Non-fiction

100 Years of Swiss Graphic Design takes a fresh look at Swiss typography and photo-graphics, posters, corporate image design, book design, journalism and typefaces over the past hundred years. With illuminating essays by prominent experts in the field and captivating illustrations, this book, designed by the Zurich studio NORM, presents the diversity of contemporary visual design while also tracing the fine lines of tradition that connect the work of different periods. The changes in generati...

Through 140 drawings, thought experiments, recipes, activist instructions, gardening ideas, insurgences and personal revolutions, artists who spend their lives thinking outside the box guide you to a new worldview; where you and the planet are one. Everything here is new. We invite you to rip out pages, to hang them up at home, to draw and scribble, to cook, to meditate, to take the book to your nearest green space. Featuring Olafur Eliasson, Etel Adnan, Alexis Pauline Gumbs, Jane Fonda &...

From scrolls and sheets of papyrus to elaborate and expensive codices to the mass press-printed volumes as we know them today, books have come a long way since writing was first developed. Although digital technology has impacted how we consume information over the last few decades, book design has survived as a means of showcasing creativity and craftsmanship, as books remain important sources of inspiration, knowledge, and entertainment. A Book on Books showcases some of the best book desig...

The allure of colour is undeniable, but its wholesale use in product design is a relatively recent development. Perhaps more than any other object, the Eames Chairs of the 1950s symbolise the cultural intersection of design, technology and colour that continues to influence designers to this day. Suddenly, post WWII, pigment-imbued moulded fibreglass allowed buyers to express their individuality through coloured seating, forever changing the way we think about furniture. From the pale blue An...

This book is a print on demand title. Orders of this title are expected to be fulfilled within 4 to 6 weeks upon purchase. Click here to find out more about when your print on demand title will ship. A Cultural History of Color presents a history of 5000 years of color in western culture. The first systematic and comprehensive history, the work examines how color has been perceived, developed, produced and traded, and how it has been used in all aspects of performance - from the political to ...

A History of Japanese Art offers readers a comprehensive view of Japanese art through Japanese eyes—a view that is the most revealing of all perspectives. At the same time, it provides readers with a guide to the places in Japan where the best and most representative creations of Japanese art are to be seen.Paperback: 480 pagesProduct Dimensions: 129 x 198 mmISBN: 9784805310311Published by Tuttle Publishing

Informed and energized by a lifetime of painting, drawing and making images with cameras, David Hockney, in collaboration with the art critic Martin Gayford, explores how and why pictures have been made across the millennia. What makes marks on a flat surface interesting? How do you show movement in a still picture, and how, conversely, do films and television connect with old masters? Juxtaposing a rich variety of images - a still from a Disney cartoon with a Japanese woodblock print by Hiro...

A History of Pictures for Children takes readers on a journey through art history, from early art drawn on cave walls to the images we make today on our computers and phone cameras. Based on the bestselling book for adults, this children's edition of A History of Pictures is told through conversations between the artist David Hockney and the author Martin Gayford, who talk about art with inspiring simplicity and clarity. Rose Blake's illustrations illuminate the narratives of both authors to ...

In this collection of essays on the work of, and conversations with, John Berger, thirty-seven of his friends, artistic collaborators and followers come together to form the first truly international and cross-cultural celebration of his interventions. Berger has for decades, through his poetic humanism, brought together geographically, historically and socially disparate subjects. His work continues to throw out lifelines across genres, times and types of experience, opening up radical quest...

Award-winning poet and playwright Alfian Sa'at calls for greater support for the arts in our city-state.Paperback: 48 PagesProduct Dimensions: 120 x 175 mmISBN: 9789814845007Published by Epigram Books

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Cat is a book of more than 20 influential artists reimagined as artistic felines. From Frida Catlo to Yayoi Catsama, Wassily Catdinski to Henri Catisse, each portrait of the artist as a young cat is accompanied by a clever tongue-in-cheek biography revealing the thrilling feline lives (all nine) behind their famed artwork. Loaded with clever cat puns, this playful romp through art history will twist the whiskers of any cat-loving creative, whether you're di...

In the last few decades, the world of contemporary art has become more globalized and visible than ever before. And yet this world has long been perceived as closed and obscure, provoking in the uninitiated a range of responses from reverence to bafflement and rage. Taking the reader on a cross-continental journey through a notional calendar year in the field of art, Matthew Israel lifts the veil on a world that emerges from his narrative as diverse, adventurous, nuanced and meaningful to all...

After Andy is Natasha Fraser-Cavassoni’s insider's account of working in Andy Warhol’s studio and Interview magazine, and explores Warhol’s impact on the art world, pop culture, society, and fashion—and how his iconic status gave rise to some of our most influential tastemakers today. Natasha Fraser-Cavassoni met Andy Warhol when she was sixteen, and then on and off over the years before landing in New York City at the Andy Warhol Studio, or as she calls it, “Adventures in Warhol Land.” In th...

A must for letterpress enthusiasts and graphic designers, this is a covetable showcase of Alan Kitching's fount collection. Each page has been carefully created by Alan Kitching in collaboration with Angus Hyland, making this book a work of typographic art in its own right. Presented as an A to Z, the individual letters are divided by full alphabets, giving the reader access to a large range of founts to reference in their own work. Hardback: 272 PagesProduct Dimensions: 152 x 196 mmISBN: 978...

Eric Gill's opinionated manifesto on typography argues that 'a good piece of lettering is as beautiful a thing to see as any sculpture or painted picture'. This essay explores the place of typography in culture and is also a moral treatise celebrating the role of craftsmanship in an industrial age. Gill, a sculptor, engraver, printmaker and creator of many classic typefaces that can be seen around us today, fused art, history and polemic in a visionary work which has been hugely influential o...

From the thirty-two canvas Campbell's Soup Cans to the Marilyn Diptych, Andy Warhol's silk-screen prints are the epitome of Pop Art: witty, gimmicky and unafraid of repetition. Obsessed with consumerism and the cult of celebrity, Warhol exalted the "surface of things" - and yet he was a man of deep complexity. In Andy, Typex captures the remarkable life of the king of Pop Art, from his working-class upbringing in Pittsburgh to the dizzying heights of his celebrity. Spanning a period that bega...

The question Are We Human? is both urgent and ancient. Beatriz Colomina and Mark Wigley offer a multilayered exploration of the intimate relationship between human and design and rethink the philosophy of design in a multi-dimensional exploration from the very first tools and ornaments to the constant buzz of social media. The average day involves the experience of thousands of layers of design that reach to outside space but also reach deep into our bodies and brains. Even the planet itself ...

Showcasing all their work from Universe and New World Series, Around The World Across The Universe chronologically displays Phunk‘s evolution as a design collective that continually improves. The 173-page collection of pop culture, art and design also features the collective’s multicultural roots.Hardback: 173 PagesProduct Dimensions: 233 x 292 mmPublished by Art Seasons

Artistic labour was exemplary for Utopian Socialist theories of 'attractive labour', and Marxist theories of 'nonalienated labour', but the rise of the anti-work movement and current theories of 'fully automated luxury communism' have seen art topple from its privileged place within the left's political imaginary as the artist has been reconceived as a prototype of the precarious 24/7 worker. Art and Postcapitalism argues that art remains essential for thinking about the intersection of labou...

Based on John Dewey’s lectures on esthetics, delivered as the first William James Lecturer at Harvard in 1932, Art as Experience has grown to be considered internationally as the most distinguished work ever written by an American on the formal structure and characteristic effects of all the arts: architecture, sculpture, painting, music, and literature.Paperback: 370 PagesProduct Dimensions: 129 x 198 mmISBN: 9780399531972Published by Perigee Books

This passionate, thought-provoking, often funny, and always-accessible book proposes a new way of looking at art, suggesting that it can be useful, relevant, and therapeutic. Through practical examples, the world-renowned authors argue that certain great works of art have clues as to how to manage the tensions and confusions of modern life. Chapters on love, nature, money, and politics show how art can help with many common difficulties, from forging good relationships to coming to terms with...

Rosa Bonheur was the very antithesis of the feminine ideal of 19th-century society. She was educated, she shunned traditional 'womanly' pursuits, she rejected marriage - and she wore trousers. But the society whose rules she spurned accepted her as one of their own, because of her genius for painting animals. She shared an intimate relationship with the eccentric, self-styled inventor Nathalie Micas, who nurtured the artist like a wife. Together Rosa, Nathalie and Nathalie's mother bought a c...

Illustrated by Chris Riddell Drawn from Gaiman's trove of published speeches, poems, and creative manifestos, Art Matters is an embodiment of this remarkable multi-media artist's vision--an exploration of how reading, imagining, and creating can transform the world and our lives. Art Matters bring together four of Gaiman's most beloved writings on creativity and artistry: "Credo," his remarkably concise and relevant manifesto on free expression, first delivered in the wake of the Charlie Hebd...

There is a distinct lack of art therapy literature on working with adults with autism spectrum disorders, and this book combats this dearth by looking at the theory and practice of working with this client group. With clinical case examples throughout, it provides ideas for practice and interventions for use in institutional and community settings. There is a useful focus on directives to help with specific concerns, for example college and job readiness, social skills, and adapting to indepe...

We're all familiar with the works of Claude Monet, thanks in no small part to the ubiquitous reproductions of his water lilies on umbrellas, handbags, scarves, and dorm-room posters. But did you also know that Monet and his cohort were trailblazing rebels whose works were originally deemed unbelievably ugly and vulgar? And while you probably know the tale of Vincent van Gogh's suicide, you may not be aware that there's pretty compelling evidence that the artist didn't die by his own hand but ...

Cats, cats, and more cats! Expressive or aloof, affectionate or enigmatic, cats have complicated characters that make them compelling artists' muses. Artful Cats explores the quirky and charming relationships of artists with their cats in 130 rarely seen photos, paintings, sketches, manuscripts, and letters from the Archives of American Art. Jasper Johns, Frank Stella, Louise Nevelson, Marcel Breuer, Yves Tanguy, Georgia O'Keeffe, Edward Weston, Robert Indiana, Judy Chicago, Berenice Abbott, ...

Artists and the Rothko Chapel celebrates the legacy of the Rothko Chapel in Houston and globally since its founding in 1971. It features recent work by four contemporary artists who have drawn inspiration from the Chapel--Sam Gilliam, Sheila Hicks, Shirazeh Houshiary, and Byron Kim--and illustrates the 1975 exhibition Marden, Novros, Rothko: Painting in the Age of Actuality shown at Rice University. The volume includes interviews with Brice Marden and David Novros, statements from the artists...

Illustrated by Kate Lewis This charmingly illustrated book invites readers to peer behind the closed doors of 17 legendary and contemporary artists' homes. Peek inside Georgia O'Keeffe's adobe courtyards. Stroll through Henri Matisse's vibrant aviary. Peruse Jean-Michel Basquiat's collection of over 1,000 videotapes. This book invites you inside some of the most creative and inspiring homes of all time. For the 17 artists profiled here, a house or an apartment is not simply a place to eat and...

This an essential tool kit for understanding the world around us. It's about our obsession with collecting, the quest for authenticity and the creation of national identities. It's about Hitchcock's film sets and why we value imperfection. It's about fashion and technology, about politics and art.Paperback: 480 PagesProduct Dimensions: 180 x 111 mmISBN: 9780718199517Published by Penguin Books

One of the most important artists of the late twentieth century, Jean-Michel Basquiat explored the interplay of words and images throughout his career as a celebrated painter with an instantly recognizable style. In his paintings, notebooks, and interviews, he showed himself to be a powerful and creative writer and speaker as well as image-maker. Basquiat-isms is a collection of essential quotations from this godfather of urban culture. In these brief, compelling, and memorable selections, ta...

Cool, talented and transgressive, Jean-Michel Basquiat's life is just as fascinating as the work he produced. Delve into 1980s New York as this vivid graphic novel takes you on Basquiat's journey from street-art legend SAMO to international art-scene darling, up until his sudden death. Told through cinematic scenes, this is Basquiat as seen through the eyes of those who knew him, including his father, Suzanne Mallouk, Larry Gagosian and, most importantly, the man himself. Basquiat is a moving...

'Art is theft,' Picasso once proclaimed, and much of the best and most 'original' new art involves an act or two of unequivocal, overt theft. Paradoxically, the law relating to artistic borrowing has grown more restrictive. 'The plagiarism and copyright trials of the twenty-first century are what the obscenity trials were to the twentieth century', Kenneth Goldsmith, has observed. 'These are really the issues of our time.' Beg, Steal and Borrow offers a comprehensive and provocative survey of...

Few could explain, let alone seek out, a career in criticism. Yet what A. O. Scott shows in Better Living Through Criticism is that we are, in fact, all critics: because critical thinking informs almost every aspect of artistic creation, of civil action, of interpersonal life. With penetrating insight and warm humor, Scott shows that while individual critics--himself included--can make mistakes and find flaws where they shouldn't, criticism as a discipline is one of the noblest, most creative...

In Beyond Wilderness, photographer Chua Chye Teck explores the fast disappearing natural wilderness in Singapore through a series of black and white photographs. Using the forest structure to express the idea of emotional layers, his photographs are a reflection on memory and transformation, and present the dualities of isolation and the unknown. Beyond Wilderness charts the artistic and spiritual journeys of the photographer, and is as much one man’s personal encounter with nature as it is a...

Book Cover Design from East Asia is a compendium of more than 100 book covers from China, Japan, Korea and Taiwan. The book features the work of Wang Zhi-Hong, Nakano Design Office, The Simple Society, UMA/design farm, Hayashi Takuma Design Office and many, many more.Paperback: 112 PagesProduct Dimensions: 115 x 150 mmISBN: 9780957081697Published by Counter-Print

Breakfast at Sotheby's is a wry, intimate, truly revealing exploration of how art acquires its financial value, from Philip Hook, a senior director at Sotheby's. 'How to nail the mad, bad, crazy contemporary art world in print? Sotheby's senior director Hook draws on 35 years' experience in this informal memoir. He unravels, with humour, piquancy and erudition, what drives the economics of taste' - Financial Times 'His delightful Breakfast at Sotheby's is a house sale of a book, a chance for ...

American artist Brice Marden (b.1938) has had a profound impact on painting today. While there has been a sea change in art movements, Marden has unwaveringly adhered to modernist principles of abstraction. From his early monochrome paintings to landscapes of China or the Greek island, Hydra, composed of vivid and calligraphic loops and webs, Marden’s deeply personal work incorporates multiple art historical and cultural inspirations. Hardback: 144 PagesProduct Dimensions: 172 x 245 mmISBN: 9...

The first biography of America's greatest twentieth-century sculptor, Alexander Calder: an authoritative and revelatory achievement, based on a wealth of letters and papers never before available, and written by one of our most renowned art critics. Alexander Calder is one of the most beloved and widely admired artists of the twentieth century. Anybody who has ever set foot in a museum knows him as the inventor of the mobile, America's unique contribution to modern art. But only now, forty ye...

translated by Richard Howard Barthes shares his passionate, in-depth knowledge and understanding of photography. Examining the themes of presence and absence, the relationship between photography and theatre, history and death, these 'reflections on photography' begin as an investigation into the nature of photographs. Then, as Barthes contemplates a photograph of his mother as a child, the book becomes an exposition of his own mind.Paperback: 144 PagesProduct Dimensions: 129 x 198 mmISBN: 97...

Illustrated by Selçuk Demirel What happens when cataracts rob an art critic of his sight? John Berger, whose classic book Ways of Seeing has been in print for nearly forty years, joins forces with Turkish illustrator Selçuk Demirel to reflect on his own experience of loss of vision. Hardback: 96 PagesProduct Dimensions: 120 x 190 mmISBN: 9781907903328 Published by Notting Hill Editions

Arguably the most famous perfume in the world – most memorably endorsed by Marilyn Monroe – Chanel N°5 continues to fascinate and claims millions of devotees around the world. Created in 1921 by Coco Chanel, the perfume was one of the first to use synthetics. To complement her pioneering fashion, Chanel wanted to give the modern woman ‘a perfume, but an artificial perfume...not rose or lily of the valley...a perfume that is compound’, presented in a distinctively pared-back glass bottle that ...

Proposed in 1895 by Proust to the newspaper Revue hebdomadaire (it was rejected), this essay is much more than a straightforward piece of art criticism. It is a literary experiment in which an unnamed narrator gives advice to a young man suffering from melancholy, taking him on an imaginary tour through the Louvre where his readings of Chardin imbue the everyday world with new meaning, and his ruminations on Rembrandt take his melancholic pupil beyond the realm of mere objects. Published for ...

Chinese Art: A Guide to Motifs and Visual Imagery includes detailed commentary and historical background information for the images that continuously reappear in the arts of China, including specific plants and animals, divine beings, mortals and inanimate objects. The book thoroughly illuminates the origins, common usages and diverse applications of popular Chinese symbols in a tone that is both engaging and authoritative. Chinese Art: A Guide to Motifs and Visual Imagery is an essential ref...

A poetic, passionate and intensely personal exploration of colour written during the final year of Derek Jarman's life -- with a new introduction by Ali Smith. In Chroma, his most poetic and lyrical book, Derek Jarman explores the uses of colour. Shifting across the spectrum and from the medieval to the modern, he draws on the work of great colour theorists from Pliny to Leonardo. Interwoven with these musings are evocative memories from Jarman's childhood and illustrious career, along with r...

Florence, Italy is the birthplace of the Renaissance.  Its art, architectural heritage, culture and politics still has an influence in today’s world; and is rated as one of the most beautiful cities on the planet. Resident artist Alvin Mark Tan documents everyday life in the city from Giotto’s Bell Tower to the best gelateria. 96 pages of Firenze filled with ink, watercolour and gouache.Paperback: 96 PagesProduct Dimensions: 151 x 220 mmISBN: 9789810934538Published by Alvin Mark Tan

There are few pieces of pottery more recognisable than those designed by Clarice Cliff. For many the epitome of Art Deco, characterised by bold colour and lines, geometric shapes, and stylised representations of the countryside, Clarice Cliff's 'bizarre' pottery is collected all over the world. Using a wealth of colour illustrations, Will Farmer traces the story of Clarice Cliff and the pottery that she created. Employed in The Potteries from the age of thirteen, Clarice was talented and reso...

What makes a colour work? What do colours mean to artists or cultures? Why does grey make a colour stand out? What colour are the oceans? Why is the yellow of lemons something to treasure? Award-winning illustrator Marion Deuchars takes us on a journey through colour, showing how its language is at the centre of how we think and feel about the world. Colour is everywhere. Through this book, we can see it afresh. Hardback: 176 PagesProduct Dimensions: 215 x 290 mmISBN: 9780141983356 Published ...

PHUNK is a contemporary art and design collective based in Singapore. Founded in 1994 by Alvin Tan, Melvin Chee, Jackson Tan and William Chan when they were students at Lasalle College of the Arts, they developed a novel approach to collective art-making based on the collaborative aesthetic of a rock-and-roll band and informed by a shared interest in urban subcultures. They have exhibited widely and collaborated with artists, designers and international brands, producing work across a broad r...