All the World’s a Stage grants an in-depth insight into the fascinating oeuvre of the Israeli artist Attai Chen (1979–2023). The series of jewelry presented in the book take a poetical look at the perpetual becoming and passing of life and of things, reflecting the complexity of these existential themes, at times with humor, other times with foreboding. In 2022 the artist himself described it thus: “I was always fascinated by the endless cyclical flow of things, be they in nature or in the man-made world; the movement of growth aimed at the fleeting moment of its realization, the consummation of this moment, followed by decay and finally a new beginning.”
Text in English and German.
Over the course of six decades, the American artist William Harper (b. 1944) has conjured a body of work unique in the realm of jewelry. Masterfully crafted in enamel and gold, his pieces explore multiple realms – from ancient mythology to personal iconography – and draw on influences such as African sculpture, medieval art, and modernist dance. Harper has nonetheless created an oeuvre that is instantly recognizable, branching into formats including paintings, ornamented casks, artist’s books, and more. Bizarre Beauty, the definitive study of Harper and his work, includes a full biography by co-editor Glenn Adamson, as well as thematic essays and primary texts. A visual feast, the book provides an intimate look at this brilliantly imaginative artist.
“The Turner Prize winner leads a visual tour through his life in six artworks – from college days to knighthood.” — Telegraph
Grayson Perry is one of Britain’s most celebrated contemporary artists and cultural figures. This book, which includes first sight of new and previously unpublished works, is published to accompany the largest-ever retrospective of Perry’s art. It offers a vibrant insight into his life and work, from his youth in rural Essex to sell-out stage shows at the Royal Albert Hall.
Grayson Perry vividly reflects on his art, life and career, remembering the sources of inspiration and influences along the way. Victoria Coren Mitchell’s thought-provoking contribution considers the role of humour in Perry’s art, highlighting the often-underestimated effort involved in being at once a serious artist and a lovable character. Patrick Elliott provides an illuminating biographical essay of the artist. The reader is also given a fascinating glimpse into the technique and process behind Perry’s prints, pots and tapestries.
Showcasing 75 exhibited works, the book covers the full range and breadth of his astonishing career.
This book offers a beautiful exploration of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec’s works in lithography. It explores the new artistic approach to the poster at the end of the 19th century, which bridged visual and popular culture and turned the relationship between ‘high’ and ‘low’ art on its head. Technical innovations in lithography pioneered by Lautrec and other artists produced larger sizes, more varied colors and new effects and launched the role of the poster as a powerful tool for communication and marketing in fin de siècle Paris. Lautrec’s embrace of celebrity helped to define the famous hotspots (theaters, cabarets and café-concerts) of fin de siècle Paris and made their stars recognizable figures across the whole city.
Works by contemporaries such as Pierre Bonnard, Théophile Alexandre Steinlen and Jules Chéret also feature, and Lautrec’s influence on British, and particularly Scottish, artists of the period will be explored. These include Walter Richard Sickert, Arthur Melville, John Duncan Fergusson and William Nicholson.
How does an artist work? How do ideas, emotions, and transcendental daydreams make their way from the mind to a physical format?
This book includes previously – published and newly – written texts about A K Dolven’s oeuvre. The texts vary greatly in form and content. Some examine the artist’s notebooks and the way they have influenced Dolven’s treatment of nature and geographical locations such as London, Berlin, and the Lofoten archipelago, while others explore Dolven’s relationship with other artistic eras and symbols, such as the baroque period or the figure of the Virgin Mary, as well as her ongoing dialogue with artists such as Edvard Munch and Helene Schjerfbeck. Other important themes addressed are concepts such as time and space, and how they have influenced Dolven’s art. In addition to presenting all of the retrospective’s featured works from the exhibition amazone at the National Museum of Oslo, the book is also richly illustrated with photographs and other materials culled from Dolven’s archive, providing unique insight into her artistic processes and documenting her decades-long career.
Farmer: Photographic Portraits by Pang Xiaowei represents a curated selection from more than 1000 portraits taken by Pang Xiaowei during a mammoth mission to photograph farmers from every province in China. It is a monument to China’s agricultural workforce that affords them the recognition they deserve and celebrates their dedication to their country.
The farmers of the Chinese mainland help feed 1.39 billion people. This powerful series of portraits captures the souls of these men and women: their hardiness, their work ethic, their dedication to the land.
Portraiture is one of the strongest visual methods of communication. As Pang Xiaowei says, “Portraits have a language; they can tell us so much. Portraits have force, and that force is directed towards our hearts.” Looking into the eyes of the farmers featured in this book, that connection is evident. These portraits forge a link between the observer and the subject, building on the ancient Chinese tradition of ‘spirit resonance in portraiture’ (chuan shen xie zhao). This aspect of Xiaowei’s photography is explored in an accompanying essay by the celebrated Chinese artist, Chen Lvsheng.
‘..the news that Baritone Richard Suart has produced an account of Ko-Ko’s Little Lists will be music to your ears. Beginning with a brief history of The Mikado, this hearty collaboration focuses on the way contemporary politics and society are freshly lampooned in each season’s book’ – Sunday Telegraph
Richard Suart, heir to the great Gilbert and Sullivan singers of the past, has made the role of KoKo, Lord High Executioner, his own. Over the last 20 years his topical version of the Little List song has become a focus of audience expectation and hilarity. In this book, he looks back over the Lists that have raised such laughter at the Coliseum and at the history of this immensely malleable song, taking in previous performers such as George Grossmith, Martyn Green, Groucho Marx, Frankie Howerd and Eric Idle – not to mention poets as varied as John Hollander and Tim Rice. Illustrated with 56 colour and 45 black & white illustrations, many never previously reproduced, this is a delightful biography of one of the most entertaining songs in the English language.
A century after Theodore Dreiser and F. Scott Fitzgerald mapped the American Dream’s promise and peril, Lauren Greenfield’s latest photographic monograph, The Queen of Versailles: An American Allegory, arrives in bookstores to visually recapture the origin story behind her hit 2012 documentary film and the 2025 Broadway musical—collectively transforming a documentary mirror onto the national stage, where wealth, overreach, and reality-TV culture converge in one distinctly American aria. Named by The New York Times as “America’s foremost visual chronicler of the plutocracy,” and the best-selling author of four award-winning monographs that incisively deconstruct turn-of-the-century America (Fast Forward, Girl Culture, Thin, Generation Wealth), Greenfield now presents The Queen of Versailles: An American Allegory—the first publication of the complete photographic series from the iconic documentary, featuring essays by Greenfield and longtime collaborator and curator Trudy Wilner-Stack.
The jewelry department at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris comprises some 3,500 pieces and is the only national collection of its kind in France. This book presents bijouterie and joaillerie masterpieces from this high-profile collection which ranges from the Middle Ages to the contemporary period and shines a particular spotlight on the 18th century and the age of Art Nouveau.
Daytime or evening jewelry and art jewelry pieces in the form of tiaras, necklaces, bracelets, earrings, pendants, hair or tie pins, rings and stomacher brooches illustrate the boundless creativity of designers.
The greatest artists are represented: Sandoz, Vever, Falize, Boucheron, Lalique, Fouquet and Gaillard for Art Nouveau, Raymond Templier and Jean Després for Art Deco, Georges Braque, Jean Lurçat, Line Vautrin, Jean Schlumberger, Torun, Dinh Van, Jonemann and Claude Lalanne for the post-war period, and a number of contemporary designers. The collection also features pieces by the great jewellery houses: Cartier, Boucheron, Chanel, Van Cleef & Arpels and, more recently, JAR.
This richly illustrated book accompanies the display in the Galerie des Bijoux at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, which features the collection’s highlights.
“Through superb photography, nostalgic ephemera and detailed descriptions by travel journalist, Ellie Seymour, we’re treated to a behind-the-scenes glimpse into the lavish worlds these historic establishments conceal.” — We Heart
In Grand Hotels of the World, travel journalist Ellie Seymour takes us on a nostalgic journey around the world to discover 40 legendary hotels that have welcomed guests in luxury and style for centuries. Through exquisite photography and detailed descriptions, we are given a behind-the-scenes glimpse into the lavish worlds these historic establishments conceal. From fabulous Claridge’s in London’s Mayfair and the luxurious St Regis New York, to the chic Splendido in Portofino and the timeless Villa Serbelloni on the shores of Lake Como, this book tells the fascinating stories of some of the world’s finest architectural gems and the famous guests to have sashayed through their storied corridors.
“The library is a group of objects (significant for the transmission of knowledge) that a group of people identifies as fundamental in their existence, their identity and their future, despite the transitory nature of time and the irreversible race towards oblivion that we are all forced to run”.
Journalist and writer Stefano Salis, states that at the beginning of his text. It opens this volume, that retraces the history of libraries and their transformation into temples of knowledge, underscoring the almost sacred beauty of some of these buildings, and follows the evolution of the concept of book, library and librarian. The text by art historian António Filipe Pimentel focuses on Portuguese libraries. Last but not least, Alberto Manguel describes the ups and downs of his personal library, establishing a connection with the universal history of libraries. Stunning photographs by Massimo Listri, portraying the most beautiful and picturesque rooms and ambiences of historic libraries, with a particular focus on Portuguese ones, complete the volume.
Albert Dros has a passion for landscape photography. Although he travels the world in search of the most beautiful images, the Netherlands is still his favorite subject. After all these years, Albert has created extremely atmospheric, colorful and almost romantic photographs of the Netherlands. His dream images in this book show everything that makes the Netherlands the Netherlands: from tulips to windmills, from purple moors to vast river landscapes and from picturesque towns to animals in meadows and in the wild. The Beauty of the Netherlands is the result of ten years of craftsmanship by an internationally renowned photographer who captures a Netherlands that few people will ever see with their own eyes.
The Art of the Architect celebrates the role that drawing and watercolor painting play in architecture. Architectural drawing as we know it dates from the Renaissance, but with the arrival of computer design programs this ancient art—formed of pen, pencil, and brushstrokes on paper—is sometimes regarded as obsolete. The work of Michael G. Imber, whose watercolors and sketches are published for the first time in paperback, shows what a vital contribution they can still make at every stage of an architectural project. His personal example is followed by his colleagues in a visual culture that permeates his practice, Michael G. Imber Architects.
Whatever the place occupied by photographs, simulations, and visual graphics in the design process of today, hand drawing still facilitates a moment of deeper connection between an architect and his environment. Unlike a snap taken on a smart phone, a hand drawing is an active response to its subject: what is understood about a place in sensory terms cannot help but inform the finished design, creating buildings which maintain the balance between the way we live and the natural world around us.
Not only do Michael’s sketches allow him to visualize his environment more clearly, but they provide an immediate visual language with which he can communicate with his team, his craftsmen, and his clients. Pen and wash is a suggestive, selective, and emotive technique. Rich in examples of the art and philosophy that have inspired him over the years, this book is both an ode to a precious art form, and a visual delight to anyone who may turn its pages. Michael’s attention to light, color, line, shape, and space in these “working paintings” reveals a love for the medium that extends from his architectural practice into the time he spends both traveling, and at his summer home on an island in Maine. The beauty of the result will be inspiring to anyone who loves architecture and the attendant arts.
Brazil is the fifth largest country in the world, with 80,000 hectares of vines spanning a variety of soils and climates. It has been producing wine since the arrival of the Portuguese in the 16th century and today makes a range of wines: sweet, sparkling, easy-drinking and ageable. Although it produces similar volumes to countries such as New Zealand, Greece and Austria, its wines are not well known outside of South America.
The Wines of Brazil is therefore for wine explorers in search of diverse, off the beaten track wines. It begins by relating Brazil’s wine-making history, before moving on to explain current viticulture and wine making. The regions and their wine producers are profiled in detail, with a particular focus on those whose wines are sold outside the country.
Features a detailed history of alcohol production in Brazil, from indigenous peoples to the arrival of European settlers to the foundations of today’s wine business.
Explores Brazil’s differing varieties and wine growing methods across its broad range of terroirs, from the pioneering region of Serra Gaúcha in the south to the northern tropics of the São Francisco Valley.
Provides details on many of Brazil’s producers, including the author’s recommendations and information on visiting wineries. Author is a Brazilian national who has been a wine educator for more then two decades. Supported by color maps and photos.
This book aims to tell the story of social history through Money. Money and Art have shared a long history. Both words are metaphors derived from Latin terms used over 2,000 years ago. The word Money derives its modern meaning as the general term for all means of payment from its use as the word for coins in the pre-modern period. Particularly since the introduction of paper money, the word was applied to coins because of the name of the place where coins were made in ancient Rome, the temple of Juno Moneta (Juno the Warner), from this name the word moneta came to mean mint in Latin, and later the product of a mint, i.e. coins. The word Art acquired its modern usage, meaning works of art, both singularly and collectively, from the Latin ars meaning a skill, and it has so been used in English to describe any form of skill, but gradually from the nineteenth century, the word came to signify the product rather than the skill, particularly in relation to painting, graphic works and sculpture. This eclectic collection of stories brings together a multitude of perspectives through collections from the Ashmolean and around the world — from Art Nouveau bank notes and global portrayals of prosperity to activist Money Art. Deep dives into compelling stories reveal humor, hidden surprises and a tension between the power of money and the playfulness of art.
The Kedara Kalpa is a relatively little-known Shaiva text; and only slightly better known than it are the two dispersed series of paintings to which this study is devoted. But both raise questions that are at once elegant and deeply engaging. Ostensibly, they treat of a journey by five seekers who set out to reach the realm of the great god, Shiva – walking barefoot through icy mountains and deep ravines, frozen rivers and moon-like rocks, running on the way into temptations and dangers the like of which no man before them had encountered – and, in the end, succeed. But as one goes through the narrative, the text visualised with brilliance sometimes by members of a talented family of Pahari painters, one begins to wonder. Is this a parable of sorts? Or the description of a long, unending dream from which one never wakes? Or, one wakes up like those five seekers and then, at the very next moment, slips back into that real / unreal world again? Is there something that hides behind all that one sees? Is this journey real, or is it only in the mind?
It is for each reader to decide, the authors appear to say.
“Building the Brooklyn Bridge is a perfect feast, a would-be time-traveler’s delight, overflowing with rare and evocative and fascinating images.”
– Kurt Andersen
Recipient of the 2021 Book Award from The Victorian Society New York.
The captivating story of how a bridge of unprecedented size and technology was built during an age of remarkable innovation.
This book invites the reader to step back in time to discover why this iconic bridge-proclaimed the ‘eighth wonder of the world’ soon after its completion and a National Historic Landmark since 1964-continues to hold such a special place in the hearts of so many.
Spanning the East River, the Brooklyn Bridge connected for the first time the then independent cities of Brooklyn and New York. This awe-inspiring structure was not only a modern engineering feat of extraordinary imagination, fortitude, and skill, it also was a towering beacon of human triumph.
Author Jeffrey Richman, historian at Brooklyn’s famed Green-Wood Cemetery, has gathered more than 250 superb nineteenth-century images, many never before published on the printed page, including engineering drawings, photographs, stereographs, woodcuts, and colored lithographs. Flipping through the book, one can imagine the excitement people around the world felt as they followed the progress of the bridge’s construction, either through the illustrated papers of the day or using viewers to look at stereographs in three dimensions. Richman specially commissioned more than forty anaglyphs-3D images generated from the historic stereographs-to recreate the 3D experience on the page. Every copy of the book includes a pair of 3D glasses kept in a pocket inside the back cover, offering the reader the sensation of being at the construction site as the towers began to rise.
A born storyteller, Richman relates how a small group of dedicated engineers and thousands of workers toiled for more than a decade to construct what was then the largest suspension bridge ever built, section by section, from the massive anchorages and elegant towers to the cables and bridge railway (operational four months after the bridge’s official opening). He reminds us how profoundly modern and groundbreaking the bridge was, in its use of steel (a new material) and pioneering construction methods. The bridge still elicits awe and admiration today.
“This is one of humankind’s great creations”-author interview with Michelle Miller on CBS Saturday Morning.
From imposing railway terminuses in Indian cities to picturesque stations in small towns, the romance of the railways still remains. Indian Railway Buildings takes the reader on a fascinating journey through some of the most iconic railway buildings in India – buildings that were, and still are, landmark structures.
Featuring historic information and many rare photographs about the construction of these structures, the author reveals interesting and little-known aspects about the heritage railway buildings of India, such as Bengal Nagpur Railway House. It is the oldest and one of the finest classical revival buildings of the Indian Railways, and is said to have been home to Nawab Wajid Ali Shah of Oudh while he was in exile in Garden Reach, Kolkata. Focusing on the structures built during the mid-19th the mid-20th centuries, this book highlights the historical and architectural features of a significant number of railway buildings that were constructed during the days of the British Raj in India.
Extensively researched and packed with historical facts, this book is a treasure for all those who love to travel or explore the styles and designs of buildings from the comfort of their homes. Rediscover the romance of the railways on a journey with Indian Railway Buildings: Heritage, History and Beyond…
One sole truth about Edvard Munch’s art does not exist. The answers depend on the questions we pose. Twenty-two Munch experts have written 150 texts about well-known and lesser-known works from Munchmuseet’s collection. Through these multiple ways of seeing, Munch’s lifework emerges as infinite. And this book, as an exercise in the art of seeing. The book invites the reader to explore the world of Edvard Munch — his ideas, processes, and the profoundly human topics that occupied him and that still affect us today. Through a wide selection from the museum’s collection, you can experience the richness of Munch’s artistic career and his unrelenting drive to experiment and innovate.
In Kari Steihaug’s art, what is overseen plays a major role. The things that have been set aside, unfinished projects, objects that are worn or frayed are all solicitously brought into the light. This is also evident in the materials used by the textile artist: Steihaug’s works feature worn out woollen garments as well as unfinished knitwear. By embracing imperfection, her creations become a counterbalance to the galloping consumer culture of our time, allowing us to see with fresh eyes what surrounds us in everyday life.
This book brings together 25 years of her work. Contributions in poetry and prose introduce Steihaug’s work and trace the lines of a diverse and rich practice.
With contributions by Monica Aasprong, Ingvill Henmo, Anne Karin Jortveit, Aasne Linnestå, Halvor Nordby, Kjetil Røed, Cecilie Skeide, and Kari Steihaug.
Joan Eardley (1921-1963) is one of Scotland’s most admired artists. During a career that lasted barely fifteen years, she concentrated on two very distinct themes: children in the Townhead area of central Glasgow, and the fishing village of Catterline, just south of Aberdeen, with its leaden skies and wild sea. The contrast between this urban and rural subject matter is self-evident, but the two are not, at heart, so very different. Townhead and Catterline were home to tight-knit communities, living under extreme pressure: Townhead suffered from overcrowding and poverty, and Catterline from depopulation brought about by the declining fishing industry. Eardley was inspired by the humanity she found in both places. These two intertwining strands are the focus of this book, which looks in detail at Eardley’s working processes. Her method can be traced from rough sketches and photographs through to pastel drawings and large oil paintings. Identifying many of Eardley’s subjects and drawing on unpublished letters, archival records and interviews, the authors provide a new and remarkably detailed account of Eardley’s life and art.
The Japan National Stadium was completed at the end of November 2019. The new stadium connects to the surrounding environment through its abundant use of wood, building height reduced to a minimum, and intermediate spaces created by eaves and engawa, despite being a massive sports facility that can house over 60,000 people for games and events such as the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games.
This special issue captures the National Stadium through various themes, recording and introducing in detail the design concept and process, engineering, construction, etc.
The magazine is intended to become a valuable document of the stadium that will be loved by the public for years to come as the “mecca” of sports in Japan.
Text in English and Japanese.
“It is an exhaustive overview of LeCompte’s work and is chock-full of expertly photographed images.” — Princeton Herald
“The book is a magnificent volume. It is as comprehensive as one could hope.” — Anglican and Episcopal History
Rowan LeCompte (1925-2014) was a world-renowned stained-glass artist best known for his work in Washington National Cathedral that spanned an unprecedented 70 years of artistic commission. Rowan LeCompte: Master of Stained Glass celebrates LeCompte’s artistic inspiration, distinctive technique, and unique perspective on a medieval decorative art, which he transformed into a fine art for modern times. The book traces his fascinating trajectory, from a determined teenager to a charming octogenarian with a clear vision of what stained glass can do within and beyond cathedral walls. More than an artist biography, this book illuminates the essence of human nature and its balance of light and darkness.
Growing up in Baltimore, young Rowan LeCompte was fascinated by color and light, collecting colored glass fragments that his older brother – Stuart, a scientist – had discarded from his lab at Johns Hopkins. A visit to the Washington National Cathedral at age 14 would prove transformative for LeCompte, who later described the day as his “second birthday.” At age 15, LeCompte knew what he wanted to do for the rest of his life: combine his love of architecture and painting through the study of stained glass. Just a year later, he earned his first commission in the National Cathedral: the very place that forged his destiny. Rowan LeCompte’s seven decades of work not only fulfilled his teen ambition beyond expectations – it changed the art of stained glass itself.
Rowan LeCompte: Master of Stained Glass takes readers behind-the-scenes of LeCompte’s process, hearing from the artist first-hand about his unexpected inspirations – and rejected ideas – for color and design, and illustrating his work from the first ‘cartoon’ storyboards of windows, to painting the finishing touches on some of his best-known work. This beautiful 4-color photo art book tells of the complete history of Rowan’s life, incorporating brilliant full-color photos of many of the windows which highlight the details of the imagination and innovation of this modern artist working in an ancient medium. It was his single-minded determination to create works that make the world a more beautiful place that will mark Rowan LeCompte as a great master for years to come.
Rowan LeCompte: Master of Stained Glass is a companion to Peter Swanson’s two films about Rowan. One of these films, Let There Be Light, documented LeCompte’s final commission for the Washington National Cathedral’s centennial celebration. The film won the Best of Festival award at Washington, D.C.’s Independent Film Festival.