This publication, accompanying the 17th Silver Triennial, presents the current world of international silversmithing and metal design. A rich repertoire of handcrafted everyday objects illustrates current worldwide approaches that have emerged over the last two years: from coffee and tea pots, via large and small bowls, to candlesticks, vases, salt and pepper casters, cutlery or small table accessories.

Every three years renowned designers and emerging young artists from the world of silversmithing participate in the competition. A top-class jury: Dr. Barbara Grotkamp-Schepers, Klingenmuseum Solingen (DE); David Huycke, metal artist and professor in Hasselt (BE); Rosemarie Jäger, Galerie im Kelterhaus Hochheim (DE) selects the best of the best.

The competition has been held since 1965 to promote international contemporary silversmithing. It is a joint project by the Gesellschaft für Goldschmiedekunst e.V. [Association for Goldsmiths Art] and the Deutsches Goldschmiedehaus Hanau [German Goldsmiths House], and is one of the most significant events of its kind world-wide.

Text in English & German.

In 2008 and 2013 the GRASSI Museum of Applied Arts in Leipzig presented two representative inventory publications under the title Vessel / Sculpture. German and International Ceramics since 1946, which attracted great interest from across the globe and were regarded as standard reference works. This third volume continues the series, against a backdrop of a renewed and extensive increase of modern studio ceramics in the museum’s collection. As in the previous publications, the objects in the book enter into aesthetic dialogues, thus facilitating interesting perspectives in the development of artistic ceramics up to the present day. In doing so it becomes clear how ceramic objects are developing from a servient-functional gesture into ever consistent autonomous artworks yet without necessarily losing the vessel theme. Its multitude of current artists’ biographies and illustrations of makers’ marks make this a highly recommendable reference work.

Contents: Contributions from selected artists: Felicity Aylieff, Thomas Bohle, Werner Bünck, Carmen Dionyse, Allesandro Gallo, Louise Hindsgavl, Beate Kuhn, Sonngard Marcks, Ken Mihara, Sarah Pschorn, Elke Sada, Carolein Smit, Julian Stair, Robert Sturm and Henk Wolvers.

Published to accompany an exhibition at GRASSI Museum of Applied Arts Leipzig (DE), 10 November 2018 – 13 October 2019.

Text in English and German

The representation of mysterious and fantastical figures, magical inscriptions and mythical beings that are half man and half beast are characteristic of the jewelry works and art objects created by Ulo Florack. With artistic mastery and an exuberant imagination, he tells stories using gold, silver, platinum and enamel. Ulo Florack is a multi-talented artist. It is almost impossible to categorize him. The question of whether he is more a painter or a jewelry artist cannot be answered definitively: both aspects cross-pollinate each other. His jewelry objects incorporate sculptural elements, whilst the choice and application of colors reveal the artist. His style is very distinctive and his objects use surprising ideological and intelligent imagery, which consciously hovers in the grey area between fantasy and reality.

Text in English & German.

Mari Ishikawa sees a parallel world off the beaten track of everyday living that she wants to make visible with her art. Such counter-worlds are discovered in photographs with long exposures, which are taken up in art jewelry. Together these pairings result in an overall picture that is almost mystical. Silver casts taken from nature are reborn as jewelry in combination with diamonds, pieces of charcoal, or paper. Thus Mari Ishikawa interrupts for a brief moment the flow of transience; a precious object is created that has been wrenched from the cycle of life and death to stand for itself and for the moment.

The nightclub is a place to let off steam, to relax after a hard day’s work. This compilation of projects illustrates the very best of contemporary club design. Accompanied by stunning color photography The Charming Night outlines the fantastic attention to detail employed by the designers. A marvellous visual design feast.

Materials+: Creative Products focuses on original design ideas. It features wall clocks made from old vinyl records, comic books used as plant pots, vases made from sticks of dynamite, waste baskets constructed from sheets of recycled newspaper, lampshades made from eggshells, ornaments made from matchsticks; the materials used to make many of the products are not typically associated with the product, resulting in exceptionally creative designs. This innovative book offers access to many unique designs and is an excellent source of inspiration.

The Urban Mining and Recycling (UMAR) Experimental Unit, located on the campus of the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, was designed by Werner Sobek with Dirk E. Hebel and Felix Heisel. All the elements required to construct the unit had to be 100% reusable, recyclable or compostable. Of central importance is the idea that instead of using and subsequently disposing of resources, they can be borrowed from their technical and biological cycles for a certain amount of time before being put back into circulation once again. This project demonstrates how a responsible approach to dealing with natural resources can be applied to creating appealing and sustainable buildings, and places life-cycle thinking at the forefront of design.

Contents: Construction, Facade, Interiors, Fixtures and Fitings, Product Design and Sustainabilty, Planning Process,

Text in English and German.

Philippe Van Cauteren, director of the Municipal Museum of Contemporary Art (S.M.A.K.) in Ghent, has for many years written letters to artists all over the world. He directs his thoughts in a very personal manner to artists who inspire him. Van Cauteren’s letters are written in a straightforward and accessible way; at times, they even verge on poetic. They offer an insight into how a curator experiences and interprets art, and also provide a clear and succinct introduction to the work of each artist to whom he writes. This richly illustrated book contains more than 100 letters. In an introductory manifesto – a final letter to Jan Hoet, his predecessor and the founder of S.M.A.K. – Van Cauteren also describes the ‘ideal museum of the future’. This book is a reflection of the contemporary cultural arena, the roles of a museum, and the way in which diverse parties can collaborate constructively. It features letters to, amongst others, Michaël Borremans, Berlinde De Bruyckere, Jan Fabre, Adrian Ghenie, Jan Hoet, Mark Manders, Thomas Ruff, Pascale Marthine Tayou, Ed Templeton, Rinus Van de Velde and Vincent van Gogh. Contents: Almost 100 letters to artists.

“Sumptuous, extra-large coffee-table book with readily understandable texts.” Bild der Wissenschaft
“For those who could never be on site, photographer Peter Ginter provides an impressive and aesthetic look into the World Machine.” Physik Journal
The Large Hadron Collider is the largest particle accelerator in the world, a 27-kilometer ring of superconducting magnets in a tunnel 100 m beneath the Franco-Swiss border at the CERN research laboratory. It was built to answer the most fundamental question of our universe: where do we come from? Peter Ginter, one of the world’s leading photographers, acclaimed author Franzobel and Rolf-Dieter Heuer, Director General of CERN, tackle the subject of this largest and most complex machine ever imagined by man, the ‘World Machine’, a huge underground particle physics experiment, which will offer science insights into the beginnings of our universe. Unique and amazing photographs make the invisible visible. Peter Ginter has documented the making of the LHC over more than 15 years, not only at CERN, but also by visiting locations across the world where significant contributions have been made to the construction of the LHC. The book was published in scientific, editorial and artistic collaboration with CERN and UNESCO. Text in English, German & French.

The idea for this book was born in the course of a stroll through the Louvre, when Catherine Belanger ventured to call the Louvre ‘the biggest brothel in the world’. Key works illustrate the artistic approach and the representation of the nude in the Western world from the 7th century BC to 1897. Lois Lammerhuber detaches the nudity, sensuality and sexuality of the sculptures from the context of their artistic intention, conceiving them as ‘material’ in a fictional photography studio and recreating them in his photographs. He resorts to these ‘models’ to translate them into the language of fashion, nude and advertising photography – sensual and unexpected. The images are accompanied by Jean Galard’s reflections on this approach from an art-historical and philosophical angle. In its design the book is reminiscent of bronze and refers to the haptic character of sculpture. Text in English & French. Also available: The Louvre Nude Paintings ISBN: 9783901753091

“Fascinating details of the original pictures and a social history of footwear fashion” VOGUE
In acclaimed photographer Lois Lammerhuber’s pictures, shod feet in the Louvre paintings reveal undreamt-of information about people. The details are not only separate works of art, but also studies on centuries of shoe fashion and an excursion into social history. Almost intimate, the photographs raise the world of feet and footwear to eye level, showing delicate shoes and stout limbs; feet without shoes and shoes without feet. The viewing angle is a special one, not only for art enthusiasts but also for shoe lovers. Raphael, Goya, or Ingres did not produce or design footwear, but they all ‘recorded’ shoes, contributing to a history of footwear and at the same time creating fashion archives of shoes that people stepped out in between 1280 and 1863. In a brilliant discourse, Margo Glantz, an icon of Mexican literary studies, introduces the viewer to original thoughts on painting and footwear design, the history and sociology of shoes. Text in English, German, French & Spanish.

“Most sessions are shockingly harmless. What the people whose stories are shown in my pictures have in common is a meaningful quest for elementary human needs, such as freedom, warmth and comfort, maybe even happiness,” Florian Müller recounts. He photographs fetishists; people who dress up as dogs or let themselves be bound and hung from the ceiling. It is their way of relaxing and achieving fulfilment. At first sight what you see is masquerade, Kafkaesque scenes, danses macabres, transformations into animals, into slaves, into a shrink-wrapped maggot. Behind the masquerade lurks stories of people and their needs. Of desires, wounds and dreams and the pictures tell us these stories. Florian Müller worked on fetishism in Germany for several years. Sometimes it took weeks before the people trusted him and let him in on their sessions. He did not abuse their trust. His pictures are not revolting, but close, almost tender. Contents: “It’s the most intimate embrace that you can imagine”; “What is Jesus to think of you sick people?”; “I do not inflict pain for the sake of it. But to spank someone who really likes it, that’s amazingly liberating.”; “Someone lies in a hammock and imagines he is on Hawaii. One of my guests sits in an iron cage and imagines he is a pig. That happens to be his dream, his film. Like Hawaii, just different, you see?”; “From head to toe in rubber, what can be finer?”; “Lisa is how I have always imagined my dream woman. Long, black hair, large breasts. At some point I realized that I would never get this woman. Then I constructed her myself.”; “I tried not to think of latex. It was torture.”; “I love dressing up as a dog. And Max loves me.”; “As a horse I take a vacation from my own personality.” Text in English and German.

‘Keep Portland Weird’ is just the tip of this delightfully bizarre city’s iceberg. Though the City of Roses has experienced its fair share of changes in recent years, the spirit of ‘Old Portland’ lives in the shadow of gourmet donut shops and farm-to-table restaurants, and that’s where the real adventure begins. Summon spirits at a haunted pizzeria. Let it all hang out at a nude beach on the Columbia River. Get your kicks at the world’s only vegan strip club, and visit the world’s smallest park (blink and you might miss it).

Throughout these pages, you’ll learn about Portland’s (at times sordid) past; relive the pioneers’ grueling trek to Oregon; discover the strangest museums you’ve ever heard of, and get the scoop on the restaurants, bars, and coffee shops that don’t come with an hour-long wait. Whether you’re a frequent visitor or first timer; recent transplant or Portland native, you will discover 111 hidden places that prove Portland is weirder than you could have ever imagined.

Kulango Figurines is designed to introduce various miniature works created by the Kulango in northeastern Côte d’Ivoire, who were formerly vassals of the two kingdoms that inhabited the country (Bouna and Gyaman). Their extraordinarily varied art, which can be both intriguing and disconcerting, is relatively unknown. Their metal sculptures in particular display a strikingly free expressiveness, breaking as they do with the iconographic codes that govern their works in wood. Doing away with immobile remoteness, bodies seem to reinvent movement, sometimes adopting almost choreographic gestures, an airy grace, sinuous lines. Or, in trembling tension, some display unexpected twists and provocative curves, while others stretch out impossibly or offer a chance for virtuoso foreshortening and stylized bodies. Still others are even stranger, like Siamese twins, inseparable triplets, headless figures or figures with one head on two torsos, with one leg or four, webbed feet, outsize arms and hooped bodies. Who are these enigmatic beings whose bulging eyes peer at the invisible? Is the sculpture confined to just these specimens? The range of styles is simply astonishing, the forms beyond imagination. The collection includes over 100 figurines, none of which is over 10cm tall: pendants, amulets, fortune tellers’ statuettes or weights for gold. Introduced into our world through the metamorphosis of photography, transfigured by lighting and framing effects, these resurrected works have been revitalized, like apparitions from another world. Text in English and French.

Zen master Takuan Soho (1573 1645) was Abbot of the Daitokuji, the leading Rinzai Zen Temple in Kyoto, and was founder of the Tokaiji Temple in Edo. Living proof that ‘A master of Zen can be master of anything’, his teachings and practice influenced calligraphy, painting, poetry, martial arts, and the tea ceremony. He taught and inspired the Shogun Iemitsu, Yagyu Munenori, founder of one of Japan’s greatest schools of swordsmanship, and Miyamoto Musashi, author of The Book of Five Rings and Japan’s most famous swordsman and master of strategy. Immovable Wisdom includes an account of Takuan’s life and translations of his most important writings, as well as anecdotes encapsulating the essence of his wisdom, which are as relevant today as in his own turbulent era. Master Takuan taught that, rooted in immovable wisdom, the trained mind becomes unfettered; undistracted by the irrelevant, one’s response to the unexpected is always instantaneous and correct. Nobuko Hirose is a translator, writer, and co-author of Japanese Art Signatures, the standard reference on the subject. After graduating from Meiji University in Tokyo she obtained a Master’s degree in Japanese Art History at SOAS, University of London, and settled in England. Her translation skills and lineal descent from a traditional Japanese Zen family make her uniquely qualified to present the wisdom of Takuan Soho to a broader Western audience.

Founded probably in the 5th or 6th century, the Cathedral of Genoa was later rebuilt in Romanesque style and devoted to St. Lawrence the martyr. Money came from the successful enterprises of the Genoese fleets in the Crusades. After a fire in 1296, the building was partly restored, the inner colonnades rebuilt and matronei and frescoes added. In 1550 the Perugian architect Galeazzo Alessi was commissioned by the city magistrates to plan the reconstruction of the entire building, but the construction of the cathedral didn’t finish until the 17th century.

Among the artworks inside the church are ceiling frescoes, paintings and altarpieces by Luca Cambiaso, Federico Barocci, Lazzaro Tavarone and Gaetano Previati, while sculpture include works by Domenico Gagini, Andrea Sansovino, Giacomo and Guglielmo Della Porta. Impressive are also the works of art and silverware kept in the Museum of the Treasury which lies under the cathedral. One of the most important pieces is the Sacred bowl brought by Guglielmo Embriaco after the conquest of Cesarea and supposed to be the chalice used by Christ during the Last Supper.

Contributors include: Gianluca Ameri, Beatrice Astrua, Michele Bacci, Piero Boccardo, Antonella Capitanio, Marco Ciatti, Marco Collareta, Anna De Floriani, Clario Di Fabio, Grazia Di Natale, Gabriele Donati, Lucia Faedo, Marco Folin, Maria Flora Giubilei, Henrike Haug, Karin Kranhold, Anna Rosa Calderoni Masetti, Roberto Paolo Novello, Linda Pisani, Stefano Riccioni, Giorgio Rossini, Philippe Sénéchal, Carlo Tosco, Gerhard Wolf, Photographs by Ghigo Roli.

Text in English and Italian.

This history marks the tercentenary of Jacques de Gastigny’s founding bequest for La Providence, the French hospital for the Huguenot community in England. Its survival and continuing existence today bears witness to the tenacity of the community of Huguenot refugees and their descendants. Chapters on the successive phases of its history are illustrated with portraits of the Directors and Officers, and the silver, furniture, engravings, heraldry and other memorabilia associated with them. The book traces the history of this institution from the building of the original hospital in the parish of St. Luke’s, Finsbury, and the granting of the Royal Charter by George I in 1718, to the construction of a new building in Victoria Park, Hackney, in the 1860s designed by Robert Roumieu, an architect of Huguenot descent. In its present location in Rochester, Kent, La Providence provides sheltered housing for elderly people of proven Huguenot descent. For more information please visit: http://www.johnadamsonbooks.com/frenchhospital.html

The partnership of Philip Rundell and John Bridge began in London toward the end of the eighteenth century and went on to become the greatest firm of goldsmiths, jewelers and medalists of the age. Its stable of distinguished artists, headed by the sculptor John Flaxman, was the driving force in the adoption of a new imperial style in English silver. Later, the firm created jewelry and silver in the historicist and naturalistic styles and was at the forefront of the Gothic revival. Among the firm’s customers were the Prince Regent, later King George IV, and such notable figures as William Beckford, Thomas Hope, Lord Castlereagh, Prince Lieven and the Duke of Wellington.

Known as ‘Oil’ and ‘Vinegar’, Rundell and Bridge were of wildly contrasting personalities. While Philip Rundell was an irascible taskmaster deemed to be the best judge of gemstones in London, the urbane John Bridge, described by a contemporary as the ‘complete courtier’, was the public face of the firm. He guided the Prince Regent in assembling a magnificent collection of gold and silver works, both antique and new, which today forms part of the Royal Collection.

New York has a history of immigration that results in one of the most dynamic street food scenes in the world. Those who believe food in New York should cost a pretty penny and can only be found in beautifully styled restaurants probably haven’t been further than downtown Manhattan. This book takes you to the far-flung culinary corners of the five boroughs. From sensory-rousing South American snacks in Jackson Heights to homemade noodle dishes in Brooklyn, and from gourmet food trucks in Midtown Manhattan to simple food stalls in Red Hook. New York Street Food introduces you to a culinary New York in all its facets. Culinary adventurer Tom Vandenberghe and food photographer Luk Thys will seduce you once more. With the help of Jacqueline Goossens, who has lived in New York for more than thirty years, they give you fifty recipes from the most delightful venues of the New York street food scene. Also available: Bangkok Street Food ISBN: 9789020987836 Hanoi Street Food ISBN: 9789020997842 Singapore & Penang Street Food ISBN: 9789401403672

The diversity of flavors and colors of rum is as rich as the history and culture that surrounds this alcoholic beverage. This guide provides an overview of more than 300 different types of rum and then categorizes them using an innovative taste model. For every rum, you receive a clear overview of its origins, taste and aroma. In addition, you can read all about the different types of rum, the production and maturing process, the perfect way to serve, and the best cocktails. Also available: Gin & Tonic ISBN 9789401425605 Tequila & Mezcal ISBN 9789401434645