With his Indian vision and French sens de la plastique coalescing to create a unique modernism, S. H. Raza has been a master of colors, concepts and creativity. From his early expressionist works to the mesmerizing abstraction of his later years, Raza’s artistic evolution is a testimony to his relentless pursuit of truth through color and form.

As an artist, Raza moved through many dualities, namely home and exile, color and concept, imagination and thought, modernity and memory, creativity and invention, locale and universality, passion and meditation, anxiety and silence, time and eternity. His journey is a testament to the power of artistic vision and cultural amalgamation.

Raza: The Other Modern celebrates the artist’s outstanding body of work and invites the viewer to explore the depth of his artistic genius. One of the most significant exhibitions of Raza’s work to be held in Dubai, it is a quest through the evolving phases of Raza’s life and artistic endeavors.

Molluscs are extraordinary builders; indeed, their architectural skills are almost unparalleled in the animal world. Who among us has failed to marvel at the wonderful structure of the smallest shell picked up on the beach? Some enthusiasts collect them throughout their lives – attracted by their beauty if they are aesthetes, or sought out for scientific purposes, as in the case of Jacques Senders. In this book, Paul Starosta’s spectacular photographs take the reader on a journey through this astounding collection, first started 50 years ago.

These shells, marvels of nature as they are, naturally suggest exotic or futuristic architecture, ancient or Art Nouveau vases, or even precious stones or volcanic rocks, and reaffirm the importance of nature as a source of inspiration for artists and architects. By celebrating the extraordinary variety and architectural refinement of the shells in Jacques and Rita Senders’s collection, the book reveals a world where nature far surpasses human imagination and invention.

At the end of the volume, miniature photographs are accompanied by scientific information on shells, their life, characteristics and different families.

More than a book of recipes, this cookbook explores Lee Miller’s life through the influence of food and how it ascends to becoming the creative vehicle that she eventually swaps her camera for and uses to build bridges, heal old wounds, and to empower other women. A woman of many lives and mistress of her own re-invention Lee Miller, model, surrealist and fashion photographer, war correspondent and gourmet cook does everything wholeheartedly and with an imaginative flair. Much has been written about the varied forms of her creativity but Lee Miller’s achievement as a gourmet chef is usually left to being an endnote. Her granddaughter Ami Bouhassane sees this part of her life as Miller’s longest battle and most extraordinary personal accomplishment in every sense. Contains over a hundred of Lee Miller’s recipes as well as images by her and others in both color and black and white.

Despite its trademark transparency, the Corum Golden Bridge is a wristwatch full of mystery. This new book describes the iconic linear timepiece’s fascinating history including the innovative mechanical invention conceived by a nonconformist autodidact and the difficult technical breakthroughs by two like-minded personalities needed to achieve the dream wristwatch. This story, chock-full of narrative substance, begins in Switzerland of the late 1970s, at a time when electronic timekeeping was threatening to overtake the magical mastery of mechanical ticks and tocks. The Golden Bridge, spanning the gap between mechanics and art, is an integral part of this era as luxury watchmaking teetered on the brink of extinction. The Golden Bridge additionally helped usher in the era of the independent watchmaker, as its very creation was rooted in shedding light on the work of the watchmaker in a way that no other timepiece before or after it ever would.

Portrait Miniatures from the Merchistion Collection is the fifth in a series of titles which examines the portrait miniature. This collection, which has never been on public display, was assembled on the London art market during the 1970s and 1980s. Scottish miniaturists from the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries are particularly well represented with fine works by Scouler, Bogle, and Skirving and Sir William Charles Ross. Of outstanding interest is Nicholas Hilliard’s matching pair of tiny lockets of Queen Elizabeth and her admirer Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester. Stephen Lloyd’s essay discusses the formation of the collection and the impact of the invention of photography on the art of miniature painting. It also explores the social history of the miniature. Twenty of the key works are illustrated in color, with extended captions, and a complete list of the collection is also included.

The charming painter of Endymion’s Sleep, Atala’s Funeral and Chateaubriand’s Portrait was also a poet. Thanks to his classical education, Girodet (1767-1824) was the author of free translations of ancient Greek and Latin poets.
In 1808 he tried the to imitate and at the same time illustrate the Odes of Anacreon, whose edition was published posthumously. The Musée du Louvre holds the precious manuscript of this intense and complex work, in which the poetic research and graphic invention — compositions or vignettes — intertwine with the text. Only a facsimile could restore this organic whole in its integrity.
This book reconstructs the history of the manuscript, the various stages of the project and the posthumous versions, and analyzes the artist’s aesthetic sources.
Girodet’s handwriting is sometimes difficult to decode, but the complete transcription allows the reader to appreciate all the refinements and to rediscover the charm of Anacreontic poetry.

Text in French.

The automobile is the ultimate analog machine and mankind’s most ingenious, seductive and damaging invention. For over a century, cars have provided reference points for our notions of style, status and desire. In design terms, the Age of Combustion was as rich and varied as architecture’s Baroque – and far more popular. And now it is coming to an end, as the internal-combustion engine is superseded by the battery and cars become wheeled computers, running on AI not oil. Together with a wide-ranging introduction, this book reproduces 60 of Stephen Bayley’s popular monthly columns for Octane, the outstanding classic car magazine where, for more than 10 years, he has provided the most consistent and insightful commentary on car culture, often based on privileged access to industry insiders.

“… essential reading for anyone interested in conservation, African history, and the human spirit. It is a moving portrait of a park that continues to inspire global efforts in environmental stewardship, even under the most difficult circumstances.” — Ninu Ninu

“This book is a reminder of the park’s value both in local terms and on a global scale, and why the fight to protect it must continue.” —Outdoor Photography

Virunga National Park, the green lung in the eastern DR Congo, is Africa’s oldest nature reserve. The park is breathtakingly beautiful and offers an unparalleled diversity of ecosystems—from active volcanoes to tropical rain forests, from the glaciers of the Rwenzori peaks to the savannas of Rwindi. It is home to an exceptional array of wildlife, including the world’s last mountain gorillas. Thanks to these unique features, Virunga is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site. This publication, written by around 40 experts, explores the complex history of this Congolese gem. It sheds light on those who have dedicated themselves to its preservation since 1925, as well as the current teams fighting to address the countless environmental and social challenges in a region plagued by conflict, poverty, and humanitarian crises. Through their efforts, the park has become a catalyst for development and stabilisation of the entire region. The book invites us on a fascinating journey where resilience and innovation serve the park and surrounding communities, continuing to shape the legend of Virunga.

The famed Bengal textiles which once ‘clothed the world’ have received little scholarly attention. With the systemic destruction of Bengal’s textile industry, prompted by the Industrial Revolution in Europe, the muslins and Balucharis of Bengal were lost in obscurity. The partition of the Indian subcontinent and the consequent varieties of cultural and social identity in present-day India and Bangladesh have contributed to this neglect. This pioneering publication explores in depth the lost textile traditions of Bengal from the 16th to the 20th century and traces its impact on the historical and cultural aspects of the region.

Supported by superb illustrations of textiles, maps and trade documents from the past, most of which have never been published before, the book serves as a public history, with engaging chapters presenting a unique perspective on the textiles of wider Bengal. This volume will inspire the reader, reorient scholarly attention and provoke a rethinking of the nature and history of Bengal textiles. 

From the 2nd century CE to the 19th century, the people of the fertile estuary of the great Mekong River created treasures of sacred art, architecture and accomplished feats of water engineering that are coming to light in Vietnam’s vigorous new archaeological research programmes. The large stilted wooden houses of Oc Eo, the early Venice of the maritime routes of the East in the earliest centuries of the first millennium, drew in ships with precious cargoes from Rome, India and China to trade while waiting for the change of the monsoon wind to continue their voyages.

Chinese annals record that the early polity they called ‘Funan’ ruled 1,000 km of coastline along the shipping route. Among the earliest Mekong Delta Buddhist icons are a breathtakingly elegant 2.7m tall Buddha carved in hardwood that has survived more than 1000 years in the delta mud and a 29cm bronze Buddha that arrived on a trading ship from the 6th century Chinese Northern Qi dynasty. Very early Vishnu statues wear high, floral mitres and clasp war conch-trumpets on their left hip, and Shiva’s face stares out from stone lingas.

The Ho Chi Minh Museum collection conserves diverse masterpieces of the art from Vietnam, from the prehistoric Dong Son drums of the Red River Delta in the north to the vibrant Hindu and Buddhist statuary of the former kingdoms of Champa in Central Vietnam. In addition, there is an immense array of art and imperial furnishings of the last Vietnamese dynasty, the Nguyen, which was founded in the Mekong Delta at the beginning of the 19th century. There are refined inlaid wooden cabinets, sets of the finest blue and white ceramics and embroidered silken court costumes worn by the royal family, as well as huge wooden and ceramic Buddha statues which played crucial social and political roles in establishing the dynasty and quelling its foes.

‘Janamsakhis’ are stories about the life of Guru Nanak (1469–1539). They have been circulating orally, in writing, and in paintings and illustrations. B40 is one such documented artistic expression held at the British Library in London. Its 57 beautiful iconotexts narrate the life of the first Sikh Guru from his first day at school to his final moments. The talented artist Alam Chand Raj illustrates Guru Nanak’s sensuous feel for the all-inclusive Divine, his interior and exterior journeys, his manifold inter-faith conversations, his environmental aesthetics, and his marvelous actions. In the language of vibrant colors Guru Nanak’s transcendent materiality and world-affirming existentiality are exquisitely written out. The stylistic infusions of Punjabi art, Chaurapanchasika style and folk-art style of the Rajasthani Malwa School bring the historical Guru close to the viewer. Along with the artwork there is the rich text by Nikky-Guninder Kaur Singh explaining the stories from a 21st-century perspective. She insightfully explores the question – how are the Janamsakhis relevant to the political, societal, economic, and environmental state of the world at present.

“Words and ideas are as one – and at war – in Finlay’s witty, elegant work…”  — The Guardian

In celebration of the centenary of artist, poet and landscape designer Ian Hamilton Finlay’s birth, Fragments draws together 100 of his artworks. With each piece accompanied by a short text, either by the artist or by a noted writer on Finlay’s work, this book accompanies a series of eight exhibitions taking place in Basel, Brescia, Edinburgh, Hamburg, Palma de Mallorca, London, New York and Vienna in May 2025.

Best known for his Little Sparta – a seven-acre site at Stonypath farm in Scotland that has attained almost-mythical status – and for his installed guillotines, A View to the Temple, at Documenta Kassel 1987, Finlay’s large body of work can be found in museums, parks and gardens worldwide. His artistic creations also incorporate short stories, poems and concrete poetry, many of which have been published by his own publishing house Wild Hawthorn Press, and which, with a mixture of wit and beauty, engage with the relationship between violence and civilization.

Traditional Indian Jewellery is a vast and detailed publication covering the rich heritage of Indian jewelry and its significance in past and present Indian society. Jewelry plays an important part in the everyday lives, important moments, festivals and religious aspects of Indian culture. It is not only girls and women who wear jewelry, but also boys, men, temple statues and even animals. The book excels in its detailed descriptions, which accompany the sumptuous array of images. We discover why enamel is used in the north of India, the origin and significance of gold, the significance of setting gems in a certain order, and jewellery’s spiritual importance. The book covers in detail the meaning of the use of flowers and birds in Hindu influenced jewelry, looking through the eyes of 17th century European travellers who visited the rich Mogul courts. This publication is the result of 35 years of research – traveling, studying, and talking to many people across the entire subcontinent of India, as well as having had unprecedented access to goldsmiths and enamellers; being shown techniques known only to one family, which have been transferred from generation to generation; and being granted access to beautiful and never before seen Royal collections.

Ellora attempts the first systematic overview of the Ellora cave temples, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, excavated between 600 CE and 1000 CE and the only cave temple site that houses Buddhist, Hindu, and Jain caves. 

This volume looks at each of these three groups of rock-cut temples and the stylistic influences they drew from each other and from surrounding regions. 

Essays and analyzes by scholars bring a comprehensive understanding of the chronology and stylistic development of the 34 main caves and lesser caves of the site. Ellora also includes extensive photographic documentation, ground plans, and rarely seen early 19th-century etchings of the most significant caves. 

With contributions by Stanislaw J. Czuma, Nicolas Morrissey, Lisa N. Owen, Vidya Dehejia, Pia Brancaccio and Arno Klein. 

Miami is a city in constant motion, where luxury high-rises reshape the skyline and vibrant art, neon-lit beaches, and tropical charm create a one-of-a-kind atmosphere. Beyond the lively nightlife lies the serene paradise of the Keys, a chain of islands steeped in history, hidden gems, and sun-soaked adventures.

This guide uncovers Miami and the Keys’ most unusual experiences, inviting you to explore places you’ve passed or never noticed. Discover rotating art displays in a millionaire’s mansion, dance to Latin rhythms in Little Havana, or slide down a two-story chute into a shopping haven.

Dive into crystal-clear waters to explore pirate shipwrecks, visit the country’s smallest post office, or track down Florida’s elusive Skunk Ape. Seek tranquility at a tropical Buddhist temple, stroll through mango groves, and celebrate sunsets at the southernmost point of the U.S. 111 places are waiting to reveal the magic of Miami and the Keys.

A Passage to Siam is an award-winning historical novel by Thai novelist V. Vinicchayakul which tells of the tragic romance between Catherine, a young Englishwoman, and Justin, or Prince Vijjuprapha of Siam, during the reign of Rama IV and the beginning of the reign of Rama V, against a backdrop of real life events and characters. The clash of civilizations between East and West that occurred during this period, is reflected in the conflicts between the headstrong young Englishwoman and Justin’s conservative relatives inside the palace. Above all, it is a magnificent and compelling love story that transcends the boundaries of time, religion, race and custom. 

Lucy Srisuphapreeda’s translation will captivate English-speaking readers just as the original work enthralled Thai readers from the time it was written until today.

Edinburgh is rightly celebrated for its famous historical and cultural attractions. But for the discerning visitor it has much more to offer away from the well-worn tourist trail. This book takes you to hidden corners and secret sights in this city of contrasts, exploring fascinating locations unknown even to most residents, and revealing unexpected aspects of some familiar local landmarks. Marvel at a unique underground temple hewn out of the living rock; learn how a world-famous illusionist came to be buried here – with his dog; find out why the city council once commissioned an enormous electric blanket; look out for the ordinary Edinburgh post box with an explosive history. Discover the human stories behind a wide range of places, both exceptional and commonplace, bringing to life the greatly varied cityscape where people have been leaving their mark for at least 5,000 years.

Dr. Clement Williams was a British army surgeon, political agent, and businessman who gained unparalleled access to the court of King Mindon, the great ruler of Mandalay, between 1861 and his premature death in 1873.

William’s official diaries, his legal disputes, his commercial contracts, his travel book, and (most of all) his extraordinarily rare photographs offer a unique portrait of an ancient civilization on the cusp of industrial, technological, and political change. Drawing on primary sources and academic works, The Informal Imperialist has already been recognized as a significant contribution to Burmese studies within and beyond Myanmar. And, by weaving Williams’s story into a clear and compelling narrative, it reveals a vanished world to both scholars and general readers alike. 

“What is Bangkok like?” asked an American visitor, rhetorically in 1903. Some answer the question by relying on cliches ‘Venice of the east’ or ‘city of places in temples’. Others insisted that its contrasts and contradictions made an easy description impossible.

Bangkok at the turn of the 20th century was a city in transition, mixing as it did east with west and traditions with modernity. Here live the diverse communities which made it what it is today but this collection of writings by a huge variety of visitors to Bangkok captures the city through foreign eyes. 

In Bangkok is a collection of texts which reflect the foreign experience of the city the foreigners in question being both long-term residence and short-term visitors. It draws on a wide range of sources including travel books, memoirs, novels, short stories, verses, inscriptions, newspaper reports, directories and advertisements. It is richly illustrated with contemporary artwork and photographs.

Written jointly by Graham Watts and Woranuj (Laem) Maneerungsee, both journalists in Thailand, in Thai and English under the pen name Tamlin Bea. This book draws on the famous Thai epic poem and imagines two young teenagers magically transported into the story of The Ramekin.

Totsaken lands two contemporary Thai teenagers in the bewildering world of The Ramakien, in which Prince Ram, assisted by the wily Hanuman and his monkey army, seek to rescue Ram’s wife Sida from the clutches of the Demon King. In this telling, they cannot do it without the help of the children, a girl with near superpower martial arts skills and a boy with nerdish technical skills and the courage of a lion. In the process they have to defend their own world from the rage of the Demon King.

Totsaken is a fast-paced and exhilarating novel requiring no prior knowledge of the poem but brings the Thai epic vividly to life for a new generation. It’s a fantastical, gripping and exhilarating novel.

This book considers how and why people bought, sold, donated, and received works of art during Japan’s Edo period (1600-1868), when opportunities to obtain art increased as audiences for art expanded. Many urbanites enjoyed money in their pockets and access to information, which allowed them to emerge as influential consumers. With this, patronage of art by a small cohort of powerful and wealthy individuals gave way to support of art by a broader audience and, concurrently, exchanges between those making art and those acquiring art developed into new and dynamic interactions. The study of Edo-period art acquisition is comparatively new, but important to those seeking greater knowledge about art objects, as well as many others looking to understand the social life of visual forms. Some contributors to this volume examine broad themes like art and the marketplace, or art and political dissent; others explore cases of ownership by ranking officials, imperial ladies, temple abbots, and business entrepreneurs. As a whole, the book allows for a deeper understanding of Edo-period acquisition practices, as well as a fuller comprehension of the vital connections between Japanese art and its audiences.

150 Gardens You Need to Visit before You Die profiles a selection of the most beautiful gardens in the world, renowned for their exceptional flora, imaginative designs, and inspiring locations. From Kew Gardens in London to the Singapore Botanical Gardens, and from Monet’s garden at Giverny to the Zen garden of the Ryōan-ji Temple in Kyoto, this handsomely bound book captures in words and images the most notable features of these 150 glorious, not-to-be-missed gardens. An essential bucket list book for garden lovers!