Geneva to curate a show that invites a dialog between his work and the works in the permanent collection. The show he created centers around two emblematic figures of 19th and 20th century Swiss art – Felix Vallotton and Ferdinand Hodler – and considers the importance of love and desire in our relationship with art and creation. This book documents the museum’s halls and the exhibition, which includes works by Rondinone and art from the MAH Collection.

Text in English and French.

The Eighteen Nineties have become legendary: the period of Wilde, Beardsley and the Yellow Book; a decadent twilight at the close of the Victorian century, when young poets weary of life sat about drinking absinthe and talking of strange sins. The provenance of this beguiling picture is peculiar, for the myth of the Decadent Nineties was created during the period itself. It was an age of artistic self-consciousness, during which writers and painters believed that they had to create not only their works but also their personalities. In Passionate Attitudes, Matthew Sturgis examines the varying extents to which ambitious poets, penurious painters, canny publishers and a controversialist press all conspired to promote the notion of decadence. He explores in detail the cataclysmic effect upon English decadence of the spectacular trial and subsequent conviction of Wilde in 1895, a fall which was to cast a blight over the whole generation. As well as the luminaries Wilde, Beardsley and Beerbohm, Sturgis portrays Arthur Symons, the poet of the music halls, who divided his energies between promoting Verlaine and chasing after chorus girls; Ernest Dowson, the demoralized romantic of the Rhymers Club; Count Erik Stenbock, who kept a snake up his sleeve and went mad; and John Gray, who may have been the model for Wilde’s Dorian. John Lane published most of their books; Owen Seaman and Ada Leverson parodied their manners. Elegantly written, Passionate Attitudes provides a hugely informative and richly entertaining account of the zeitgeist behind the glorious decade of excess.

Wabi-sabi, the ancient philosophy that values imperfection, has dominated Japanese art at its highest level.

Today, it is becoming an “endangered species”. Worse still… this aesthetic of the timeless, which feeds on the long term, even enriching itself with the patina of time, has been recuperated by the mass-market decorating industry, and is now used in communications relating to consumer goods that are unfashionable and disposable: a total antimony.

Wabi-sabi cannot be reduced to formulas or ready-made expressions without destroying its essence. Hence, the Wabi-Sabi Lab is an original and demanding event bringing together some 20 players who embody the values of wabi-sabi and/or the creative or even experimental dimension suggested by the suffix “lab.”

Wabi-sabi Lab. What it is: A bias, a selection of brands, galleries, artists, craftsmen, designers, publishers, material suppliers, in phase with our intention, our vision, our affirmed tastes with all the assumed subjectivity that our choices imply.

What it is not: Wabi-sabi Lab is not a classic trade show with stands, exhibitors and brands juxtaposed, sometimes without coherence. There are no colossal exhibition halls, but rather a place of prestige without ostentation.

This publication is a crossbreeding, driven by the selective eye of a pair of insatiably curious bargain hunters. A manifesto that invokes the very foundations of wabi-sabi, far removed from the fad it has become.

Text in English and French.

Christoph Brech has enjoyed a privilege unlikely to be granted to anyone else any time soon. For three years he was allowed to photograph the halls and galleries of the Vatican Museums unhindered by the never-ending throngs of visitors. On his day – and night-time – excursions through the countless exhibition spaces and the Sistine Chapel, he captured images of extraordinary tranquility. His photographs show one of the most famous museums in the world as no one else has seen it: suites of rooms devoid of people, artworks on dignified display, hidden corners. In this superb-quality picture book, Brech’s photographs are presented alongside historical images from the Vatican archives. Arnold Nesselrath, director of the department of Byzantine, medieval, and modern art at the Vatican Museums, provides a stimulating introduction to the history of the institution. A beautifully illustrated publication that offers new perspectives on the many attractions of this magnificent world-class museum.

“It amazes me that after all these years and countless books, the scope of subject matter on The Beatles is so amazingly large that writers always find a new angle. This book does that in a very unique and clever way. It’s a must for every Beatles fan.” – Billy J. Kramer

“…It’s a magical mystery tour through the band’s life and times.”  —Yahoo Entertainment The It-List

“Part biography and part map to the stars, The Beatles: Fab Four Cities is your “Ticket to Ride” and walk in the footsteps of John, Paul, George and Ringo. It’s the next best thing to actually driving their car…”—Nina Violi, Capitol File. and Gotham magazine

“While the book can be used as a handy tour guide filled with addresses, maps and photos, it also makes for great reading.”  —Steve Matteo, The Vinyl District

“But now comes a “magic carpet volume” for Beatles fans that blends travel guide with historical reference in an expanded study of The Beatles’ homes, schools, pubs, venues, and important historic sites…”  —Jude Southerland Kessler, Culture Sonar

John Lennon said: “We were born in Liverpool, but we grew up in Hamburg.”
To paraphrase Lennon, we could say that: “The Beatles were born in Liverpool, grew up in Hamburg, reached maturity in London, and immortality in New York.”
Four cities. Four stars. The Fab Four – the Beatles – are revered the world over, but it is in these urban centres that their legacy shines brightest. Liverpool: where the band graduated from church halls, leaving their initial line-up as ‘The Quarrymen’ far behind. Hamburg: where their raucous stage act was honed; where arrests earned them a more notorious celebrity reputation, but they became a true emblem of rock ‘n’ roll. London: where The Beatles produced Sgt Pepper, and home to the iconic album cover for Abbey Road. And New York: the city that became John Lennon’s home, where their appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show announced them to 73 million Americans.
The Beatles: Fab Four Cities invites the reader on a cosmopolitan trek across continents, tracing the Beatles’ rise to fame from one metropolis to the next. Flush with timelines, stories, trivia, the numerous links and connections between the cities and both pop cultural and local history, this is a travel guide like no other.

Ruskin is one of the most influential and exhilarating writers in English. Art critic, architectural visionary, social reformer, climate warner and incomparable teacher; Ruskin’s words not only transformed Victorian England but speak to us with increasing urgency today. This, the first general introduction to Ruskin for many years, places him in the social, economic and aesthetic world of Victorian Britain that he transformed – and shows how this transformation has much to teach us today. The extensive illustrations range from private notes and lecture diagrams to presentation drawings, including some of the most beautiful images of the 19th century and many never before published. Published in association with the Ruskin Foundation.

Tyres, mics, mohawks and halfpipes – by bringing together aspects of BMX, Punk and underground youth culture, this collection reveals the freedom of those that do things their own way and live life from the heart. Lodown Magazine calls the book “a testament to Ricky Adam’s ability to capture the optimism, energy and enthusiasm of a generation that prefers to live a counter lifestyle.”

In 2023 the Danner Foundation is honoring exceptional achievements in craft at the Church of the Holy Spirit in Landshut, Germany, with the Danner Prize, four additional honorary awards, and a remarkable exhibition featuring a total of 41 artists.

Gunther Pfeffer received the Danner Prize for his display cabinet Raster. The unit comprises fir slats arranged in a grid, which, depending on the angle of view, reveal what is inside and render the grid visible, or obscure the view and meld into a single surface.

The objects are presented in the publication in large-format photographs and informative descriptions of the concepts. Personal statements by the artists provide insights into their various working methods. To conclude, texts by renowned authors look into the significance and development of handicraft today from different perspectives.

Text in English and German.

Issue 8: In our cover story, Roger Caillois and Detlef Heikamp explore the exquisitely unintentional art of stones (also Sgarbi and Mercogliano). Richard Meyer and William Saroyan recall the dreamlike paintings of Morris Hirshfield, the misunderstood, humble visionary who had a brief but brilliant career in 1940s New York. The Masone Labyrinth presents Orhan Pamuk’s notebooks, hybrid works of art and text that reveal the evocative inner life of this Nobel laureate and visual artist manqué (Stefano Salis). Giorgio Villani writes on 17th-c. Sicilian altar frontals in which inset marble, jasper, and other semiprecious stones evoke otherworldly holy scenes. And Rui Galopim de Carvalho explores the remarkable transformation in the culture of jewelry-making in Portugal with the sudden influx of diamonds and gems from 18th-c. Brazil. Also a few Hors-d’Oeuvres: Mariotti explores the ephemeral and the FMR-al, Antei revisits the reasons that the Gestapo didn’t steal a statue in WWII, and Navoni tells of a sleeping Rubens.

What Denis Rouvre admires about Sâdhus is the way they are in the world, the way they respond to the world, and the way they carry the burden of parallel paths. In non-identity toward extinction, they resist the necessity of their birth. They are born to die, to no longer exist. Every day, individuals defy their common destiny. Among the people whose portraits are exhibited by photographers, we are referring to those who, by their own will and courage, place themselves among the gods.

What is the relationship between the Holy Trinity and social media? How do hashtags influence us? Why are we so inclined to use filters? Why do we treat digital images differently than analogue ones? Art history offers a beginning of answers.

Instagrammable explores the paradox of looking without seeing and seeing without looking. Koenraad Jonckheere examines trust in and distrust of images, drawing on 2,500 years of thinking about visual art. In eleven chapters, he examines the world of digital images through numerous intriguing examples from art history.

This volume is the first to bring together the V&A Museum’s collection of 19th-century temple hangings from South India, made in the kalamkari style of hand drawing, mordant-dyeing and painting. This is the first time they have been fully illustrated with complete translations of their inscriptions, accompanied by detailed analyses of their narratives. Published in association with the V&A Museum, London, this volume features original research and lavish illustrations.

Introduction: The Ramayana: Contructed, Killed and Brought; Ramayana Chirala; Ramayana Machilipatnam; Ramayana Srikalahasti; Ramayana Srikalahasti (English captions); Ramayana Sri Lanka; Ramayana: Selected Scenes; Balakanda Madurai; Yuddhakanda Madurai; Krishnacharita Coastal Andhra. Two Episodes from the Mahabharata; The Killing of Shishupala Madurai; The Duel between Karna and Arjuna Madurai. Two Ganga Hangings; Ganga Dupatti Machilipatnam; Ganga Dupatti Machilipatnam; Mahalakshmi Pithakam Machilipatnam. Introduction to Holy Sites; Sri Subrahmanya Temple, Tiruchendur; Sri Subrahmanyaswami Temple, Tirupparankunram; Sri Ranganathaswami Temple, Srirangam; Alagar Koyil Chittirai Festival; The Life of Christ Srikalahasti; Bibliography; Glossary; Acknowledgements.