Books

In 2018, just a few weeks after his father’s death, Dean Rader made a pilgrimage to the Gagosian Gallery in New York to see a retrospective of Cy Twombly’s work, In Beauty It is Finished: Drawings 1951-2008. The exhibit led to a poem that would become...

Colour is one of the essential elements of many branding designs. It can help give an identity personality and warmth, express emotion, communicate messages in an unconscious and subtle way and it can keep or navigate the viewer’s interest, drawing the...

The catalog to the most ambitious exhibition of the work of Violet Oakley (1874–1961) to date, A Grand Vision highlighted Oakley’s spirit of civic humanism and her prolific accomplishments as a muralist, portraitist, stained glass designer, and...

In June 2020, after a Black trans woman in Missouri and a Black trans man in Florida were killed just weeks apart, activists Qween Jean and Joela Rivera returned to the historic Stonewall Inn—site of the 1969 riots that launched the modern gay rights...

On June 19, 1865, in Galveston, General Gordon Granger of the Union Army delivered the message that African Americans in Texas were free. Since then, Juneteenth, as the day has come to be known, has steadily gained recognition throughout the United...

Recalling a charcoal she made in 1916, Georgia O'Keeffe later wrote, “I  have made this drawing several times—never remembering that I had made  it before—and not knowing where the idea came from.” These drawings, and the majority of O’Keeffe’s...

In this volume, 50 masterpieces by Vincent van Gogh (1853–90) from the prestigious Kröller-Müller Museum in Otterlo—which houses one of the  greatest Van Gogh collections—document the Dutch painter’s entire career, on the eve of the 170th...

Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) was committed to depicting landscapes throughout his entire life. From his earliest days in art school until the year before his death, landscape remained the prime genre through which he mediated his perception of the world and...

From Gandhi to Rosa Parks, the Arab Spring to Black Lives Matter, this introduction to the power of protests covers nearly every continent to show young readers that they can be effective on their own or as part of a movement. Filled with...

At a time when almost everything can be digitally done up to perfection,  the smudges and smears by graphite can be refreshing to the eye and unapologetically human – touching viewers to the core. As a creative tool, it can also be the simplest and...

An essential guide for emerging artists learning how to take pictures of places. From the author of the bestselling Read This If You Want To Take Great Photographs series, this jargon–free introduction covers all aspects of photographing places,...

 Inspired by classic kung fu flicks from the 1980s and 1990s, Hong  Kong-based cult illustrator Rex Koo pays tribute to the heroes from his childhood in I KNOW KUNG FU – an art book that celebrates the much-loved shows and stars that have made...

The great painter, book illustrator and print designer Katsushika  Hokusai (1760–1849) has become the best known of all Japanese artists  and one of the most famous and influential artists in the world. He was a key figure for the Japonisme...

This volume presents sketches and textile designs by the great Russian  French modernist artist Sonia Delaunay alongside her paintings and interior and fashion designs. It demonstrates how she transferred her color philosophy of “Simultanism,” which...

A profound examination of the complex constructs that have kept “outsider” and self-taught artists on the margins of the mainstream. The artists in Boundary Trouble in American Vanguard Art defy binary constructs of insider and outsider. Some are...

The story of art as it’s never been told before, from the Renaissance to the present day, with more than 300 works of art. How many women artists do you know? Who makes art history? Did women even work as artists before the twentieth century? And what...

An intimate study of the creation and use of embroidered quilts. In Bengal, mothers swaddle their infants and cover their beds in  colorful textiles that are passed down through generations. They create these kantha from layers of soft, recycled...

Textile artist Karen Selk delves into the amazing world of wild silk and the Indigenous people of India who raise these silkworms. Readers will be drawn into the captivating world of a unique living culture that has been engaged in a sustainable industry...

Weaving, as a traditional technique of interlacing yarns or fiber, has a long history and has been given many forms over the years. This book will invite 20 DIYers, designers, artists, and craftsmen to talk about their weaving stories. These projects are...

This book carefully selects 20 contemporary embroidery artists and showcases their delicate artworks together with in-depth and thematic interviews, making it not only a feast for the eyes but a practical guidebook for those who are looking to be...

Philadelphia has thousands of public artworks—more than any other city in America. Ed Hille has 40 years of experience as an award-winning photographer. In Plain Sight brings the two together—the dedicated artist and a spectacular subject. Throughout...

"Wild spinach about 7 feet tall and fully mature.  Well-fed wild spinach is well-branched and produces a huge quantity of  seeds when mature. The leaves are still edible at this stage but are  reduced in quality, taking on a somewhat...

From the mountains to the ocean shores, from the wetlands to the deserts, North America teems with flora and fauna in delicately balanced ecosystems found nowhere else on Earth. With this book in hand, you will understand the language of nature and see...

African American history has produced countless exceptional heroes, leaders, and role models. The graphic novel, BLAM! Black Lives Always Mattered!, tells  the inspiring stories of 14 important Black Philadelphians, such as opera singer Marian...

In an ever-evolving world, the only thing to count on is change. A path is never the same path twice. Everything we experience, be it real or imagined, influences what is around us—even if the changes are sometimes too small to recognize! For three...

Covering the oldest and most traditional ways to make pots, Handbuilt is a beginner's guide to hand building with clay – no pottery wheel required. This book will teach you the building blocks to working with clay and how to apply a professional finish...

Explores ways to use colour in the home to varying degrees, taking the reader into the world of the vibrant, happy house. Joyful case studies of homes that range from lightly speckled to heavily doused in colour with interviews from the renowned...

The essential exploration of the design, history, and culture of the motorcycle – an icon of the machine age. Motorcycles are ubiquitous in the world’s streets and cities, evolving over decades in engineering and design to meet individual transportation...

An overview of the work of illustrator and designer Milton Glaser during the 1960s and 70s. From 1954, when he co-founded the legendary Push Pin Studios, to the late '70s, Milton Glaser was one of the most celebrated graphic designers of his day, whose...

Elegant. Refined. Exclusionary. Interrupted. The foundations of the fine art world are shaking. Beyoncé and Jay-Z break the internet by blending modern Black culture with fine art in their iconic music video filmed in the Louvre. Kehinde Wiley powerfully...

It is human nature to look to the past when seeking inspiration, particularly in art and related creative fields. Unlike other genres that can be attributed to a specific era or style, folk art is harder to define or categorize due to its special...

In this wordless picture book, the Western world’s greatest art is closer than you expect. A boy’s daily routines bring him face-to-face with Escher’s winding stairs, Banksy’s balloon girl, Picasso’s dancing  fauns, and many more familiar sights...

At the start of things, the elders say, the universe was hushed and still. The moon alone shone bright and round in the star-speckled dark of the sky.  David Álvarez is one of the most extraordinary artists working today. His black-and-white...

Take a guided tour through the art museum featuring modern art movements from Impressionism to Pop Art! Join a dad and his child for an interactive visit through the art museum. The guided tour turns into an incredible maze adventure as you go through...

A Kid’s Guide to Backyard Bugs is filled with fascinating  facts about the United States’ most common insects, including where they live, what they eat, and how they move. Which insect can live without food for up to a whole year? Which insect grows...

A Kid’s Guide to Backyard Birds is filled with fascinating facts about the most common birds, including where they live, what they  eat, and how they sound when they sing. How did the Brown-Headed Cowbird get its name? Which bird can fly up to 40...

Grandpa told Mom, and Mom told me: The secret of a plant lives in every little seed. Seeds are truly amazing! Did you know that every seed, no matter how small (microscopic) or large (weighing up to 14 pounds),  contains everything it needs to one...

Stan Tekiela’s famous Birds of Pennsylvania Field Guide has been delighting bird watchers for years. Now, the award-winning author has written the perfect bird identification guide for children! The Kids’ Guide to Birds of Pennsylvania features 88 of the...

Master naturalist Nancy Lawson takes readers on a fascinating tour of the vibrant web of nature outside our back door—where animals and plants perceive and communicate using marvelous sensory abilities we are only beginning to understand. Organized into...

Reading a board book together is a fun way to introduce young children to fine art. The sleepy trees, golden haystacks, and juicy fruits of In the Garden with Van Gogh will delight little ones. Playful rhyming texts accompany the artist's timeless...

In an age where most everything is mass-produced and technology has become the filter through which we experience much of life, there is a growing appreciation of the handmade. From scented soaps to designer jeans, leather wallets and jewelry, furniture...

In The Treadwell’s Book of Plant Magic, author Christina Oakley Harrington—founder of the renowned Treadwell’s Books in London—focuses exclusively on the magical powers attributed to the plants. She has sifted through hundreds of traditional sources to...

For generations, Black artists from the American South have forged a unique art tradition. Working in near isolation from established practices, they have created masterpieces in clay, driftwood, roots, soil, and recycled and cast-off objects that...

 The children want to go to the park with Grandad, but they can’t leave until they find his lost socks…and his shoes…and even his teeth! Will they ever get out of Grandad’s busy house? With a trove of wonders to discover on every page, this seek and...

This intriguing child's-eye view of Monet and the development of impressionism takes as its premise how artists flocked to Giverny at the turn of the 20th century to study the painter's technique. It tells the story of Ella, the daughter of one such...

The Reverend Howard Finster (1916–2001) was called the “backwoods William Blake” and the “Andy Warhol of the South,” and he is considered the godfather of contemporary American folk and visionary art. This book is the first interpretive analysis of the...

Walks to the Paradise Garden is the last unpublished manuscript of the late American poet, photographer, publisher, Black Mountain alumnus and bon viveur Jonathan Williams (1929–2008). This 352-page book chronicles Williams' road trips across the...

Bill Traylor (ca. 1853–1949) came to art-making on his own and found his creative voice without guidance; today he is remembered as a renowned American artist. Traylor was born into slavery on an Alabama plantation, and his experiences spanned multiple...

The first book to tell the stories of the most revered living Japanese ceramists of the century in their own words, tracing the evolution of modern and contemporary craft and art in Japan, and the artists’ considerable influence, which far transcends...

A landmark book documenting the first-ever art amusement park - launched in 1987 in Hamburg, Germany - in anticipation of its global reintroduction. In the late 1980s, more than 30 of the era's most acclaimed artists - including Jean-Michel Basquiat,...

Teach children their first colors with Mudpuppy’s Andy Warhol Colors board book featuring the artist’s bright and colorful artwork. A beautiful, artful board book for children and parents alike.    Author/illustrator: Andy Warhol Board...

A biography of self-taught (outsider) artist Bill Traylor, a former slave who at the age of eighty-five began to draw pictures based on his memories and observations of rural and urban life in Alabama. Growing up as an enslaved boy on an Alabama cotton...

 By Rachel Arauz, Ann Temkin, Anne D'Hamoncourt, et al.Featuring pivotal works of twentieth-century painting and sculpture, this book handsomely illustrates a selection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art’s outstanding modern art collection,...

First published in 1968, and now back in print for the first time in ten years, The Bikeriders  explores firsthand the stories and personalities of the Chicago Outlaws  Motorcycle Club. This journal-size volume features original black-and-white...

A reconsideration of Duchampian erotics in the context of fetishism. Eroticism served as an enduring and potent guiding principle for Marcel Duchamp (1887–1968) as he traced his singular path through 20th-century art. Duchamp himself acknowledged that...

Now available in a new edition, this book gives a lively overview of the world’s greatest photographers. This dynamic introduction to the most  important photographers from the inception of photography to today bears witness to the magic of the...

From photography’s beginnings in the United States, Black studio photographers operated on the developing edge of popular media to produce affirming portraits for their clients, as well as a wide range of photographic work rooted in their communities...

Meeting the Buddhas is a modern classic, giving a vivid and accessible introduction to all the main figures meditated on in the Indo-Tibetan Buddhist tradition. First published in 1993, this new edition incorporates a section on Vajrakīla, as well as new...

First words are everywhere you look, especially in a house! This visually striking picture book catalogs an impressive array of household items, naming the delightful miscellany that comprises a life. The charming collections are creative and unexpected,...

Make a time capsule of your year with watercolor. One Color a Day is a simple and meditative way to visually document each day. Within  the book’s orderly gridded layout, you simply paint a daily color and  add a word or phrase that reflects...

Photography has a complex relationship to art. This volume uses an innovative framework to help readers appreciate photography as its own modern art form. In his unique and insightful approach, professor of photography David Bate presents iconic...

Read This If You Want to Take Great Photographs of People is one of the best photography books to read if you want to learn how to take good pictures of people. This straight–talking guide will give you top portrait photography tips and is ideal for...

A short and pithy introduction to the most important feminist artworks from the late 1960s to the present.   Emerging in the late 1960s as women artists struggled to “de-gender” their work to compete in a male-dominated arena, the feminist art...

Designer, artist, and educator Mitch Goldstein's experience as student and teacher gives guidance and inspiration to help students get the most out of design school. Life  as a design student is filled with questions. Rochester Institute of...

Women’s Art Work introduces readers to the lives and work of the  world’s most renowned artists. This collection celebrates the creativity of  women in more than 30 biographies, investigating their practices and  exploring their...

Alone Street brings together two major bodies of work by Gregory Crewdson, Cathedral of the Pines (Aperture, 2016) and An Eclipse of Moths (Aperture, 2020), in a single, elegant, and affordable monograph. Both series expand on the artist’s obsessive...

About Exiles, Cornell Capa once wrote, Koudelka's  unsentimental, stark, brooding, intensely human imagery reflects his own  spirit, the very essence of an exile who is at home wherever his  wandering body finds haven in the night. In this...

 "The Suffering of Light" is the first comprehensive monograph  charting the career of acclaimed American photographer Alex Webb.  Gathering some of his most iconic images, many of which were taken in  the far corners of the earth,...

Deana Lawson is one of the most powerful photographers of her  generation. Her subject is black expressive culture and her canvas is  the African Diaspora. Over the last ten years, she has created a  visionary language to describe black...

Food has been a much-photographed subject throughout the history of photography, across genres, including art and advertising. This is the first book to survey the rich history of food in photography, and the photographers who developed new ways of...

From Versailles to the home vegetable garden, from worlds imagined by artists to food production recorded by journalists, The Photographer in the Garden traces the garden’s rich history in photography and delights readers with spectacular photographs. An...

Delegation is the first comprehensive monograph by Apsáalooke/Crow artist Wendy Red Star, whose photography recasts historical narratives with wit, candor, and a feminist, Indigenous perspective. Red Star centers Native American life and material...

A landmark in the history of modern art, People of the 20th Century presents the fullest expression of the German photographer August Sander’s lifelong work: a monumental endeavor to amass an archive of twentieth-century humanity through a cross section...

An-My Lê's first publication, "Small Wars," brought together three bodies of black-and-white work ("Vietnam," "Small Wars" and "29 Palms"), offering a trilogy of tautly rendered examinations of landscape, war, memory and spectacle. This earlier work...

The Notion of Family, offers an incisive exploration of the legacy of racism and economic decline in America’s small towns, as embodied by her hometown of Braddock, Pennsylvania. The work also considers the impact of that decline on the community and on...

Originally published in 1982, Stephen Shore's legendary "Uncommon Places" has influenced more than a generation of photographers. Shore was among the first artists to take color beyond the domain of advertising and fashion photography, and his...

The North American frontier is an enduring symbol of romance, rebellion, escape, and freedom. At the same time, it’s a profoundly masculine myth—cowboys, outlaws, Beat poets. Photographer Justine Kurland reclaimed this space in her now-iconic series of...

First published in 1986, Nan Goldin's The Ballad of Sexual Dependency is a visual diary chronicling the struggles for intimacy and understanding among the friends and lovers whom Goldin describes as her tribe. These photographs described a lifestyle that...

When Diane Arbus died in 1971 at the age of 48, she was already a significant influence—even something of a legend—for serious photographers, although only a relatively small number of her most important pictures were widely known at the time. The...

Zanele Muholi: Somnyama Ngonyama, Hail the Dark Lioness is the long-awaited monograph from one of the most powerful visual activists of our time. The book features over ninety of Muholi’s evocative self-portraits, each image drafted from material props...

Spanning more than 100 years of photography, the works in Our Selves range from a turn-of-the-century photograph of racially segregated education in the United States, by Frances Benjamin Johnston, to a contemporary portrait celebrating Indigenous art...

Toward the end of her life, Dorothea Lange reflected, “All photographs—not only those that are so-called ‘documentary’... can be fortified by words.” Though Lange's career is widely heralded, this connection between words and pictures has received scant...

Go Photo! features 25 hands-on and creative activities inspired by photography. This playful and fun collection of projects encourages young readers to experiment with their imaginations, get messy with materials and engage with the world in new and...

Before she raised her lens to take her most iconic photo, Dorothea Lange took photos of the downtrodden, from bankers in once-fine suits waiting in breadlines, to former slaves, to the homeless sleeping on sidewalks. A case of polio had left her with a...

Cindy Sherman's Untitled Film Stills, a series of 69 black-and-white photographs created between 1977 and 1980, is widely seen as one of the most original and influential achievements in recent art. Witty, provocative and searching, this lively catalogue...

The first definitive monograph of color images by American photographer Vivian Maier, presenting 150 full-color pictures, almost all of which have never been published. Photographer Vivian Maier’s allure endures even though many details of her life...

An in-depth look at the many ways women around the world helped shape modern photography from the 1920s to the 1950s as they captured images of a radically changing world. During the 1920s the New Woman was easy to recognize but hard to define. Hair...

Revisiting three canonical 1970s photobooks that redefined feminism through photography. As feminism gained momentum in 1970s America, three photographers—Abigail Heyman, Eve Arnold and Susan Meiselas—published massively influential photobooks informed...

Drawing on the writings of Wallace Stevens, Marilynne Robinson and other poets, artists, musicians and thinkers, Brooklyn-based photographer Tim Carpenter (born 1968) argues passionately—in one main essay and a series of lively digressions—that...

This coloring book created by Photo Genic Supply contains 30 individually crafted illustrations -- each one with an original photography theme.  Each page takes anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours to color, guaranteeing many hours of relaxing...

A sardonic spin on the ABC book, A is for Anarchist is a sharp knife in a drawer full of safety scissors. Wryly written by critically acclaimed rapper billy woods and sublimely illustrated by artist m. musgrove, A is for Anarchist upends the...

A life-altering journey through the science of neuroaesthetics that offers proof of how our brains and bodies are transformed when we participate in the arts and aesthetic experiences, and how this knowledge can improve our physical and mental health,...

A fascinating, revelatory portrait of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and its treasures by a former New Yorker staffer who spent a decade as a museum guard. Millions of people climb the grand marble staircase to visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art every...

Ever since photography was invented almost 200 years ago, women have broken barriers and influenced the artform. Now, this first-ever children's book about women photographers tells the stories of 35 of the most talented historical and contemporary...

Italian-born photographer, model, actor and political activist Tina Modotti is the subject of the first installment of La Fabrica’s Essentials, a new series of monographs dedicated to the most fundamental names in photography. Modotti’s highly...

Riot is an intellectual biography of artist and filmmaker Isaac Julien (born 1960), looking at key moments in his career and discussing the influences that shaped them. Julien’s trail-blazing career has moved across film and art, documentary, biography,...

A pocket-sized resource for identifying the native trees, commonly encountered exotics, and popular ornamentals of the Philadelphia metropolitan area and adjacent counties in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware. Each of the 118 tree-identification...

The  ultimate insider's guide to Philadelphia for locals and experienced  travelers• Features interesting and unusual places not found in traditional travel guides• Part of the international 111 Places/111  Shops series with over...

A real mirror of 20th century creation, Chess Design presents an exceptional documentation on chess games made by artists, designers, architects, and craftsmen: chessboards themselves, but also artist's drawings, execution plans and photographs of...

At the 1900 Paris Exposition the pioneering sociologist and activist W.E.B. Du Bois presented an exhibit representing the progress of African Americans since the abolition of slavery. In striking graphic visualisations and photographs (taken by mostly...