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City, Civility and Capitalism

What role does architecture and trade play in creating civilized societies? How can we create urban environments where the individual can flourish? These questions have taken on a new significance as COVID-19 has reshaped the way cities operate. This collection of essays examines the history of urbanism and trade in order to shed perspective on the future of the city. Nine contributors discuss how architecture, urban planning and trade have contributed to civility and political order. The authors cover historical topics from Florentine frescos and churches to ideas on citizenship and statehood from Rosseau, Hobbes and Machiavelli, as well as more contemporary issues such as the impact of global capital on the functioning of public space.

Contributors include: Yolande Barnes, Erica Benner, Anne Fairfax, Antony Molho, Kjell A. Nordström, Juliet Samuel, John Simpson, Nicholas Boys Smith and Maurizio Viroli.


Posted on December 2, 2021

Caribbean Art

A new, updated and expanded edition of this classic survey on the history of Caribbean art, featuring the work of over 100 artists from the period of colonialism to the present day.

Caribbean Art presents and discusses the diverse, fascinating and highly accomplished work of Caribbean artists, whether indigenous or from the diaspora, popular or ‘high’ culture, rural or urban based, politically radical or religious. This expanded edition has a new preface, and has been updated to reflect on recent challenges to the ideological premises and institutions of conventional art-historical practice and their connections to histories of colonialism, Eurocentricity and race. Two new chapters focus on public monuments linked to the history of the Caribbean, and the intersections between art and tourism, raising important questions about cultural representation.

Featuring the work of internationally recognized artists such as Sonia Boyce, Christopher Cozier, Wifredo Lam, Ana Mendieta, Ebony G. Patterson, Hervé Télémaque, and more than 100 others working across a variety of media, this new edition makes an important contribution to the understanding of Caribbean art and its context, in ways that invite and encourage further explorations on the subject.


Posted on December 1, 2021

Connectedness: an incomplete encyclopedia of anthropocene (2nd edition)

This timely book, in the form of an encyclopedia, considers the totality of issues surrounding the Anthropocene, that geologic era characterized by humanity’s vast impact on the Earth.

Connectedness acknowledges the incomplete nature of its project seeing as how this riotous era is not yet finished. With contributions by Greta Thunberg, Bill McKibben, Alice Waters, Tomás Saraceno, Björk and many others, this publication consists of approximately 100 entries, arranged alphabetically, each reflecting on questions, phenomena, terms, possibilities and theories associated with the Anthropocene. Examples of entries include Air, Borders and Coexistence, as well as more complex subjects such as Donna Haraway on the Chthulucene or Anders Blok on Climate Risk Communities. The content ranges from scientific to cultural-theoretical and artistic contributions featuring a wide span of scholars, philosophers, anthropologists, scientists, authors, artists and others. The book accompanies the exhibition at the Danish Pavilion at the 2020 Venice Architectural Biennale.


Posted on August 2, 2021

Do We Have To Work?

Work allows us to pay the bills. The practical and conceptual divide between work and leisure profoundly shapes our lives. Work is where many of us derive our status and our sense of purpose. Work is so much part of our lives and our culture that we have internalized beliefs about its value and have built our economies and lives around those beliefs. This book reviews how the meaning, status and structure of work have changed across history and cultures. Amidst the Covid-19 crisis, the growth of AI and the climate emergency, it questions the need for the ‘growth escalator’, in which society relies on continuous growth to flourish, and suggests that we should find ways to step off or at least slow down the ‘hedonic treadmill’, in which we crave ever more goods only to tire of them ever more quickly.

This book posits that we are approaching a new era of work. It outlines some of the factors that might lead to change, including the adoption of forms of universal basic income, the growth of the zero- or low-cost economy (renewable energy, user-generated content, community mutual support), and the growth of self-employment and quasi-autonomous ways of working (including from home) in organizations. It concludes that such changes might foster a more fundamental shift: a growing intolerance to the idea of work as a burden and a desire to transform it from something imposed on us into simply the means by which we live our best lives together, recreating in modern conditions with modern resources, a prehistoric unity between being and working.

With 190 illustrations in colour


Posted on July 14, 2021

A History of Music for Children

Following on from the success of the award-winning A History of Pictures for Children comes this introduction to the history of music that takes children on a musical journey around the world. Readers will meet along the way a diverse cast of composers, musicians and performers who all make music in different ways in a variety of different genres, from Bach to Billie Eilish, Mozart to Miriam Makeba.

Why do we make music? Which instruments make up a classical orchestra? How does music affect our brains and emotions? These are just some of the fascinating questions addressed in this book, which looks at music’s transnational and boundary-breaking qualities. All over the world and throughout time, music has been recorded and passed down through different oral traditions and forms of notation. It has always been a powerful catalyst for influencing change and connecting people. And what might the future of music hold? Exploring the technology we use to listen to and create music, the authors imagine new possibilities such as computer-generated compositions and robot musicians.

Includes an online playlist organized by chapter that children can listen to as they read.


Posted on May 3, 2021

Black Art

The African diaspora – a direct result of the transatlantic slave trade and Western colonialism – has generated a wide array of artistic achievements, from blues and reggae, to the paintings of the pioneering African American artist Henry Ossawa Tanner and video creations of contemporary hip-hop artists. This book concentrates on how these works, often created during times of major social upheaval and transformation, use black culture both as a subject and as context. From musings on “the souls of black folk” in late nineteenth-century art, to questions of racial and cultural identities in performance, media, and computer-assisted arts in the twenty-first century, this book examines the philosophical and social forces that have shaped a black presence in modern and contemporary visual culture.

Now updated, this new edition helps us understand better how the first two decades of the twenty-first century have been a transformative moment in which previous assumptions about race, difference, and identity have been irrevocably altered, with art providing a useful lens through which to think about these compelling issues.

With 218 illustrations in colour


Posted on May 3, 2021

How to Understand Art

The visual arts enrich our lives in many ways: bringing innovative ideas and the pleasures of beauty and emotion, but they can also confound. How To Understand Art sets out to enhance the viewer’s experience by breaking down the elements of art and sculpture to provide a firm basis for simple enjoyment as well as further investigation.

With 100 visual examples drawn from across the globe, the stress is on how to assess art objectively – a key skill for any art student, museum visitor or cultural enthusiast. Janetta Rebold Benton guides the reader to re-evaluate their experiences of looking at art by learning to move beyond ‘I don’t know much about art, but I know what I like,’ and shift towards an understanding of ‘why I like it’.

Materials and techniques are discussed – drawing, painting, printing, photography, sculpture and decorative art – making it possible to assess what can (and cannot) be done in certain media. The book also features a section devoted to six key artists who have had a particularly notable and innovative influence on the history of art: Leonardo da Vinci, Rembrandt van Rijn, Vincent van Gogh, Frida Kahlo, Pablo Picasso and Andy Warhol. Perfectly aimed at students and the general reader, this indispensable guide to the subject is well-placed to encourage questions and discussion, especially in the light of current debates surrounding class, ethnicity, gender and race.

With 111 illustrations in colour


Posted on May 3, 2021

Art in Detail

Great paintings cannot be fully understood in a single encounter; there is always more to be derived from them. Art lovers may revisit and reconsider the masterpieces throughout their lives, but a deeper understanding can only be gained by analysing the painting in detail, be it the placement of the subject, the lighting, the style of brushstrokes or the themes.

Art in Detail examines 100 iconic paintings from the Western canon and spotlights the finer points a quick glance will almost certainly fail to reveal. These include subtle internal details, such as hidden symbols and artistic tricks employed by the painter to achieve particular effects. In addition, Susie Hodge writes intelligently about external influences on the artist – everything from the socioeconomic context in which he or she flourished, to smaller local difficulties, such as the level of air pollution at the time the painting was created. And she treats each of her subjects not only, to quote Matthew Arnold, ‘as in itself it really is’, but also as part of a tradition that links the oldest painting to the most recent, as artists pass a metaphorical baton down through the ages.

With 700 illustrations


Posted on April 2, 2021

The Word is Art

There has been much scaremongering about the ‘death of the book’, and how, as words find new ways and means of transmission, young people might gradually begin to shun writing. In the digital age, text becomes information, and information strives to become free. But what value can text hold in the sphere of visual art? How is such text different from poetry? Can the poetic itself be visual art, or is text in this context consigned to the realms of gimmick and catchphrase?

Looking at the work of a broad range of artists including Bruce Nauman, Julien Breton, Jeremy Deller, Takashi Murakami, Tracey Emin, Christian Boltanski and many more, The Word is Art examines each of these questions, contending above all that in the digital and online age, words have become more important than ever. With the advent of texting and social media, many predicted the debasement of language, and some have pointed to evidence of this in our so-called ‘post-truth’ culture. Artist Michael Petry demonstrates that, on the contrary, words remain critical, powerful and central to art practice.

Digital communication has seen the word as text permeate life in ways that the poets and artists of yesterday could never have imagined. Presenting a brief history of word- and book-based art, and examining major areas where the word has dominated artistic practice, this book takes us on a fascinating and richly illustrated global tour of diverse contemporary art forms.

With 250 illustrations in colour


Posted on March 13, 2021

Women in Abstraction

With a few notable exceptions, the fundamental role that women played in the development of abstract art has long been underestimated, and their work has not received the same critical attention as that of their male counterparts. Now, at last, the tide is turning. The latest historiographical advances illustrated by numerous recent publications, monographs and thematic exhibitions make it possible to reassess the importance of the contribution of women artists to the different currents of abstraction, while at the same time questioning the patterns of the past.

Edited by Christine Macel, this catalogue and the exhibition it accompanies highlights the contributions of a hundred or so women artists to abstraction up to the 1980s, with a few unprecedented forays into the 19th century. By focusing on the careers of artists so often unjustly eclipsed, the book questions the established canons and offers an alternative history of abstraction, from the symbolist abstraction of Hilma Af Klint, to the sensual abstraction of Huguette Caland, to the purist non-objective approach of Verena Von Loewensberg. Essays by noted scholars explore the techniques, concerns and legacies of these women, shedding light on their unique experiences and offering keen new reflections on their work and the movement as a whole.

With 350 illustrations


Posted on February 26, 2021

After The Australian Ugliness

Robin Boyd’s The Australian Ugliness was published in 1960 and quickly took its place as a key work of architectural and cultural critique in the nation’s canon. This new book responds to Boyd’s most well-known text with new critical and creative writing by authors from a range of disciplines. Through different styles and approaches, each author makes Boyd’s work live in the contemporary moment, exploring enduring questions about the elusive, sometimes lucky and sometimes ugly character of Australia today.

Richly illustrated with new photography by David Wadelton and drawings by Oslo Davis, After The Australian Ugliness is a provocative reflection on how Australia sees itself today, and how others see it.


Posted on January 16, 2021

The Self-Portrait

Self-portraiture shows no sign of losing its ability to capture the public imagination. Given our current proclivity to snap and share ‘selfies’ in seconds, it is unsurprising to find a renewed interest in the genre among general audiences and students. Self-portraits have the power to illuminate a range of universal concerns, from identity, purpose and authenticity, to frailty, futility and mortality.

In this volume, curator Natalie Rudd expertly casts fresh light on the self-portrait and its international appeal, exploring the historical contexts within which self-portraits have proliferated and considering the meanings they hold today. With commentaries on works by artists ranging from Jan van Eyck and Artemisia Gentileschi to Francisco Goya, Pablo Picasso, Frida Kahlo and Jenny Saville, the book explores the emotive and expressive potential of self-portraiture, and its capacities to distance or to demystify. Can self-portraits offer windows into artistic process? Is there ever a singular identity to be captured? Is it necessary for a self-portrait to depict the human form? In her vibrant and timely discussion, Rudd dissects these and other important questions, revealing the shifting faces of individuality and selfhood in an age where we are interrogating notions of personal identity more than ever before.

With 97 illustrations in colour


Posted on November 26, 2020

Francis Bacon: Studies for a Portrait

Francis Bacon was one of most elusive and enigmatic creative geniuses of the twentieth century. However much his avowed aim was to simplify both himself and his art, he remained a deeply complex person. Bacon was keenly aware of this underlying contradiction, and whether talking or painting, strove consciously towards absolute clarity and simplicity, calling himself ‘simply complicated’.

Until now, this complexity has rarely come across in the large number of studies on Bacon’s life and work. Francis Bacon: Studies for a Portrait shows a variety of Bacon’s many facets, and questions the accepted views on an artist who was adept at defying categorization. The essays and interviews brought together here span more than half a century. Opening with an interview by the author in 1963, the year that he met Bacon, there are also essays written for exhibitions, memoirs and reflections on Bacon’s late work, some published here for the first time. Included are recorded conversations with Bacon in Paris that lasted long into the night, and an overall account of the artist’s sources and techniques in his extraordinary London studio.

This is an updated edition of Francis Bacon: Studies for a Portrait (2008), published for the first time in a paperback reading book format. It brings this fascinating artist into closer view, revealing the core of his talent: his skill for marrying extreme contradictions and translating them into immediately recognizable images, whose characteristic tension derives from a life lived constantly on the edge.

With 14 illustrations, 7 in colour


Posted on October 23, 2020

Why can’t horses burp?

Why do horses wear shoes? How do horses ‘speak’? And why can’t horses burp? Answering twenty curious questions about the equine species, this book is a charming blend of zoology, history and popular culture that celebrates why horses have been such beloved companions for centuries. Featuring a myriad of different horse breeds, readers will discover what’s so unique about a horse’s body and its behaviour, and why they deserve to be well cared for.


Posted on October 23, 2020

The Story of the Bayeux Tapestry

Political intrigue and treachery, heroism and brutal violence, victory and defeat – all this is depicted in the Bayeux Tapestry, an epic account of one of the pivotal episodes in English history embroidered on a strip of linen. Famously, it shows the stricken Anglo-Saxon king Harold dying on the battlefield of Hastings in 1066 amid a shower of arrows, as axes clash, spears fly and fallen warriors are trampled beneath charging hooves.

However, there is much more to this remarkable historical and artistic treasure, which tells its tale with an intensity and immediacy that speak to our modern world, almost 1,000 years after its creation. Many mysteries and questions still surround this unique embroidery and not all is as it might appear at first glance. Who made it, when, why, where and what for? David Musgrove and Michael Lewis skilfully lead us through the full story of the Tapestry and the history it relates, providing illuminating insight into a world of fascinating details that might otherwise be overlooked or their significance missed. They set the events in the context of the machinations on either side of the English Channel in the years leading up to the Norman Conquest, and tease out what the Tapestry tells us of the deeds of kings as well as aspects of everyday life in medieval Europe.

A complete and accessible up-to-date account, illustrated throughout in colour with new photography, this is the definitive guide to the Bayeux Tapestry and its legacy, exploring the rich narrative behind its stitches and the turbulent times in which it was created.

With 145 illustrations in colour


Posted on September 25, 2020

Standing with Stones

From stone circles and henges to long barrows and cairns, our distant ancestors left us tantalizing signs of their long-forgotten lives. From the tip of Cornwall to the far Scottish isles, a wonderful variety of ancient stone monuments present an enigmatic face to the world. Some sites, like Stonehenge and Newgrange, are often visited, whilst many, such as Fernworthy and Bleasedale are barely known at all.

Not only do we share Rupert Soskin’s experiences of visiting these magical places, but we also join him in his quest for answers to puzzling questions. What were such sites really for? Why did ancient people expend so much time and energy on creating these mysterious structures?


Posted on September 4, 2020

Take Me Home

“Long days inside getting everyone down? Children will see their home through fresh eyes with this clever journal. Go on five different adventures without even leaving the front door.” — Marianne Levy, “30 Best Children’s Books for Christmas 2020”, Independent

Take Me Home is the latest book in an exciting series of guided journals for young explorers. Crammed with facts, lively illustrations and inspiring activities, it’s perfect for spending creative time at home – just the thing for completing after school or on a rainy day.

With this book as your guide, you don’t even need to go out of your own front door to discover new things! Each chapter of Take Me Home is filled with activities that encourage children to explore the place where they live, jot down their ideas and draw what they see. As they complete lists, create pictures and answer questions they are prompted to look at their own home in new ways – observing its different spaces and the objects that fill it.

Fun, quirky and bursting with information about homes throughout history; architecture and design; the way things work; and the artists and writers who have been inspired by the idea of home, this book is a perfect gift for curious and creative children.

Take Me Home follows the popular format of Take Me To Museums, Take Me On Holiday, Take Me To School and Take Me Outdoors.


Posted on August 1, 2020

Hilma af Klint: The art of seeing the invisible

In this thorough critical appraisal, 20 specialists on modern art, art history, philosophy and religious studies examine the unique art, the cultural circumstances and art-historical positioning of Swedish abstractionist Hilma af Klint. Topics explored range from early abstract art and the impact of Darwinism to Goethe’s colour theory, as well as the importance of occult religious movements such as theosophy and anthroposophy that influenced the early modernists, and discussions of af Klint’s own personal diary notes and research.

The book is based on the seminars that were held in conjunction with the exhibition Hilma af Klint: A Pioneer of Abstraction in 2013. This extremely successful exhibition attracted a record number of visitors to the Moderna Museet in Stockholm, after which it continued to the Hamburger Bahnhof Museum in Berlin and the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Denmark.


Posted on August 1, 2020

Matisse: The Books

The livre d’artiste, or ‘artist’s book’, is among the most prized in rare book collections. Henri Matisse (1869-1954) was one of the greatest artists to work in this genre, creating his most important books over a period of eighteen years from 1932 to 1950 – a time of personal upheaval and physical suffering, as well as conflict and occupation for France. Brimming with powerful themes and imagery, these works are crucial to an understanding of Matisse’s oeuvre, yet much of their content has never been seen by a wider audience.

In Matisse: The Books, Louise Rogers Lalaurie reintroduces us to Matisse by considering how in each of eight limited-edition volumes, the artist constructs an intriguing dialogue between word and image. She also highlights the books’ profound significance for Matisse as the catalysts for the extraordinary ‘second life’ of his paper cut-outs. In concert with an eclectic selection of poetry, drama and, tantalizingly, Matisse’s own words, the books’ images offer an astonishing portrait of creative resistance and regeneration.

Matisse’s books contain some of the artist’s best-known graphic works – the magnificent, belligerent swan from the Poésies de Stéphane Mallarmé, or the vigorous linocut profile from Pasiphaé (1944), reversed in a single, rippling stroke out of a lake of velvety black. In Jazz, the cut-out silhouette of Icarus plummets through the azure, surrounded by yellow starbursts, his heart a mesmerizing dot of red. But while such individual images are well known, their place in an integrated sequence of pictures, decorations and words is not.

With deftness and sensitivity, Lalaurie explores the page-by-page interplay of the books, translating key sequences and discussing their distinct themes and creative genesis. Together Matisse’s artist books reveal his deep engagement with questions of beauty and truth; his faith; his perspectives on aging, loss, and inspiration; and his relationship to his critics, the French art establishment and the women in his life. In addition, Matisse: The Books illuminates the artist’s often misunderstood political affinities – in particular, his decision to live in the collaborationist Vichy zone, throughout World War II. Matisse’s wartime books are revealed as a body of work that stands as a deeply personal statement of resistance.


Posted on July 4, 2020

Does Monogamy Work?

Even with the current rise in awareness of sexual and intimate diversity, monogamous relationships remain the cultural norm. Most people aspire to it and the state encourages it, providing legal and financial benefits to married couples; however, statistics show adultery is commonplace, marriage rates are falling, and divorce figures are rising. Does Monogamy Work? – the twelfth book in The Big Idea series – traces the evolution and normalization of the monogamous ideal, questioning whether it is ‘natural’ or not, and surveying the spectrum of alternative relationship models that people are seeking out in a world of internet dating and scientific control over reproduction. It explores the emotional and psychological facets of ethical polyamorous relationships; questions whether these relationships benefit men disproportionately and whether they are compatible with raising children; and assesses the likelihood that diverse forms of multi-partner marriages and large friendship networks will become the norm in the future.

With over 150 colour images and incisive, engaging and authoritative text, this book examines society’s attachment to monogamy, evaluates its benefits and limitations, and asses the merits of polyamorous relationship models in our modern world.


Posted on May 14, 2020

Face to Face

Although we are now, more than ever before, bombarded with portraits in both social and traditional media, interest in the three-dimensional sculptural portrait has declined dramatically. What accounts for this trend, and what does it mean for our understanding of the portrait as a medium? Portraits have a visceral power of attraction. They arouse our curiosity, prompting us to wonder who the person is behind the face – and, by extension, to reflect on our own identity. But whereas portrait paintings and photographs are immediately arresting, and fascinating, sculptural portraits can seem harder to approach there is no background and few details to help orient the beholder. As a result, sculpted portraits may seem like a sea of unknown faces that one only takes fleeting note of in passing; irrelevant, immaterial, perhaps even boring. But that is not how it used to be.

Bertel Thorvaldsen (1770-1844) was one of Europe’s most popular portrait artists. Over the course of his lifetime, he created approximately 160 portraits, ranging from members of Europe’s royal houses to leading cultural figures to ordinary Danes. Thorvaldsen’s portraits thus make up the biggest single category of artworks in his oeuvre. In former times, such sculptural portraits were a common phenomenon. So what happened? Why did they go out of fashion? These are some of the questions that this book seeks to illuminate. The book contains essays and articles by 42 authors, amongst them Whitney Davis, Malcolm Baker, Grant Parker, Ulrich Pfisterer, Rolf Schneider, Peter Fibiger Bang, Tim Flohr Sørensen, and Jane Fejfer.


Posted on May 14, 2020

This Small Blue Dot

With a strong message of interconnectedness, hope and empowerment, This Small Blue Dot follows a little girl exploring the big and small things in life. From contemplating our place on this ‘blue dot’ to the best Italian, Chinese and Indian desserts, the book provides a broader, more inclusive view of who we are, where we come from and where our dreams may take us.

Delivering big lessons with playful humour, the precocious young narrator shares her take on nature and the environment, wisdom from elders, embracing difference, the power of imagination and broccoli. Through this character – loosely based on his eldest daughter, whose crayon drawings decorate the endpapers – Sworder channels the lessons he took from his Chinese grandmother and British father. ‘Because my daughters would not grow up hearing their voices I wanted to pass on some part of who they were and what they had taught me … In passing these lessons forward it was important to me to do so in the same spirit of generosity and fun that they gifted to me. There is a saying that you sail through life on a carpet woven from the love and wisdom of your ancestors. I benefited greatly from such a carpet and I made this book hoping that my daughters will as well.’

Richly illustrated with original pencil and crayon drawings that conjure up memories of childhood, This Small Blue Dot captures not only lessons on life but also the sense of fun and strangeness that comes with being a member of the human family on planet Earth.


Posted on March 30, 2020

Connectedness: an incomplete encyclopedia of anthropocene

This timely book, in the form of an encyclopedia, considers the totality of issues surrounding the Anthropocene, that geologic era characterized by humanity’s vast impact on the Earth.

Connectedness acknowledges the incomplete nature of its project seeing as how this riotous era is not yet finished. With contributions by Greta Thunberg, Bill McKibben, Alice Waters, Tomás Saraceno, Björk and many others, this publication consists of approximately 100 entries, arranged alphabetically, each reflecting on questions, phenomena, terms, possibilities and theories associated with the Anthropocene. Examples of entries include Air, Borders and Coexistence, as well as more complex subjects such as Donna Haraway on the Chthulucene or Anders Blok on Climate Risk Communities. The content ranges from scientific to cultural-theoretical and artistic contributions featuring a wide span of scholars, philosophers, anthropologists, scientists, authors, artists and others. The book accompanies the exhibition at the Danish Pavilion at the 2020 Venice Architectural Biennale.


Posted on March 25, 2020

Bigger Than History

Why does archaeology matter? How does studying prehistory help us understand climate change? How can archaeological discoveries challenge contemporary assumptions about gender? How has archaeology been used and misused to support political and nationalist agendas – and how can it help build a more diverse and inclusive picture of our world by examining the people left out of written history?

Brian Fagan and Nadia Durrani address these and other questions, exploring how archaeology’s long-term perspective offers unique views into the most challenging issues facing the world today. With examples from around the globe – including a female Viking burial in Sweden, controversies over the discovery of the Kingdom of Mapungubwe in Southern Africa, and newly discovered ancient farming techniques in South America – Bigger Than History explores how the search for the past continues to inform our understanding of the present.


Posted on February 26, 2020

Art + Science Now

In the 21st century, some of the most dynamic works of art are now being produced not in the studio but in the laboratory, where artists probe cultural, philosophical and social questions connected with cutting-edge scientific and technological research. Their work ranges across disciplines – microbiology, the physical sciences, information technologies, human biology and living systems, kinetics and robotics – taking in everything from eugenics and climate change to virtual reality and artificial intelligence.

Art + Science Now provides a dazzling overview of this new strand of contemporary art, showcasing the best international work produced since 2000. Featuring around 250 artists from the UK, Germany, France, the Netherlands, the US, Japan, Australia and elsewhere, it presents a broad range of fascinating projects, from body art to bioengineering, from music, dance and computer-controlled video performances to large-scale visual and sound installations, all of which challenge our assumptions about our relations with science, technology and the world around us.

Stephen Wilson, a leading authority in the field, neatly summarizes the latest scientific research for the lay reader, and supplements his text with a reading list and extensive online resources, highlighting the museums, festivals, research centres and educational programmes that support this new work.

Presenting a comprehensive guide to contemporary art inspired or driven by scientific and technological innovation, Art + Science Now points to intriguing new directions for the visual arts and traces a key strand in 21st-century aesthetics.


Posted on January 31, 2020

Take Me Outdoors

WINNER, Best Designed / Illustrated Book For Children — Junior Design Awards 2020 (Silver Medal)

“A book to make going outside an inspiring adventure. This little paperback does much more than it says on the tin. . . It really should make young people see and think differently about the natural world around them, and packs in a great deal of information and stimulation.” — Andrea Reece, LoveReading4Kids

Take Me Outdoors is the fourth book in an exciting series of guided journals for young explorers. With its smart design, lively illustrations and perfect size to carry around, it’s a fun, lively way to engage with the wild and natural world – whether in your own garden, a local park, or further afield.

This innovative, interactive book is divided into five ‘adventure’ chapters – one for each excursion. Each chapter is divided into themes that encourage children to explore their surroundings, record their thoughts and draw what they see. As they complete lists, create pictures and answer questions they are prompted to think carefully and look at their world – from the clouds in the sky to grass or stones on the ground – with fresh eyes. A final chapter allows them to compare their adventures, and there’s also a useful glossary so they can learn new words and ideas.

Fun, quirky and bursting with facts about birds, bugs and plants; the weather and the environment; expeditions and explorers; and the artists, writers and musicians who have been inspired by nature, this book is a must for children curious about the incredible world they live in. It’s both a great keepsake and a tool for sparking creative writing.


Posted on January 14, 2020

Africa State of Mind

Africa State of Mind gathers together the work of an emergent generation of photographers from across Africa, including both the Maghreb and sub-Saharan Africa. It is both a summation of new photographic practice from the last decade and an exploration of how contemporary photographers from the continent are exploring ideas of ‘Africanness’ to reveal Africa to be a psychological space as much as a physical territory – a state of mind as much as a geographical place.
Dispensing with the western colonial view of Africa in purely geographic or topographic terms, Ekow Eshun presents Africa State of Mind in four thematic parts: Hybrid Cities; Inner Landscapes; Zones of Freedom; and Myth and Memory. Each theme, introduced by a text by Eshun, presents selections of work by a new wave of African photographers who are looking both outward and inward: capturing life among the sprawling cities and multitudinous conurbations of the continent, turning the legacy of the continent’s history into the source of resonant new myths and dreamscapes and exploring questions of gender, sexuality and identity. Each of the photographers seeks to capture the experience of what it means, and how it feels, to live in Africa today.


Posted on December 17, 2019

Secrets of the Universe

How did our universe come to exist? Why do stars shine? Is there life beyond the Earth?

For millennia, humans have looked to the celestial sphere to explain the cosmos,first recording the movements of the Moon 25,000 years ago. Since the Enlightenmentand the dawn of the space age, scientists have been unravelling cosmic mysteries, andraising astonishing new questions for future generations to answer. Today we live inan age of unprecedented astronomical revelation, from the discovery of water on Marsto the detection of gravitational waves and the first photograph of a black hole.

World-renowned astronomer Paul Murdin explains the science behind these discoveries, along with the passions, strugglesand quirks of fate that made them some of the most intriguing dramas of their times,demonstrating how human ingenuity and technological innovation have expandedour knowledge of the Universe beyond anything our ancestors – even as recently asa generation ago – could ever have imagined.


Posted on December 17, 2019

The Big Book of Blooms

GOLD Winner of the Junior Design Awards in the Best Designed/Illustrated Book for Children category

What does a venus fly trap eat?
How strong is a giant water lily?
Does a cactus flower?
The newest addition to Yuval Zommer’s bestselling series answers these questions and more as it introduces young children to all kinds of colourful, carnivorous, weird and wonderful flowering plants from around the world. It opens with introductory spreads on how to be a botanist; how to recognise different types of flowers; the life-cycle of a plant; flower anatomy; and the seven types of animal pollinators including bats, birds and beetles. Subsequent spreads, illustrated within various habitats, are dedicated to specific varieties of plants, including the carnivorous venus flytrap, the giant water lily and the weird and wonderful corpse flower. Readers will enjoy learning about different edible flowers and why flowers are fragrant or colourful, not to mention grisly details about carnivorous and poisonous flowers.


Posted on December 6, 2019

A History of Pictures

‘I won’t read a more interesting book all year… utterly fascinating’ A. N. Wilson, Sunday Times

‘Enormously good-humoured and entertaining… Hockney asks big questions about the nature of picture-making and the relationship between painters and photography in a way that no other contemporary artists seems to.’ Andrew Marr, New Statesman

A new, compact edition of David Hockney and Martin Gayford’s brilliantly original book, with a revised final chapter and three entirely new Hockney artworks

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 Hiroshige, a scene from an Eisenstein film with a Velázquez painting – the authors cross the normal boundaries between high culture and popular entertainment, and make unexpected connections across time and media. Building on Hockney’s groundbreaking book Secret Knowledge, they argue that film, photography, painting and drawing are deeply interconnected. Insightful and thought provoking, A History of Pictures is an important contribution to our appreciation of how we represent our reality. This new edition has a revised final chapter with some of Hockney’s latest works, including the stained-glass window in Westminster Abbey.


Posted on December 5, 2019

The Wisdom of the Buddha

In the sixth century BC, a prince from northern India left family and fortune in search of answers to the great questions of life and death.

Siddhartha Gautama, known as the Buddha, the ‘Enlightened One’, laid down a doctrine that soon spread all over the world.

The Wisdom of the Buddha explores the life and teachings of this remarkable man and searches back through history and legend to examine the philosophy that illuminates the way for more than three hundred million people today.


Posted on November 22, 2019

Francis Bacon: Painting, Philosophy, Psychoanalysis

The second in a series of books that seeks to illuminate Francis Bacon’s art and motivations, and to open up fresh and stimulating ways of understanding his paintings.

Francis Bacon is one of the most important artists of the 20th century. His works continue to puzzle and unnerve viewers, raising complex questions about their meaning. Over recent decades, two theoretical approaches to Bacon’s work have come to hold sway: firstly, that Bacon is an existentialist painter, depicting an absurd and godless world; and secondly, that he is an anti-representational painter, whose primary aim is to bring his work directly onto the spectator’s ‘nervous system’.

Francis Bacon: Painting, Philosophy, Psychoanalysis brings together some of today’s leading philosophers and psychoanalytic critics to go beyond established readings of Bacon and to open up radically new ways of thinking about his art. The essays bring Bacon into dialogue with figures such as Aristotle, Hegel, Freud, Lacan, Adorno and Heidegger, as well as situating his work in the broader contexts of modernism and modernity. The result is a timely and thought-provoking collection that will be essential reading for anyone interested in Bacon, modern art and contemporary aesthetics.


Posted on November 9, 2019

David Hockney

One of the most popular and influential British artists of our times, David Hockney has never ceased to change his style and ways of working, always re-energizing his art with new solutions, fresh ideas and technical mastery. Now excitedly embracing his ‘late period’, Hockney remains as engaged as ever with the questions he has always posed for himself – what to depict, how to depict it and how to persuade the spectator that he or she is an active participant rather than just a passive witness.

Published to mark Hockney’s 80th birthday and in the wake of the most extensive Tate retrospective ever accorded to a living artist, this new edition includes a new preface, afterword and final chapter covering work of the past two decades. Tracing a line from the beginnings of Hockney’s career in the early 1960s, the portraits and images of Los Angeles swimming pools, his drawings and photocollages, to his highly acclaimed stage designs for the opera, video works, his iPad drawings and other novel forms of picturemaking, Marco Livingstone shows the continuing preoccupation with invention and artifice that has made this artist’s work at once popular and enduring.


Posted on August 29, 2019

Take Me To School

“A fantastic pocket-sized journal that lays out your school adventure in easy-to-complete sections, stimulating your imagination and helping you along with your first tentative steps in your school adventure.” — ReadItDaddy

Take Me To School is the third book in an exciting new series of guided journals for young explorers. With its stylish design, zingy illustrations and handy size to pop in a schoolbag, it’s a fun, lively way to record time at school, engage with friends and remember favourite moments forever!

This innovative, interactive book is divided into five ‘adventure chapters. Children can start the book at any point in the school term. Each chapter is designed to be completed in one week (though it not prescriptive), and is divided into themes that encourage them to explore their surroundings, record their thoughts and draw what they see. As they complete lists, create pictures and answer questions they are prompted to think carefully about their surroundings, engage with their friends and look at their everyday school environment with fresh eyes. With a ‘thoughts and feelings section in every chapter, the book encourages positive thinking and a growth mindset.

Quirky, easy to navigate and brimming with interesting facts about schools throughout history and around the world, this book is a must-have for every primary school age student – don’t leave home without it!


Posted on June 22, 2019

Paula Rego

Paula Rego is an artist of astonishing power with a unique and unforgettable aesthetic. Taking its cues from the artist, this fascinating study invites us to reflect on the complexities of storytelling on which Rego’s work draws, emphasizing both the stories the pictures tell, and how it is that they are told.

Deryn Rees-Jones sets interpretations of the pictures in the context of Rego’s personal and artistic development across sixty years. We see how Rego’s art intersects with the work of both the literary and the visual, and come to understand her rich and textured layering of reference: her use of the Old Masters; fiction, fairy tales and poems; the folk traditions of Rego’s native Portugal; and her wider engagement with politics, feminism and more. The result is a highly original work that addresses urgent and topical questions of gender, subject and object, self and other.


Posted on June 22, 2019

Take Me On Holiday

WINNER, Best Children’s Book 5+, Junior Design Awards 2019. The judges said: “Perfect for inspiring wanderlust and creating a lovely holiday keepsake to look back on. We all loved the fact that this book adds another creative and exciting dimension to going on holiday. The illustrations are gorgeous and with five sections to devoted to separate adventures, it is a journal that can be brought out year after year.”

“This gorgeous series makes a perfect gift for creative children.” — Frances Morris, Director, Tate Modern

Take Me On Holiday is the second book in an exciting new series of guided journals for young explorers. With its stylish design, zingy illustrations and handy size to pop in a bag, it’s essential packing for any creative child’s suitcase – whether they’re going to a relative’s house for the weekend or taking a trip to a far-flung corner of the world.

This innovative, interactive book is divided into five ‘adventure’ chapters. Children start a new adventure at the beginning of each holiday. Within each chapter, there’s space for them to plan and research their trip, document the journey and record memorable days out. As they complete lists, draw pictures and answer questions they’ll discover more about the places they’re visiting – and learn a little more about themselves, too.

Quirky, easy to navigate and brimming with interesting holiday facts, this book is a must-have for any trip – don’t leave home without it!


Posted on May 8, 2019

Bacon and the Mind

Bacon and the Mind sheds light on Francis Bacon’s art by exploring his motivations, and in so doing opens up new ways of understanding his paintings through three pillars; art, neuroscience and psychology.

This beautiful book is comprised of five essays, illustrated in colour throughout by Francis Bacon’s works. It is the first in a brand new series of books, Francis Bacon Studies, that seeks to illuminate Francis Bacon’s art and motivations.

The first essay, by Christopher Bucklow, argues compellingly that Bacon does not depict the reality of his subjects, but rather their reality for him – in his memory, in his sensibility, and in his private world of sensations and ideas.

Steven Jaron’s essay questions the psychological implications of Bacon’s habitual language, his obsession with ‘the wound’, with vulnerability and the nervous system. Jaron’s deconstruction of Bacon’s visual imagination results in revealing insights into the man and his work.

Darian Leader’s long-time fascination with Bacon’s paintings predates his powerful BBC documentary, In the Name of the Father? (1996). His contribution to this book, presents the latest of his fresh and stimulating insights into the artist.

The focus in John Onians’s contribution explores the effect of Bacon’s non-conscious mental processes in the creation of his paintings.

‘The “Visual Shock” of Francis Bacon: An essay in Neuroaesthetics’ is a newly edited and now fully illustrated re-presentation of an article by Semir Zeki and Tomohiro Ishizu, previously accessible only online.

Martin Harrison, Editor of Francis Bacon: Catalogue Raisonné, edits the book and contributes the Preface and Afterword.

The Estate of Francis Bacon Publishing,
supported by Francis Bacon MB Art Foundation Monaco,
in association with Thames & Hudson.


Posted on March 27, 2019

The Big Book of Birds

Why is a flamingo pink? Can a parrot talk? Is a bald eagle really bald? This follow-up to the hugely successful The Big Book of Bugs, The Big Book of Beasts and The Big Book of the Blue answers these questions and many more. It opens with introductory spreads explaining how to recognize different bird’s eggs, the bird family tree, why different species of birds have different beaks and feathers, and why some birds migrate and travel vast distances every year. Subsequent spreads, illustrated with various habitats, are dedicated to specific varieties of bird, including hummingbirds, peacocks, flamingos, bald eagles, secretary birds, albatrosses and red-crowned cranes. Some will teach children how to spot different birds within a specific variety, for example how to differentiate the American robin from the European robin. Others explore bird habitats, for example showing how birds adapt to live in cities. Finally, the book invites young bird spotters to protect birds where they live and make their gardens bird friendly. This is a big, beautiful book to look at again and again.


Posted on February 3, 2019

The Traveller’s Guide to Classical Philosophy

In this clear and evocative account, John Gaskin unfolds the thinking about nature, life, death and other worlds that informed the culture and society of the Classical world, drawing out its interest for modern readers. Witty sketches and diagrams enliven the story, which runs from Homeric Greece to the banning of pagan religions in ad 391. The book concludes with a gazetteer describing notable sites and the people and ideas connected with them, making it an ideal companion for visitors to Classical ruins and for all armchair travellers curious to explore life’s big questions.


Posted on January 18, 2019

Akhenaten

One of the most compelling and controversial figures in history, Akhenaten has captured the imagination like no other Egyptian pharaoh. Known today as a heretic, Akhenaten sought to impose upon Egypt and its people the worship of a single god – the sun – and in so doing changed the country in every way.

In this immensely readable re-evaluation, Nicholas Reeves takes issue with the existing view of Akhenaten, presenting an entirely new perspective on the turbulent events of his seventeen-year reign. Reeves argues that, far from being the idealistic founder of a new faith, Akhenaten cynically used religion for purely political ends in a calculated attempt to reassert the authority of the king. Backed up by abundant archaeological and documentary evidence, Reeves’s closely written narrative also provides many new insights into questions that have baffled scholars for generations – the puzzle of the body in Tomb 55 in the Valley of the Kings; the fate of Nefertiti, Akhenaten’s beautiful wife, and the identity of the mysterious successor, Smenkhkare; and the theory that Tutankhamun, Akhenaten’s son and true heir, was murdered.


Posted on January 18, 2019

Living with Leonardo

‘Kemp is a natural storyteller… This book leads you on a journey through the life, work and legacy of one of history’s most intriguing figures.’ The Times

In an engaging personal narrative interwoven with historical research, Martin Kemp discusses a life spent immersed in the world of Leonardo, and his encounters with great and lesser academics, collectors and curators, devious dealers and unctuous auctioneers, major scholars and authors, pseudo-historians and fantasists. He shares how he has grappled with swelling legions of ‘Leonardo loonies’, walked on the eggshells of vested interests in academia and museums, and fended off fusillades of non-Leonardos, sometimes more than one a week. Examining the greatest masterpieces, from the Last Supper to Salvator Mundi, through the expert’s eye, we learn first-hand of the thorny questions that surround attribution, the scientific analyses that support the experts’ interpretations, and the continuing importance of connoisseurship.

Throughout, from the most scholarly interpretations to the popularity of Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code, we are reminded of Leonardo’s unique genius and wonder at how an artist from 500 years ago continues to make such compelling posthumous demands on all those who engage with him.


Posted on January 18, 2019

The Book of Bees

How do bees communicate? What does a beekeeper do? Did you know that Napoleon loved bees? Who survived being stung by 2,443 bees?

This encyclopaedic book answers all these questions and many more, imparting masses of information with a light, humorous touch, and in scorers of vibrant illustrations. Piotr Socha tracks the history of bees from the time of the dinosaurs to their current plight, examining along the way the role bees have played in history and in the rest of the natural world.


Posted on December 1, 2018

The Battle for Home

‘Everyone in Syria has lived his war. Every day people have fought for their lives, every day has brought a bid for survival, but it is not only bodies that suffer; souls, too, go through these battles, dying a thousand times in anticipation, only to rise up wearily to face another day.’

So begins the eyewitness account of Marwa al-Sabouni, a young architect based in war-torn Homs, on Syria’s bitter conflict. Seen through the revealing lens of architecture and depicted with clarity, conviction and deep intelligence, she shares her personal experience of how the built environment directly affects the community that inhabits it, how the stage for civil war has long been set in her country, and how architecture might play a role in reversing the damage.

The Battle for Home reveals uncomfortable truths and asks important questions, but ultimately offers hope for rebuilding both a proud country and a much-needed sense of identity.


Posted on December 1, 2018

Art Since 1900

Groundbreaking in both its content and its presentation, Art Since 1900 has been hailed as a landmark study in the history of art. Conceived by some of the most influential art historians of our time, this extraordinary book has now been revised, expanded and brought right up to date to include the latest developments in the study and practice of art. It provides the most comprehensive critical history of art in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries ever published.

With a clear year-by-year structure, the authors present 130 articles, each focusing on a crucial event – such as the creation of a seminal work, the publication of an important text, or the opening of a major exhibition – to tell the myriad stories of art from 1900 to the present. All the key turning-points and breakthroughs of modernism and postmodernism are explored in depth, as are the frequent antimodernist reactions that proposed alternative visions. This third edition includes a new introduction on the impact of globalization, as well as essays on the development of Synthetic Cubism, early avant-garde film, Brazilian modernism, postmodern architecture, Moscow conceptualism, queer art, South African photography, and the rise of the new museum of art.

The book’s flexible structure and extensive cross-referencing enable readers to plot their own course through the century and to follow any one of the many narratives that unfold, be it the history of a medium such as painting, the development of art in a particular country, the influence of a movement such as Surrealism, or the emergence of a stylistic or conceptual body of work such as abstraction or minimalism. Illustrating the text are reproductions of almost eight hundred of the canonical (and anti-canonical) works of the century. A five-part introduction sets out the methodologies that govern the discipline of art history, informing and enhancing the reader’s understanding of its practice today. Two roundtable discussions consider some of the questions raised by the preceding decades and look ahead to the future. Background information on key events, places and people is provided in boxes throughout, while a glossary, full bibliography and list of websites add to the reference value of this outstanding volume.

Acclaimed as the definitive work on the subject, Art Since 1900 is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the complexities of art in the modern age.


Posted on October 4, 2018

The Book of Trees

Why are trees so important? How many types are there? How do they benefit the environment and wildlife? This book, by the award-winning author Piotr Socha, answers these questions and more, tracking the history of trees from the time of the dinosaurs to the current day.


Posted on July 2, 2018

HomeWork

Growing numbers of us work not only from home, but from anywhere; job flexibility has become a key requirement for employers and workers alike. This, in turn, has created new challenges for architects and designers – many of whom themselves start out working from home – who are tackling demand head on with innovative solutions that allow clients to transform their spaces to suit a wide range of needs, from multifunctional studios to homes that seamlessly combine work and family life.

Divided into five thematic sections, this book explores the exciting variety of ways that the workplace can be integrated into the domestic environment. From stand-alone multifunctional furniture to mobile room dividers and dynamic solutions that fold out or pop up to create new work areas, each design addresses the unique needs of the space, client and working practices for which it was required, and tackles new questions about the rapidly evolving relationship between work and domestic life in the 21st century.

This essential and timely resource for homeworkers and practitioners offers fresh ideas for how to strike the perfect balance between living and working at home.


Posted on June 29, 2018

Pirate

Pirates have a well-earned bad reputation, and this book invites the reader to join their ranks. Here you will discover everything the aspiring pirate needs to know in order to join a crew and start – and possibly end – a life of adventure, plunder and glory. The hopeful initiate is educated on all manner of piratical concerns: the history of this dishonourable tradition stretching back to ancient Greece and Rome; essentials of language and dress; notably dastardly pirate role models from around the world, including Blackbeard and Captain Kidd, but also some less well known, such as Eustace the Monk and Anne Bonny and Mary Read; what to expect of life at sea; the best weapons to have; how to capture a prize on the high seas, and much more.

Author Stephen Turnbull has studied the archives and travelled to pirate locations around the world in researching this fictionalized account, written as a pirate’s training manual for a young recruit, but solidly grounded in fact, based on the year 1793, a golden age for piracy. His lively and engaging manual provides answers to all the questions you may have wondered about – did they really walk the plank (probably not); keep parrots; bury treasure and mark it with an X on the map? And you may be surprised to learn what their usual style of hat actually was.

Illustrated throughout with contemporary artifacts, documents and prints, as well as modern reconstructions, this light-hearted but informative guide will captivate readers young and old, and covers with authority every aspect of what it was really like to be a pirate.


Posted on June 29, 2018

The Big Book of the Blue

Nominated for the 2019 Kate Greenaway Medal

Why do octopuses have eight arms?
Why do crabs run sideways?
Are jellyfish made of jelly?
Yuval Zommer’s beautiful new book provides the answers to these and many more fishy questions. His wonderfully quirky illustrations show off all kinds of slippery, shimmery and surprising sea creatures, including sea turtles, whales, sharks, rays and seahorses. Chatty, funny and full of amazing facts, it will be devoured by children eager to find out about the most exciting creatures from the deep blue.


Posted on June 29, 2018

Unravelled

Knitting and crochet have long been considered forms of folk art, but in the 21st century, these time-honoured crafts are breaking away from the outdated stereotype of cosy domesticity. Whether miniature or oversized, multi-coloured or monochrome, abstract or naturalistic, intimate or exhibitionist, knitted works are now invading galleries, museums and other public spaces. Yarn has become a medium for artistic expression as valid and multifaceted as painting, sculpture or photography.

Showcasing forty international artists who incorporate knitting, crochet and more into their practice, this book provides a survey of yarn work in contemporary art, illustrating the huge range of ways in which these techniques have been embraced as a form of creative expression. Some artists evoke a kind of nostalgia, rediscovering skills that have fallen from fashion or promoting the value of ancient handicrafts in an industrialized world of mass-production. Others push the boundaries of knitting by using non-traditional materials such as rope or wire, or by using its sculptural potential to tackle themes that are political, personal or transgressive.

Although often associated with feelings of warmth, enclosure and familial love, yarn can also represent the ties that bind us together or a membrane that protects us from the world. Packed with striking images, this book demonstrates how knitting needles and crochet hooks can created works of art that are challenging and unique, forcing us to take a fresh look at our own lives and beliefs and at the objects that surround us every day.


Posted on June 3, 2018

An Illustrated Dictionary of the Gods and Symbols of Ancient Egypt

Why was a humble dung beetle chosen to represent the sun god as Khepri, or a desert jackal to represent Anubis, the embalmer god? Ancient Egyptian religion, with its many gods and symbols, has always been a source of wonder and mystery to the monotheistic West.

In this compact guide to the gods and symbols of ancient Egypt many puzzling and intriguing questions are answered in nearly 300 entries, ranging from Acacia to Wreath.

Over 100 illustrations, with extended captions, complement the text and the book also includes a chronological table, bibliography and index.


Posted on May 13, 2018

Van Gogh

Placing the artist in the context of his time, Melissa McQuillan looks at the influences on his life and work and discusses his paintings in depth. Van Gogh’s letters to his brother Theo and other artists, particularly Gauguin, are also examined.

The author argues that Van Gogh’s works were products of his deliberate engagement with contemporary artistic questions and of his experience as an art dealer. His subsequent reputation, the mythology that grew up after his death, the debates between naturalism and modernity and the social implications of Van Gogh’s imagery – all are studied in full in this lucid account of an artist who sold only one painting during his lifetime but whose works now command the highest prices in the world.


Posted on May 13, 2018

Architecture after Modernism

Since the Modern Movement began to be challenge in the late 1960s, architecture has followed a number of widely divergent paths. In this thoughtful and eloquent book, Diane Ghirardo examines the architectural world of the last quarter-century and its theories in the crucial context of social and political issues. Within a survey of a broad range of buildings, she focuses on specific ‘megaprojects’ as paradigms for discussion. In the realm of public space, she argues, the key questions are raised by the Disney empire and its amusement parks; in domestic space, by the IBA in Berlin, with projects ranging from new structures to rehabilitation and residents’ self-build. When it comes to reconfiguring the urban sphere, the megaproject is London’s Docklands, the most ambitious and politically sensitive development in postwar Britain.
Her text ranges world-wide, and she considers the work of lesser-known designers and women architects as well as famous international stars.


Posted on May 13, 2018

Kilim: The Complete Guide

In recent years, demand for kilims (flatwoven textiles) in the West has reached unprecedented levels. Kilim: The Complete Guide unravels the complex questions surrounding the origins and history of these unique flatweaves and of the peoples who make them. Hundreds of illustrations, many in colour and many specially taken, show them in all their glory. A detailed account of techniques – materials, dyes and dyeing, tools, kilim structures and weaving – is followed by a systematic analysis of motifs and symbolism. Here, the complex relationship between Islam and the animistic or shamanistic traditions that preceded it is explored.

The core of the book is devoted to the specific characteristics of region, tribe and kilim type. Four major sections present much original research, fully informing the reader about kilims from Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia; Anatolia; Persia and the Caucasus; and Afghanistan and Central Asia. Chapters on new kilims and the use of kilims as bags or trappings as well as rugs – together with a reference guide to collecting, care and further study, conclude what has become the standard work on this widely appealing subject.


Posted on May 13, 2018

Perform

A brilliantly illustrated series exploring the important questions in art and life today.

All of the artists in Perform use art to puzzle out the complicated ways in which performance plays a part in our daily experiences. All of them help us understand the world in which we live.

Each of us is a performer. Every day, we act out individual roles and take part in private and collective rituals handed down by society. In our relationships with others, we hide behind masks and assumed personae; and when we interact with the objects, spaces and environments around us, we follow established patterns of behaviour set down by history and convention, playing out performances everywhere we turn. In such a world, it is no surprise that the line between art and life is sometimes blurred.

This unique exhibition in a book presents some of the most challenging art to address the place and function of performance in the contemporary world. Arranged into themed ‘rooms’, it reflects a wide variety of artistic attitudes and practices. Some artists present collaborators as the living, performing objects of their work, while others turn the audience into the main protagonists in the creative process.


Posted on May 13, 2018

Place

Everyone wants to find their own place in the world. But where is it and what is it? How do we recognize place as being significant and not just merely space? And what is it that makes one place special and another not? These are questions that have taxed philosophers as far back as ancient Greece. But they are also much more than philosophical investigations. In a world where neighbours fight over a stretch of land, or where some groups can feel safe only in certain locations, place is a living reality that can either be the cause for violent conflict or the glue that binds communities together.

This exhibition in a book presents some of the most challenging art to address the function of place in the contemporary world. Arranged into themed ‘rooms’, it reflects a wide variety of artistic attitudes and practices.

Some artists find inspiration in the heterogeneity of the crowded city street, while others celebrate the wilds of nature as a counter to urban life. Some present imagined or fantastic worlds of their own invention, or explore the way place is often a creation of the mind. Others investigate the deep marks that myth and history can leave on the land, or consider how place can be used as a form of political control. Territorial divisions demarcating one place from another, often with terrible consequences, are the chosen subject-matter of many artists; others prefer to look at itinerant wanderers with no claims on the earth, or to focus on anonymous non-places that lack any real identity of their own.

All of the artists in this book use art to puzzle out the complicated ways in which place can shape and affect us. All of them help us understand the world in which we live.


Posted on May 13, 2018

Koudelka

Stark, impassioned and singularly intense, Josef Koudelka’s work has received deserved acclaim over the past three decades as a uniquely significant contribution to the language of photography. Koudelka is the first book to present over 150 of his most eloquent images in a single volume, from his earliest images – published here for the first time – to his most recent panoramic landscape studies.

Whether photographing avant-garde theatre, gypsies throughout Eastern Europe, resistance to Soviet guns and tanks advancing on Prague, or the environmental degradation of a post-industrial world, Koudelka has consistently produced images that provoke a connection to the larger questions of human existence. As John Szarkowski comments in the opening pages of Koudelka’s first monograph, Gypsies, his pictures ‘seem to concern themselves with prototypical rituals, and a theatre of ancient and unchangeable fables… Perhaps they describe not the small and cherished differences that distinguish each of us from all others, but the prevailing circumstance that encloses us.’

Robert Delpire, Koudelka’s longtime publisher, collaborated with the artist in conceiving and producing this title. ‘His images and their precise compositions stand outside time and place,’ writes Delpire. ‘Koudelka brings an intense eye and full heart to each place, object and person. This work proves once again that he is a photographer with a unique personality and power.’ The other essayists in Koudelka each explore a different aspect of the artist’s work, illustrating his constant evolution and intensity.


Posted on May 13, 2018

The Story of Measurement

Anyone interested in the role of science in everyday life will find in this marvellous book accessible, intelligent, visual and often entertaining answers to the questions we all ask about how we measure ourselves, or planet and the Universe.

Part fascinating history, part cutting-edge science, it explores everything measurable, from temperature, earthquakes and radioactivity to music, blood and social attitudes, as well as the origins of the metric system in the French Revolution.


Posted on May 13, 2018

Gerhard Richter – Text

Gerhard Richter, born in Dresden in 1932, is one of the foremost painters of his generation. A great deal has been written about the remarkable heterogeneity of Richter’s work, his seemingly wilful and defiant movement between abstract and figurative modes of representation, and his use of a variety of methods of applying paint to canvas. Central to his work is a strong set of values which throughout his career he has expressed in extensive notes and writings, and in provocative and memorable public declarations in which he shows himself to be the master of the paradoxical statement.

This volume makes available a comprehensive selection of Richter’s texts, several published for the first time. These texts come from all periods of his career: letters and interviews; public statements about specific exhibitions; private reflections drawn from personal correspondence; answers to questions posed by critics; and excerpts from journals discussing the intentions, subjects, methods and sources of his work from various periods.

Complete with a comprehensive appendix, and accompanied by over a hundred photographs of artworks, works in progress, exhibition installations, colleagues and family, this book forms a brilliantly illuminating commentary on Richter’s art, as well as providing a thought-provoking discussion on the status of art and the artist in society today.


Posted on May 13, 2018

Conceiving God

Recent years have seen a growing tension between religion and science as more and more people have asked themselves a fundamental question: is there a supernatural realm that intervenes in daily life? To many it certainly feels so – but what if the religious impulse has another, rational, explanation?

Building on the insights and discoveries of his two earlier books, The Mind in the Cave and Inside the Neolithic Mind, cognitive archaeologist David Lewis-Williams explores how science developed within the cocoon of religion and then shows how the natural functioning of the human brain creates experiences that can lead to belief in the supernatural realm. Such belief gives rise to creeds, a development examined here in the light of critical episodes in world history, from rivalries between Platonists and Aristotelians to the discoveries of Charles Darwin.

Archaeology reveals activities one can label religious many tens of thousands of years ago and the author shows that mental imagery can be detected in widely separated religious communities such as Hildegard of Bingen’s in medieval Europe or the San hunters of southern Africa.

At once polemical, insightful and thought-provoking, Conceiving God is essential reading for all those interested in these questions about the origins of religious thought, and the respective roles of science and religion in contemporary society.


Posted on May 13, 2018

Image Makers, Image Takers

Image Makers, Image Takers systematically examines what motivates and inspires today’s photographers and what makes them succeed. It reveals how some of the world’s leading photographers, from the fields of art, documentary, fashion, advertising and portraiture, actually work, and explores what it is that picture editors, curators, agency directors and publishers look for when they choose an image.

In this new and expanded edition five new interviews have been added, including a chapter on web and digital that highlights the importance of blogging and online galleries, bringing the content right up to date. Through her intelligent and perceptive interviews and selection of over 240 images, journalist and critic Anne-Celine Jaeger delves into the working practice of famous photographers, unveiling the mysterious process of artistic creation involved in making and taking a photograph. Here is the background on how Mario Sorrenti was inspired to capture a naked Kate Moss draped over a sofa for the iconic Calvin Klein campaign, how Fabrice Dall’Anese came to do a photo shoot with George Clooney in a hotel bathroom and how Rineke Dijkstra gets the best from her subjects.

Once the images have been taken, or commissioned, how are the photographs then selected? How are the photographs chosen to be hung on the wall of The Photographers’ Gallery in London? How does the picture editor of the New York Times Magazine decide which photographer should shoot the next fashion spread? How did Pascal Dangin start pioneering high-end photographic technology and go on to become a world-renowned retoucher?

From questions on what to look for in an image to views on cropping and the use of colour over black-and-white, the shapers and makers of taste provide a unique and indispensable account of their working methods.


Posted on May 13, 2018

Afterwards

Modern photography has always sought dramatic events as they unfolded, to capture the key moment, the ‘now’. As viewers in a media-saturated world where professional and amateur photographers alike can capture scenes of upheaval in real time and instantly broadcast them around the world, we are familiar with images of events such as 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina and know what kind of photographs to expect. But what of the scenes after the event? Landscapes, people, buildings captured ‘afterwards’ – looking at an image taken after a dramatic event viewers are given an opportunity to reflect, to think and empathize. The photographs brought together in this book are subtle yet powerful and ask questions about the preceding disasters rather than provide answers. As such, they are more provocative and powerful over time.

Afterwards presents work from leading contemporary photographers, with each body of work in a self-contained sequence of images, analogous to the rooms of an exhibition. Over 30 photographers are featured, including Robert Polidori, Suzanne Opton, Raphael Dallaporta and Simon Norfolk, inviting the viewer to contemplate the aftermath of events that have taken place over sixty years of modern history – the Srebrenica massacre, human trafficking and slave labour, the Hiroshima bombing, the Holocaust and various natural disasters – and get a sense of the physical and emotional scars they left behind. The bedrooms of young American soldiers, still intact long after they have died; the traumatized faces of those who have been to war; the deceptively peaceful facades of respectable-looking houses where domestic workers were abused – these are some examples of the powerful, meditative yet psychologically intense imagery presented.

Accompanied by academic essays on cognitive responses to photographs, the ability to see and empathize, the nature of trauma and the meaning of ‘stigmata’, Afterwards shows the possibility for contemporary photography to question what happens in the world and begin to understand it better.


Posted on May 13, 2018

The Art of Not Making

Can an artist claim that an object is a work of art if it has been made for him or her by someone else? If so, who is the ‘author’ of such a work? And just what is the difference between a work of art and a work of craft?

The Art of Not Making tackles these questions head on, exploring the concepts of authorship, artistic originality, skill, craftsmanship and the creative act, and highlighting the vital role that skills from craft and industrial production play in the creation of some of today’s most innovative and sought-after works of art.

Michael Petry presents the art of over 115 contemporary artists – including Takashi Murakami, Matthew Barney, Tony Cragg, Cornelia Parker, Grayson Perry, Ai Weiwei, Daniel Buren and Carsten Höller – all of whom have one thing in common: they do not always make their own work. Instead, they often either employ others to produce it on their behalf, or appropriate objects made by someone else. Original interviews with the artists and artisans offer insights into this creative collaboration, which often produces works breathtaking in their scope and ambition.

This is a fresh, controversial and enlightening approach to many of the most influential artworks of our time.


Posted on May 13, 2018

The Earth From Space

From space, Earth is an amazing sight splashed with vivid colours, patterns, textures and abstract forms. In addition, our planet seen from above can provide telling information about the health of our home and its ecosystems.

This book features more than 150 breathtaking satellite photographs, provided by Astrium, a global leader in satellite photography. Yann Arthus-Bertrand, the renowned aerial photographer and devoted environmental activist, introduces the collection by exploring some of the serious issues facing our planet, all visible from space: deforestation, urban sprawl, intensive farming, pollution, natural disasters, and much more.

The striking high-resolution images are made meaningful by texts that reveal fascinating information about a wide range of environmental issues, such as the evolution of vegetation around the Chernobyl nuclear disaster site, snow loss on Mount Kilimanjaro, and the health of penguin populations.

Interviews with scientists, activists and experts offer cutting-edge information on critical environmental and sociological issues, and suggest the many exciting, newly developed methods for using satellite images to predict and prevent problems, rather than simply documenting their impact.

The Earth from Space‘s revelatory selection of photographs raises important questions about our future, while also showcasing the planet’s beauty – leaving us in no doubt that it is something crucial to protect.


Posted on May 13, 2018

Body Art

Body art is the most intimate art form, linking the self, the senses, and the social and political. Today, in almost any major city worldwide, you will encounter tattoos, piercings, henna painting and elaborate hairstyles. In recent years, body art has proliferated in an unprecedented way, borrowing motifs and practices from many different traditions. What is it that new and borrowed body arts do, and what do they tell us about the global culture that we now inhabit?

Anthropologist and art historian Nicholas Thomas explores these questions and many more in this wide-ranging survey of body arts from prehistoric origins to the present.

He illuminates their role in expressing personal and cultural identity; their longstanding associations with ritual, theatricality, criminality and beauty; and their recent resurgence via the Modern Primitive movement and the work of contemporary artists such as Marc Quinn and Rebecca Belmore.

More than 180 illustrations chronicle the extraordinary diversity of body arts, from Australian and African traditions of painting and scarification to Chinese footbinding, Russian prison tattoos, Harlem drag balls and the inked designs worn by celebrities such as Tupac Shakur and David Beckham. For anyone with a personal or professional interest in the subject, Body Art offers a timely and intelligent celebration of this quintessentially human art form.


Posted on May 13, 2018

It Might Be An Apple

It Might Be an Apple is a boisterous, philosophical shaggy dog story for young children – and probably a few adults. The story follows a child’s hilarious, wildly inventive train of thought through all the things an apple might be if it is not, in fact, an apple. Distrusting the apple’s convincing appearance, the child’s imagination spirals upwards and outwards into a madcap fantasy world – maybe it’s a planet from outer space with tiny aliens on board? Perhaps it wants a cool hairstyle? Does it feel scared, or snore at night? This book is not only huge fun, but it also encourages a questioning, challenging approach to the world around us.


Posted on May 13, 2018

Elephants

Why do elephants flap their ears? How much do they eat? Why do they roll in mud? This book answers these questions and many more, including intriguing facts about elephants’ trunks, tusks and tails, their families and friends, what they get up to from dawn to dusk, and the special relationship between elephants and humans and elephants and other animals.


Posted on May 13, 2018

Picturing People

Figurative art is currently riding high. Contemporary works of figuration grace the walls of public institutions and commercial galleries alike. From the champions of paint such as Katherine Bernhardt and Adrian Ghenie to photographic artists such as Gillian Wearing and Cindy Sherman; from the drawings of Charles Avery to Grayson Perry’s tapestries and Kara Walker’s silhouettes; artists from diverse backgrounds working in a range of media are exploring new ways to depict the human form.

This accessible, perceptive introduction features recent work by seventy new artists, all of whom successfully employ the figure to help make sense of the world we live in. Picturing People explores the reasons behind this resurgence and considers what the figure means to the artists who use it. Some ask questions about how marks coalesce into figures. Some draw on photographic imagery, some on art’s own history to make sense of the digital present. Some seem to be influenced by scientific developments or philosophy as they invent parallel worlds; while others deliberately lose the individual in critiques of capitalist or communist socio-economic models.


Posted on May 13, 2018

Bog Bodies Uncovered

The remains of prehistoric men, women and children – so well preserved that they are often mistaken for victims of modern crime – have periodically been revealed in the bogs of northern Europe. In many cases their skin, hair, nails, and marks of injury survive, betraying the violence that surrounded their deaths. Who were these unfortunate people, and why were they killed?

The number of known bodies is growing. Lindow Man, the famous ‘Pete Marsh’ discovered in Cheshire, has been joined by new finds from Ireland and elsewhere. Archaeologists, armed with the latest analytical techniques, are today investigating these cold cases to reveal much about our distant past. Forensic science allows us to deduce the age, physical condition, status, cause and time of death of these ancient victims, helping to answer the fundamental questions that they pose: Were these people executed, murdered, or victims of human sacrifice? Who selected them? Who delivered the killing blow, and why?

Drawing on the latest evidence and research, Miranda Aldhouse-Green, an acknowledged authority on the period, has written an engrossing detective story, uncovering the hidden truths behind these mysteries. In this book we come face-to-face with our ancestors and can begin to understand their ancient lives – and deaths.


Posted on May 13, 2018

High Fashion

What defined the way women dressed in the 1930s? When did haute couture become off-the-peg? How did economic highs and lows influence style in the 1980s? High Fashion answers these questions and more by exploring fashion design in the 20th century, one decade at a time.

Each chapter looks at the significant stylistic changes that occurred in one decade and places them in a wider cultural and socioeconomic context. The designers whose work best represents their era are profiled and their key looks deconstructed, from the vertical silhouette of the 1900s to minimalism in the 1990s.

High Fashion combines thoughtful analysis with a carefully curated selection of archive images to create an invaluable resource for fashion students and a fascinating journey through 20th-century style for fashionistas. It reveals how styles have changed, what those changes tell us about individuals and society at that time, and how our current relationship with fashion was formed.


Posted on May 13, 2018

The Big Book of Bugs

Just how slow does a snail go? Are bugs afraid of the dark? Why do ants march in a line?

Find out the answers to these and many more bug questions. Play search and find in the pictures, too. Will you spot all the bugs?

Meet all kinds of flying, stinging, wriggling bugs from around the world in this first animal book to share with young children. It’s packed with facts about how different kinds of bugs eat, hunt and have babies in the wild.


Posted on May 13, 2018

Why It’s Not All Rocket Science

Robert Cave examines 100 extraordinary projects, theories and experiments that have been conducted in the name of science. Some, including various nuclear tests, have attracted controversy and hostility; others, such as Johann Wilhelm Ritter’s erotic self-experiments with a voltaic pile, seem downright weird. But Cave demonstrates, thoroughly and informatively, that it is only by doggedly asking awkward questions, and paying close attention to the answers, that scientists have been able to make progress.

From spider monkeys to human cyborgs, and from swimming in syrup to chaos theory, Cave places each experiment and discovery in its scientific context to present an entertaining guide to some of the most jaw-dropping entries in the history of science. Why It’s Not All Rocket Science contains chapters on psychology, the body, society, planet Earth and the universe, and to read it is to gain startling insights into why scientists seem to behave so oddly, and how their brilliant if sometimes bizarre work benefits all of society.


Posted on May 13, 2018

Interviews with Francis Bacon

The extraordinarily revealing interviews with Francis Bacon conducted over a period of 25 years by the distinguished art critic David Sylvester amount to a unique statement by Bacon on his art and on art in general. As a discussion of the problems of making art, the book has been widely influential not only among artists but also among writers and musicians including David Bowie, who named it among his favourite books.

With a rare and brilliant use of language, Bacon talks about his aims as a painter and the ways in which he works, responding always with vivacity and candour to Sylvester’s searching questions.

Bacon’s obsessive effort to record and re-create the human form, his practice of making variations on old masters’ paintings and on photographs, his dependence upon chance, and his views about the way in which his work has been interpreted are only some of the many subjects discussed and investigated in depth during these historic encounters.

Offering unparalleled access to the thought, work and life of one of the creative geniuses of the twentieth century, this book – with its subsequent revised and augmented editions – has become a classic.


Posted on May 13, 2018

An Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead

The Book of the Dead of Sobekmose, in the collection of the Brooklyn Museum, New York, is one of the most important surviving examples of the ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead genre. Such ‘books’ – papyrus scrolls – were composed of traditional funerary texts, including magic spells, that were thought to assist a dead person on their journey into the afterlife. The ancient Egyptians believed in an underworld fraught with dangers that needed to be carefully navigated, from the familiar, such as snakes and scorpions, to the extraordinary: lakes of fire to cross, animal-headed demons to pass and, of course, the ritual Weighing of the Heart, whose outcome determined whether or not the deceased would be ‘born again’ into the afterlife for eternity.

This publication is the first to offer a continuous English translation of a single, extensive, major text that can speak to us from beginning to end in the order in which it was composed. The papyrus itself is one of the longest of its kind to come down to us from the New Kingdom, a time when Egypt’s international power and prosperity were at their peak. This new translation not only represents a great step forward in the study of these texts, but also grants modern readers a direct encounter with what can seem a remote and alien civilization. With language that is, in many places, unquestionably evocative and very beautiful, it offers a look into the mindset of the ancient Egyptians, highlighting their beliefs and anxieties about this world as well as the next.


Posted on May 13, 2018

The Big Book of Beasts

Why do wolves howl at the moon? Do hyenas really laugh? Why do hippos love the mud? Find out the answers to these and many more beastly questions. Play search and find in the pictures, too. Can you spot all the special paw prints?

Meet all kinds of grizzly, hairy, wild and wonderful beasts from around the world in this first book of animals to share with young children. It’s packed with facts about how different types of wild animals eat, hunt and survive.


Posted on May 13, 2018

Magnum Contact Sheets

Few photography books can lay claim to being truly groundbreaking. The first edition of Magnum Contact Sheets was one of them. This exceptional book, presented here in a new, accessible and democratically priced format for the first time, reveals how Magnum photographers capture and edit the very best shots. Addressing key questions of photographic practice – was the final image a set-up, or a serendipitous encounter; did the photographer work diligently to extract the potential from a situation, or was the fabled ‘decisive moment’ at play? – this book lays bare the creative methods, strategies and editing processes behind some of the world’s most iconic images.

139 contact sheets, representing 69 photographers, are featured, as well as zoom-in details, selected photographs, press cards, notebooks and spreads from contemporary publications, including Life magazine and Picture Post. Further insight into each contact sheet is provided by texts written by the photographers themselves or by experts chosen by members’ estates.

Many acknowledged greats of photography are included, such as Henri Cartier-Bresson, Elliot Erwitt and Inge Morath, as well as Magnum’s latest generation, such as Jonas Bendiksen, Alessandra Sanguinetti and Alec Soth. These photographers cover over seventy years of history, from the Normandy landings by Robert Capa, the Paris riots of 1968 by Bruno Barbey and war in Chechnya by Thomas Dworzak to images of Che Guevara by Rene Burri, Malcolm X by Eve Arnold and clasic New Yorkers by Bruce Gilden.

This landmark book, published just as the shift to digital photography threatens to render the contact sheet obsolete, celebrates the sheet as artifact, as personal and historic record, as invaluable editing tool, and as a fascinating way of accompanying great photographers as they work towards, and capture, the most enduring images of our time.


Posted on May 13, 2018

Archaeology: The Whole Story

Global in perspective and covering over four million years of history, this accessible volume provides a chronological account of both the development of the human race and the order in which modern societies have made discoveries about their ancient past. Beginning deep in prehistory, it takes in all the great archaeological sites of the world as it advances to the present day.

A masterful combination of succinct analysis and driving narrative, Archaeology: The Whole Story also addresses the questions that inevitably arise as we gradually learn more about the history of our species: what are we? Where did we come from? What inspired us to start building, writing and all the other activities that we traditionally regard as exclusively human? A concluding section explains how we know what we know: for example, how seventeen prehistoric shrines were discovered around Stonehenge using magnetometers, ground-penetrating radars, and 3D laser scanners; and how DNA analysis enabled us to identify some bones discovered beneath a car park in Leicester as the remains of a fifteenth-century king of England.

Written by an international team of archaeological experts and richly illustrated throughout, Archaeology: The Whole Story offers an unparalleled insight into the origins of humankind.


Posted on May 13, 2018

The First Artists

Where do we find the world’s very first art? When, and why, did people begin experimenting with different materials, forms and colours? Were our once-cousins, the Neanderthals, also capable of creating art? Prehistorians have been asking these questions of our ancestors for decades, but only very recently, with the development of cutting-edge scientific and archaeological techniques, have we been able to piece together the first chapter in the story of art. Overturning the traditional Eurocentric vision of our artistic origins, which has focused almost exclusively on the Franco-Spanish cave art, Paul Bahn and Michel Lorblanchet take the reader on a search for the earliest art across the whole world. They show that our earliest ancestors were far from being the creatively impoverished primitives of past accounts, and Europe was by no means the only ‘cradle’ of art; the artistic impulse developed in the human mind wherever it travelled. The long universal history of art mirrors the development of humanity.


Posted on May 13, 2018

Mangasia

This beautiful and engaging volume charts the evolution of manga from its roots in late 19th-century Japan through the many and varied forms of comics, cartoons and animation created throughout Asia for more than 100 years.
World authority on comic art Paul Gravett details the evolving meanings of the myths and legends told and retold by manga artists of every decade and reveals the development and cross pollination of cultural and aesthetic ideas between manga artists throughout Asia. He explores the explosion of creativity in manga after the Second World War with the emergence of such artists as Osamu Tezuka, whose pioneering Astro Boy spawned a new and much imitated visual dynamic. He highlights how creators have responded to political events since 1950 in the form of propaganda, criticism and commentary in manga magazines, comics and books.
There have been many remarkably powerful and sophisticated graphic novels, although some sexually explicit and emotionally dark adult manga has also attracted criticism, raising questions about taste and acceptability. Gravett discusses the influence of censorship on manga and concludes with a survey of current multi- platform offerings of manga in Asia and the transition from cut-price rental libraries to the booming specialist emporia and comic conventions that champion the kaleidoscope of creativity apparent in the digital age.


Posted on May 13, 2018